Friday, August 13th,
1999
Hello family and
friends,
I
hope this web-letter
finds you all well. We have just returned from
vacation. We
stopped for a visit with Deb's mom and sister and
their families in Montreal,
and then met up with my Mom and Dad and my sister
Dianne for a trip through
the Maritimes. Here are some highlights:
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The video was
worth it, because
later we got to show it to Kelly's proud parents,
Cathy and Hugh.
Afterward, Cathy took Deb for a ride on the Wet Jets,
and then Hugh took
me on a long ride out to Emmet Island, a seal
rookery. There were
no seals at this time of year, just seagulls and
cormorants, but the ride
was one of the most fun things I've ever done.
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After Louisburg
we went to Margaree,
where there are lots of beautiful scenes including
this lovely harbour.
We stayed at Hattie's place - there's our little Boler
trailer parked outside.
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One of the
delightful things
about Hattie's place was the abundance of
ruby-throated hummingbirds.
They twittered and chased each other all over several
different hummingbird
feeders. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of
Hattie yet, until
Deborah gets her film developed.
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These handsome
characters are
Ernie and Terry Olivo, who invited us to visit
Margaree,
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and this is
another friend they
invited to Cape Breton, Linda Pope
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We went out on a
fishing boat and
went through a pod of about two dozen pilot whales,
called "potheads" in
Margaree ("blackfish" in Nova Scotia). These
were right beside the
boat, feasting on a school of mackerel.
This one 
is waving goodbye...
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We saw harbourseals in
grottos and
on rocks.
Deb took her
turn at the helm:
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After the
"potheads" were through,
we caught a few mackerel they'd missed
and I was impressed by
these yellow-headed
gannets, which I'd never seen before. They
joined the seagulls to
chase the boat when the fish were cleaned.
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This is yours
truly with Ron
Pope. I'd just taken the mackerel off his hook
for him. (Ron's
son Ryland was with us as well, but unfortunately I
don't have a good photo
of him.)
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One of the
things you can see
before leaving Maragaree is the actual star of Farley
Mowat's story, The
Boat Who Wouldn't Float
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This is the name on
the stern
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Back in Nova Scotia,
we met a few
of the wider Gilchrist clan at my uncle Ian's camp-out
farm in River John.
Ian is having a good laugh at my sister Dianne, 
who quickly stuck her tongue at my camera... I'll bet
she never imagined
I'd actually capture that delightful image for all to
enjoy! |
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| Ian's eldest daughter
Erin is capable
of a hearty laugh herself. Here she is with her
sons Jazz and Kai,
and her mother Joyce. I didn't get a good shot of
Erin's husband
David - he wore shades and kept moving, taking care of
the boys, and out
of range of the camera most of the time. |
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photogenic cousin
who was at the farm is Stephanie. She drove down
from Ottawa with
her husband Rick and their son Daniel, a clever young
builder and scientist
who is tickling a rubber shark in this shot - probably
an experiment of
some sort...and the distinguished gentleman in the fine
hat is Stephanie's
father, my uncle Rae. This is the only shot I have
of Rick, who went
to sleep shortly afterward - I think he'd driven through
the night to get
there. (My uncle Ken also lives nearby, but he
wasn't around when
I had my carmera out.) |
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This is
Wolf Leon, the
husband of my father's first cousin Eve Powell. We
visited them in
PEI five years ago, and got back there again on this
trip. Wolf coached
us once more in correct lobster eating technique in his
beach house at
Cavendish, and Deb and I also went kayaking, horse-back
riding and snorkelling
to view lobsters "in the wild".
I couldn't lift a good
still of Eve
from my video. |
We also visited Dorothy and
Ted, Pamela,
Jack and Vanessa, but didn't shoot video. Maybe I'll
have photos
of them when Deb's film comes back from processing.
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In Windsor we
visited Deb's friend
Susan Kriegling and her husband Barry - in the
background you can see the
new house they've built - before taking the ferry
from Digby to St. John
and driving home through Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont, and New York over
to Cornwall - a nice drive, cheaper gas, and shorter
than the New Brunswick/Quebec
route.
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In Gorham we
encountered a gathering
of gorgeous Stanley Steamers.
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I got lots of
video. There
are a few more stills at the bottom of this page.
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It was a pretty good
trip. Now
we're just catching up on chores and preparing for
September. I have
a four-day summer workshop coming up, and Deb is in her
classroom in her
new school every day, unpacking 140 boxes of programming that
she has accumulated
over the years (can you even visualize 140 boxes?! I had to
help move them,
of course...do I sound like I'm complaining?)
Best wishes to you all.
We hope
we'll see most of you at least once before the summer is over,
or through
the fall, and that you'll all be happy and healthy in the year
to come.
love,
Steve & Deborah
P. S. Click
here to link to our home page if you like, if you don't have
it bookmarked.
