Da fog

We returned our rented car, and approached the WestJet counter to find out that all flights have been cancelled due to a low cloud ceiling or fog.  Not that we see a fog !  But that the clouds are too low and too thick for most planes to land safely.

Of course, we are not the first to hear these news, and there is a Rod Stewart outdoor concert in town tonight.  So most hotels are booked !  We found a wheel-chair accessible unit at the Super8 down the road and we are happy to have it.

Our holiday has now extended one day - stay tuned for more.

Samedi le 11 juillet

On quitte notre amie Loretta ce matin pour se rendre à une visite guidée par autobus.  On était les deux seuls pour la visite de 2-1/2 heures.  On en connaissait déjà un peu des places, mais ça fait accroître nos connaissances davantages.  On a visité le village de Quidi Vidi encore une fois mais avec de différentes histoires des alentours.

 Michelle se retrouve avec le guide afin de recevoir des informations.

On se demande le nom de cet arbre qui produit cette fleur.

Pouvez-vous nous aider?

Ces 3 trois photos viennent de Government House 

une belle résidence et un grand parterre réservé pour la visite de la reine.

 Ces deux photos sont à l'intérieur et l'extérieur de la Basilique de St-Jean Baptiste

pour lequel la ville a pris son nom.

Notre dernier arrêt fut Cape Spear, le point le plus à l'est de l'amérique du nord.

Juste à faire un clique sur l'image pour avoir un agrandit.

Day 2 in St-John's - Quidi Vidi Brewery Tour

You may recall my beer review of a few days ago, well, we had the opportunity to tour the brewery and sample some beer.  As it turns out, the village of Quidi Vidi is just minutes from Loretta's place.  We sampled Iceberg, Honey Brown, and 1892 (an IPA) which I also had with seafood chowder at Oliver's restaurant.  We sampled QV Light a great 4% beer, and Eric's cream ale - which I consider better than Sleeman's.  They are a small batch operation in a small warehouse that you can see in the photos.  They have 2% of Newfoundland's beer market.  The sad part is that they do not sell to other provinces.  You can only have these beers here.

Day 2 in St-John's

We are staying at Loretta O'Neil's while in St-John.  She is Brian's sister.  We had a great supper last night and also met Brian's sister Patricia and her husband Joseph.  This morning we continued our tour of St-John's walking in the downtown and having lunch at Portobello's, another interesting restaurant that has a great view of the working docks where goods are unloaded and trucked away.

St-John's

We arrived in St-John's yesterday morning.  The streets remind me of Quebec City with narrow paths, and steep inclines.  We ate lunch at Oliver's a great little place on Water Street near the harbour.  We went to Signal Hill as our first tourist stop.  It appears as a castle way atop the highest hill and just drew us to it.  From that vantage point, one can see the whole harbour and its narrow access to to ocean.

Newfoundland beers

I had a Black Horse Ale with my moose meat stew in a Rocky Harbour restaurant on the east coast.  It was light and excellent with food.

I am especially impressed with the Quidi Vidi Brewery which has a great lineup of beers.  Louis offered me a Quidi Vidi Premium ale which I enjoyed while at his place.  I later tried the Iceberg beer which is made of 25,000 year old ice.  It has a distinctive taste for a 4.5% beer.  I later bought a 6-pack which sells at premium beer prices, but I just love it.  Not sure if I can get it in Ontario !

I also tried the Honey Brown which is not as good as the Sleeman's version.
 The is a light, Eric's cream ale, and 1892 that I hope to try out before leaving.

Terra Nova National Park

Our townhouse in Port Blandford is just outside of Terra Nova National Park.  We had a look around yesterday on our way here.  But we returned to the park for a nature walk this afternoon.

A better view of the little townhouse in Port Blandford (tiny little area)

Here is a map to indicate Gander, Terra Nova National Park, and Port Blandford.

Clicking on any of these images will give you a larger view.

 

Port Blandford

On Monday after the iceberg tour we drove to Gander and stayed at Sinbad's Motel.  Not a lot of a downtown to Gander.  Seems like the airport and the military base are all the industry that it has.

This morning (Tuesday) we drove to Port Blandford where we will stay for 2 days.  We have a beautiful little townhouse with an excellent view of the inlet.  I have taken a picture of our kitchen and for those with more patience there is a full video tour by yours truly.

I checked for geocaches in the area and there are several - hoping to do some of these tomorrow if the weather is agreeable.

Click here for the full, narrated tour of our townhouse in Port Blandford, Newfoundland.

Iceberg

Michelle and I took a 2 hour boat tour out of Twillingate Harbour that took us just past Burnt Island to the right.  The North Atlantic has a current named Iceberg Alley that carries icebergs this way.  We found one wedged in 77 feet of water.

