Oceanstone

We had an awsome May long weekend. We got together with Bertis and the Bonds and planned a trip out to Peggy's Cove for the weekend. Helen researched a few places and found a place called Oceanstone Inns & Cottages in Indian Harbour, and Bertis booked the treehouse cabin for the five of us. The long weekend is the off season so the rate for the cabins is very good. Ours was $135 a night (split five ways that's pretty great).

Bertis and the Bonds headed out together Friday afterwork in the pouring rain, missed a turn off (that wasn't actually on the directions) and ended up taking the long way around. Darrell and I had a lot of stuff to do Friday so we went out Saturday Morning. It was a beautiful drive out, the sun was shining, and I knew the highway better, since I did a little looking around on my way to Halifax the week before. We dropped Elton and Tiff off with Connell and Lynn around 9:30 that morning to be puppysat while we were gone, and then headed out, arriving in Indian harbour around 2. The area was absolutley beautiful, and the cottage was really neat, a little small, but good none the less. It had a little kitchen with everything you could possibley need, complimentary coffee, TV, two bedrooms (one with a queen sized bed and the other with a double and single bed), a pullout couch (you could technically have seven people stay there), a nice bathroom, there was nice little side deck, and we had access to all the amenities of the place. There was a nice area down by the water with anarondac chairs and fire pits, and kyaks and canoes were available although we didn't take advantage of that as there were so many other things to do and the water looked a little rough when we arrived. At 3 o'clock, Brian and Helen headed up to the main building for their Massages, and Bertis and Darrell had theirs at 4, then we all headed out to Peggy's Cove which was about five minutes away. We could have walked it had we known how close it was.

Peggy's Cove is just a cute little settlement around the lighthouse on the rocks. Population 60 according to the sign. There are signs everywhere about how trecherous and dangerous the rocks can be. There were a couple plaques, one on the rocks and another on the lighthouse that said "WARNING INJURY AND DEATH HAVE REWARDED CARELESS SIGHT-SEERS HERE. THE OCEAN AND ROCKS ARE TREACHEROUS SAVOUR THE SEA FROM A DISTANCE." It's not just a cautionary sign... more than a few people have been swept into the water and the currents and undertow are such that the majority did not survive. A lot of other signs were posted as well warning people away from wet rocks etc. We wandered around the lighthouse for a while and popped into the gift shop to find fun stuff. Darrell and I both got nice rain coats with Peggy's Cove embroidered on them, as well as a few small gifts. Our next stop was the Swiss air flight 111 memorial. Then we all headed off to the Skinny Rooster in Indian Harbour for dinner. Back at base we settled in with some martinis, Jello shots and a few episodes of Absolutely Fabulous on DVD. One of the coolest things about the day was that none of us had been to Peggy's Cove before so we all got to eperience it for the first time together.

Sunday we got up fairly early and once everyone was ready we headed off to Lunenburg. We stopped first in Mahone Bay and wandered around the town for a while. There was a huge flea market set up and we checked out the various tables. One table imparticular will stand out in mind for quite some time I'm sure. The guy there had a whole bunch of nazi memorabilia. There was an actual nazi arm band worn by a soldier in WW2 and it was preserved and framed, as well as two records of the stormtrooper choir and another nazi chorus. There were also stamps and coins with Hitler's face on them. I had mixed feelings of being terribly appalled by the items and a morbid sense of wanting to buy them. None of us actually bought any of the stuff, which upon reflection may of been a missed apportunity since it may actually be worth something some day or even today.

Lunenburg was only a few minutes down the road from Malone Bay and we parked on the main street headed in and started wandering around. It was a really interesting town as well, with all the old buildings nicely maintained and painted in bright colours. Not very far into our walk there was an incident. I was distracted by a horse and wagon and was asking Darrell to get some video of it so I could use the sound for Crucible, so I missed the incident, but Bertis and the Bonds filled me in as soon as I caught up with them. There was a group across the street from them at the corner by a large church, about to go up the street to the entrance and apparently one of the older gentlemen there passed some wind so loudly that our party could hear it all the way across the street. It was a source of hilarity for about two blocks, and had some recurrences throughout the day....let's face it Fart humour still makes most people giggle. We got up to the highest point in Lunenburg where the Lunenburg academy building stands. It a huge place est in 1895 in the same style as the Algonquin hotel. I took a bunch of pictures and will post them to my flikr page. In fact there are pictures from the whole weekend going up there when I get the chance. After the academy we wandered down to the water front and saw the Bluenose 2 and a few other sailing ships at the docks then checked out the fisherman's Memorial "DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHO HAVE GONE DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS AND WHO HAVE NEVER RETURNED.... AND... AS A TRIBUTE TO THOSE WHO CONTINUE TO OCCUPY THEIR BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS". It is an excellent monument of polished black granite pillars arranged as the points of a compass, with the names off those lost through the years dating to before 1925, as well a list of ships lost and ships lost with all hands. You could spend an entire day just at the monument reading all the names. One bright point about the entire thing is, as the dates get closer to the present time the lists get a lot smaller. There was still alot of Lunenburg left to explore when we left, but that just means we'll have to return to see more.

We got back to Oceanstone and decided to make burgers for dinner. Darrell and I quickly popped back out to Peggy's Cove so he could get a some video footage and I could take a few more pictures of things I may want to paint. Then we headed back to the cabin for dinner. I had made a great big batch of potatoe salad Friday night and brought it along, and there were the burgers, and the left over brithday cake Bertis and the Bonds brought with them for my birthday. (My birthday was actually friday but we had cake and stuff Saturday) Bertis cooked the first batch of burgers on the stove, then Darrell lit a fire in the woodstove and Brian cooked the second batch on top of it. (in a frying pan obviously). We had several drinks and some champaign, watched the season finale of Desperate Housewives, then threw in the DVD's for Little Britain Season 01.

Monday's checkout time was 11 am. Darrell and I were packed and on the road by 10:30. We made one more stop in Peggy's Cove before leaving to get a gift for Connell and Lynn to say thank you for puppysitting, and to get a couple more pictures of the warf (the light was wrong the day before). Then we were off and running... destination Connell and Lynn's house in Quispamsis to collect the kids. Elton and Tiff were very well behaved all weekend and happy to see us return. We got home and the car unloaded at 5:15 and I was back in it and on my way to the Imperial immediately for the Cue to Cue rehearsal for Crucible. I feel alot better about the sound for Crucible now, I was feeling very out of it and detached before last night. I have a few sound edits to make today and then should be ready for the run.... it is going to be a very hectic week with a lot for me to do at work, and my evening taken up with the theatre... I may need another trip somewhere sooner than expected.