Mini road trip

K and I planned a little side trip on our road trip to Moncton, with this one going to the Hopewell Rocks. Here's how it went down:

"Closed?! That won't stop me," said every person ever except for me. And besides, if they really wanted to keep people (like me) out, there'd surely be something more than a sign on a chain. Wouldn't there...?

Okay, this might be a stronger indication that the place is closed. Nonetheless, I found a way down that only took a little bit of swinging and even less clambering. I have the vaguest of memories being on those stairs when I was 7 or so, curious about what the sea floor looked like when the tide was rushing in. Needless to say, my mother did not share my curiosity.

But seeing the Rocks from the ground was well worth a bit of rule-breaking. It's one thing to look up images on the web, and quite another to have the mud-covered monoliths rushing up around you everywhere you look. Really makes you grasp the insignificance of your life.

And it's like the weather was waiting for us. With the mercury hovering around 9C, a stiff breeze blowing perfect clouds around in an azure sky, and the sun blazing, it couldn't have been better.

Getting out onto the rocks close by the water did require a bit of deftness, a touch I only learned after sinking just about the whole of my left foot in clay-coloured mud. As much as I tried billy-goating my way across smaller rocks and pebbles, and thinking that rocks strewn in seaweed (which tasted good, by the way) would provide traction (they didn't for the most part), I was resigned to just slooping through the quicksand-like mud.

I kind of wish I'd thought to buy a cheap pair of rain boots at Walmart or something, for then I could have ventured even closer to the water and gotten a more vista-y picture. But I'm sure if my mom's reading this, she'll be glad I neither had rain boots nor ventured any closer to the water.