One Full Day

What a full day! Where to begin? We had another swim at the hotel this morning and as we were getting into the van, we heard someone calling his cows home. We stopped and watched as the cows, which were very far away indeed, turned and started even running in the right direction. But then partway there, they all turned back to go and be with a cow and her two calves who had been left behind (and was quite vocal about it).

Then I directed Ghis to the Howard Dill pumpkin farm, 4-time world record holder for the largest pumpkin. It was great – we saw pumpkins up to 1000 pounds. Morgane had a little math practice reading all the numbers. We also ate some delicious freshly picked apples from the orchard.

Inside, we admired old hockey memorabilia. Apparently, it was on a lake on this property that hockey was invented! They had very old skates and pucks.

Then I directed Ghis to the Mermaid Theatre, also in Windsor. It’s a puppet theatre that puts on shows all around the world. We walked in and received such a great welcome. They let us go in and watch the rehearsal! So there we were in the back, watching The Very Hungry Caterpillar, one of our favourite books! There was a special light and the props seemed to glow while the background was so black, we could barely see the puppeteers.

After the show (which was fabulous), they invited us onstage and Morgane got to ask questions (like how did the caterpillar actually eat the strawberries and how did the caterpillar get so fat?). She also got to try out the caterpillar – and it turns out there are three, each one slightly fatter.

After that incredible experience, we had a nice lunch at the Snapdragon Cafe, then drove back to Wolfville. By then it was raining quite hard. We decided to go back to the friendly library and Ghis and I took turns napping in the pop-top and hanging out in the library with Morgane.

It’s a great thing that we did go back because a very kind librarian (Brogan) wanted to invite us to park our Westfalia in their driveway (they have one, too!). After a little drive, we took her and her husband Peter up on their offer. They have a great house! It feels very much like what Ghis and I would choose – the style, the renovations, the millions of books… When we got here, we discovered they have a daughter three months younger than Morgane and the girls hit it off. And now, Morgane and I are sleeping in their guestroom (with a very friendly cat) while Ghis gets the pop-top all to himself.

We are talking about plans – whether to stay in Nova Scotia for awhile or go to Maine and whether to keep moving or plant ourselves for a bit. Questions for tomorrow…