Arthur?
Helloooooo?
Arthur?
Alright, so I can't speak for the rest of the province, nor the events leading up to Arthur visiting Lunenburg. What I can say though is that, by the time Arthur meandered on in to the home of the Bluenose, he had become the driest hurricane imaginable. No rain. Loads of wind, but no rain, or such little rain that you hardly noticed. And the wind had abated and was a mild 40-60 km/hr as opposed to Arthur's raging 120 km/hr gusts. Guess he was getting tired. It's been a long few days for the fellow. Perhaps he was no longer a hurricane. I'm not sure. What I was sure of though, as was everyone else in the house, was that we would not be spending the day crouching low in the house playing, as I had predicted, 10 matches of Apples to Apples, or Philip had suggested, having a crockinole tournament. We had certainly prepared for such an event. We had even gotten chips. Well, chips can be eaten in a car.
It was time to go and meet Arthur.
We all, but Heather who had to work, piled in to the two cars and set off. I with Philip and Meara taking the lead, and the boys with Marc and Sherri following close behind. Philip was to be our guide for the day, taking us along the coast to various beaches so that we could see, not only the holy splendour that is the coastal regions of the province of Nova Scotia in and around the Lunenburg area, but also Arthur playing in the ocean waves. Sure, there may be no rain, and the winds may have cut back a tad, but the waves, they were a' crashin' and we were off to see them.
First stop was Hirtles Beach.
As you can see, or maybe not as its just a picture and not video, the waves were fantastic. Arthur had certainly got them going. And I had the opportunity to learn what the signs at Peggy's Cove were referring to when they said that the black rocks were unsafe because of the danger of "sudden waves". We were all just standing there, watching them (the waves) come at us in, well, waves. All seemed fine. All seemed normal. And then all of a sudden we're running for higher ground to keep the water from getting up to our ankles. Philip had been the one closest and the water got up as high as his waist. Philip is a pretty tall guy. All the previous waves hadn't even come close to his toes. Philip was now quite wet. So yes, lesson for all you kids out there, and more importantly to people who think that these signs posted in Peggy's Cove and elsewhere aren't meant for them, or that you'll somehow be able to see it coming and get out of the way. You won't. Each year a few people get swept out to sea at Peggy's Cove because they choose to ignore these warnings. Darwin Award contender or not, don't be one of these people.
But lets hear it for towels, strong winds, and heated seats, as Philip was dry again in short order.
By the way, here is a selfie the boys did at the beach. They were going for The Joshua Tree look. Nice eye eh?
Our drive carried us along the coast of the LaHave river. LaHave is actually where Champlain first landed when arriving in the new world. While there he took the time to survey the area including Hirtles Beach where we had just been. Champlain soon upped and moved to what is now Quebec but LaHave, for a short time anyway, was the capital of New France. Apparently though they don't make a big deal of it. I wonder why?
What is made a big deal of in LaHave however is the LaHave Bakery. And rightfully so.
It's a wonderfully charming place, with a simple and very tasty menu, and yummy bread and baked goods. And it smells great. What, I ask you, compares to the smell of a good bakery?
In the same building is a shop supporting local artists and artisans, so we took a look around it for a short while. I believe the find of the day was made by Philip and then purchased by Jake.
As I may have mentioned previously the boys are going to be doing school online during our travels. One of the course Jake is taking is visual art, which requires, amongst other things, a sketchbook in which you, yes, you guessed it, sketch stuff. We've already purchased a sketchbook for Jake from the local stationary and art supply shop near our home in Toronto. It's good, but it's your typical sketchbook. What we found at this lovely shop in LaHave however, well, this is a sketchbook that is worthy of travelling around the world and capturing one's images of said world. It's exquisite. It's also a bit bulky, and not necessarily the most practical sketchbook to bring along when you're trying to pack right. But it'll be totally worth it.
I play the piano. Kinda okay. Never studied it really, so self-taught with all the bad habits that come along with that. I also own a piano. And I like my piano. When I went shopping for what turned out to be it about 10 years ago I played about 40 different pianos within the price range I was looking for, until I found the one that "fit". Every so often though I like to go into Remenyi's or some other piano place in Toronto and play some of the high-end concert grands they have kicking about. And you know what, I play better. I totally step up and am such a better player, and also become better at improvisation. It all flows in a different way. I can't possibly play at the level worthy of the instrument, but man dancing my fingers across those keys elevates me to a level my humble little piano couldn't do. I think this sketchbook could be like that. It's really nice. (No pressure dude.)
We decided to start heading back home along a different route.
Now, it's amazing what happens when you ask the right question. For example, at breakfast yesterday morning Noah asked the question "What came first? The colour orange, or the fruit orange?"
It turns out that the fruit came first. While entering into use in middle english via the old french "orenge", it finds it's roots in the sanskrit "naranga", meaning orange tree, and then up through the Persian "naranj" and well, you can see how it would happen. The place name Orange is actually named after a roman-celtic settlement Arausio, but don't ask me how that one happened. Importantly though, or perhaps not, the House of Orange, presumably in this place, adopted the colour of oranges in the 16th century, which eventually lead to it being associated with Protestantism. And somehow this explains why the Dutch modified carrots and why they all have such brightly coloured heads at the World Cup. Important stuff here people!
Philip looked it up while we were eating and filled us all in, but I admit to sneaking a peak at Wikipedia this morning to read through it a bit more.
Well, Noah was on a roll yesterday because the other question he asked was: "What happens when you throw a frisbee in a hurricane?" The answer it turns out is this:
Yep, along the way home we found a field and played frisbee with Arthur for a little bit. Arthur is not the best to play with. He tries to steal the frisbee a lot, and worse, his aim is lousy; but heck, he's a dry, quieting down hurricane, what do you want? What I will say though, is that it was much, much fun. So it's important to ask questions, and it's even more important to go and find the answers to them.
Frisbee, or it's non-trademarked equivalent, will be one of those things we'll be doing along the way as we travel. Both boys have played Ultimate at one point or another, and I have always wanted to be in a beach party movie from the 50's, so it should work out pretty well. Besides, they're flat, so pack easily. Why wouldn't you take one?
Home for dinner, a failed attempt at bowling (as their power went out just as I was about to toss my first ball), and back home for a couple of family-friendly rounds of Apples to Apples and a non-family-friendly mega-round of Cards Against Humanity.
I think I may need to caveat my comment about the importance of asking questions.
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