Bonavista

Arrived in time for sunset on the west coast. Kids loving the "nfld a/c" (open coastal window) and lack of Mosquitos. Some discussion about spending July up here every year.

Every time I turn around the girls are hurtling towards a rocky shoreline. 

Wildflowers on the windowsills, windows overlooking waving grasses, lupins, daisies, before rolling down to the ocean.

Boiled eggs on homemade bread left by our landlady, Sheila. Her husband Chris already offering fishing tours for cod. Lovely couple. 

Love the floors in this small cottage by the sea. Shades of wood.

Iceberg on horizon and whales in the bay. We spent ages watching the telltale water up spouts that preceded the breaking of the surface 

Went up to Bonavista. Thrilled to see a trio of humpbacks fluking, breaching and spy hopping in the bay below. We watched for ages.

And puffins. A nesting colony on a rocky fluffy island. Puffins flying everywhere with their short stocky wings.

***

Funny deck chair and a book (February) and Fogarty's Cove playing  as I read overlooking the sparkling white capped bay.  This is by far the most tranquil day of our vacation.

Reading February by Lisa Moore. Haunting.

***

Driftwood campfire on the slate and pebbled beach at sunset. Wonderful. Topped by another whale sighting.....a leisurely swim up through the bay at dusk.

Newfoundland: From Gros Morne to St. John's

After our wonderful time up in Iceberg Alley, we went into Gros Morne to Western Brook Pond. Hiked in to the fiord and took the boat is to the interior to admire the billion year old cliffs and the Teutonic shift that created this magnificent place. 

We had a prime camping spot reserved, but since our gear and camper was still in Labrador, we stayed instead at Tucker's Cottages, north of Gros Morne. 

Dinner was at Jackie's famous fish and Chips in Rocky Harbour. Drove along westward coast as the sun set and crimson sky razored across the crashing surf.

The next day rained, but we still enjoyed the limestone beach in Port Choix, beside a fabulous lighthouse.

Our plan had been to stay here until FedEx delivered our part, but FedEx couldn't get it to us as fast as they promised, so we rearranged our trip and drove to St. John's a bit early. Loooong drive across, but we got to visit with a good friend and her family, and then spend a luxurious night at a hotel.

In the morning, after room service, we hiked up Signal Hill, followed by lunch at an Irish pub on a George Street, and a drive out to Cape Spear to stand at the edge of North America.

Journal....July 18 Cape Spear

Enjoyed the 1836 lighthouse and tracks along the cliffs. Not a rogue wave in sight on a gorgeous (almost too hot!) afternoon, but we saw whales playing just offshore: great spouts of water followed by curved black backs. Awesome to watch.

 Now driving north towards Bonavista where we have a house on the North Atlantic for a couple of days.

Newfoundland: The Viking Trail

When the westfalia blew a head gasket outside Port Hope Simpson, there was a moment I thought our vacation was doomed. Not only did the esoteric part have to come from California to this small Labrador outpost, but there were no available rental cars closer than St. John's. The mechanic came to our rescue, lending us his Honda, and so we found ourselves on the last leg of the Trans Labrador. Given the excitement to date, I was scared to get on board the ferry that crossed the straits of Belle Isle from Blanc Sablon to Newfoundland's St. Barbe, but in the end it was uneventful.

We drove north into the (misnamed) Vineland to our cottage in St Anthony. Very highly recommend the Snuggle Inn.....a perfect getaway from which to explore L'Anse Aux Meadows and the northern shore.

 

Excerpts from Journal (cut and pasted as is from iPad notes page.....complete with crazy autocorrect and minimal editing because...on an iPad....I just can't!)

July 11

In loaner and en route to Blanc Sablon. Construction incliding a stop while they exploded some Rock. Made ferry with minutes to spare. Last car on. Just room.

Ferry ride Uneventful. I'd been secretly worried. 

Now very merrily ensconced in a charming seaside cottage in st Anthony's where we have fresh shrimp and mussels for dinner, and Viking promises for tomorrow. 

July 12

L'Anse Aux Meadows. Historic Viking site. Fantastic day exploring archeological dig, and hiking the windswept Viking coast. Bought Vinland sagas. Explored peninsula, had dinner at the acclaimed Norseman overlooking a silver sea ( where we dined on cod, crab cakes, and rich, dense, figgy duff), then returned to the Chieftains tent (Leif) to drink Lingonberry wine and listen to stories from the sagas and Nordic mythology from two Vikings. Images of Chris Helmsworth (Thor) in a dress.....

