Our Last Night

So here we are on our last night already! We spent a great day in Old Orchard Beach today. The weather was perfect for the beach. Swimming in the ocean felt like sticking your entire body into a cooler full of ice water! Jerry just reached in to grab the muscles for dinner (because we eat like kings when we camp!) and said "it's so cold reaching in there under the ice," and I said "that's what it felt like swimming today!" but the waves were perfect and the kids loved it. If I could have removed about 6.9 million of the 7 million people there, it would've been perfect! Nice to visit for a day but not really any place we would visit for a long time.

After a nice refreshing swim in the pool at the campground we were on the road again! But only for two hours which is an easy day. We're spending our last night in Gloucester MA at a beautiful campground. We're up in the woods with one last bonfire for s'mores. We'll have lunch in Gloucester tomorrow and head home! It's been an amazing, fun, exciting vacation but we are all ready to go home! We miss everyone (I miss my shower and my bed the most....sorry to all my family and friends, but I KNOW you understand!).

We'll see you all soon. I'll probably post on e more with our total miles, etc. when we get home. Thanks for following us on our adventure!!

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Beach Picture!!

Old Orchard Beach

We made it to Old Orchard today; but it took us 7 hours! Poor Jer did so much driving, but it was worth it to pull in here. We arrived around 6:30 and are walking distance to the beach. We went down and had dinner and played on the beach for a bit. The kids had lots of energy to get rid of!! We even ran into clients! What a small world!!

We have traveled so far; it's hard to believe that just yesterday we woke up on Prince Edward Island and now we're in Maine. I forgot to tell you about the bridge we crossed to get off PEI. It was 8 miles long!!!! Very cool!

Another funny story. When we got here today I went into the office to get a site while Jer and the kids stayed out in the RV. The people in the office had a bit of a local accent. They asked me if I wanted a full hookup with water, electric and soars. I didn't understand the last part so I asked them to repeat it. He said the same thing again...water, electric and soars. I still didn't get it so I said "I'm sorry, I'm new to camping and I don't know what soars are." He looks me in the eye and says "your toilets." oh, yes, I want that too. It gets even funnier because I get in the RV later and repeat this story to Jer and the kids and before I can finish, Emma says "SEWERS Mom." Duh!!!! That's when I finally got it!!

Anyway, we are back in the RV for the night and are hoping for warm weather tomorrow so we can hit the beach. We froze for the last few days, it feels great to have warm weather. We actually had to turn the heat on last night and the night before! I'm tired of sweatshirts in July!!!!

I'll let you know how our last couple of nights go! See you soon!

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Back in the USA!!!

We crossed back into Maine about an hour ago. Spent the last couple of nights in nice campgrounds; pretty scenery and great bike riding. Uneventful day so far, we'd like to make it to Old Orchard Beach, ME today but that's a lot of driving so I'm not sure if we'll get that far. Signal is weak in this part of ME so I'll check back in later.

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Cape St. Mary's

Us on Castle Hill

Prince Edward Island

So our ferry crossing from Newfoundland was very uneventful; we were all exhausted and slept for 10 of the 15 hours! We drove to Caribou, Nova Scotia and hopped on another ferry (a little over an hour only) and took it to Prince Edward Island (Harold, thanks for that tip! You saved us so much driving time and you were right that the ferry runs pretty often, we only had to wait 20 minutes!) We are in Cavendish, PEI right now. This island is gorgeous but it's cold tonight! Feels more like an October evening than July (Mom, you would love it!). What we've seen of the island so far has been lots of green, rolling hills and farmland...right alongside beautiful ocean scenes!

 

We had a fantastic dinner tonight (as you can see in the picture) of Newfoundland snow crab, compliments of cousin Wayne and Rose (thanks so much!!). We're sitting by a great campfire and are about to make some s'mores. We're only a few minutes from the beach so we're hoping it warms up a little tomorrow so we can check it out.

