Vacation – Page 4 – Just An East Coast Girl

Guess where I am?

Can you guess where I am? This trip brought back such good memories!

And we saw someone very special to our family on our first leg.

And after a VERY FULL day…I am in one of my absolute favourite places!!!!!

Can you guess?

I am back in China!!

That’s right. Shenyang, China for 1 WEEK!!!!!!!!!

My husband had a business trip! He has a week of meetings with colleagues from USA, China, Canada and Brazil at the Michelin facility in Shenyang.

My early Christmas present was a plane ticket to go with him! Eeekk!!!!!!!! I am here. Pinch me because it seems like a dream! I may not post while I am here, but I may, we’ll see how well the internet and VPN works and we’ll see how much time I have. I may just really enjoy my time and update you LOTS and LOTS of pictures when we get back…

Wishing you a great week!!

It’s December 1st!

I’m up really early this morning and headed to the airport!

That’s right! That’s why I was so excited!!! Today I am flying!!!!! I will post tomorrow when I get to my destination…my early Christmas ( & Birthday gift) from my husband ( like he had a choice though haha )

BUT also because it is December 1st,and because on this date every year we do it… it’s time to send out our Annual Christmas Card.

MERRY CHRISTMAS From OUR Family…to YOURS ❤

Christmas By the Sea 🎄⛵🐳⚓️

All the way from the “Christmas Tree Capital of the World”…

It’s Christmas by the Sea this weekend!

Image courtesy of Peter Zwicker Photography Bacalao Studio. He does amazing photography!! Check out his website.

http://www.bacalaophoto.ca

We don’t have snow yet but I think this photo truly represents “Christmastime in Lunenburg” I live 20 minutes from Lunenburg, one of Nova Scotia’s well known Historic towns. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Town. People come here from all over the world .

This weekend in Lunenburg it is their Heritage Christmas and Christmas By The Sea.

There are actually 3 Christmas Festivals in towns close by this weekend, not to mention the small communities having events and then there is the Victoria Christmas at the Citadel and Lighting Ceremonies at various spots in Halifax. And of course I want to go to all so… yesterday I stopped into Mahone Bay for Father Christmas Festival pics and we drove to Lunenburg today. Tonight is Bridgewater’s Christmas On The LaHave complete with fireworks. These are the local ones. Next year I think I’m gonna take in some of the events in the city I haven’t seen.

This morning we bundled up, picked up some coffee and drove to Lunenburg.

Lunenburg is a well known fishing town by the sea, it is the HOME of the Bluenose II, and so much of the Christmas traditions and decorations revolves around that. It is also very beautiful!

And a few at night…

We didn’t get chance to take in the festivities, the lighting of the vessels, the Christmas by the Sea market and crafts and food tasting, we didn’t see the parade or the tree lighting at the bandstand BUT we got some beautiful pictures of a very special place…Merry Christmas from one of our favourite towns by the sea…

Hot off the Press!

The first shipment has arrived!

Our youngest son James enjoys photography! He takes beautiful pictures as he travels. He travels almost as much, if not more than my husband and I. Just for fun he thought he would compile a few of those images, ” Dramatic Skies” into a 2017 Calendar. This is the first time he’s done a calendar and they turned out great! A perfect idea for Christmas gifts. There are photos from Canada, China, Brazil, Cuba, Australia, and of course a few from Nova Scotia.

I can’t wait to put mine up!

Memories

A lot of people don’t care for social media. It definitely has its pros and cons. One of the good things is that you can look back…a year ago, 2 years ago, 5 years ago… I love this feature. It’s also one of the reasons I blog. Blogging is like a journal, a diary, pictures are worth so much when you can look back and remember special times and events that might otherwise be forgotten in your current daily activities and responsibilities.

This week there are lots of pictures and posts coming up from a year ago… posts that make me wish I was right back there!

Last year at this time I was in China! Walking on the great wall, eating delicious authentic Chinese food, spending quality time with my sister in law and my niece, walking familiar paths, visiting Chinese friends… ahhh….

I am so thankful for such wonderful memories!

It’s soon time to make more!!! I think I’ll cook up some jiaozi for lunch…

Vacation is over…back to work!

The last day of David’s Fall vacation. What to do? Another gorgeous day and the leaves are still so beautiful. James was actually up early to capture this beauty at the old train bridge in Bridgewater.

We decided another drive…a Sunday drive …a different route…a different part of the coast. We are so blessed to live in a province that has coast on all sides.

We skipped church today and left early so it wouldn’t be a late day, took Abby for a short drive to Nana’s ( she LOVES the car) and headed to the valley.

We took Hwy 8 passing Kejimkujik National Park on the way. We wanted to see the site of the really bad forest fires this summer. Such devastation.