July 13

Whale watching.,ocean cruise. Salty air and wind in our faces. Kids all smiles into the spray. Got up close to an aqua iceberg 200 FT tall, and went "ice fishing", plucking up shards of the 150000 year old berg out of the sea to eat.  Saw a colony of kittiwakes on a cliff, a nest with a bald eagle, a sea cave, and a minke wave. Sadly, no humpbacks, though the girls heard them calling at night through the windows, and a trio of them were apparently frolicking in the bay earlier in the day.

Got home in time to see Germany victorious over Argentina in World Cup football.

Newfoundland: The Trans Labrador Highway

That was a treat.....2000 km of bad roads and beautiful scenery. The girls and I tangoed our way through pit stops to make adjustments to the westy.

No cell, no internet service. No traffic. We carried a satellite cell for emergencies. Stopped in Labrador City and Goose Bay-Happy Valley. Limped into Port Hope Simpson. 

Excerpts from journal:

July 8

Through the  Boreal forest, up up and around winding roads cutting through great swaths of tall thin trees and scruff. Past the 50th parallel. Epic, magnificent, lonely,wild, isolated country with 18% grades! gravelled roads! and hydro dams holding back capacious lake waters and accounting for the mess of snarled wire towers that represent the hub of Quebec Hydro.

Bumpy too. Twisted roads. Bone rattling.

It's not so much what you find about yourself on a journey such as this.....more what you don't lose. what stays is what is important. Elemental. Like the landscape.

Everything else is nothing. Gives perspective.

***

It's all corkscrew turns and dust clouds out here, crisscross in the iron rails that must be for trains running in or out from the mines. We are perilously close to the edge by times, the gravel road threatening to fall away from under us into the scraggly forest below. A strange place, not exactly hostile, but not friendly either now that we gave left the coast and ventured inland towards Labrador. The dust fills our noses with a thick chalky smell, and invades the car, coating everything. God I hope we arrive soon.

***

We stopped at the only gas station we saw, and picnicked on croissants and turkey and avacado and watermelon. Vestiges of civilization in a desolate, dusty place.....a gravel slab, a few cottages, and a store. Gas $1.77. 

***

We are finally reaching the first real trace of humanity in hours and it is ugly and brutish. The world ripped apart and land gorged with the mines that go on forever. We must be close to the border. This has to be the worst highway in Canada. What an adventure. Feels quest like. Except the quest is to find a hot shower😄

July 8

Sign on hwy east of Labrador city: "Caribou remains must not be disposed of within 50 metres of the highway" You can't make this sh*t up.

BBQ at Churchill river. Pizza and tea while Andrew tries to figure out why westy so sluggish...... Girls playing frisbee 

Flora and fauna quite pretty. There was a hiking trail to the canyon, but we forgo to follow it: black flies and what the kids are calling moose flies (huge back beasts which seem not to bite unlike ontario horse or deer flies), as well as being behind schedule due to whatever us wrong with the westy encourage us to press on.

Westy ok now it's rested. Andrew can't find anything wrong. No mechanics in Churchill; they all work fir industry. We debated staying to see Germany game at the sole inn, but it, like the rest of this town, was industrial- looking and un inviting. Even the homes are institutional. Rather depressing, actually.

Later: Westy stopped. No apparent reason. And so we wait, at the side of a deserted highway, surrounded by forest, with the blackflies. 15 minutes. Once cooled off, it started again. It's these dirt highways. Much better when we got back to paved roads again. And now we are almost in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

July 9

Stayed at the rather frightening Labrador inn last night....not as bad inside as it looked when we pulled in with a leaking gas tank. Leak minor, which us good because no way to fix it, not here.

Picked up a satellite cell which travellers can borrow for this last leg of the trans Lab hwy....?Seemed intelligent given the current status of the westy.

It's 400 km to port hope Simpson, on red dust roads. Assuming van holds any power, we should make it by dinner. Double whatever time estimate you'd have in south eastern ontario and that is about right.

Along way, travellers have left messages....inukshuks on roadside, or names etched cliff side. Tempting,  but decided the best thing we could leave thus place to remember us by is nothing....to leave it in the pristine way we find it today. We were blaring Neil diamond songs, so we leave the sounds of the 80s echoing through the black spruce of this ancient place.

Highlight of day: vw stalling and all of us out pushing to get it started on a hill. I know I said I wanted exercise, but really... Also, it was raining. And there were black flies.

Played soccer with girls at a makeshift rest stop. Andrew consulting owners manual with some perplexity.

Running out of fuel on this remote highway, with miles to go and limited power, and darkness coming. Oh goody. 

