Trip To Fogo Island

We've now lived here almost 2 years and while we've tried to explore the island as much as possible, it can be a bit tricky. This weekend, however, we made it all the way to Fogo island.

Our friend, Sam Martin has been the artist-in-residence there for 3 months, so we had a great opportunity to go and stay with him and his fantastic wife, Samantha and their lovable dog, Vader.
The two of them have become our good friends over the past year and a half and are, sadly, moving away to Iowa. We will miss them so much, so it was great to spend some time with them before they leave in August.

We had a great time. The drive up went really well, aside from a three hour wait for the ferry. Luckily the weather was good, so the girls could escape from the car to run around.

 

M was desperate to get out. 

G found a bunch of spiny sea urchins on the dock and kept throwing them back into the ocean so they could be free. We decided not to tell her that they were most decidedly dead.

We searched for dolphins and whales as we rode the ferry. G was pretty sure she saw her friend Joey the Orca Whale (her imaginary whale friend).

 We arrived to Sam and Sam's great little saltbox house on Fogo. G was very happy to be able to play outside whenever she wanted. While G is in love with Vader the dog, M is not a fan of animals. She screamed and shook when he came near, so we spent much of the weekend sending both G and Vader outside. It worked out well for both of them.

We hiked up to Sam's studio, a modernist box in the middle of a bog. It's a big empty space with a desk facing a giant window - what a perfect place to write.

 We took a trip to a playground and four caribou walked by, looked at us for awhile then began to graze. It was so cool to see them right there!

 We saw a few icebergs in all their glory.

And spent a good amount of time on a sandy beach. G was happy to play in the sand, while M was desperate to run giggling into the ocean. She's a handful, that one! Had it been a slightly warmer day, I might have let her experience the cold of the North Atlantic just to keep her from doing it again.

She's a bit skeptical about that.