Adventures of Mandogrl!

These are two rock formations that can be seen as you go to Bay d'Loup. The first one is known as the Devil's Armchair and the second is known as the Devil's Chimney.

Ken's cabin at Bay d'loup.
We stopped there and had lunch outside on the bridge.

Mike fileting his fish.

A feed of makerel and cod in Bay d'loup. This is where Mike's brother Ken has his cabin.

I forgot this picture last time. It is the famous elusive sand dollar. This is the one that Marigold found on the Western Beach.

The second half of our vacation in Burgeo was spent at my parents house. Mike and I got an opportunity to get our whack of codfish that week and we spent some time on the water with the kids. They really enjoyed it!!! We took the boat west of Burgeo around the Sandbanks and then we went to East of Burgeo. The two areas are like chalk and cheese. Up towards the west it is flat and the shore is dotted with sandy beaches but down East of Burgeo there are great fjords and rocks jutting out into the sea. We took a lot of pictures, here are just a few I thought I would share with you.

These are called Least Sandpipers. They were darting along in front of us as we walked up the beach. We could get very close.

This is a picture of the Greater Yellowlegs.

We were really excited when we saw this bird, we thought it was the endangered Piping Plover but it turned out to be the Semi-Palmated Plover. (click on the picture to see it up close)

Who knew there were carnivorous plants in the park? The first picture is of one such plant growing in the park, called Sundew. It has a slight stem with a round top and little tentaclelike things protruding from it. I think the second plant is Goldenrod and the third is beach pea, you can see pods of peas hanging off its leaves. (click on the first picture to see the Sundew)

We had a geology lesson in the park! We were informed that the prints on these rocks were not dinosaur footprints as James had hoped but were in fact zenoliths (A foreign inclusion in an igneous rock). They are located at Fox Point.

This is a picture of Sandbanks island. This island was connected to the mainland many years ago. My Great Grandmother would drive her cows onto this island to graze.

This is the sign that is posted at several beaches to warn people of the endangered bird, the Piping Plover, which nests on the beaches in the area.

This is the fourth beach at Sandbanks Park.
You can walk two more beaches after this one. The point of land in the distance is called Fox Point and for a point of interest this is where is fishing zone starts 3PS for the south coast.

We finally arrived home last night from the metropolis of Burgeo after a nine day stay that we thoroughly enjoyed thanks to all the GOOD COMPANY and GOOD FOOD. Mike had to return to work this morning (on our 11th anniversary by the way) and was not in the best of spirits. Our week in Burgeo began with camping at the park on Friday the 12th where we were joined by friends, The Dunphys. We had a great sing song around the campfire, with lots of visitors, into the wee hours of the morning. At about 2:30 am we saw the Northern Lights, they were great, the first time I had seen them. They say that if you whistle at them they will dance, and of course we tried that. The next day we walked all of the beaches, it was beautiful. It started to rain that evening but after a superb meal we sang under tarp, fire blazing until the wee hours of the morning again. We stayed at the park until Tuesday and relaxed, sang, and combed the beaches looking for the elusive sandollar. It was found by Marigold on our last walk who walked the beaches bent over searching in earnest for the shell. There is some legend about the sandollar but I'm not quite sure of it, if someone knows about it, let me know.

After Green Gardens we took it easy.....and experimented with nighttime photography. We left Lomond today, Thursday and headed for home. On the way we stopped at Marble to show the kids the Totem pole. It is a magnificant structure and you can't really appreciate it unless you stop and take a closer look. The adventure continues as we head to Burgeo's Sandbanks Park for a few more days of relaxation!!!!

We decided to take the hike to Green Gardens on Tuesday in the blazing 24 degree heat. So we packed plenty of water and a small lunch and headed out to the trail. Mike's sister Kay and her husband Joe joined us on Monday at Lomond and went on the hike with us. Their dog sailor was the chief water seeker! The hike took us about four hours return trip. It was a 9 km. hike to the shore but getting there we had to go down coming back it was all uphill. The kids were real troopers. When we finally made it to the shoreline, it was beautiful. At the end of the trail down near the beach there is a cliff that is formed from Pillow Lava and also there are volcanic sea stacks poking out of the sea. We were looking for the sea cave and waterfall as the kids were very interested in that but it seemed to have eluded us. We did see some sheep though!!! I wonder how those got there? I forgot to mention that on the way we saw two moose, a mother and a calf, I did manage to get a picture of one of them.

We left Shallow Bay and headed for the south side of Gros Morne National Park in search of a cheaper campground. We swam in Rocky Harbour pool on the way down it was very refreshing. James (5) decided he was going to jump off of the diving board and we waited in amazement as his little figure crept out onto the board. He has no fear. We found a lovely campground on the south side of Gros Morne; Lomond River Lodge and Campground, very similar to our Provincial Parks and 1/3 the cost of the national park. We bunked down there for four nights with the Lomond river just below us. It was great because it was a short drive from the towns of Glenburnie, Shoal Brook, Woody Point, the Discovery Centre and the Tablelands.

We headed up to Shallow Bay campground on Saturday, August 6th to go camping and we did make this time without losing our transmission. We started our moose journal and saw six altogether on the way, although we only got a picture of three; a mother and two calves.

WHEW!!!!! and a bigh SIGH!!!! Just finished my three week Masters course yesterday at Marble Mountain. There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that went into the last three weeks but it was worth it. It's the hardest I worked at anything, except labour and trying to give birth. I can honestly say that I have learned a lot about teacher research, collaborative learning, comaraderie, patience, professionalism, presentation, blogging (and a whole new whack of computer skills) and how to relax when needed and all thanks to our professors, facilitators and mentors (Michele Knobel, Colin Lankshear, Betty King and Renee Sherstobetoff). Now it's time to relaxxxxxx for a month until school opens. So..... the adventure continues.....
My family and I will be heading up to Gros Morne tomorrow to camp, hike, relax and just take in the fresh air and wildlife. I will update when I return.

This is a picture of the First Sand at Sandbanks Provincial Park, Burgeo.

This pic was taken from my parents house in Burgeo, looking at the Fisherman's warf.

I returned to Burgeo on Friday after another two intensive days on my Master's program. It was great to get on that Burgeo road and look for wildlife. I did see one moose on the way down. The festival was great!!!! The best yet!!!! Friday night saw the Screech In ceremony and fireworks, followed by a 60's dance. The fireworks were spectacular, very impressive!! On Saturday, there was entertainment at the park by Landsmen, mussel boil, poker walk and lots of cotton candy for the kids. (The highlight of their trip) Saturday night was very memorable and started with a jam session at my cousin's house. Then we headed to the arena for a dance with a band called Mallczar (I think that's how it's spelled). The stadium was packed, the music was great and the company was super. I think I saw a hint of daybreak that morning. Sunday continued with a Teddy Bear picnic for the kids, music by Charlie Mercer followed with music by Longshot and a winding down of activities. As I was very tired that day I just did as little as possible on my beach chair.

Well, my family stayed at Burgeo on Thursday and Friday while I returned to Marble Mountain for another few days of 'camp'. They had a great few days at the festival listening to music, playing on the beach and visiting the museum.