The Big Trip East: Day 5

The morning of Day 5 and I had company for breakfast - first of all there were the athletes, up for an early round of bocce ball:

 At least one of them was taking it seriously.

 And I bet you can guess who won (all the games).

 Meanwhile, beside me...

 And eventually the whole family came outside so we could share some morning devotions.

 We had music with actions.

 Lauren got up to lead us through one song in particular.

 And things got a little rowdy.

 And then we walked through a devotional together.

 We packed some food and loaded our cars. Here's another picture of our beautiful jeep.

 And then while we waited for everyone else, David and I played this game.

(There were real frogs in the pond too!)

THIS is what happens to license plates (and cars) when you have winters.

When everyone was ready, we headed to Merrickville. What a beautiful little village! We parked next to this cute little store. I would have loved to spend some time and some money in here!

Then we all wandered off down the street.

 Love these little butterfly birds.

 We got to the water just in time to see the locks opening to let some boats through.

 It was a slow, but very interesting process.

 Right next to the locks was a little, free museum. Leona decided to wander off around the shops, but the kids wanted to see the museum. We made plans to meet up for lunch and wandered off on our separate ways.

 View from the top!

These two girls finished in the museum first, so I took the opportunity for a picture beside the locks.

 Then a young boy started to play bagpipe music in the park, so we went to listen. He was raising money to go play in Scotland next summer.

Once we'd all reconvened after the museum, we wandered off to visit the ruins on the other side of the water.

 It was really loud on the bridge.

The water looks so serene, but there was quite a current. The boats could loop around from the canal to where the water widened into a lake. There the boats moored themselves and there were swimming spots. It was really pretty.

On the other side of the water there were some ruins. This is a recreation of the old buildings.

 And here are the ruins themselves.

It would have been a fantastic place to do either wedding pictures or family pictures.

 And then inside were tools...You know I forget what used to go on in here. Coal?

Not quite all the cousins. Emma was wandering with her parents and Kyleigh and Terri couldn't come for the weekend.

We wandered into the building where they do all the iron work for Merrickville - yes, they still do it on site. Things like park benches and gates for the Parliament Buildings.

This mermaid reminded me of my sister.

And then there were the colours on the trees.

 And the perfect spot for these little men to stop and chat.

I meant to come back and take some pictures of people against this wall.

 After lunch, Bill, Leona and the DenHaans went back to the house. Paul, Aydan and us wandered around Merrickville some more.

What has the kids' attention here?

The shops here were gorgeous. AND had lovely merchandise. I fell in love with some ceramic canisters for one thing.

 It was incredibly hot, and so we took frequent breaks to sit or find shade. we also had ice cream. I tried the garlic chocolate. It was actually very interesting.

This alleyway was far more interesting than the actual courtyard on the other end. Plus, from this far away you can't see the lawnmower at the other end.

 Back home we had dinner in the fancy room.

 Where the kids got fancy too.