After our visit to L'Anse aux Meadows in New Foundland left Paige with a more lasting memory than any of us really wanted. We were walking around a National Park that shows a viking village from 1000 years ago, and the kids were playing on the edge of the tour as the guide spoke.
At the end of the walk, a lady came over and explained that we should be careful as she thought some of the plants could be Giant Hogweed. At first I thought that she was just pulling our legs, but she continued to explain that the plants have an acid somewhere on them and when it gets on the skin it will react with UV and cause blisters that may scar for life.
We immediately told the kids to keep away from the plants that she had just shown us and they did - except that Paige may have ALREADY unwittingly touched a plant - as the pictures below show. At the height of her blister size it spread almost the entire length of her finger and her wrist and hand joints were turning red too. This was all after she had started a course of antibiotics and steroids and cortisone cream. On the day that we visited the Statue of Liberty when the temperature was at least 38C with 80% humidity, her blister began to leak - urrggh. Thankfully it meant that the skin stayed intact and she may avoid infection.
As Jill proudly quipped to one American, "We may have the dangerous animals, but you've sure got the dangerous plants!"
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