Last Tobermory trip of the summer.

We've spent the last week in Tobermory up at my mom's place. Finally we were able to bring Matt with us during a good time for some outdoor fun. We got there on Sunday night and headed into town on Monday morning. Bought some groceries and then visited my uncle at the Blue Heron docks when his boat came in. After that we headed to the lighthouse and Drew jumped into the water a few times. This place is really cool (literally as well as figuratively) and you can jump off the rocks into 64 feet of water and swim two feet and be in 3 feet of water. Drew was the only one properly attired to jump in water at the time though.

After that we headed back to mom's to get ready to go to the beach. We were pretty thrilled to find a gorgeous set of sheets at the second hand shop, a huge improvement over sleeping on top of a top sheet that keeps sliding off while you're sleeping. We headed over to Singing Sands beach for the rest of the day. Now if you've never been there, you really should go. This place has a beach that is soooooo long, followed by water that you can walk out for over half an hour and still only be up to your bellybutton, so it's great for kids.

We hiked around the trails there and I showed Matt the Insectivorous plants and the best part was that there were almost no bugs.

see the frog?

I love the wildflowers up there!

I love that they have signs like this...

we actually did see a dead snake on the road, as well as three milksnakes and a garter snake while we were there. Thankfully we did not see any rattlesnakes.
Andrew spent his lawn mowing money on a nerf gun, so they were doing this a lot...

this was my favourite video that the kids did

The next day (sorry forgot the camera) we went to Cyprus Lake Campground and hiked out to the Grotto. You really should google that.. seriously.. it's frigging gorgeous. Unfortunately for us, the head of trails parking lot was full so we had to park in overflow.. this meant two things.. one, we had an extra 2 km of hiking both ways.. and two, that meant my foot would not make it far enough to hike the Horse Lake trail (which is my favourite), so we hiked the Cyprus Lake trail to the Georgian Bay trail and got to the Grotto without any problems. The hike was gorgeous and I was thankful to God for the opportunity to hike around Cyprus Lake (which I haven't done yet) and the opportunity to show Matt how nice a Yurt can be (considering that is what I wanted to use for our first summer getaway property when we get to that point). Joey was lovely and hiked the whole way without complaint! Tisha did the expected whining, and Andrew was kinda on about how he just wanted to go back to the lighthouse to jump off the rocks some more.. silly kid, it's way better jumping off of rocks at Indian Head Cove.. Though, unfortunately the waves were so high that there was no jumping in the water for us this time. We did however, play in a nice tide pool type thingie that was there, it was quite full from the waves crashing over the rocks and the water in it was nice and warm, with a bit of spray from the waves. We (even Matt!) climbed down into the Grotto, which made me so happy! On the hike back we were all soooo hungry, so we were all talking about how badly we wanted a hamburger and just thinking out loud about which toppings we would have and how good the burger would taste.. we ended up going for dinner at this place that sells burgers.. Those were the most expensive burgers I've ever had, and I won't eat there again, but man... I don't think I've ever seen the kids clean their plates so thoroughly! We certainly earned our lunch that day! After that we headed back to Singing Sands to make some more sandcastles, catch some more frogs, and to splash in the water a bit more. I really wish I had thought to bring my camera that day..
Day 3 we headed back in to town early so that we could catch the Blue Heron out to Flowerpot Island.. this is especially fun for me because my uncle Danny drives the boat and I love to spend time with him :)
When we got in to town we had a bit of time to wait before our boat got there.. we stopped into a store to buy a watch for me so that we had some way of knowing when to be back at the boat for our boat trip back from the island.. Someone took these pics.. Matt maybe? I dunno..

we grabbed a snack and waited on the benches by the pier..and had a silly face contest.

Once we were on the boat we got to cruise around and look at the shipwrecks on the bottom of Big Tub Harbour through the glass bottom.. Tisha especially found this amazing as she is finally tall enough to see in without anyone lifting her. You can see my Uncle Dan standing in the cabin.

Joey liked looking into the glass bottom too.

We then proceeded out to Flowerpot Island.. so named for the cool rock formations that are there.. we also saw a bald eagle perched on a cliff (sorry, didn't get a pic of that)

In this pic you can see the Indian Boy's face on the flowerpot.. There is an old legend about it that you can read here.

This is the smaller flowerpot

The sign at the toilets makes me laugh..

We had a picnic lunch between the two flowerpots.

those little tiny people on the cliff beside the flowerpot are Drew and Joey....
and then we headed to the cave

The view from the cave is pretty nice!

They say that the dead tree on the cliff there was probably around when Columbus was sailing!
Then we headed to the lighthouse keepers house, which is now a museum. The dock had been destroyed in a storm and was not replaced because the lighthouse was to be unmanned the next year, the upside is that now butterflies have a cool place to hang out.

This is the lighthouse keepers house

and the "Loo with a View"... this is the view from the bathroom!

and the veggie garden at the house

After a nice game of Checkers with Tisha on the porch of the house, Joey and Matt headed up to the lighthouse for a quick look. Drew, Tisha and myself stayed and rested at a picnic table and ate trail mix.. also some guy got naked on the beach.. awkward! Why on earth someone would think it's ok to change their clothes completely in a public place like that evades me... I am scarred.. ew
Then we headed back to the flowerpots so that Drew could jump in the water a few more times.

the spot he was jumping was cool because he was jumping off of a rock that was about 2-3 feet above the water into a spot that was about 60 feet deep, but once he swam over 2 feet in either direction he was back in 2 feet of water.
My uncle decided to treat us with a trip back on the Express... now THAT was a blast! Everyone except Tisha thought it was great, it was a bit scary for her.
This is just leaving the port