 

I'm posting the pictures that didn't work last night. This connection is much stronger than the one out in the Atlantic! The pictures are of the beautiful town of Placentia, Newfoundland and Cape St. Mary's (the bird sanctuary I mentioned last night). The kids are loving every minute of this trip. They especially enjoyed meeting and spending time with some cousins they didn't know they had! It turns out we have another Emma in our family, so we now refer to her as "Emma K." If you're reading this up there...we really want you all to come visit us in CT so we can spend some more time with you, and give us the chance to return your hospitality and generosity! John, Lauren really needs to visit Hoboken...The Cake Boss is waiting for her visit!

 

I need to sign off for now so I can move on to the more important task of s'mores! We're missing everyone, we'll see you in a few days!

We're Cruising Again

Well, unfortunately, our time in Newfoundland has come to an end. We are back on the boat on our way to Nova Scotia. We had such an incredible time. Everyone is friendly and welcoming, and Jerry's family was soooo good to us! We stayed with Harold and Thelma who treated us as if we were staying in a hotel. They opened up their home, they cooked for us, they had a great barbecue last night with about 25 people for dinner. And this was all in the middle of their daughter getting married...I don't know how they find the energy! We just can't say enough how much we enjoyed every minute. I'm sure most of you have never been to Newfoundland, but if you ever the get the chance, you'll want to keep coming back again and again! I can assure you that we will not wait 10 years between visits again. Jerry's entire family spoiled us the whole time we were here; lending us a car, putting us up and feeding us.....not sure how I will function without them!

I have a few more pictures, but the wi-fi connection on the boat is not very strong so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post them. We went to a bird sanctuary today called Cape St. Mary's. It's a remote part of the island where millions of birds nest. It looks as if you are in Ireland. It's about an hour drive from Placentia, and then the access road to get in to the trail is about 5 or 6 miles. Then you walk about 3/4 of a mile out to the cliffs and can get such an incredible view of the birds, the cliffs and the ocean. The kids will have so much material to write about when they head back to school in the fall!!

I'm going to sign off for the night. We just had a great dinner and will be heading to bed soon. We should be in Nova Scotia around 9:30 in the morning. We plan to go out to Prince Edward Island for a night and then start the drive back to CT. I'll update again as I can gain access to wi-fi.

The Beautiful Bride

Screeching In

Water in Placentia

Signal Hill

Wedding

town of Placentia

Bert's House

Fantastic Weekend Part Two

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OK, now on to the rest of the weekend. We drove into St. John's on Saturday morning. St. John's is "the city" in Newfoundland. I asked Jer before we went if he knew how to get there. This turned out to be pretty funny since the directions were pretty much, take a right out of Harold's driveway and drive for about an hour and twenty minutes and you'll be there! Not too many roads around here!

 

St. John's is a beautiful old fishing "city." Quaint streets, lots of churches and rows of colorful houses that they refer to as Jelly Bean Houses. We went to the wedding ceremony at 2:00; the church was gorgeous. It was built in the 1800's by a bunch of fisherman...for no charge. It took them 29 years to finish! The ceremony was beautiful. We had until 7:00 until the reception started and Jerry's cousin Wayne owns a pub in the city. Many of the guests went there in between for a pre-party! Jerry, his Dad, myself and a few other "non-Newfoundlanders" had a surprise waiting for us. They have a very fun tradition up here that they refer to as "screeching in," which means they make you honorary Newfoundlanders! Unfortunately, it involved kissing a dead cod fish and taking a shot of "Screech," which they say is Rum, but it tastes more like a cross between whiskey and battery acid! What a fun time we had! You can see our official certificates in the picture. The reception was so much fun and Aimee looked beautiful. Jacob and Emma were so good about wearing those darn "fancy clothes" all day and they looked great. They really had a good time the whole day.

 

On Sunday we spent some time in St. John's with Jerry's cousin Sheila and her family. For those of you who came to our wedding, you may remember Sheila as the girl with the beautiful voice who sang at the church. It was so incredibly windy on Sunday that we could barely walk through the city. Sheila told us we now know why "Newfies" walk bent forward! We went up to Signal Hill, which is the site of the very first inter-continental communication between North America and Europe. It was SOOOO windy up there that we literally had to hold onto the kids because we thought they might blow away! Even the locals said it was unusually windy, you can see for yourselves in the pictures!