C'mon westy, you can do it. Running a bit better now it's flattened out a bit. Here's hoping. 

Made it. To a deserted RV park where Stella and Reg offered us beds in their house. We stayed in camper where the strobe of a lighthouse lit our way on the dark, and we woke to dawn on the bay...and ferocious Mosquitos. 

Grade 8 Graduation

Proud of this guy! 10 years ago, he was a 4-year-old JK student, and this June, he graduated from Grade 8 as an Honour Student and winner of the Mathematics Award.

Erik....Then....And Now.

Receiving his diploma

Proud sisters

Summer Strawberries and Fields of Daisies

I kept my youngest home today for various reasons relating to school activities and philosophies, and such a lovely day we have had. We made bread. I promised the kids that I would make homemade bread as soon as I was off for the summer. It's something my eldest reminisces about often: those early years when I was at home with them and fresh bread was a daily ritual. He is old enough to remember getting off the school bus to a thick slice with butter which he would eat in the kitchen with his younger siblings as he told us about his day. I've been back at work full time for 7 years now - as long as I was off with him - but he still remembers.

Today is the first day of my summer break, and I forgot how pleasurable it was to knead dough in a morning kitchen, with the light pooling across the butcher block counters and red tiled floors. Grace helped, and while it was rising, we went hiking through the back fields. There were wild strawberries, sweet and miniature, and we ate them as we went, hugging the shady perimeter of the field to avoid the sun. Another week and Grace and her sister can go back and collect them, though I doubt there will be enough brought back to do anything with. May as well eat them warm and ripe off the vine. Grace said if she was magical, she would grow a wild strawberry vine outside the kitchen door. Now that's using your magical powers for good.

When we ran out of strawberries, I told her stories from the legends of Arthur.....surprised somehow that she hadn't read some of my old books of that period. Arthur. Gawaine. The Lady of the Lake. Excalibur. We will look through the library to find some if the volumes I have packed away somewhere.....at least one of which I hit from my Aunt's childhood collection when I was about the age Grace is now. 

And we meandered home picking wildflowers.....daisies, buttercups, clover....a bouquet that now sits on the table reminding us of this perfect morning.

Dinner Conversation

"Your family must have the most interesting conversations around the dinner table!"

This was said to me and Erik last week at the Zone Oratorical Competition as we waited for the judges to determine the winners. 

The speaker was a woman I do not know, who had cornered me the previous afternoon at a music festival (where Grace's school band got a gold medal) to tell me that she had been at the high school speech competition the previous week, and that she thought Erik had the most interesting, most entertaining speech there, and she couldn't understand why he hadn't placed and gone on to the next level. 

Obviously a part of the organizing committee for the oratorical competitions, she was now also present for the Zone level....the winners of which will go on to the Provincial level in May....and had just listened to both Anna and Grace (who had placed 1st and 3rd respectively in their school contests) speak.

Erik's speech the week previous had been a rather tongue-in-cheek approach to the subject: How My Passions Impact The World. He was funny and self-deprecating as he spoke about his love for environmentally hostile big trucks, and his ideas for making them more environmentally friendly. It was his first public speaking, and the boy was a hit with his classmates, but not, alas, the judges. 

At the zone level (same subject) Anna spoke eloquently and earnestly about her passion for peace and education. Grace brought a certain dramatic flair to get speech about her plans for developing a climate changing machine that could deflect the sun's rays to help mitigate global warming. All three speeches were very representative of the speakers themselves, and the authenticity shone through. I was impressed. And apparently, so was this lovely woman.

And we do have interesting dinner conversations (or car ride conversations, which are equally good for encouraging discourse). Geo-engineering was our most recent one. But literature, philosophy, politics, education, scientific discovery, and mathematical debate are often on the table with the stuffed chicken breast and spinach salad. 

And sometimes the conversation is a lot less highbrow too: alternate endings for movies, debating the leadership style of Darth Vader, coming up with funny t-shirt slogans, and my "favourite"....the seemingly endless debate over the benefits of fart-proof underwear. Yes. Well...

But I hadn't really thought about it until this lady mentioned it.

It makes me happy to think that this is part of the fabric of our lives.

Grace came in 3rd in the Zone Competition....she was the youngest participant, and it was a great showing for her first contest. Anna won. She will be off to the Provincials again. This will be her third time making it that far, and we couldn't be more proud of her. Of all three of them, actually. 

Maybe....just maybe...dinner conversations had something to do with it.

(Grace 3rd and Anna 1st with their proud great-grandmother after the zone competition)