The Elusive Grumps Remains Elusive...

One Week

Grumps... It is an elusive and seemingly mythical creature known to Ben Tyler from stories of his childhood. Ben Tyler is diagnosed with cancer and goes from living a normal life to having one week to live. His story is the movie "One Week" and I recommend it to all. It is one of the best Canadian films I have ever seen and it truly highlights this country's beauty.

Grumps, elusive as ever, remains elusive...

This weekend we went to St. Andrews. It is right on the American border and is a tourist town for Canadians and Americans alike. Highlights include Minister's Island where you have to cross a sand bar to get there. At low tide it is just a sketchy road, but at high tide there is no road at all.

Bar Road - Low Tide

Minister's Island

Jerusalem's Off Roading Adventure

Bar Road - High Tide

Minister's Island was named Minister's Island, well, because a minister used to live there. He was the minister for St. Andrews and the surrounding areas. Later it became the home of railroad tycoon Sir William Van Horne. For those of you who don't know (I didn't) he was the man who built the railway across Canada, specifically through the Rockies. He didn't sleep a whole lot which seemed to help him in this quest, and he worked his staff hard - figuratively and literally "to death."

Sir William Van Horne's Summer House

The house has 50 rooms and is definitely unique. Unfortunately it is run down and much of the original furniture has been sold off. Repairs are slow (as money is limited) but the artefacts are gradually finding their way home. The island is beautiful and has some amazing gardens and the like.

Periwinkle Tower

Brilliance

After going to Minister's Island we headed to town and stopped for a bite to eat. The food was good but not good... if you know what I mean. I enjoyed it at least. After that we boarded a boat in search of the elusive Grumps. We had been told that it was only the beginning of the season for whale watching so we should not expect too much. Well, I really think that if Grumps and other such mythical beings were that easy to find it would take the adventure out of it. That in mind I was pleasantly surprised when we did not find anything. Theoretically half of the boat got to see a Minky, or Binky, or the Brain, or something whale, but we missed out. It doesn't matter, it just adds to the mystery as Grumps remains, well... mythical.

We did see many bald eagles though, and a whole bunch of seals. It was kind of fun to see the seal hunting inside the nets were there were lots of fishes. Unfortunately we were told that seals in those circumstances occasionally suffered from acute lead poisoning.

I did enjoy seeing them. Looking at just their heads it almost looked as if Tru the Chocolate Lab was swimming in the ocean and not some flipper-footed-water-dogs.

I was not too disappointed about not finding Grumps. I know he is out there and I have a long time to find him.

After that we were supposed to go to some gardens but we were too late. Oh well... we can go there when we try to find Grumps again.

Instead we headed to Deer Island where we saw North America's largest Tidal Whirlpool. It definitely does not look the same as in the movies or in Heroes of Might and Magic but it is a nice thing to have under my belt for awkward cocktail parties.

Whirlpool

"Oh yeah, so there was this time I was at the largest whirlpool in North America, and there were pirates getting sucked in, and they had booty, and there ware harpies on some rocks, and I swear I saw a ship sailing out of the whirlpool with Erathian flags blowing in the breeze, and oh yeah, Grumps was there too... say, these bacon wrapped scallops are delightful."

Cameras filled with photos, and Jerusalem more broken than when we started we headed home.

Another day Grumps... another day...