Nova Scotia: The End

So you can probably tell that it was a wonderful trip.  I loved my time in Nova Scotia. Things I'd forgotten - all the water everywhere.  Every time you turn around it's ocean, lake, river or stream.  It's even more beautiful than I remember.

 It was hot.  That was shocking.  I'm sure we had a few hot weeks when I was a kid - but all my memories are tied up in being cold. The houses are smaller, the cars are smaller and older, people still hang up clothes to dry out on the clothes line, everyone has a woodpile to help defray heating costs in the winter.  It is not Raleigh.

The travel there and back was pretty insane.  On the way there our flight left late, we missed our connecting flight to NS and had to wait until the next day to fly in.  From Detroit to NS we were bumped up to first class which was a great perk.

On the way home our flight was switched and then delayed and then cancelled, and then back on.  And then supposed to stop in Virginia to refuel.  I emailed Carleen and told her not to worry about picking us up at the airport that evening - there was no way we would make it in that night.  We ended up making our connection in Atlanta (it was delayed a few hours too) by the skin of our teeth and did make it home in one long day.  But I'm done with air travel for awhile.

We had a funny experience going through customs.  On the way home we had checked 5 bags, one cardboard box  (my very own chess table) and 2 car seats (we'd been bumped up to first class again so it was all free).  When our passports were getting scanned at customs they would pull up a picture of each piece of luggage.  In each photo you could just see the bottom half of Jaxon watching luggage go up the ramp.  On the last picture you could see him holding onto himself like he had to pee right now!  We all started laughing and the customs agent was laughing so hard that the agent in the next booth came over to see what all the commontion was about.

There was also the time going through security when Jaxon was randomly chosen for a hand swab.  Taye, in typical pre-teen fashion had to worry outloud that they'd just been helping Grandpa clean the guns that very morning and he hoped it didn't cause any problems. It was fine of course.  The Halifax airport is tiny and all the guards and agents were super duper nice. 

Passports and tickets and customs and luggage for five people is no joke. We were sprinting through an airport with boys way ahead of us, Tyrone carrying a backpack and two bags when I innocently mentioned that next time we would have four kids and a stroller! He gave me a serious "not traveling ever again" look! 

In Detroit Jaxon's book bag got hauled off the conveyor belt to remove unlawful contraband.  He had three unopened cans of sprite/lemonade he was saving for the plane ride :-(

Grandpa can speak crow. He puts food on a big rock down at the pond and then calls for them. They come right away. Jaxon and Scotia were so impressed. 

The pond is pretty full of lily pads.  More like skiing than canoeing.  

On our last afternoon we met my best highschool friend Taryn and her young daughter at Beach Meadows for a walk and then dinner at her house. Taryn and her partner live in an amazing century old house that is slowly getting renovated.

I think that wraps it up. Farewell to Nova Scotia!