Fall is here!

 (nb -- you can now click on the photos in the story to enlarge them, then slide your mouse over the upper right and left hand sides to see the next or revious photo)

Anyway, after a night of heavy rains at the Ingonish campground, we decided to drive up to at least visit the Abbey, Miles and Kell never having been there. While we were there, we ran into some Sangha members that Miles met at the teachings in Halifax. Odessa and Bernie, and their two children, 5 year old Uly and 8 year old Odessa. They were also visiting the Abbey and were planning on staying for a few nights at Kalapa Valley, right in Ingonish. Kalapa Valley (check back later for a panoramic shot which I haven't figured out how to upload yet), is a amazing little nook of a valley nestled into the head of the bay just south of Ingonish beach. It's owned by the Shambhala Sangha and Miles had already made some attempts to contact the folks who run it to see if we could stay there. So, it was a great coincidence that Odessa and Bernie were going to be there. They welcomed us to pull in for a couple of nights and we did.

It took us a awhile to break camp at the Park in Ingonish where we had been staying for the previous four days, and things were soaked from about 3 inches of rain that had fallen the night before. The animals were happy though...

Despite our desires to get into the water in Ingonish, it was just too cold and dreary so Kell and I headed up to Maryann's Falls ... and we got an eyeful as the falls were bursting with the energy of the previous night's rains. There were a few people crazy enough to get in and swim in the rapids downs below, but it didn't take much convincing of Kell to get him to stay far away.

Things cleared up significantly the next day and the kids had a ball just running free on the grounds at Kalapa Valley. We hiked up the valley floor to a set of 5 falls that were still pretty full and very loud. Kell was a real trooper climbing up and he and Uly made sure to get their feet wet in every stream along the way.

In the meantime, it was just as great for us to have some time adult conversations with Odessa and Bernie as it was for Kell to have some serious play time with Uly and Sophia. We learned a lot about Halifax from them and about the transition they've made from being stateside to being in Canada. Very instructive. Also, very inspiring to be around serious practitioners who are finding ways to make practice a prominent part of their lives.

Odessa and Bernie were even gracious enough to have Kell at the house for awhile while Miles and I got some practice in ourselves. Whooee!  So, it was with some sadness that we parted from our new friends and continued on down the Cabot Trail to our final Cape Breton destination, Baddeck.  We stopped along the way and hiked the spectacular Middle Head Trail.  Kell has really been getting his hiking legs together.  This time with a 3 mile hike that had a lot of ups and downs.  OK - I did motivate him with a cookie at the top of some of the bigger hills, but still...  A wild, windy, haunted place.

We arrived in Baddeck late and spent today doing laundry, groceries and dealing with our latest trailer mishap .. our failed bathroom floor.  It seems that the trailer is a lot like home in that way, there's always something that needs fixing and never the time to do it ....