Road trip: Fountain Hills, Arizona

Today we had lunch in Fountain Hills, a relatively new community of 25,000 people just North of Mesa near the Ft. McDowell casino on the Yavapai Nation Indian Reservation. 

The fountain can reach up to 560 feet in height if all three pumps are running. Today only two pumps were on so all we got was 330 feet. Still impressive.

This big-eared fellow has become a regular fixture in our back yard. 

Party Time

Amy is here and the energy level is high.

Manicures and pedicures for the girls and talk of travel to far off lands,

Happy hour at the pool,

Kale wild rice salad with BBQ grilled feta spinach chicken sausage for supper,

Lemon meringue pie for desert,

We round off the evening with a scrabble game.

Preparing a roast for tomorrow.

Time for a trim

Mercedes and his crew gave our overgrown Mediterranean Palms "the treatment" today.

45 minutes later and for the same price as Yvonne's haircut, the new look will also need some getting use to.

Panguitch Utah and Bryce Canyon

Well, here we are, heading South again.

Barrhead to Butte to Panguitch and finally to Mesa, Arizona

We stayed at the Panguitch House B&B for a couple nights. Bryce Canyon is a short drive away and we planned to do some hiking there.

We stopped at Red Canyon on the way to Bryce Canyon. "You ain't seen nothing yet" was a comment we heard along the way.

Bryce Canyon National Park is situated in South-West Utah

There are 13 lookout points along the 20 mile long rim drive. If you feel energetic there are 8 marked trails that can be walked in less than a day. Most include the 800 ft vertical decent from the rim and return climb to get back to where you started. We chose a "moderate" 1.5 hr trail and found it challenging because of the altitude. The 35,000 acre park varies in altitude from 6,600 ft to 9,000 ft above sea level so if you're used to hiking around Edmonton (2,200 ft) or Victoria (0 ft) you might easily find yourself out of breath because the air is a bit "thin".

Although it's called a "canyon" the folks around here like to refer to it as a series of natural amphitheaters. Many of the hoodoos are well over 200 ft tall.

Yvonne making her way down into the canyon on a well-used path. Going down is the easy part.

It's in the bin!

The 2014 grain harvest is over for most of us.

From the field to the truck to the bin

Stan now has more grain bins filled with wheat and canola than ever before. The new Meridian bins arrived just in the nick of time. 

Jerry, Stan and Robert

Guess which guy rides in the air conditioned cab all day.

Pelicans at Lac La Nonne

The pelicans are lining up for the last bus of the season.

Pity the person who has to clean this swim platform.

Nice one today.

Only a month to go before we leave for Arizona. Hard to imagine we will be leaving because of the cold weather.

Canada East Coast Adventure

 In August of this year Yvonne & I, along with Sandi & Tito, ventured out to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. These East Coast Canadian Provinces had been on our travel-to list for some time.

Years ago, both Sandi and Tito's parents arrived by sea through Halifax on their way to a life in Canada. They were looking forward to seeing their parents port of entry.

Leaving Edmonton on time proved to be harder than expected. 

We were delayed by almost 5 hrs.

Halifax's Pier 21 was our first stop. Both Sandi and Tito hoped to find information regarding their parents arrival to Canada over 50 years ago.

We stayed with these strangers for three days at a Dartmouth B&B while we toured Nova Scotia.

 Peggy's Cove, NS

the seafood platter

While in Nova Scotia we visited my schoolhood friend Bob Found. He'd recently retired and moved everything from Calgary to Indian Harbour NS.

Bob was a drag racer in his spare time.

Be prepared to sit a while during low tide. Parts of the Bay of Fundy have the highest (and lowest) tides in the world.

Replica of the schooner on the Canadian dime

Lunenburg NS

Our B&B in Brigus

Low tide. Don't let it sneak up on you.

This sleek looking ferryboat took us to St Pierre (France) for an overnight stay. The tiny group of islands just 25 miles south of Newfoundland remain under France's control where they speak only French and use the Euro as currency.

The local Police in St Pierre are imported from France on a 2 year rotation.

Meat Market

The girls in France are like no other.

St Pierre (fr)

Back in Newfoundland it's so windy that Sandi has to hold Yvonne to keep her from flying away.

Oh Sandi, not another B&B I hope.

Trinity NL

 Our B&B in Trinity

 What were they thinking?

Newfoundland has chosen some of the most unusual names for their towns and places. Goobies, Hearts Content, Hearts Desire, Come-by-Chance and Dildo to name a few.

 Philip's Cafe in Placentia. One of the best places to eat in NL.

 Our B&B in Placentia.

 Another town, another bar....

 The girls gave us a hard time about packing our long coats for this trip but Tito and I were glad we brought them.

no comment!

 Our Dildo B&B

 Apparently the use of colourful house paint is a tradition in the Maritimes. If you're a fisherman you can see your house from England.

Signal Hill Tower at the entrance to St. John's Harbour. This is where Marconi transmitted the first  transatlantic wireless message. Can you hear me now?

 Duckworth Street in St John's

 Our rental at Fort Amherst. We stayed in the smaller of the two houses in this picture. The lighthouse keeper is no longer needed although the lighthouse is still operating and fully automated. The foghorn woke us up regularly at 2AM

 Yvonne and Sandi on the deck.

Like the sign says, Cape Spear, the most Easterly point in North America.

 There must be fresh fish onboard.

This is one of the service ships that regularly pass through the harbour entrance. This type of ship brings supplies and men to the offshore drilling rigs in the Hibernia Oil Field.