Saw this beauty after all the brown and char from the fire.

This drive put us in the quaint town of Annapolis Royal. We walked around Fort Anne and downtown, then crossed the causeway to have lunch at Vicki’s.

After lunch it was out to the coast to Port Royal, Habitation , Victoria Beach and Digby Gut. We thought we could get all the way around the coast on this area but there were no roads so we had to back track and cross over to Parker’s cove. This is a lovely area over looking the Bay of Fundy. I would love to have a cottage here. We followed this route along to Hampton, Port Lorne and Port George before cutting across to Middleton and then catching Hwy 10 home to Bridgewater.

We had a gorgeous day to do a little more sight seeing. It was a wonderful vacation exploring more of our own province. A place where tourists from all over the world visit especially in the Fall.

And it’s back to work for David.

We were actually heading off to bed at 9pm when he got a call from work with a major situation and he had to go in. Technically he’s still on vacation but it’s back to work!

Today I am getting back to my routine and cooking up a special Birthday dinner for our sweet daughter who is 27 today!!! Whoa! How can that be?

david-laura-james Have a great week friends!

A little project…

It’s always nice to get some things accomplished around the house on vacation. While we spent most of our time exploring and on adventures, David was antsy to do a project too. Gee, you’d think after the paint project ( painted the whole upstairs in our home) he would want to rest. BUT, No!!! And because this little project has been “bugging us” and because of circumstance…it seemed like the right time to try it.

One of the days we were on our way to the city, we heard on the radio that Fabricville had a sale…40% off their upholstery fabric. Hmmm? That got us thinking and we stopped in. We actually bought 5m of fabric at an excellent price! And that’s why he was antsy…he wanted to see if he could do it. We have never reupholstered anything

So here’s the project!

We have a fabric/bonded leather loveseat and big comfy chair in our living room. We’ve had it for 8 years or so. Well the arms haven’t been wearing so well and is cracking and damaged and umm…then…someone set a hot cup of coffee on the arm and the material lifted off. And then someone else did it and before long…I was so frustrated!! Why is this happening?! We take really good care of our things so they last and everything else about this set is in excellent condition. Why is certain areas breaking down? There is absolutely no wear showing at all. We like the colour and it just suits our decor right now. What to do? We couldn’t find a complete match for fabric but we did manage to find one pretty close. And because we decided to just do the arms which is wrapping and stapling, no sewing involved…I think it will be ok.

Here goes! Fingers crossed

Staples after staples…( and this is just 1 arm. There’s 3 more to do!)

This is what we’re doing…

The first arm is the worst, right? You know to get a pattern and see how it’s done!

The arm chair is finished!! It turned out pretty good, especially for a first time project.

Now to do the love seat…

Did I mention my husband is AMAZING!!!!! ❤️

How High Do Your Tides Rise?

Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy has bragging rights to the Highest Tides in the World!

Twice each day the Bay of Fundy fills and empties its 160 billion tons of water creating the highest tides in the world. In 1975 The Guinness Book of World Records listed Burntcoat Head in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia as the site of the greatest average tide of 47.5 feet with an extreme range of 53.6 feet.

Today we went to Burntcoat Head. This spectacular place has been on my 2016 list of places to visit since our son James was there and photographed this place.

Below are two of James’ photos…

13482923_818760718223947_3763846001643129102_o Yes, amazing right?

Today we went!

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Well…my pictures weren’t quite like James’ but we had fun at this amazing place!

It was a beautiful day for a drive…

This afternoon we went for a beautiful drive along the coast…a different road, a new route in a place we haven’t been before. There’s something about old weathered boat and lobster sheds that grab my attention.

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How many of these kind of pictures do I need? Sorry, I love them.

We ended our day at the waterfront. Five cruise ships in port today and lots of people around. I love walking the boardwalk.

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The CHURCH at Grand-Pré

Today is Sunday. Canadian Thanksgiving Sunday and I wish I was off to church with James and David but I’m not able to this morning. There is just so much to be Thankful about living in our beautiful country. Days like yesterday when you see the beautiful “Colour of Fall” on display against a gorgeous blue backdrop is one of many reasons.

One of our stops yesterday was Grand-Pré in the Annapolis Valley. Grand-Pré is a rural community in Nova Scotia. Its French name translates to “Great Meadow” and the community lies at the eastern edge of the valley on a peninsula jutting into the Minas Basin surrounded by extensive dyked farm fields, framed by the Gaspereau River and Cornwallis River. Grand-Pré was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Evangeline. On June 30, 2012, the Landscape of Grand-Pré was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The church and statue at Grand-Pré are beautiful to photograph.