Well, this is it. I'm 30 years old. I'm pretty sure that I'm going through thirty-itis. I went to see Julie & Julia today and I loved loved it! At Julie's birthday dinner party, she sighed and said "I'm 30 years old.", and that made me seriously tear up. Seriously. But my actual birthday was amazing, and it's about time that I blogged about it eh ?
August 12 - We slept in, got ready, packed, and then we drove "up home". The three hours flew by. We were running late, but we had to stop in Tracadie to visit with my mom's side of the family, and my uncle Robert, who we hadn't seen in 19 years! (Guess 'running away from home' runs in the family?) At some point we lost touch with him for years at a time. He lives out west. He is the one's whose daughter we found via Facebook. Mom met us there, and had brought some pictures of his daughter, which he hadn't even seen yet since he doesn't have regular access to the internet and wouldn't know how to use it. It was hard as hell not to cry when he was seeing the picures of my cousin for the first time (he lost touch with her when she was a very young child.). He was just sitting there shaking and the tears were just flowing down his face. I also caught up with my cousin Joanne who had just arrived from doing The Camino Santiago Compostela Pilgrimage in Spain. (800km!). We left a little later than planned but made good time and arrived at the Pokemouche Camping just as Steph's parents were finishing dinner. We walked in the camping's dining lodge and were surprised to find that it was a private party with the in laws, the owners, and other important people. Awkward! Steph and I were offered a piece of pie, and this wouldn't be a Nancy day without me doing something stupid like take a big huge first bite of pie, which I didn't know was burning hot and have to keep a straight face because I didn't want to look stupid! We then left for Caraquet to see "Le Violon Fantastique". Wow, it really was fantastic! It's a free outdoor musical with a heavy emphasis on lights/special light effects. Being related to Steph's father has its benefits, we were assigned seats in the first row of the VIP tent. We coudln't have had better seats!
August 13 - My birthday!! We spent all day relaxing at the campground, and drove to Caraquet for dinner at Mitchan Sushi. I went to school with the owner, we had several enriched classes together. I've been dying to go for a long time, so what better time than my 30th birthday dinner? The place was absolutely packed, we almost didn't get a reservation. We had way too much delicious food and sake. My father in law paid the huge bill, even sweeter! After dinner we went to Paquetville. My first time in 12 years!! Wow, it has changed a LOT. They even have a Tim Hortons now. They also have a florist, but one thing that hasn't changed about Paquetville is that it's a ghost town after supper. We were 5 minutes late to the florist (6h05) so I couldn't pick up flowers to bring to my aunt Adeline. We tried the (only) grocery store, and wow... am I ever spoiled here in Moncton. No flowers, no gifts, no nothing.. we ended up bringing a cake. I guess I bought my own birthday cake then hehe. We visited my aunt Adeline. She was deliriously happy to see us. After that we went to Caroline's for my birthday mini reunion, which was AMAZING. We stayed until 3h30am laughing, reminiscing and more laughing. We laughed sooo much. The husbands/boyfriends sat together and we thought they would be bored. At some point we listened and heard them talking about intergalactic fighting.. guess they weren't bored hehe. So.Much.Fun. Best birthday EVER!
August 14 - My mom drove down from Bathurst and came to pick me up early in the morning and we had an awesome mother-daughter day together! Steph had to work all morning, using the camping's wi-fi, so his mother stayed with him at the dining lodge while his father relocated the motor home right smack in the middle of the festivities site in Caraquet. Mom and I went to talk on the Caraquet warf, had lunch at Dixie Lee by the sea, went for ice cream at DoubleD's, and just hung out and had a great time. At 2pm we met Steph and his mom in the St-Simon church parking lot, to go see another one of my enriched classes schoolmate's classical concert. (I don't want to list their names because I don't want my blog to be found and read by his fans/people I know hehe.) He an incredibly talented pianist, and there was also a soprano singer with the voice of an angel. Five seconds into their first piece, I had a really hard time not letting the tears fall from my eyes. I looked at mom and she was wiping tears. It was that beautiful. After the concert, we drove to the Bas-Caraquet beach and met up with Steph's father where we all had a lobster feast on the beach. Mom and I said our goodbyes and then Steph and I followed his parents back to Caraquet and we went to the "Compagnie Creole" concert. What a party!!
August 15 - Acadian Day!!! We relaxed in the motor home, shopped in the little souvenir shops, and watched loads and loads of people make their way to the festivities site. It was crazy hot. They were announcing on the radio to add salt to our water bottles, to help retain water. We were SO lucky to be parked right in the middle of it! We had a pre-tintamarre seafood feast, and then participated in the tintamarre, which was incredibly crowded - 50 000 people! We could barely move! After that we got our lawn chairs and watched the awesome free outdoor concert, and at 10pm we made our way to the 1755 concert, which was SO MUCH FUN!! We managed to find Tim & Sophie, and Louis-Philippe & Danielle, and had a blast! We went to bed at 4am and we had to get up at 7am because Steph's father had a noon flight to Norway. uuuuggggghhh!!
August 16 - Woke up too darn early!! Hungover!! We went for breakfast near the water, then we made our way to Paquetville where we met up with Louis-Phillippe and Danielle for a good Poutine 2000!! It had been sooooo long!! While we were there eating on the terrace, we saw more of my old friends who were also coming to pick up a poutine before making their way back home hehe. I stopped at the Tim's, just to say I had, then we got an ice cream, and made our way back home to Moncton.
All in all, an AMAZING 5 days. I can only hope that my 31st birthday is as fabulous!!
(All the pics are on Facebook of course :)