More adventures in PEI

In addition to our beach adventures in PEI, we also visited the Anne of Green Gables house, which is definitely a total tourist trap, but fun to see for those of us raised on Anne of Green Gables books, movies, and TV shows (Road to Avonlea, anyone?)  We didn't stay very long. Just long enough to check out the house:

Drink some Raspberry Cordial

And turn dad into our personal rickshaw driver

I also got to fulfill my life long dream of visiting the Cows factory on PEI.

And of course, PEI is all about the seafood. Particularly the mussels and the lobster. When we arrived back to the house where we were staying, our hosts had finished cooking up a giant pile of lobsters that were fresh caught that day.

Having never seen an entire lobster up close and personal before, I had to inspect them closer.

And closer...

And I concluded that they are ugly, creepy little bottom-dwellers. I do have a policy, however, that I will sample the local cuisine while traveling, so I had my first ever taste of lobster. The process of extracting the meat was long and laborious, but not as frustrating as my previous experience with crab. And the meat was good, mostly because it was saturated in garlic butter, but I don't see what all the fuss is about and why these freaky things are considered a delicacy. In fact, the Islanders we were staying with told us that when they were in school, lobster was the cuisine of the poor people on the Island. All the poor kids would be teased for bringing lobster sandwiches to school. I guess it is their rarity in other parts of the world that makes them so expensive everywhere else.

Cold and rainy

My blog updates have been much slower than I anticipated they would be this summer. have been writing a lot for work lately, so when I am not working, I am not so motivated to continue writing for fun. I have lots of pictures to post, though, so I will try to do that more regularly.

This is another picture of the day we went to the beach, IN JUNE, and it was freezing cold and raining. Somehow it doesn't look as miserable of the one of me by myself.

It also features my characteristic wink that I am seemingly unable to stop doing when there is even the slightest hint of brightness.....

Beaches, beeches

Okay, here we go. I have made a pledge to post at least once a week all summer. The theory is that if I get into the habit of posting regularly, it will become an actual habit.

Yesterday was the first day of summer, and although summer temperatures haven't quite come to New Brunswick yet, I figured I could try to conjure up some summer with a post about beaches. Because nothing says summer like "laying out" on a beach.  (The quotations are because laying out is grammatically incorrect, but it just sounds so much better than "lying out".)

So, my parents were just in town and we got to do some touring around the maritimes. And if there is anything the maritimes has in abundance, it is beaches! We went to beaches in both Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

Our first beach stop was in on the north shore of PEI, in the PEI National Park (map) or close to it. It was a cold and windy day, and right when we got to the beach, it started to rain. Definitely not beach weather. For some reason, I thought it was hilarious that it was JUNE and still so damn cold. I tried to take pictures of myself all bundled up, freezing to death on the beach IN JUNE to share with my American friends. Unfortunately, I am the world's worst self-portrait taker. I attribute this to my freakishly short, T-Rex-like arms. And the pictures weren't really capturing the freezing-ness of the situation.

Then my dad suggested that he just take the damn picture with his iPhone, which actually worked out quite well. You can definitely see how cold and dreary it was on the beach.

The beach itself was quite pretty, and I can imagine it would be delightful on a sunny day.

Two days later, however, we went to a different beach in New Brunswick, specifically Parlee Beach (map) in Shediac, and it was a glorious day!

Parlee Beach (previously coined the most un-fun beach) is on the Northumberland Strait, which boasts the "warmest waters north of the Carolinas" so Dad decided this was the place for him to have his first swim in the Atlantic Ocean.

Apparently, the brochures lied, and it was almost as cold as the Polar Bear Swim in the Pacific Ocean, so the "swim" was very brief due to the numbness of his feet.

I still have not swum in the Atlantic Ocean, but since I live here and could technically do it any time I want, I felt that there was no need for me to go in on this particular day. As I have been informed by a fellow Sackvillian, summer doesn't really come until the end of July. Maybe then it will be warm enough to actually justify going in the water.

Is spring about to spring?

Another thing to add to the list of things I never thought of before I moved to a snowy place: Too much snow on a roof can make it collapse! Fortunately D knows about these things. The roof on the main part of the house is steep enough that it isn't a problem, but we (well, D) had to shovel the snow off the shop and the addition at the back of the house. These pics are from a few weeks ago.

So for the past 2 days, the temperature has been above freezing, and this has led me to declare that winter is ending and spring is coming. Because I said so. I haven't actually said this out loud to any one who lives here because I don't want people to laugh in my face and shatter my hopes. So until I am proven wrong, I declare that spring is on its way. Since the snow has been melting like crazy, I went out this morning to document the accumulation of snow before it all disappears.

I tried to use Nova beside the snow banks at the end of the driveway to give it some perspective, but clearly I know nothing about photography.

 

The giant snow banks that have built up at the end of the driveway are taller than my car. When I back out of the driveway in the morning, I mostly just hope that no one is coming because I really can't see anything. There is rain in the forecast for the next few days, so perhaps the snow will all wash away most of the snowbanks so that I don't have to risk my life every time I leave my house.

Snow!

I thought it might be appropriate to post some pictures of the snow in Sackville since everyone in Austin is freaking out about the inch of snow they received Thursday night. These pictures were taken last week. We got an additional foot of snow this week, so it is even higher now, but I am too lazy to go out in the cold and take more pictures.