 

We drove back to Placentia Sunday night. As we were driving down "the hill" into town, there was a white SUV in front of us. The driver pulled over to the side of the road suddently, without signaling, so Jerry drove around her to avoid hitting her. The next thing you know, she has pulled in behind us and is right on our bumper, driving exremely aggressively and flipping us off!! She was on the phone and Emma said "she's calling the cops!" We laughed and said she was not doing any such thing. About 20 minutes later we were at the restaurant in his family's hotel having dinner with Sheila and Scott. A police offer comes in looking for John Kelly (that's Jerry's cousin who lent us his car for the weekend while we're here. Someone says, "Jerry, aren't you driving John's car?"  And don't you know it....the girl WAS calling the police!! It turned out that when Jerry explained what happened, the officer said that the locals pull over to avoid the potholes all the time. He gave Jerry a warning, but we had such a laugh about it!!  We didn't tell John about it because we had planned to frame the warning and give it to him as a gift! Too funny, of course he found out about it (small town and all!!). The kids think the whole thing is just hilarious!!

 

Anyway, we're still loving it here. The kids don't want to leave tomorrow. Everyone is so nice and friendly. Everyone we see says "Oh, you're not from around here. You must be in for the wedding then, right?"  I'm finding myself speaking with a little Canadian accent, saying "right?" at the end of every sentence! I have to run for now, but will update again soon!

Fantastic Weekend Part One

Having trouble with pictures, but here is our update...

So much has happened since our last check-in! We're having more and more fun every day! I'm posting a few pictures with this first part, these are pictures from Placentia, which is the town where Jer's mom grew up. One shot is of the whole town from up on the hill across the water. As you can see, it's a small town built basically on a sand bar! The house you see in the picture with Jer and the kids is the house where she grew up. It's one of the oldest houses in the town, built in 1887.

 

We walked over to the "beach" on the edge of town. And yes, we put our feet in the water. Jer's mom said "now you know why I don't swim!" So, Auntie Jen, you can tell Uncle Sean that the temperature of the water up in Newfoundland is...coldER than Maine! Our feet were numb in a matter of seconds! You can see Jacob's reaction in this picture!

 

I'm also posting a picture of the ferry we took over here. It was really quite amazing. I'll share pictures of the inside when I get home and have more time to post. OK, I'll do a second post with a wedding update.

We Made It!

Hello from Placentia, Newfoundland!! Our ferry trip up to Newfoundland was such a great experience. I don't have any pictures today because I haven't had a chance to upload from my camera yet. I'm sitting in the lobby of the hotel that Jerry's family owns so that I can have a wi-fi connection. We arrived in Newfoundland yesterday at around 3:30 (time here is an hour and a half ahead of home). The trip over was great, wait till you see pictures of the ferry. It was massive; complete with a lounge, a restaurant, a gift shop and many cabins! We slept great, although we didn't get to bed until almost 1:00 in the morning! We got up and had a little breakfast and explored the ship. Then had a great buffet lunch, played a game of Monopoly and before we knew it, we had arrived.

 

It's been 10 years since our last visit to Newfoundland, and I forgot just how beautiful it is here. We have the RV parked at Jerry's cousin Harold's house. We are here for his daugther's wedding, which is in St. John's tomorrow. Harold and his family are already in St. John's but have left us run of their house, which is absolutely beautiful. Jacob and Emma want to move in with them! I have to admit that as nice as the RV is...it was great to sleep in a house and take a real shower! They have a gorgeous inground, heated pool, which overlooks the most beautiful scenery. I can't wait to share some pictures. We swam four about 4 hours today and are now going to do some exploring. Last night we got to see the house where Jerry's mom grew up. Jerry's cousin Sheila has renovated it and stays there with her family when she comes back to visit. Jacob and Emma loved seeing where Nana grew up!

 

The town is fantastic, and Jerry has quite a few cousins still living here. Everyone is just wonderful and couldn't be any more welcoming. I'll log back in when I get some pictures uploaded. No screw-ups today...but stay tuned, we've got over a week to go!!

Yup...We Did It. And It Only Took 5 Days!

