Newfoundland had been on my list for a long time.  There is something about being on a rock surrounded by the ever changing ocean that just stirs the blood in my heart.  It is definitely a theme in all the places I will return to.  Water, beaches, cliffs, the beautiful power of mother nature combined with the love of the people who live in these rugged strong places.

Newfoundland was a spur of the moment trip, originally I was going myself, then I talked my girlfriend into it (it wasn’t hard) and then our husbands decided to come.  We thought we would make the best of it 🙂

The end of May beginning of June was booked.  We do like going off season to places.  I’m not into crowds and lineups, if I want great weather I’ll pick a resort in the Caribbean in March.  This was going to be another walking holiday.  Thankful for google weather, we packed our winter coats, mitts and scarves and boy were they needed.  Thankfully only 1 night of rain, otherwise windy, but pretty sunny.  It was everything I had hoped it would be from icebergs, to visiting the Terry Fox memorial and the place he took his first step from on his journey across Canada.  St. John’s is a great place to set up camp.  Busy days travelling around the area and then park the car as we walk to some of the most wonderful restaurants you can imagine.  The walk home was a little harder as we were staying on a road that I would have been scared to ski down :).  Even better than the food was the atmosphere, I don’t think you could meet friendlier people than the Newfoundlanders.  From the restaurant to the pub for our nightly sing along with the locals, the day always ended on a hug from locals as we told them we would be back.

The mission was to find icebergs, btw after being to Alaska I realized that icebergs are just floating pieces of glaciers.  So neat.  Lighthouses lots of them.  Cliffs, crashing waves, my cheeks were rosy at the end of every day.  We went out on an iceberg tour with O’Brien’s Tours and managed to stay on the deck of the boat the whole trip.  The sun was shining and there was lots to see from an amazing coastline, to icebergs – even saw one calf – perfect timing, to more puffins then you could count.  No whales, a little early in the season for them – that’s ok next time.  You couldn’t end the trip without a rendition of “Mari Mac” as we pulled back into the harbour.  My next trip I am going to practice this song before I go, it is sung everywhere.

As this pandemic comes to an end it might take awhile for international travel to resume.  So think about staying in Canada and visiting one of our most beautiful provinces with a great Canadian history to it.  They are the most welcoming people in Canada.  Stay Safe.