Rainwater Rambling

Day 4: Sea Glass History and Singing Sands

August 25, 2015 richardt

PEI2015

Today we headed up to Souris which is up on the east tip of the island. This is the port of Souris.

The Souris Lighthouse, it was built in 1880. The last light keeper retired in 1991.

Inside the lighthouse is a museum of sea glass. There is sea glass and sand from all over the world.

They also have examples of where the different colours of sea glass may have originated from.

Claudia relaxing on a lobster trap chair.

From Souris we headed up to Basin Head and the Singing Sands Beach.

The beach wasn’t that busy when we arrived, but a couple of hours later when we left there were quite a few people.

Looking back towards the beach area.

The surf looks bigger in this picture than it actually was.

Here is a video of the sound the sand makes when you walk on it. More of a squeak than a song.

There is a wharf and bridge that people were jumping off.

Further down the beach it was empty.

After the beach we drove to East Point, it is the eastern tip of the island.

The girls heading into the gift shop.

We did the tour of the lighthouse. The last bit to the top is by a narrow ladder.

Claudia heading back down.

On my way down.

This lighthouse was built in 1866.

It showered as we drove back through Charlottetown and left behind a pretty vibrant rainbow.

The other end of the rainbow.

Day 3: Herons, Mosquitos and Lighthouses

August 24, 2015 richardt

PEI2015

birds lighthouse pei tamzooka

It was another lazy day, the girls were down to the beach to hunt for sea glass, it is an odd time for tides, we are only getting one low tide a day and it is falling right in the middle of the day. The mornings start our cloudy and by noon the sun comes out and burns off the clouds. When we went back down there were three Great Blue Herons on the beach.

Two of the birds flew off, but one of them stuck around.

The girls were walking towards the bird and eventually it flew off.

It was hot and sunny, and about 10 degrees cooler at the water then up at the cottage.

There have also been a lot of mosquitos around, both down at the water and up at the cottage.

In the afternoon we headed out to the east side of the island, somewhere we didn’t get to last time. We made a stop at Prim Point.

Prim Point Light Station is the first and oldest lighthouse on Prince Edward Island. It was built in 1845 and only one of a few round brick lighthouses in Canada.

On the way to the lighthouse there was this tree decorated with various fishing boat floats.

From Prim Point we made our way up to Montague and then back to the cottage.

Day 2: Beachcombing and Lobster Dinner

August 23, 2015 richardt

PEI2015

birds pei tamzooka

We had quite the thunderstorm last night and lots of rain, according to Environment Canada Charlottetown received 74mm on Saturday. We missed low tide the first day we arrived, today it was at 11:30am. The girls and I went down early when it was going out and started hunting around for some sea glass. Claudia found a dead crab.

It was still a cloudy morning. Here is the stairway that comes down from our cottage.

After brunch the sun came out and we headed back down for low tide. The tide isn’t that low, but it will get lower as the week goes on.

There is a Great Blue Heron (Ardea hernias) that hangs around.

Susan looking for some sea glass.

The girls venturing further over to the sand bars.

I was following the heron as it kept moving away.

It was a hot and humid day. The sun was out for most of the day, but it rained when we went into town.

Getting closer to the heron.

About as far as the girls went in the water. The water wasn’t that cold.

When we got back to the cottage the power was out so we headed into town for some supplies. When we got back it was still out, if it stayed off it was going to interrupt our dinner plans. The owners hooked up a generator to keep the water filtration going, but it only left the bbq as an option for cooking. The power came on about 30 minutes after we got back. That meant we could go pick up dinner.

We bought four live 1.5lb lobsters and brought them back to the cottage.

The inside of our cottage.

The first two lobsters were ready.

Claudia and Angela digging in.

After dinner we watched the sunset.

The end of a good day in PEI.

Here is the cottage we are staying in, the Wild Rose. We ended the evening with a fire and smore’s, we had to go old school and carve a stick to roast the marshmallows.

Day 1: We’re Off!

August 22, 2015 richardt

PEI2015

airport pei

Our vacation has finally arrived! We are off to Prince Edward Island, I cashed in some Aeroplan points and we are flying out to Charlottetown. Here are Angela and Claudia relaxing in the lounge before our flight.

The flight path from Toronto to Charlottetown. It was a good flight, with some rain when we landed, usually not a problem, but it is when you deplane on the tarmac and have to walk to the terminal. It was also very humid here, with much of the same in the forecast for the next week. After some lunch in town and picking up some groceries we arrived at The Good Cottages near Rice Point, PE, about 20 minutes from Charlottetown on the Northumberland Straight side of the island.

Claudia’s Final Soccer Game

August 19, 2015 richardt

Rainwater

claudia soccer

Claudia had her last soccer game on Wednesday. Her playoffs were this past Saturday, but we were going to be on vacation, so she missed it. She played goal the first half.

She had a good first half, their team were leading at the half.

From what I heard she also had a great game in goal last week and kept her team in the game. Even the referee commented on how well she did after the game.

In the second half she played defence.

Claudia during an injury time-out. Her team played a great game and won 3-2. The wins were few and far between this summer, but they had fun.

