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July 4–6, 2001
It's too hot in the Washington,
D.C. metropolitan area in July. So, in our quest to cool off
and to become honorary citizens of Canada by way of visiting
all the provinces at least once, husband George and I once again
followed the compass north — this time to Newfoundland
and Labrador.
Newfoundland is one of those
places you seldom hear people talk about having visited. We
found that the best way to plan this trip was with someone from
the Newfoundland and Labrador Travel Bureau on the phone and
their web site, http://www.gov.nf.ca/tourism/welcome/default.htm,
on our computer screen. The young man who helped us plan our
two week trip did a great job.
We departed from Dulles
International Airport at 4 PM bound for St. John's (with an
apostrophe "s" if you please) Airport by way of Montreal,
hoping to spot a few Fourth of July fireworks from our high
vantage point. The only fireworks we saw were of the heavenly
variety. Thunderstorms delayed landings and takeoffs so that
we got in to St. John's well after the sidewalks had been rolled
up, making it a bit of a challenge to find a way to our hotel.
As luck would have it, a young man from the Airport Plaza Hotel
where we were staying that night happened by at just the right
moment and gladly escorted us to the hotel. It was to be our
first encounter with the wonderfully warm and friendly hospitality
we enjoyed throughout the province.
A quick night's sleep and
we were off to begin our adventure the next morning. We picked
up our rental car and started north on the TransCanada Highway
(TCH) that would eventually take us to the western side of the
island and Gros Morne Park. On the way, we planned to explore
the Eastern and Central regions a bit.
Our first stop was a little
park called Butter Pot where we ate a picnic lunch we had packed
and watched an extremely hardy family on an outing to the beach,
splashing around in the frigid water of the "pond"
like it was bath water They must have found the sight of us,
wrapped in flannel shirts and shivering, equally odd. By the
way, in Newfoundland, land-locked bodies of water (typically
called lakes in the U.S.) are referred to as "ponds."
We
arrived at the day's destination, Terra Nova Park, around 3
PM, and checked into our selected B&B, 100
Pines in Port Blandford. It's a lovely place owned by Gerry,
who enjoys gardening and Newfoundland dogs. Her gardens are
extensive and the dog, Sadie, an enormous and affable sweetie
(although when she came bounding up to me the first time, I
thought I was a goner). We spent almost as much time strolling
the gardens (where we did unfortunately meet the acquaintance
of a number of hungry black flies) and enjoying the view of
Newman Sound from a high bluff as we did exploring Terra Nova
Park, which is mainly set up for camping. We actually made short
work of Terra Nova Park due to our late hour of arrival and
the fact that the weather was changing. By dinnertime, which
we enjoyed in the Terra Nova Lodge, the rain and fog were socked
in for the night. 100 Pines proved to be a great place for an
early evening however.
The weather had cleared
up by the next morning, and we spent the day working our way
west on the TCH. We kept seeing signs and other teasers about
someone named Joey Smallwood along the way until finally we
reached Gambo, the HOME of Joey Smallwood. Our curiosity got
the better of us and we stopped at the Joseph R. Smallwood Interpretation
Centre. We found out that Joey Smallwood was the first Premier
of Newfoundland and the person responsible for the province
(formerly a British territory) joining the Canadian Federation
in 1949. See Biography.
Armed with our newfound
knowledge of Canadian history (we definitely earned brownie
points towards our honorary citizenship), we continued on to
Gander, where we toured the "International Airport"
and visited the local flight museum.
From there, we continued
on to Grand Falls. We stopped at a small convenience store to
get a
snack and received a wealth of information about the northern
peninsula of Newfoundland from the friendly proprietor, who
was a native Newfoundlander. At his suggestion, we stopped at
the Salmonid salmon ladder in Grand Falls and watched the salmon
jumping the ladders on their way upstream.
Another couple of hours
driving brought us to Deer Lake, the jumping off point to Gros
Morne Park where we planned to spend several days. It was time
to eat, so we stopped at the Deer Lake Motel. Let me say at
this point that the food in Newfoundland is basic for the most
part, especially the farther you get away from the cities. Expect
a lot of fried food with very little seasoning, and heavy on
the fat. It was a bit tough for us as we're used to a different
type of diet, but we survived, if a few pounds heavier.
We entered Gros Morne Park
with the sun setting behind the mountains, and enjoyed the breathtaking
scenery as we drove. Our destination was the Mountain
Range Cabins in Rocky Harbour, a village centrally located
in the park. In all our trips to various Canadian Parks, we
had still not seen a live moose, so we were on the lookout for
one.
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