Blogs from Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada, North America - page 15

A heavy downpour is just finishing, and I may yet go out for a walk (4:20 p.m). A heavy downpour apparently occurred just before our plane arrived also. All around were sculpted clouds, sometimes dark and sometimes pure white. The plane arrived in Deer Lake, the airport shared with Corner Brook. As we were coming in, I casually asked my seatmate how far Corner Brook was from Deer Lake. To my surprise he said fifty kilometres; I asked if there were a shuttle, and he thought so. Sure enough: $25 in a minivan with customers dropped off at various locations. The ride itself was interesting, between the conversations of the customers, who seemed to be locals who travel off-island a lot, and the scenery, which resembles the mixed forests west of the Great Lakes. The urban ... read more

Today we got to a new park and new campground it's called La Manche. A beautiful camp site and very quiet.We spent part of the day in Saint Johns where we stopped at a music shop and a bakery where we had a tasty snack. Dad and I travelled to the farthest most eastern point of Canada, Cape Spear. We recorded a song, explored the old Cape Spear Lighthouse and had a good supper back at the camp site. Today we went kayaking on the ocean at Tors Cove there is a really cool island that looks like a turtle and I learned about Swells and how dangerous the ocean can be. We also watched some otters playing by the dock. Later that night we celebrated dads birthday and had halibut for dinner. This morning we ... read more

September 21, 2013 Breakfast is late (8:30) at the Rendell-Shea Manor on weekends, so Joe and I spent the extra time rearranging our clothes and putting the necessities in one small bag for the overnight ferry back to Nova Scotia. We'll leave everything else in the car. Breakfast was good with blueberry pancakes, lots of fruit, yogurt and granola, juice and coffee. It was a sunny warm day which made it all that much harder to leave Newfoundland. To all of you reading this that hope to visit some day, allow a minimum of two weeks to see this wonderful island. I know I keep repeating myself about this, but the people are what we'll remember even more than the beautiful scenery. Even the young people were eager to visit and share stories and give information. ... read more

Very nice...one of my photos was nominated and selected as Travel Blog's "Photo of the Week." See link: http://www.travelblog.org/Topics/33772-1.html September 18, 2013 Hotel North in St. Anthony provided a good night's rest and breakfast. We talked with a lot of locals, such a friendly town. We drove to the north end of the Viking Trail so that we could visit another UNESCO World Heritage site, L'Anse aux Meadows. This is the spot of the first authenticated European presence in North America. Vikings were here around 1000 AD and archaeologists have uncovered the remains of three dwellings. We found this place truly fascinating... seeing the artifacts in the well-done interpretive center, wandering around the mounds of the old dwellings, and enjoying the costumed interpreters in the cozy recreated sod buildings. We were the only hut visitors for ... read more

Up early for a pleasant breakfast at the Harbourfront B&B. Another guest from Toronto had just arrived from Newfoundland and took the time to write down a list of suggestions for us. We drove onto the ferry at 9:45 AM and then found our seats. We paid extra to get into the nicer reserved section for the six hour cruise from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland. To get into this section with the cushy seats you need a key card. We entered and discovered there were only two other couples in the entire area, one from Colorado Springs and the other from Hamilton, which is near Toronto. We six had our own entertainer, a great singer/guitar player. We spent the entire trip visiting and dining with the Toronto couple, exchanged emails and ... read more