Visitors from B.C. -- West meets East!!! (click to enlarge pics)

Woohoo!!

We had visitors here, on our little piece of The Rock ---- and they came all the way from B.C.!!!

A homeschooling family who live in British Columbia on the west side of Canada, paid us a visit on Tuesday evening. They are a family of seven and they've been making their way across Canada in a motor home --- their "Ultimate Canadian Geography Field trip".

We've 'known' them for quite awhile through a Canadian Homeschooling Board which both families belong to. Seeing as we made a similar trip in 2006, we'd been quite interested in their trip. We'd been following their story as they made preparations etc., but lost contact with them once they left their home. Fortunately through the internet, we were able to re-establish contact. By this time though, they'd traveled a lot of the way and were already in Newfoundland.

We eagerly waited for them to drive across the island, hoping they'd have time for a visit with us. The kids were beside themselves with excitement, when the family called to say they were near to us. We were finally going to meet them in real life!

I was a little concerned about the directions I'd given them. Being in a big motor home (27' I believe), I didn't want them to end up on the road to Cape St. Francis. Let's just say, it's not really a road for a 27' motor home. But....all was well, my directions must have been ok because they found us with no problem.

Their five kids and our three hit it off immediately --- almost like they'd been life long buddies. As the kids talked/played downstairs, the adults chatted over tea upstairs. Time flies and before we knew it, the time was past midnight. As Larry had to work the next day and the kids were getting tired, we all decided to call it a night.

In the morning we had a breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, muffins, juice and of course coffee. Larry was not too impressed he had to head off to work....but what can you do? After breakfast, Dennis headed into 'town' to have the oil changed in the motor home. Sandra and I did dishes and chatted, while the dc hung out.

Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been all that great here in NL this spring. After coming all this way, they'd wanted to see at least one iceberg. With all the fog/cloud/rain.....they hadn't had any success. They even visited iceberg alley...but the fog was just too thick. I hoped things could be different for them on this side of the island. I so wanted them to see an iceberg, even one (I was beginning to think a bergy bit would be better than nothing) .....they're just so impressive to see.

Wednesday morning didn't look any more promising. When we awoke, it was drizzling and the fog was so thick, we couldn't even see the ocean from our house. But...as the morning went on....the fog started to lift and before we knew it, the sun was out and the skies were blue!!!

We went out back to the look out and then down to the lower look out before deciding to venture out on a trail. About a week ago there had been an iceberg along that trail and I was hoping it would still be there, at least some of it.

As we made our way along the trail, I sent the boys ahead up over the rocks. As they approached the top, I could tell by the "Woohoos" and the "WOWs" the iceberg must still be there --- although it did enter my head there wasn't actually anything there and they were just playing a joke on us. Thankfully, they weren't. Not only was it still there, but it had moved in closer to shore and even though we were up quite high, we still had a front row view! Off in the distance, we even spotted what we believe were some whales --- Bonus!!!

After seeing Nature's travelling art show, we headed back for our house. They had other destinations to get to and needed to move on. It was sad seeing them go --- Jake cried and had a long face for a big part of the afternoon, he really missed them. It was great meeting fellow Canadian homeschoolers and sharing our iceberg excitement with them.