OK folks, here's the story you've been waiting for! I could easily save our pride and not share this, but I would hate to deprive you of a good laugh! For those of you who told us to watch the movie RV before we left (and we did), you will appreciate this story. We wouldn't be "us" without something like this happening. At our last campground Ruth gave us the advice to walk around the RV twice before we drive away. You want to be sure you are not still connected to anything, make sure your bikes are tight, make sure your storage area is locked. What she should have said was walk around and look down...and up.

 

You guessed it. We got in and pulled out of the site to exit the campground...with the awning still out!!!! OMG are you kidding me??? And yes we did...it hit a pole and bent the metal holding it on. WHAT IS THAT NOISE?!?! Jerry stops and I open the side door to see the awning. Holy panic button!! I tried to put it in and it wouldn't go in. Until he turned the engine off. Wow, good thing there is a safety feature that doesn't allow it to go IN with the engine running! God forbid we try to roll it in while driving. But it's no problem to start the engine and drive away while it's OUT!!!!  Thankfully it still rolled in and we stopped and found a garage where the mechanic replaced the couple of bolts that popped out. But we can assure you that we won't be trying to roll it out again until we get home!! Oh man, I've got a feeling this is going to cost us. But we have to keep our sense of humor and be thankful that no one got hurt, right?!

 

Ugh, it's been a long day! We are now on board the Atlantic Vision ferry and have just pulled away from the dock. It's 11:30 Nova Scotia time. We'll be heading to bed soon and will enjoy this cruise ship sized ferry boat in the morning! The weather has been great and we're still having a fantastic time.

 

I hope you all had a good laugh at our expense! It's OK to laugh...we did too as soon as we knew it rolled back in! I'm on the ship's computer, didn't think we'd have wi-fi so I left my laptop in the RV. I only get 15 minutes and it's just about up so I have to go. Will check back in tomorrow. Good night all.

A Little Fun on the See-Saw Before We Leave!

Since I still had wifi this morning and I was logging on to check our ferry schedule, I thought I'd put up one more picture! The good old see-saw...why don't playgrounds have see-saws anymore?! The kids were on this at 11:00 last night. No bedtimes on this trip! They wanted to make sure they had time to go on again this morning before we leave too!  Anyway, we're off to our North Sydney today. We've got about 12 hours to drive 6 so we have plenty of time to see the scenery! We'll check in again soon.

Toes in the Water at Sand Beach!

We Made It To Canada!

Hi all! I'm writing to you from Moncton, New Brunswick! It's 9:30pm and the sun is just setting. We spent a great weekend in Bar Harbor, ME. Jacob finally got to have his Maine lobster dinner and he loved it! (Emma had a bright pink hot dog...we're not sure why it was so pink, but she loved it!) We went to Acadia National Park and saw Sand Beach and Thunder Hole. (Auntie Jen, please tell Uncle Sean that the water temperature in Maine is...cold!)  Yes, we did put our toes in the water, but that was it! We found a great campground in Bar Harbor with extrememly helpful people. It felt like family...Ruth and Tom helped us! It was like Grammy Rufus came down as an angel in Ruth! She helped us with so many things. Being our first night "hooking up" in a campground ("hooking up" has a whole new meaning now!), she helped us with everything and then Tom came by to make sure we were all set. We saw fireworks last night; before they started, the entire crowd of thousands of people sang the National Anthem...it was very cool!

 

We left Bar Harbor this morning at around 10:30 and drove most of the day. Maine is VERY rural when you get east of Bangor! We went through some towns that didn't even seem to have names...Township 26 and Township 29! I'm not sure if that was the name of the town, or the population! When we crossed into Canada we pushed the clocks ahead an hour, so by the time we pulled into this campground it was about 5:30 local time. Long day on the road, but traveling in the RV is great. The kids were fantastic; it helps that they can get up and move around. The drive was uneventful, although these darn Canadians and their metric system threw us a little! Quick...is a clearance of 4 meters enough?!?! Yes, there are 3.3 feet in a meter, which most of us know, until you are 100 feet from a bridge and in panic mode!

