Eight days in Southern California with Jakob for March Break!
We started with three nights in Los Angeles at the Magic Castle, a boutique hotel in downtown Hollywood. The first night, Jakob went on his own to The Troubador Club to see one of his faves "Chris Webby", while Jennifer and I explored Griffith Park Observatory (top picture, above. Link to more photos below).
There is definitely a theme happening this year. Go ahead and click on them to see who the carvers are.
The Pinery Provincial Park is an interesting and unique spot located on Lake Huron about 50 km north-west of London and 9 km south of Grand Bend. Jennifer -- the family Social Director and Marvelous Matriarch -- organized a three-night camp out for the last weekend in August, and it was fabulous.
The description on The Pinery's website starts with "towering oak trees, sun flecks on a golden carpet of leaves, shrubs & wildflowers and a rich abundance of unique and rare organisms" and it does live up to that. The landscape is undulating sand dunes (up to 30+ m high) with most of the surviving oak savanna in North America. All of this along a 10 km stretch of sand beach with water that is actually warm enough to swim in.
For the Victoria Day weekend, we travelled by train to Montreal with Grandma and Grandpa S. and Jocelyn. The 4.5 hour train ride was quite comfortable, getting us to downtown Montreal -- and about 3 blocks from our hotel -- around 9:00pm on Friday evening.
Don't be frightened! Go ahead and click on them to see who the carvers are.
The Clements Family Christmas Eve dinner, 2008 edition.
Our latest excursion was a four day camping trip at Bruce Peninsula National Park, near the tip of the Bruce Peninsula.
The camping at the Cyprus Lake campground could be described as "rugged", however, it was quite luxurious compared to canoe camping. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon with a van load of kayaks, bikes, tents, and camera gear.
After Christmas, we returned to Sanibel Island for a week of fun and relaxation. Last there in 2005/06, we returned to the same condominium complex on the beach and stayed the whole week on the island. The trip was capped off with one bonus day at Fort Myers Beach, which is not a beach, but a city. Well, it is also a beach, but it is city on a long island just south of Fort Myers.
Jack and Mary Lou. Clements -- aka Mom and Dad C. -- celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on Friday, July 27, 2007. On Sunday, family and friends gathered to celebrate with them!
We finally made our dream trip to Newfoundland! It is everything we heard, and more! We flew into St. John's and toured around there for a couple days. From there, it was down the Avalon Peninsula to Cape Broyle for another two days. From our cottage in Cape Broyle, we were able to explore parts of the Avalon Peninsula, including the beautiful Ferryland, site of an archeological dig at the Colony of Avalon that was founded around 1621. From the Avalon Peninusla, we headed up to Bonavista for three days, then on to Twillingate (and Trinity!), and finally over to Gros Morne on the west coast.