Northern Saskatchewan and NWT Trip

August 19, 2015 richardt

Work Posts

airplane aurora borealis nwt saskatchewan wildlife

I had an extended trip out west, a colleague and I were sent out to our two sites that were impacted by the forest fires this summer. It was a 10 day trip that took us to Pinehouse Lake, SK and Fort Smith, NT. We flew into Edmonton, rented a truck and drove to Beauval, SK. This was the sunrise on Lac La Plonge.

The accommodations were a little sparse, there was no internet or television for a few days.

On our third day we drove to La Ronge to catch a charter flight to do an aerial assessment of our site. The plane was a Cessna 185 float plane, it was the first time I have taken off and landed on water.

The road and our site at the end of it. The black and brown areas are all fire damaged. Even though the plane ride was a little rough, it was an awesome opportunity.

On the Friday we headed back to Edmonton to catch our flight to Fort Smith. It was about 6:30 when we came across a herd of cows blocking the road. Eventually with a little honking and inching forward, they moved out of the way.

We only had a few days in Fort Smith. We saw this small group of bison on the way back to town on the Saturday.

There were three adults and a couple of younger ones.

What my telephoto lens lets me see. I was in the drivers seat and they were on the passenger side of the highway. I had the back window down and pointing my lens towards them.

Sunday was an off day for us, so we headed down to Mountain Rapids to see if we could see the nesting Pelicans. They were all on islands pretty far away.

The scenery on the Slave River is spectacular.

The Mountain Rapids.

We were able to watch the end of the Blue Jays/Yankee game when we got back to town. After the game we headed to Grosbeak Lake.

Some bison footprints in the mud.

Even though it looks like two rocks it is just one rock that has eroded over the years by the salt.

We set our alarms for the second last night to see if we could see the Aurora Borealis. We drove down to the river around 12:30am.

Those are lights from another vehicle that pulled up while we were there.

It was kind of odd, as the colours were not as vibrant as they appear in the photos. We could see some of the green, but not much of the purple.

Note the Big Dipper in the top left of this photo.

Most of these photos were taken at a 30 second exposure on a Gorillapod on the roof of the truck.

On the Monday we had another charter booked with Northwestern Air Lease. This time our plane had wheels. It was a Cessna 206, a little bigger than the previous one. As the pilot said, this was more like the station wagon of Cessna’s.

The scenery below was a little more interesting.

Some of the burn area, that is the main highway that goes between Fort Smith and Hay River.

The Slave River.

Our last night in Fort Smith we headed down to the Rapids of the Drowned. They are right in town and a short hike down to the river from town. The Pelicans were still far away, not as close as they were in May when I saw them.

A final sunset over the Slave River.

Day 10 and we had an early flight from Fort Smith to Edmonton via a stop in Hay River. On the flight to Hay River there were three of us on the British Aerospace Jetstream 31 that can hold 19 passengers.

After we landed in Hay River to drop off one pax, the pilot said we were it to Edmonton. So my colleague and I had a private charter from Hay River to Edmonton.

Froggin’

August 9, 2015 richardt

Rainwater

lars tractors

The girls and I were out at the Skjold-Pettersen’s a couple of Sunday’s ago. Unfortunately Susan had caught what I had earlier that week and was unable to go. There is a pond at their place with lots of frogs. Here is Angela trying to catch a frog.

Gillian with a bent foot in the hip waders after she got out.

Claudia right in there.

Before we left Angela asked Lars if she could drive the riding mower. Here she is taking Lars, Gillian and Claudia for a wagon ride.

Gillian took a turn and had Mady along for the ride.

The girls were having a great time.

At the end Lars took them all four of them around the yard for a ride.

Angela’s Final Soccer Game

August 8, 2015 richardt

Rainwater

angela birds soccer

Today was Angela’s final soccer game of the season, it was the playoffs, with only four teams this year, it was lose one and done.

This is how close my telephoto lens can get the planes in the sky from my lawn chair on the field.

It was a close game early on, but by half time, the other team was up 2-0.

Angela played defence the entire game.

Lots of of pushing and shoving going on throughout the game. It almost looks like they are doing the 3-legged race. I think the final score was 4-1.

There was a hawk that was flying around the marsh and would come to rest in one of the trees.

David Price Game 1

August 3, 2015 richardt

Rainwater

baseball blue jays

After getting back from Seattle on Friday and hearing the news that David Price would be held back a day to start the first game of the Minnesota Twins series, I started to look for tickets on line. Gillian was already going to the game with her friends. Angela had a soccer game, so her and Susan stayed home. They ended up going to see Jurassic World. I picked up a pair of tickets for Claudia and I and we planned to go down early and wait in line for our Russell Martin Bobblehead. This was the line-up when we arrived.

Claudia and I had a plan, as soon as we got in we were heading straight for the WestJet Flight Deck out in centre field. We got a spot on the first level and watched the game from there.

The roof was closed when we got in, but it started to open shortly after that.

We were able to stay in the shade for the entire game. They were hitting a lot of balls out during batting practice. When a ball didn’t make it over, they would yell for the ball. Claudia said they looked like baby birds.