Kids and Sail Ships

From the "Kids can be so Cute" department: One of the COOL things about Nova Scotia is the fog we get... At least that was the unanimous statement from my older to kids - who spend most of the year living in the Prairies with their mother. You don't see fog like we get here in Manitoba... fog so thick, you can barely see 10 feet in front of you. The funny thing is... This isn't their first trip to the Maritimes, so why it's suddenly so cool.. well kids will be kids. :)

Summer's been relatively mild this year. Although more sunny days would generally be preferred by most.. coming from someone who sleeps during the daytime, I'm not going to complain too loudly. It's nice to be able to sleep comfortably. We haven't spent much time at the beach, and with the sea water averaging 14°C, it's not exactly warm to bathe in. The frigid waters don't seem to be affecting the surfers much, they can be seen in large numbers any day there's a decent surf.

The kids are making up for their lack of beach time at my mother's... where they're staying for some time while they take swimming at the Porter's Lake Aquatic Club. So I get a bit of a break from having so many feet around the house, and the kids get to swim in the lake's cool waters... Porter's Lake is a tidal body of water, meaning that a portion of the lake is salt water.. and nearly as cold as the ocean that's feeding it. Outside of beach time, my parents have a nice big yard so the kids can vent the extra energy that young bodies tend to have in excess - and I can get rest during the day on the nights I work.
This week's trip out to my parents' is going to be a solo run - provided it doesn't rain as the forecast is predicting. I was able to make the trip in 3 hours last year... lets see if I keep that up.

Monday was a blast! Without the kids underfoot, the wife and I had the opportunity to spend some much needed time together. Sure we do a fair bit as a family, but there's only so much one can do with munchkins in tow. The youngest is still in preschool, so we dropped him off, and spend the day in downtown Halifax. A nice quiet early lunch at a bistro, and then it was off to watch the Parade of Sails. Most of the tall ships left port this week, so all the ships paraded up and down the harbour. One doesn't get the chance to see so many sailing ships, small and large float by and give a show. Even more beautiful when seen from the deck of a boat only a stones throw off George's Island. It was beautiful, and revived my desire to get out at sea and experience it... maybe next year. This year my parents want to do a wale watching tour.

I know not everyone gets excited seeing a schooner under full sail. But for those who long for the Age of Sail, I have a load of pictures to add to Friday's collection.. now the challenge is to sort them down to only two photo albums.