Last Tuesday we arrived home from a one week trip to Marblehead, MA, where we visited friends and family. I adore Nova Scotia and I wouldn’t live anywhere else, but, man, you can’t there from here. Unless money is no object and you can just hop on a plane, there is really no easy way to get anywhere. We divided our trip by stopping in Winterport, Maine (near Bangor), where Tony’s sister lives. That takes about 10 hours and then the next day we drove 5 hours to Marblehead. Our brother in law, Chuck, is an amazing motorcycle and antique car restoration mechanic. Really, it doesn’t get better than that in the uncle department. Dusty was pretty impressed by the shop, CYCLES IMMORTAL, which is right next to the house. After pretending to zoom down the road on the BMW for a while, Chuck took us for a real ride in the side car of his motorcycle. I really want one of these. The next morning we stopped at Dysart’s truck stop which is an institution. If you are in the Bangor area, you’ve got to check this out. The food is great, you get served a thermos of coffee and there are truck bodies coming through the walls. Dusty did check out the other side to look for the rest of the truck. In Marblehead we endured 4 days of rain, which was the end to a record rainfall in the month of June. Then on the weekend the sun came out and everything got happy again. I sold hats at the Marblehead farmer’s market which is another great institution. I’m proud to say that I was one of the pioneer crafts people when they first began the market several years ago. I also sold hats at Bus Stop , one of my favourite stores, owned by my friend Kathy. If you live anywhere near Marblehead this is the place to find my hats. . The two little girls, donning my fascinators are Maya and Autumn. They each belong to a different friend. They had a great time dressing the mannequins and helping to sell hats. We headed for home on Monday where we got stuck on the highway for a couple of hours because of an overturned oil tanker. The only word for this is nightmare. The next morning we headed accross the border into St. Steven’s New Brunswick. There is the coolest playground there. In typical canadian consevationist style, they have a fountain that can be turned on by pressing a button. Then we headed for St. John’s New Brunswick and hopped on the ferry to Digby. The ride accross the Bay of Fundy is beautiful. I really reccommend it. There are many different kinds of whale species that live in the bay and some people get lucky and spot them on the crossing. It doesn’t save on travel time, but it does save on driving time. If getting back to work was not an issue I would spend the night in Annapolis Royal. It’s a beautiful little town that I will go back to when I’m not feeling so fried. From there it’s a little under 3 hours to home. HOME, HOME, HOME!!!! So great to be home.