The Mac Kinnon Family

 We have enjoyed our stay here.  We are on the beach where the Canadians landed (Juno).  It is one of the five sectors of D day.  They had better success with less casualties here.  It is great to see all the memorials and tributes to the Canadians.  Tonight during dinner we kept hearing bagpipes and couldn’t figure out where they were coming from.  We finally figured out it was not from a restaurant but the beach.  Most had Canadian flags on their bag pipes.  More joined after my first pictures and videos.  We could hear them from our living room until 9:30.  We just left the window open and enjoyed.  Mac even commented before bed that he liked listening to the bagpipes.   

 This point is in the middle of all the beaches that the allies were invading (Omaha, Utah to the north and Sword, Juno, and Gold to the south.  The concern was the six 155mm cannons that could shoot 15 miles and reach all the beaches.  225 airborne rangers landed at the cliffs and climbed them in less than 30 minutes to secure the area.  They were under heavy fire but when they took the point all they found were telephone poles acting as the guns.  Later they found them under camouflage in a field and destroyed them.   They were also instrumental in cutting the supply route of the German army just past the point.   In total, over 3 days only 90 men survived.   Ronald Regan dedicated this memorial at he 40th anniversary of D day.  Hard to believe next year will be 80.   This was an escape route for the Germans.  It was dug deeper than the access and at the access below the ground the Germans slid a plate to block the exit.  The...

Today we toured Omaha Beach and the American cemetery where 9,387 US soldiers are buried.  The families were given a choice on bringing the body back to the states or allowing them to rest in the American cemetery.   40% of the families chose to leave their loved ones where they died, including Teddy Rosevelt who lost two sons, one during WWI and one during the invasion in WWII.  The one that was killed in WWI was moved to be with his brother here in Normandy.   Among the 1,557 still missing in action is one Coast Guard member recognized here on the wall.  Reflecting pond which due to the wind here rarely reflects.  We were fortunate.   Mosaic that depicts (clockwise) Lady Liberty sending her sone to fight along with a ship and and bomber.  On the other side the red capped Marianne signifies France and is holding the dead son.  The angel then returns the son to Lady Liberty. One of the unknown soldiers.   This was the location where ther...

 Today we started the morning off early so we just stopped and got pastries and quiche for breakfast! For lunch, we stopped at a local restaurant after our tour finished. I had a four-cheese pizza, Dad had a sausage pepperoni pizza, Mom had a salad and Emily had spaghetti. For dinner, we are at a restaurant close to our Airbnb. Me and Emily had muscles with a cream sauce, dad had muscles with a curry sauce and mom had a steak. And then we got dessert. Emily any I both got ice cream. I got apple sorbet and vanilla ice cream, and Emily had mint chocolate and coffee. All the food was delicious as always and I’m going to miss it when we leave.

The beach area surrounding Mt. St. Michel was so pretty and the tide was out so far. There were some areas with quick sand-type sand and I was sinking in! 

We visited Mt. St Michel Castle today and it was amazing! The castle was fist built as a sanctuary to honor the archangel Michel. A village then grew around it and the population began to grow. Later in 1863 the castle was used as a prison. It is surrounded by water and the tide goes out so far you can walk out and the water is only to your knees.