Fun stuff update - part 1

I haven't really been posting of all the cool non-law nerd stuff I've been doing. My parents came into town with my fiance, so we've been doing a few things.

The week before they came on May 30th, I took another awesome tour with Ryan. I swear, all of my Dad's hard earned money is going to that guy. It's worth it, though. I could never do all this stuff on my own. We went sea kayaking at Lower Prospect, which I'm pretty sure is just west of Halifax. Either way, it always amazes me that you can drive just a few minutes and have it feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. Halifax is not that big at all, and you quickly get out into wilderness where there's noone around. Most of the drive to and from the airport (about 30 minutes away) is all lakes and rivers and trees.

Anyway, it was a really cold day. It got better when we were out on the water, but it started to rain towards the end of our kayak trip. I feel like whenever I go hang out with Ryan it starts to rain. It wasn't so bad though. Word to the wise: make sure you wear a bathing suit under all your gear, because you're going to get wet and you'll want to change. I was on the trip with 4 other people and was smart enough to bring dry clothes, so after this little shindig, I was MUCH warmer than they were. Ryan also provided us with extra jackets and stuff (with extra cat hair to keep you warm). It was great while we were standing and waiting to get in the water, but you warm up really quickly once you get out there and start moving around. I didn't take many pictures because I didn't want my camera to get wet. This is what I've got:

We stopped on a little beach/cove. The whole island is really narrow, so we walked across to the other side. The other side of this island is very rocky (wish I got a picture). Ryan says that when one side of the island has rocks all over the shore, chances are the other side has sand.


I was really hoping someone would fall in. There was this one kid that I totally thought was going to take a little swim in the icy cold water, but unfortunately, that didn't happen :( The water was so crisp. It was the kind of water that later on in the summer you would totally want to dive into. We went by this one spot called Rogue's Roost. There's a restaurant in Halifax that I ate at by the same name. Pirates (yay!) use to bring their boats up to the relative safety of some of the inlets and out of the open ocean. I guess to sleep and do other piratical things. There's a plaque on the rock. I was very focused on the story at the time, but after two weeks, all I hear inside my head is "something something something PIRATES something something." Maybe Ryan (who's avidly following my gripping blog) can fill in my sketchy details. I'm always up for a good pirate story, and Nova Scotia has many. I'm practically one of Barrett's Privateers.

So, after that we went to Polly and Peggy's Cove. As I'd already been, I wasn't allowed to answer any questions :( Ryan was trading gummy bears for right answers, so I was a little disappointed since I live for gummy bears, but I stole some anyways. I entertained myself taking more close-up pictures around Polly's Cove instead of landscapes. And I took pictures of cute Ryan.

This is the same Rose Root plant from a week earlier. It has little buds on it now. Everything in the Barrens looks pretty much the same though.


Ryan is probably saying how awesome I am.


Ryan is probably thinking about how awesome I am.

Polly's Cove. I'm excited because now there are actually pictures of me. It's hard to be in pictures when you're by yourself :( I wish I had taken more pictures of me and Robin while she was here. She sent me some though, so I'll probably fill those into the blog later.



This rock looks like a whale. I'm Jonah.


Yum yum. My rendition of the whale eating Jonah. I'm going to win an Oscar for this one.


Those from Georgia will recognize this crap. It is probably coating your cars in yellow as we speak. Yuck.

Ryan was a little upset since we had to pull all of the kayaks off the shelf thingies and bring them to the little beach where we launched them from, and put them back afterwards. There was only one employee there. He said that it was their job to do that. I didn't mind, and I really didn't know better. To make up for our manual labour, he decided to extend the tour quite a bit at Polly's Cove, and we went to this place he calls the "School of Rock." It took a lot of effort getting there. I totally thought Ryan was taking us somewhere to kill us and dispose of the bodies. It's always the ones you least expect. I learned, however, that he's totally trustworthy (at least for now). To get to the School of Rock, you have to walk/hike quite a ways over and under things. You go down these rocks, onto this very flat expanse of granite that goes right up to the water. With the rock walls towering aound you, it feels like you're in a castle. It's awesome.

There's this skinny little crack in the rock wall that's actually a cave. I went in to take some pictures, but Ryan said you could actually go all the way through. I decided to try some spelunking.

Narrow really means narrow

Being the best tour guide ever, he's risking life and limb climbing up a rock face in order to get pictures for the people behind him. Not for me though :( I was in front of everyone, even Ryan, so I missed some of the cooler photo ops. This move, however, is not as impressive as you might think. I learned this trick from Bear Grylls too.


Fatso Ryan getting stuck. THINK SKINNY THOUGHTS! SUCK IT IN!

I popped out ahead of everyone and took this picture of them coming through the gap.

You actually pop out of this little hole. We passed it on the way down to the School of Rock and were warned not to fall into it. Who knew! When I came out, there were 3 people and thier dog not far. They were talking and looked over and gave me the funniest, weirdest surprised look. I just said, "hey!" and didn't explain much. The dog was cute, though.

The little hole you come out of

Then we went to Peggy's Cove and the Bike and Bean. I missed this picture the first time around, so here it is. Pay attention to the dire warning.

So that was a few Saturday's ago! I'll do another update of my parent's visit later on tonight or tomorrow. It's a beautiful day and I want to go read in the park.