Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Terra Nova Trip | Day 2 Recap

Now for more of my Terra Nova tale... I'm sure the suspense has been killing you.

We drove to a tiny little town called Salvage where we hiked to the top of a hill to see this view:
We weren't planning to hike in Salvage, so Natalie and I were wearing flip-flops and shorts, and that didn't work out so well, but what else were we going to do when we got to Salvage and learned that the Fisherman's Museum wasn't open yet for the season? At least I remembered the bug spray. So what if Kyle got stuck on a branch and ended up knee-deep in some mud while Shaun and I tried really hard not to laugh at him? Those are the moments that make family vacations!

From Salvage we backtracked to Eastport Beach, where the kids managed to soak their clothing in ocean water that was about 45F. Sand beaches are hard to come by in Newfoundland, and Brandon was totally confused by the grainy stuff getting all over his feet.
After some lunch at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served a very decent burger we made our way to Family Funland. We paid entirely too much for the kids to play some mini-golf (hit the ball as many times as they wanted and used their feet to kick the ball into the hole, Natalie) and look at about three rabbits (petting zoo), but Kyle and Natalie completely loved it.

After dinner we decided to head into Terra Nova National Park to check out the Marine Interpretation Center. There was a huge touch tank, and even more importantly, there were crayons. It didn't matter that we brought crayons with us on our vacation. It didn't matter that there were starfish to touch. My kids wanted to color! Shaun and I didn't mind because we had really only decided to head over to the park because we couldn't bear to spend the time between dinner and bedtime in our tiny little cabin with the kids climbing all over us. We even drove up to the top of Blue Hill while we were there to catch another stunning view.
It was a long day, but it was fun, and the beauty of this place we have temporarily adopted as home constantly amazes me. We managed to thoroughly exhaust ourselves--so much that we were sure the kids would fall right to sleep when their little heads hit their pillows. They did fall right asleep--after another battle exactly like the one from the night before involving hair-licking and feet. At least I was so exhausted that I didn't even notice Brandon's snoring when I finally got to put my little head on my pillow.

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