we had an adventure, and now I need a puppy to love

This blog may contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase something I recommend, I will earn a commission at no extra cost to you. But don't worry! I won't recommend anything I don't absolutely love.

As I mentioned in the last post, Liam and I recently went on an adventure. I’m a bit later than I wanted to be in writing about it, but I’ve been stricken with one of my cursed tension headaches, so please find it in your hearts to forgive my lateness and find the strength to read on.

In my city, August 1st is Regatta Day. As long as the weather is good, the entire city pretty much shuts down and the population makes their way to Quidi Vidi lake to spend the afternoon playing carnival games and watching rowers.

That is not what Liam and I did.

Instead, we decided to make our own little vacation, since Liam couldn’t join my family and I on our big vacation. Armed with a cooler full of sandwich necessities and a multitude of cds, we jumped in the car and headed out of town for an afternoon of scenic driving and enjoying nature. And since my camera batteries were dead, I have the greatest of shitty cell pics to share with you!

Our first stop was the nature park about 45 minutes away from home. Liam’s dad used to work there, and it’s familiar stomping ground. As soon as you get there, you find a display area where they have the furs of coyotes, beavers, and other little creatures who have passed. They also have taxidermied animals, such as owls, foxes, and this beauty:

He’s trying to shake your hand. I wouldn’t recommend it.

From there you follow a boardwalk through the woods to find a myriad of animals in this wildlife reserve. When the first two animals – the snowy owl and the caribou – were nowhere to be seen, I was worried we were in for a slow morning.

Soon enough, we were proved wrong though. As we passed through the lynx’s territory (a notorious no-show since they are nocturnal), he suddenly popped out of the bushes, clearly hunting a squirrel in a tree. Adults who have been coming there every year for decades were in awe; they had never seen him.

From then on the afternoon was a wonderful success. We saw a pine marten (which is one of the cutest creatures ever), a falcon, a woodchuck (those things are dudes), a bald eagle, multitudes of owls, a frog hangin’ out on a log, moose, minks (which are also really difficult to see here, but for whatever reason we got to watch about 5 of them playing in the water. I’d share a picture, but they’re really quick and I only got tails.), geese, and an arctic fox!

Once finished there, we jumped in the car and started what is known as the Cape Shore drive. The sun was shining brightly (a wonderful contrast to how the morning had started) and I was singing loudly to Mumford and Sons and trying to convince Liam that it made sense to listen to that cd on constant repeat when we pulled into one of the tiny communities on the Cape Shore.

Liam’s family has a friend who owns a farm there, so we stopped in for a visit. Though the owner wasn’t home, his granddaughter was happy to show us around. They had a beautiful horse and pygmy goats and chickens all over the place. But mostly, they had dogs. She showed us their golden retrievers (including two puppies who chased us around the barn and cuddled us constantly), their shelties, their australian shepperds, and their havanese. Some belonged to the owners, some were dogs that were boarding there while owners were out of town. All were adorable and lovable. Lastly, she took us to their backyard where about 10 havanese puppies, around a month old, were playing, and my heart stopped.

I am a notorious lover of little dogs. My family owns a wonderful little guy that’s part shih tzu, part pekingese. So when I saw these little pups running around and trying to climb over me, lick my face, and chew on my clothes, I didn’t know how I was going to leave. For an hour, Liam and I sat on the grass, cuddling these little things that were barely bigger than our hands.

He was in the middle of having a fine munch on my shirt.

 

breakfast of champions.

poor Marmaduke.

Don’t ever forget how beautiful home can be.