Campbell Bay... What a Treasure!

This time when the kids came home I suggested that we introduce them to some new waterfront places to explore.  I found it hard to believe that it took us almost 13 years to discover this gorgeous clean beach at Campbell Bay!

The sun makes all the difference to the colour of the water.

It didn't take long for Lucy and me to start swinging on these ropes in the trees. What a hoot!

Soon Sherilee got in the swing of things too!

 We discovered those dark patches in the water near shore were schools of fish.

These little fish were no more than six inches long... but there were hundreds of them.

About the same time I saw an eagle swoop down checking out fish at the other end of the bay.

This bird had breakfast on his mind!

Soon most of the group were climbing on the rocks and looking for adventure.

Everybody was doing whatever they wanted to do. Exploring and taking pictures. Maizy said she saw a mink running on the beach in the rocks... but it was too fast for anyone to get a photo.

Looks like Kim is ready to take the plunge!

Shelby took this shot of his sister walking along the log.

Then Sherilee took this of Seth keeping his balance walking the log.

There were so many places to explore.  Shelby and Lucy started off on a little adventure that took them to a sea cave!

Shelby sent me these great shots of his adventure with Lucy.

Seth and Sherilee also made it to the sea cave where Shelby captured the memory.  Cool cave, and great capture!

Sherilee took a couple of photos of these sea caves. Very interesting how these shapes evolved here.

There were two caves side by side and as you can see from the shot of Sher and Seth in the first photo above... and they are pretty good size.

Sher's photo of her brother Shelby, taken from inside the sea cave.

Shelby's shot of Lucy. Priceless.

One of the best shots of the day... this selfie of Shelby and Lulu from inside the sea cave.  Was this a fun adventure?

I don't know if these girls were taking selfies... or taking shots of each other!

But one thing is sure, they were really getting into it!

This was one of Sher's best shots of Kim!

Sher and Alan selfie.

Seth and his mother... selfie.

I had both my iPhone camera and my Nikon... so by the end of the day had over 200 photos to sort thru. But to me the best shots are the ones that everyone else took. Thanks for sharing them.

Seth discovered this little starfish up on the beach behind a rock... Shirley had to examine it but quickly put it into the water.

Silly me. I can be happy to take more photos of interesting rocks. These numerous holes are called vesicles... caused by air bubbles in the mix when the rocks were being made.

Seth and his mother enjoy a hug... and what a delightful place for a hug! One can never have too many hugs.

It's hard to know with these new cel phone cameras if one is taking a selfie or shooting you!

But its easy to see that we were having a lot of fun at the beach together... and the cameras were always on the ready.

I took a few shots of all the kids and grandkids sitting on a log by the bay.

Shelby and Kim.

Seth with Sherilee and Alan.

And this is Grandma and Grandpa... celebrating 50 happy years together. Where does the time go?

The best treasure of Campbell Bay is the memories that this day holds for each of us. We all had a lot of fun here together.

I overheard Kim say as we were putting things together to head out,

"This is for sure a place I want to come back to again!"

Pirates Invade Treasure Island

This past weekend our family all converged on us... dressed as Pirates, looking for loot here on Treasure Island.

I prepared a Treasure Hunt with 16 different clues (poems) which led the pirates all around our property.

Several of the clues had the pirates looking for concretions in the sandstone rocks. Here you can see Sherilee finding a group of ten concretions and the clue for the next treasure.

Don't know what a concretion is? I didn't either, so google it up.

What is a concretion? These round holes in the sandstone bedrock are concretions.

Originally they had round stones in them... but over the centuries most of them fell out and rolled away.


Reading this clue Sherilee didn't know that Kim was shooting it on video... and what a hoot!

When doing the rock facing on the carport posts I used all manner of unusual rocks.

I put this concretion ball into one of the columns.

When I was cutting strips of rock to take the top off this boulder, I accidentally made a discovery.   I didn't realize that a concretion could be in the middle of rock... not just around the outside.

A round ball rolled out when I broke off this strip of rock... it was a concretion rock inside the larger rock!

So I saved the pieces so I could show this interesting phenomenon of concretions.

Sometimes concretions are small..
Sometimes they are large...
Sometimes they are inside the rock.

Sometimes it’s a ball…

Sometimes it’s a socket…

Sometimes the ball is in the socket... like the example in the photo.

The rock above, on the waterfront below the light house at Georgina Point Heritage Park, shows a couple of concretion balls still in the sockets... and a few that have fallen out.

Lucy may have been the youngest, but she was not the slowest... and she was first to find several of the clues. This location had five concretions... see the sockets behind Lucy.

It seemed to me that everyone enjoyed the treasure hunt... but none more than Lucy! She loved to find and read the clues.

Shelby with Sherilee and Alan in background.

Shirley, the smiliest pirate.

Kim reading the clue at Maizy's fort with an English accent.

Alan got the reward for finding a concretion that I did not include in this Treasure Hunt! He found one close by Maizy's fort.

Sherilee got the prize for getting several photos of this little brown wren close to her home in the birdhouse.   There were clues hidden in other birdhouses... but not this one.

Grandma with her two grand daughters.

How do you know Maizy loves cats?

 Kim helping Lucy get dressed for the Treasure Hunt.

These gorgeous parrots were reluctant to go outside on the hunt... afraid of the threat of rain.

Grandson Seth with his hook, and Lucy show off their costumes.

Great smile Maizy!

Father and son... a scary team!

A BIG thank you to Sherilee, Kim, Shirley and Shelby for sharing their photos with me... This blog would not be as complete without your photos.

I failed to take photos of all the prizes... which included personalized  gift bags with treats, Cheezies, Goldfish snacks, Kinder Eggs, chewing gum, personalized note pads, and little goodies... small tools and books.

"Work like a Captain... 
     Play like a Pirate!"

More hunting for treasures around Treasure Island as we check out beach access locations next... and keep on celebrating our 50th Anniversary with our family.