We’re in Boston. I’ve got a bunch of vidoes from Grand Manan. I’m wanting to put it together into some sort of artsy family video but I lack the will.

We’re going around the city tomorrow. Yay.

I should point out that the stick in these pictures that Evelyn is “using” is a walking stick. What you can’t see from these pictures is me carrying Evelyn on my shoulders through the woods. My original intention was to take Evelyn to “Whale Cove” which I thought was just right up the road from Grandpa Greg’s house. When we visited Whale Cove the day before, greg said, from behind me on his bicycle, “Our house is just through there.” My mind took that, of course, to mean, “Hey, I can walk from Greg’s house to here!!” As we started to walk up the road and entered the woods, I started to become increasingly annoyed with Evelyn’s slow pace. She fits nicely on my shoulders. I carried her farther into the forest thinking that the cove must be right around the bend, just beyond this next clearing. As I reached down to make an arrow with random sticks, Evelyn said, of course, “What are you doing dad?”

“Making an arrow.”
“You’re making an arrow?”
“Yes.”

We continued walking and I started to get the sneaking suspicion that we were going to have to turn around soon. Something I, of course, didn’t want. And then I heard it. A strange noise in the woods. My mind instantly shot back to the Grand Manan mimiographed 1845 description I picked up off of the dresser in the spare bedroom at Greg’s house. “THERE ARE COYOTES ON GRAND MANAN!!!” So I, of course, grabbed for the nearest large stick so that I could valiantly protect the daughter straddling my neck.

“What’s that dad?”
“A walking stick, sweetie!”

So of course, she grabbed one of her own!

I’m writing this entry from an island off of Maine (at least it looks like it to me) called Grand Manan. The island is owned an inhabited by Canadians (the friendly people) and within the province of New Brunswick. Sarah’s parents have a home here which they bought for dirt cheap and have fixed up. It’s a wonderful island of 2,000 or so permanent residents and wonderful views and wildlife. Its a bit too cold for me and the summers are a bit too short for my blood. But on the upside, the winters are milder than even Cincinnati due to the warmer Atlantic waters keeping the surrounding air above freezing during the coldest of winter months. Both Sarah’s father and step mother are geologists and there are some (apparantly) very fascinating geological formations on the island. The ilsand is apparantly made up of basalt, formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago. Sarah’s father is making the contention that the island is made up of the largest volcanic eruption in the world. He says that no one seems really interested in challenging his contention.

The girls have been great this vacation. We’ve traveled thousands of miles and they’ve rarely fussed or given us much trouble.

Staying with Katie and Brian in Brooklyn was wonderful; they are phenominal hosts. We stayed in their two bedroom flat in Park Slope, Brooklyn for 3 days and we didn’t even once feel imposing while we were there. My contention is that the number one rule of hosting is: Make your guests feel welcome. That they did. Evelyn really liked their dog Mo. Staying with them in NYC made us long for big city life, but we also realize that living in a certain area isn’t going to give you fulfillment. Getting the girls on and around the subway wasn’t all too difficult.

More updates later. There are pictures of NYC here. Pictures of Vermont here and lastly pictures of Grand Manan here

Here’s a map with the aproxmiate location of the McHone home on Grand Manan Island.

I’m going to be on vacation until July 1st. Yay! I would like to be fairly productive so I thought I’d make a list of things to accomplish.

1. Clean my car.
2. Learn to juggle.
3. Solve my rubik’s cube.
4. Start working on my “business” (it’s a scheme, i know)
5. attend an auction
6. go to lots of garage sales (5?)

I’ll cross them out as I complete them!