Food was Great in Grand Manaan

The chef at the Inn at Whale Cove, Laura Buckly, did a fantastic job. We had marvelous ravioli stuffed with whole scallops and a lovely sauce that I don't recall the details about. I was too busy swooning. The crab cake appetizers had a lime coulis or something that were equally divine. I know those of you who are food wheenies will say, “Can't she even remember a small detail like how the lime was part of the crab cakes?” Nope, too busy eating. Chocolate moose (I know it is spelled incorrectly but I can't find the right spelling on this spell check gizmo) with whip cream and we had a nice Pinot G. for wine. (Italian) (too busy drinking it)

Now because I have obviously failed in my attention to details, some of which I agree are important, let me clarify:

Foggy focused photographer is Ernest Cadegan at web site

http://www.ernestcadegan.com/

The marsh is really spelled Castalia (geeZe Steve)

The island is really (and I quote) “it's Manaan, not Mannan or Manan...” (Really geeze Steve)

One of the reasons these were spelled incorrectly was because when I asked Mr. G. Steve if he remembered, he was too busy playing his banjo to pay attention. (small domestic moment here folks) so I do apologize to all those who hold spelling near and dear to your hearts, unlike steam-rolling along me who loves spelling as a theory rather than a practice.

After crawling away from the dining table, we had to keep bending over to pick things off the floor to pack them up and lug them to the car, so we crashed early to the sounds of “Urrrrh....URrrrh....URrrrh” fondly known as the Swallowtail Fog Horn at the Swallowtail Lighthouse. We never saw it up close, it was too foggy. Good trip home because we had air conditioning for the first road trip ever. Amazing invention! Loved it.

Today I had to acknowledge that I do not have enough yarn to finish my road trip project.
and have had to do the unthinkable and buy yarn on the internet. I hate this. I want to see the colour with my own eyeballs and feel the texture and you know, toss it around a little bit to see if it really is the same yarn as I have been using and running out of. I went to the Louet site

http://www.louet.com/

where they have some yummy yarns and patterns. This yarns was purchased initially at Lettuce Yarn in Toronto

www.lettuceknit.com

and they were very willing to send me the same yarn but in a different colourway. This was an interesting idea because I could use it for the ruffled edge, but as you can see, I need to finish the last point on the body of the shawl before I can do the ruffle and that requires the original colour choice. This is a great no brainer project, very easy on the hands and very easy on time. My only suggestion, based on experience is that when a project says “two skeins of yarn” you don't say to yourself, “If I just use bigger needles, I can probably do it with one.” See above for results if you think this way.

This is the project I didn't take as a road trip project.

A sock knit from the toe up. The increases to get the sock to eventually head over the heel without splitting apart is increased not in the usual manner with stitches on either side of the heel section, but with a jillion stitches increased only on one side of the cable line. These will then be decreased where on a normal sock you would increase (reverse direction) but to just frig with the knitter's mind a little, a second cable is introduced on one side of these decreases and the cable work happens both on the front and the back. This is like looking in a mirror and doing that hand patting the head while doing a circle over the tummy and trying to make the image in the mirror do it clockwise while the person does it counter clock wise, all the while making your left foot step in and out. Try it.

See what I mean? Knitting a cable front and back is just a mean thing to tell knitters to do. I am going to stare at it for a day or two and see if it goes away.

Grand Mannan NB Finally

Steve tells me that 10 years ago as we were driving through New Brunswick to Washington we said “We should visit Grand Mannan” and here we finally are.

The fog has been rolling in and out all day. This is what the view from the ferry from Blacks Harbour looked like as we left.
This is what we saw when we arrived in Grand Mannan, an hour and a half later.
For those of you familiar with the saga of catching ferries that this family undergoes you will not be surprised to know that we left the house 20 minutes late, had to stop to pee (me) twice, and in the last leg of the trip as we attempted to politely get to the ferry terminal, there was an old duffer in an ancient car toodling along the road like time was his to dole out. I managed to not scream any obscenities at the old bugger but it took some serious Quaker/Buddhist breathing to get me through it.

We both agreed that to miss a ferry was one thing, to miss it by 3 minutes was torture. In fact, by the rules of the ferry instructions, we should have been at the wharf 45 minutes earlier, but try achieving that with a Mannell at the wheel and a Laureen with a micro-bladder.

We arrived at the wharf, there were only half tons and cargo trucks waiting to board. We scooted up to the front of a line, we were the only car in sight and prepared to wave the ferry off. If only the trucks were left, we were out of luck. However.....there was a mini-bus of folks in wheelchairs and walkers and they were being waved on. And then us. The mini-bus plus us = a truck.

We actually missed the ferry but still caught it. I'm not sure any Mannell out there can skim it that close again ever.

We spent the afternoon at the Anchorage Provincial park on a walk. Here are a few images. The shore line is about 10 feet to the left, down a cliff. The beach was mostly rubble and the tide was out. It was most definitely not a walking beach. If we had walked in the other direction, not the pathway but the beach way, we would have found a sandy beach and clam diggers.


Our room "Sally's Attic" at Whale Cove Inn is tiny, mostly because the roof line is down around our ankles. Steve is working on getting a black eye and I've suggested he crawl instead of walk.
The fog has rolled completely in and the fog horn is honking. We are having our coffee and tea on our little deck,
admiring how the fog obliterates the view completely. We have moved from a heatwave to a cool wave and it is pleasant.

We are expecting it to rain for most of our holiday, so we are heading to indoor activities tomorrow, a museum, a whale and sea bird research station, and a doormat store. If it isn't raining too hard we will attempt a beach walk. Steve brought along his banjo and I have tons of distractions in my little bag of tricks, so we aren't too worried about bad weather. There is a fund-raiser for the local lighthouse being hosted by our proprietress tomorrow night, so it will be lobster rolls and Jello at the curling club. Yum. (for real, I like Jello)