Hiking the East Coast Trail

My good friend Kerry and I decided that we’d hike one of the many East Coast Trails while I was home in Newfoundland. I left it up to her to decide on which trail we’d hike, and I also mentioned I didn’t have anything but some ballet flats with me. Thankfully, like Lori, Kerry let me borrow her hikers for this one. I’ve got some great friends! I didn’t even think twice about bringing home hiking boots since I never make it home during the nicer months of the year.

Hiking the Cobbler.970393_10153005678630176_1244730842_n

Can you believe that I took these kinds of views for granted when I lived there? Absolutely breathtaking, and I truly appreciate “The Rock” now that I live in a concrete jungle.1070048_10153005627690176_697916940_n

There’s the Atlantic Ocean for you. We spotted some whales a few kilometres out, spouting water up into the air.1016236_10153005673665176_173313006_n

Kerry, taking it all in.1016236_10153005673660176_456498134_n

Doesn’t Newfoundland look beautiful? Have you ever visited?1016236_10153005673655176_2055476782_n

Ocean for days.1016236_10153005673640176_1298673246_n

Hopefully this blog post about Newfoundland will catch you eye and make you want to visit my home province ;)1016236_10153005673645176_344997095_n

Newfoundland is known for its weird weather. On my trip home I brought fall and summer clothes. I was prepared for any kind of weather. This hiking day was a hot and humid one, with little wind. So Kerry stopped to cool down in one of the streams. 970393_10153005678620176_818483919_n

See the rocky boulders on the left hand ‘middle’ side of the picture? That’s where we stopped for lunch. 970393_10153005678610176_1857273972_n

Took a lunch break I’d say half way through the hike and decided to make this our turn-around point. 970393_10153005678645176_129389817_n

But not before posing and doing some yoga moves. I have no idea what this one is called. But I copied what Kerry did because I thought it looked neat. But man was it hard to keep this pose as she snapped away, ha ha.970393_10153005678640176_1231521315_n

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Canada Day in Newfoundland

Next up on my adventures in Newfoundland was a trip to downtown St. John’s on Canada Day.

The boys got their face painted with sea turtles.

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Posing with “Ancy Nancy”. 1063923_10153005567830176_279018400_o

Next stop was getting a tour on the Military Boat with my nephews, brother and his parents-in-laws from Ireland.

The boys were clearly interested in the guns.1004773_10153005590235176_763694361_n

My brother and his sons :)1064105_10153005590250176_692482948_o 1064105_10153005590245176_1948124686_o

Looking every which way at the two cameras taking pics of the boys.1064105_10153005590255176_2110508416_o

The photo below is one of my favorite ways to ‘walk’ with my nephews. Cart them around on my shoulders! This lil’ guy is now 7 and is starting to get a little too heavy, but I won’t let that stop me yet.933898_10153005602725176_1733057314_n

We then headed up to another location during Canada Day where they had all sorts of free games for kids. Here are three of my four nephews. Love my little buddy crossing his arms as he watches another kids play. 933898_10153005602735176_445039921_n

Taking a rest with a drop of pepsi, on the scorcher of a day.933898_10153005602730176_2139794962_n

During the evening, we had Canada Day celebrations at the house, of course! The neighbours were all invited and we had a grand ol’ feed. Here is my Sister-In-Law and I below. Behind us are her Irish parents who were also in Newfoundland for a visit. 1070048_10153005627665176_2050334661_n

Daddio and I on Canada Day :) 1070048_10153005627630176_146269213_n

I know I’m 11 days late on getting this up, but I took a nice little rest from everything technology related on my visit home. What did you all do this Canada Day? Please do tell! I ended up fixing my Feedly reader (but not on the iPad) and I had 1979 posts unread from all the blogs I subscribe to. I decided to ‘mark all as read’. So if I missed anything, that’s why.

Happy Friday Jr and I’ll see you tomorrow!

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Climbing in Newfoundland

The next few posts on my blog are going to be quite photo heavy. I’m about to bombard you with pictures from my trip back home to Newfoundland.

Let’s dive right on in b’ys! The first day that I was home I didn’t do too much besides hang out with family, especially my little nephews. That night I got a text from one of my climbing buddies asking me to go outdoor climbing with them by the Manuel’s River. I had never been there before, so I decided to go out for a climb!

I’m not one for outdoor climbing. I don’t have any certification to set up lead or anchors. But I’ll gladly top rope. So that’s exactly what I did.

Lori, me and Kerry getting ready to hike in.

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We hiked in the trail about 30 minutes or so, along this muddy, overflown trail. I borrowed some shoes from Lori ;) since I didn’t bring any hikers home. Thanks buddyhiking the trail

This was Lori’s second climb of the day and I wanted to belay her on lead. Chalking up to top rope.climb5 climb7 climb10

High fives throughout the day for the awesome climbing day!climb12

I went up after Lori lead the climb and set the anchors. It was my first time ‘cleaning’ the route, which meant taking off all the quick draws so you’re only left with an anchor at the top for top roping.

Tyin’ in and making faces.IMG_0025

 Sweet moses. It’s been YEARS since I climbed outside. Over 8…climb1

Here we go, cleaning the route:

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Apparently it was only a 5.6 but I made it much more difficult, haha.

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Scared here.climb13 climb14

Almost to the top. 60 feet.climb16 climb15 climb13

Hellooooo up there!climb17  All the gear safe back on my harness. IMG_0055

I climbed twice more (or maybe just once?) after that climb. One was a 5.9 which I really liked because sections of it were difficult, and others were quite nice and ‘easy’.

Someone brought a dog. I’m obsessed with dogs.lol2

So that’s that! An outdoor climbing adventure a few days before Canada Day. Such a fun (and scary) time. climb20 Tomorrow I’ll be back with more photos from my vacation.

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