Today, as we drove on the stretch between St. Louis and KC, we hit quite bad weather. Upon arriving home (FINALLY! Four long days of driving and we are home sweet home!), we turned on the news to find that the huge clouds we were encountering were called "shelf clouds" as they protruded at the top, which differ from "wall clouds." We had driven right under them straight into the storm. Here's a photo that Gary Lezak (from NBC Action Weather Plus) posted on FaceBook.
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In even Indianapolis and Cleveland, but I want to go home. 

Plus, I think my kitty misses me.
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...in GM Town. 
Had me low and had me down. 

BUT then I went on a great hike and got over it!
We hiked today to Indian Beach, which I would like to rename "Spider Beach" due to the atrocious amount of spiders crawling all over its rocky shore. There were also a number of what seemed to be abandoned shacks, but apparently some are still used occasionally by fishermen. I know my cousin Arielle would have loved all the abandonment! 
Lastly we hiked out to the lighthouse. It was sooooo foggy out there and the fog horn goes off every 20 seconds. When you get all the way out there, it's rather ear-splitting.
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This shack looks sort of abandoned, but if you look in the windows it does appear that it must be used once and a while for fisherman.
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This is how you get to the lighthouse. If it wasn't so foggy the dramatic drop off on either side would be more clear.
 
Here's our photos from yesterday. We went to hole-in-the-wall and walked along the ocean side, then down to the warf as all the fishermen came in for the evening. 
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Here's hole in the wall and the trail leading to it.
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We found a little beach that was just covered in sea glass. Literally, just sitting in one place you could collect handfulls.
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I thought this was kind of a cute looking boat name. Many of the boats seem to be named "Miss something-or-other" after what I can only assume is the fishermen's wives.
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See the fog in front of the sunset in the trees? It was so pretty but also very eerie.
 
Ok. I can't help myself. 
I love lichen.
I adore tiny leaves. 
I delight in teeny succulents. 
I am smitten with eensy weensy mushrooms.
So here's more pictures of them. 
Enjoy. Because I sure do.
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How precious. Oh-so-tiny mushrooms. The little round tops were less than a centimeter in diameter.
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We went on a short hike today to "hole in the wall" on what I believe is the north side of the island. The trail is so pretty, it's very enchanting and has all kinds of plant and fungus life growing along the sides. It is also full of dramatic overlooks and drop-offs to the ocean or tiny hidden beaches. We discovered one very rocky beach today with a huge multitude of sea glass. It was hard to believe we could found more, and then we did!
Interesting fact: Grand Manan is famous for it's tide; it has the most dramatic tide in the whole world (I've been told). 


Also- the ferry is down. Our parents were supposed to get in tonight but this morning the ferry had some sort of malfunction and scraped the bottom, so it had to be inspected and such. Anyway, they didn't get in tonight and will try tomorrow. Hopefully there won't be too much of a backup of people trying to get in.

Well, we are really hoping for good weather tomorrow, but we'll see. We've heard that it will rain, but we've also heard that it could be sunny with scattered showers. Hopefully we can get another hike in! 

I have even more pictures from today, hopefully they'll be up soon!

 
Yesterday as we traversed the island I took lots of pictures of tiny little details, plants, and  things we found on the beach. So here is a look at GM up close!
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Today was full of activities. We are staying with our grandparents who own and operate SeaCliff Cottage Suites. Luckily the weather cleared up so they took us all around the island. We got to see Willa Cather's summer cabin, go sea glass hunting, and go on various mini-hikes.
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This is at Willa Cather's summer cabin on the island, and supposedly this is a bench she would sit on and write from.
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Here's her house (cabin).
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A beach waterfall.
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The bridge going out to the lighthouse.
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Look at all the sea glass we found! Yes this is ALL from today!
 
In Canada we get to see them all! Anyone ever heard this song by Raffi? As a kid it was one of my faves, and now here I am! We got in last night and I'm a little off because it's two hours time change. The ferry ride was not bad, we popped a movie in and avoided the seasickness by avoiding looking anywhere but the screen.
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We are praying that the weather gets better here on Grand Manan. The last two days of driving have been rain rain rain rain rain. So we hope that goes away, and quick! This morning it's not raining and not even too foggy! We are right on the water and it looks pretty good. Maybe I'll get Logan up and we'll go for a little beach walk. But remember, it's 6AM where we come from. More to come soon I'm sure. 

PS- Why didn't I bring a winter hat? It was totally freezing when we got in last night. Right now it is 6º Celsius. Sooo.... Let's convert that. My dashboard is telling me that's 42ishº. And the for today is supposed to be 11º so.... 51ºF. Ok. 
 
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Here we are in New York City on Saturday night, just sitting in the hotel! haha. No SNL for us- we are soooo tired from our day of sightseeing. 
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