You'll notice that Michelle and I have layers upon layers of hoodies, sweaters and coats.  Some people had earmuffs and gloves.  It was 8 degrees C  when we woke up this morning and I suspect it is much colder on the Atlantic with the winds blowing.

Need some selfie tips

Still in Twillingate, we are waiting for our adventure tour to see icebergs.  We travelled up the road to Crow Head to check out the light house.  I snapped this picture with the Nikon Coolpix, not your iThing.  I would appreciate some tips to obtaining a better photo.  I just wanted to be included in the whole picture thing and this was my way of going about it.

Dimanche, le 5 juillet

On a terminé notre séjour avec Louis et Brian se matin.  Ensuite, on a fait environs 5 heures de route pour terminer à Twillingate.  On a pris un excellent repas au petit restaurant joint au motel.  J'ai mangé une poitrine de poulet rempli d'épinard, de fromage feta et de partridge berries - un petit fruit d'ici.   Michelle a mangé des pâtes avec des fruits de mer.  Pour dessert, on a partagé des toutons, une pâte cuite de goût de pain plutôt que pâtisserie, recouvert de crême glacée, bleuts et fraises.  La prononciation des toutons n'est pas du tout de notre façon.

Écouter la prononciation en anglais qu'on entend ici.

On retrouve Twillingate au nord de l'îsle, trouves le cercle bleu, un peu à la droite de l'image.

Samedi le 4 juillet

Ce matin très tôt, Mariette et Jeff ont quitté pour se rendre à Port aux Basques pour le voyage de retour par bateau.  Nous avons eu une journée calme plein de repos sauf pour une petite rendonnée au niveau de la Baie St-George tout au bout de la propriété de Brian.  Ce cours vidéo de 20 secondes montre les roches et la couleur de la terre ainsi que la différence d'élévation.

Gros Morne Park, day 2

Friday, July 3.
From the cottage, we went to Western Brook Pond, a bit to the north along the Gulf side, for a boat excursion.  We needed to walk 3 km before we could get to the boat dock because the once fjord now is actually a fresh water lake (much too large to be a pond but that's what they call it). 

It is a 2 hour tour between glacier sculpted rocks.  The view is extraordinary with many mountain waterfalls on either side.

On our walk back to the car we could see Pitcher plants - Newfoundland's provincial flower.

 On our return trip we stopped at Woody Point, still inside Gros Morne National Park.  We had a late lunch in this tiny fishing village.  It has the park's interpretive centre and from the outside deck, I took these 3 shots, to my left, straight ahead, and to the right.

Gros Morne National Park

July 2, we head past Corner Brook and Deer Lake arriving at Rocky Harbour, in Gros Morne National Park in late afternoon.  Louis had made telephone arrangements to rent a cottage to house 6.  We find a lovely little place with lots of room and a beautiful view.  At supper time we went to a restaurant and I order Moose meat stew, and I tried out a few beers as did Mariette.  These will be reviewed in a later post.

The map shows our progress.  There is a photo of our cottage showing the white Chevy we rented.  Jeff and Mariette have the dark red vehicle.

Le 1e juillet, 2015, La fête du Canada !

Lors du 1e juillet on a visité la côte ouest de la province dans la region.  On s'est rendu à Stephenville de Robinsons et ensuite sur l'isthme du Cap St-George, Mainland et Lourdes.  On a terminé chez le frère de Brian pour déguster du homard et crabbe pour le souper.   On nous a aussi passé par la cérémonie nécessaire pour boire le Newfie Screech.

The first geo-cache

My first geo-cache adventure was about 800 metres from Brian's place on top of a local look-out named Robinsons.  You can see Mariette (the leprechaun) at the base of a pair of trees with the find.  The second photo is a profile of our group at the top of the hill (less the photographer, yours truly).

Ship's Cove, mardi le 30 juin

Voici des photos de notre première visite le long de la Baie St-George.

Le vol

On était 30 minutes de bon heure à Deer Lake hier pour notre arrivée lundi.  Les courants d'air on dû nous aider.  Voici une photo de l'avion avec le petit écran devant moi qui donne une mise à jour du trajet.  Le vol pic à travers les États Unis avec de traverser le Golf du St-Laurent pour se rendre à Terre-Neuve.  Il y a un petit ajustement de temps, une heure et demi plus tard ici.

Twas the night before the flight ...

Our flight is tomorrow morning at 9:20 am direct to Deer Lake, Newfoundland with WestJet.  We were at our 3rd grandchild's baptism this afternoon.  Éric was one of 10 babies, but the cutest and best behaved.  We are spending the night at the hotel below - it offers a room and parking deal.

Le départ

Tout près à partir sans le trailer!  Premier arrêt, Comfort Inn, Mississauga.  Lundi matin on prend un vol pour Terre-Neuve.