 

The weather is warmer than I expected here, we even went for a swim when we got here today. The kids have been riding their bikes, we had a campfire and cooked dinner outside, and then made s'mores. I even have a load of laundry in...which reminds me that I need to walk over and put them in the dryer now! Anyway, we're having a great time and are looking forward to making it to Newfoundland. Tomorrow we will finish the drive to North Sydney, Nova Scotia and we'll get on the ferry. It leaves at 11:30pm and gets us to Newfoundland around 4:00 in the afternoon on Thursday. Not sure when I'll have accesss to wifi again, may not be until Thursday night. But I'll update again as soon as I get a chance.

A Redneck and His Daughter!

Jerry made pickled eggs and peppers for the trip....which he is actually eating...along with Emma's favorite...beef jerky (also homemade). Good morning!!!

Last night was another first for us. We pulled in a Walmart parking lot at 10:30, put out the "pop-out" and made ourselves at home! Made burgers on our stove, had a decent night of sleep and did a little shopping when we woke up!! Never thought I'd ever be waking up at Walmart!

We're on our way to Bar Harbor where we'll be in a campground for two nights. With full water and electric hook-ups.

Enjoy your day, and we'll do the same!!

Picture

Can't believe I forgot to put up a picture of the RV (aka "Bob"....Beth, guess who named it?!?!).

First Day...Huge Success!!

We are having a blast! Spent a few hours in Portsmouth, NH which is such a great place. Although it was clearly built long before the invention of the RV! Jerry did great driving through the narrow streets and we found a boat launch where they let us park for free for a dew hours.

Had a little trouble getting out though! Our GPS took us to an intersection (a very narrow one) where left was a one way (the wrong way) and right took us to I-95....but only by driving under a bridge with clearance of 11 feet 10 inches. The RV is 13 feet high....oh no!!!!! We had to hold up traffic and thankfully were able to back into the entrance of a park and turn around!! Good thing we were paying attention to the signs!!

Still trying to get out, we turn around and pinch I-95 into the GPS again. And follow directions to a bridge on Route 1 that takes us to ME. But....wait for it....the weight limit on the old draw bridge is 3 tons. And the RV is 5 tons!! Here we go again!! Thankfully they had a last minute escape plan!!

Anyway, we finally wound our way through and found I-95 and are now headed to Freeport where we will spend the night (after a little trip into LL Bean of course!) Open 24 hours, 7 days a week!!!

We lucked out and didn't hit one bit of traffic all day! On July 4th weekend!! Not getting out of Wallingford until 1:30 or so helped.

So I'm signing off for the night. Will update again in Bar Harbor!!

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The Griswolds are off!!!! We'll check back soon with a better update!!

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Test Picture from my computer

Another picture with nothing to do with our trip...sorry! Just testing uploading from the computer instead of from my phone.

Test Picture

This picture has nothing to do with our trip, but I want to see if I can send a picture from my phone and post it.

Test Post

OK Sarah, you said I could post via email, so I'm trying it.

The Prep Stage

Hello to our loyal followers! We are just over a week away from our big RV trip to Newfoundland, Canada. I'm just creating this blog today, and hoping that I'm doing it correctly!

We'll be heading out next Saturday on a 16 day adventure! We've never been campers, so we're novices with regard to this whole RV/campground thing! Our plan is to leave CT on Saturday and make our way to North Sydney, Nova Scotia by Wednesday night.

We have plans to stop in Bar Harbor, ME for two nights. We'll be spending the 4th right in Bar Harbor and can't wait to see the fireworks over the harbor. From there, we'll head into Canadian territory and make our way to the ferry for our 15 hour trip to Newfoundland! Holy sea sickness....don't let me forget the dramamine!

We'll spend Thursday through Tuesday in Newfoundland with Jerry's extended family, and then head back to Nova Scotia. From there we hope to see some of Nova Scotia, along with Prince Edward Island, and then head back to CT.

It should be an interesting, not to mention extremely fun trip! For those of you who are interested in our progress (e.g. can Jerry really empty the sewage tank without getting it all over him?!), we'll do our best to post here and let you know how things are going. Look out Canada...here we come!!