D and Nova in the snow

Nova balancing precariously on a snow bank, trying not to fall through

Front of the house

Closer view of the icicles

I must say that my first real Canadian winter hasn't been so bad. I am actually enjoying all the snow. That being said, I am still very excited for my trip to the desert next week. Arizona, here I come!

My Mini Polar Bear Swim

At long last, I have finally found the time to blog about my 2011 Polar Bear experience. The Polar Bear Swim is a Ham Fam tradition dating back to 1977 when the first group of my relatives headed down to English Bay to jump in the ocean on New Years Day. From that time it has evolved into an event full of traditions in which the family and their friends hop onto a rented school bus, sing songs, drink themselves silly, and jump in the ocean. I have been participating in this tradition since New Year's Day 1996. I missed a couple of years due to theatre productions (98 & 99) when I was a stage manager and one year (I think 2001) when I was sick but have attended all other years since 1996. This year, I was stuck on the wrong side of the country and could not participate with my family, but I made sure to have my own mini polar bear swim in my part of the world, complete with Ham Fam traditions. (Also, if anyone has pictures that will compliment the ones I took this year - such as polar bears drinking Fireball - send them over!)

First I donned my traditional Polar Bear attire, which generally consists of fun socks, long johns, boxer shorts, long sleeved shirt, and a Polar Bear shirt over top.

Some Polar Bears have much more creative costumes, but I generally stick with my traditional attire.

Next, I had a mini bottle of Baileys to make myself the traditional Polar Bear Coffee and Baileys.

The traditional liquor of choice for the Polar Bear Swim, as represented on the t-shirts, is Southern Comfort. Elder Polar Bears still shudder at the mention of its name and have largely stopped drinking it. In more recent years,  the new generation of Polar Bears has christened Fireball Whiskey as the drink of choice for the swim. Several bottles are generally purchased and then are passed around the bus and shared by all. I purchased a mini bottle of Fireball for my own mini polar bear experience.

You can also see the "SC" on the Polar Bear's glass on my shirt - for Southern Comfort

So with my supplies ready, I hopped into the car and headed to McDonalds, as we have done every year on the way to the swim since 1996.

Me in Sackville McDonald's

The boys in the Vancouver McDonald's.

After we chow down in McDonald's we always take the traditional picture of the whole group in front of the bus.

So I took my picture of me with my "bus."

Then it was off to the swim! I made sure to get in a shot of Fireball before getting out of the car.

We arrived at the lake and found that since it was such a beautiful day they had the biggest turnout ever for this swim. Most of the people are spectators, but there were about 30 swimmers, up from their previous record of 10.

It was still a very small crowd compared to the thousands that flock to English Bay.

In keeping with the theme of "mini," instead of running into the giant ocean, this Polar Bear Swim required participants to jump through a small hole in the ice.

There was no chanting , no singing, no ceremony at all really. Just a woman with a bullhorn calling our names as we jumped three by three into the hole in the ice.

At the Polar Bear swim at English Bay, we often go back in for second or third dips, and then hang around and chat for a bit before heading to the change rooms to get into some warm, dry clothes. Since there was no change rooms here, I just took off my wet clothes and hung around for a while in my bathing suit and a towel.

All in all, my mini Polar Bear Swim was a fun experience, and I am glad I got to do a "real" polar bear swim in ice.

 
Hopefully next year I will be back to celebrate my favorite day of the year with Ham Fam Polar Bears in Vancouver!

Night in Newark

On my recent trip back from The Netherlands, a storm in Moncton led to my spending the night in Newark, New Jersey. For those who don't know, Newark is one of the poorer and crime-ravaged cities in the U.S. I was a little nervous about leaving the airport to go to a hotel, but fortunately I found a couple of friendly strangers to accompany me. We booked ourselves into a major chain hotel, so I thought that it would be no different than any other of these chain hotels in any other city. WRONG!

First, there was a football game going on in the hotel bar, which meant the lobby was overflowing with rowdy football fans. Dead center of the lobby was a homeless looking fellow who was just standing there alternating between mumbling to himself and shouting to anyone who might be listening. My room was on the 8th floor, though, so I figured it would be away from all the craziness and at least be quiet (ha!). My second sign of the classiness of the hotel was the elevators. The doors, both inside and out, looked like they had been kicked repeatedly. Awesome. Then I got to my room and saw the broken door handle.

I walked into my room, put my bags in the shower while I checked for bed bugs. (Compulsive beg bug checking behavior is not irrational if the threat is real!)

I noticed a pile of flyers that had been shoved under the door, which let me know that a) The room hadn't been cleaned in a while, and b) They let random people wander the halls of the hotel. Awesome.

There was also a pile of crayons on the floor leading me to wonder if the room had EVER been cleaned. The decor was not much better with chipped and dented furniture and a ripped up boxspring. I have stayed in random motels on the side of the highway that were better maintained than this place.

Fortunately, there were no signs of bed bugs. I still left my bags in the shower just to be sure.

My room just happened to be right next to the elevators. I think that the hotel had no insulation because not only could I hear every groan of the creaky old elevators going up and down, I could also hear every footstep in the hall, including the children that were running up and down shrieking and laughing. The final level of awesomeness was the positioning of my room in the corner of a sort of U shaped part of the building. This allowed for the winds to whip very loudly and scarily past my window. Also, the windows weren't sealed very well because I could feel the wind coming through them. All in all it was shaping up to be a long, loud, scary night. Fortunately, I was still on Amsterdam time, and after distracting myself with some phone calls, I was able to fall asleep fairly quickly and slept soundly the whole night!