So after staying overnight at Donnie and Carrie’s we went to the ferry terminal where we waited for what seemed like forever before we boarded! I was a teensy bit worried because I had never been a real ship before – only on ferries. But I can thankfully say that none of us got seasick!!!

Driving into the looming depths of the boat. I had gotten the impression that it would be dark and full of exhaust and super noisy! But it was actually bright inside, with fresh air, and about as noisy as any boat that is loading cars onto it can be. On the ferry it was very nice!!! We got reclining seats in front of three TV’s – so we had choices in what we watched! I worked on a blog post, we had lunch, and we watched a movie I had downloaded earlier! Six hours is a long time to be on a boat – but it felt like it was passing very quickly!

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! It’s Newfoundland!!! I must say I definitely thought it was beautiful in the rain and low hanging clouds that night – but the next morning when it was bright and sun it had even more of a WOW factor!

After we got off the boat we went and got groceries then stopped overnight in a campsite just 30 minutes from the boat.

We saw a ginormous helicopter. It was lifting those large steel power pole structures into place. It was pretty cool to see as we were driving along!

We saw a lot of moose – but not as many as there was rumored to be! One day we actually had a competition, of sorts. If all of five of us saw our own moose in one day Dad would take us out for moose burgers! And so we did – but it was pretty stressful when it came down to just one person not seeing a moose!

On Thursday we went on a boat tour of an inland fjord, Western Brook Pond! And to get to the boat we had to hike three kilometers in and then three kilometers back out. Most of it was marshy land and so in some parts of the path it would bounce when you walked on it!

The fjord.

The boat tour was two hours long and during that time they showed us some beautiful waterfalls and rock faces!

With about thirty minutes left they turned some Newfoundland music on! And the one of the guides came around with the spoons!!!! He gave me them and began to play along to the song – so I joined in! (They were screwed onto a stick – so I, thankfully, didn’t have to master that part of them while I was playing! They were a blast!!! So on the ferry home I bought the spoon thingy as my souvenir – should liven up some long car rides!!!?

I think I forgot to mention that it was FREEEEZZZZING!!! On the way into the fjord we had a tailwind and we were at the front of the boat but on the way out of the fjord we had a headwind – and it knifed right through you!

We saw some Caribou just once out of our whole time on the island!

We also saw whales!!! While we were watching them and waiting for them to breach again one of the whales came flying out of the water and attacked the seagulls. At least that’s what it looked like!?

We also went to a lighthouse in Gros Morne National Park. Everyday they put a Newfie word up on the flag pole using the signal flags. The day we went the word was “Baint” it means we’re not or I’m not or you’re not. Kinda cool, eh?!?!

We camped at a KOA and they had a bouncy pillow! We spent a lot of time, when we weren’t touring, on that thing!

They also had some ginormous floating bike things to rent – so we gave them a try. They were pretty cool but no matter how hard and furiously you pedal you still go the same speed!???

That same day we went to see the earths mantle! For some reason the mantle pushed up so in this one spot there is a random yellowish mountain amidst some “normal” looking mountains. This pitcher plant was growing on it, and what is fascinating about this plant is you can pump out its food that it’s digesting! Hence the pipette full of red juice and larvae and all sorts of other decomposing things!

The mantle! The rocks are yellow because they rusted. Weird – right!?? If you break open a yellow rock the inside is black, one of the rangers said it was because of their high iron content.

I don’t know if this picture along with the other in my Nova Scotia post gives away that I kinda have an infatuation with piles of logs…? When the logs are all stacked up – skinny ones and big round ones all stacked together it is so beautiful!!!???? Now every time our family sees a log pile they all go, “Look, Raquenna! Another log pile! Oooohhh that one is really nice!” They say this all with a rather sarcastic tone.??

After the mantle we went on a hike. And halfway through the trail disappeared under the snow! It was deep snow, too!!! We would be walking along and then one foot would go through and if it hadn’t a been for some other hikers foot prints – we would’ve been all over the mountain side! One of my favorite parts was hiking through the mini stream that was swiftly flowing down the path! You see it helped my mood because I really didn’t want to do the hike and stomping through the water and mud was very therapeutic! Seriously – if you’re ever having a bad day find a puddle!

The Canada Parks red iconic red chairs at the top were a real blessing! And they provided us with an AMAZING view!

180 view.

On the menu that night was moose! (Because we all saw one moose each) I had moose stew, Cassia and Mom had moose burgers, and Lanaya and Dad had moose pizza. It’s was really good!!! We also had touton’s!!! It’s bread dough fried in pig fat – really good… And healthy!?? Now off to another subject – a Labradorian tan, at least the one Dad got. While we were on PEI there were two couples from Labrador that stayed at Scott and Wilma’s as well. At some point during a conversation the topic of the tan that the people in Labrador get. You see, it is so cold that everything is covered – except their faces. So their faces get sunburnt. This happened to Dad the day we did the boat tour in the fjord. The next day Dad put sunscreen only on his face so that his face wouldn’t get any darker. It worked very well – except for the fact he overlapped the sunscreen a bit too far and he now had a white strip across his forehead! It was extremely funny because we had joked when he was putting the sunscreen on that he better not overlap the sunscreen too far or else he was going to have a white stripe on the middle of his forehead!!!?????

Our first time seeing icebergs in Newfoundland!!!!! We got out of the truck and went and climbed on them to get a picture – and yes, I definitely felt like a tourist!?

Saturday we spent all day driving – though we did stop once because we saw our first icebergs and then again at a memorial to a plane full of soldiers that were on the last leg of their journey before home base and had crashed 3000ft after taking off from the runway. The campsite we stayed at that night left a bit to be desired but it had the most gorgeous sunrises and sunsets!!!

On Sunday we toured St.John’s. We visited Signal Hill – an old fort that protected St.John’s Harbour. They were also the first to receive a transatlantic call from Europe!

St.John’s Harbour.

This Newfoundland dog posed for Dad while he took some pictures. I’m serious – he literally posed!?

Easternmost point in all of North America!!!!

I don’t think I’d ever seen lighthouses like this until NFLD.

Our first “big” iceberg! Warning!⚠️ There are going to be A LOT of iceberg photos in your near future!!!?

Kind of looks like a half sunken ship…?

Check out the fissures!

We saw the Hebron that night before we went home. It is a floating, concrete, oil drilling rig. How on earth it floats – I’ve got NO idea but it does and that’s what matters. It is finished and now is waiting for the ice to clear out of the bay so that it can go out to sea.

While us tourists LOVE the all of the ice the fishermen despise it! Crab fishing opened two months ago and lobster, one – and none of the fishermen have been able to take their boats out yet.

This iceberg looked incredibly like a ship!

Please excuse the dorkiness…? Legend has it that John Cabot first landed in Newfoundland in Cape Bonavista way back in 1497!

We stopped in to visit a friends mom and had a wonderful visit!!!

We went to a puffin viewing site and saw two!!!! They were dead. …And being eaten by some savage seagulls.?

At one place we stopped and grabbed a couple of icebergs to take home with us – we DEFINITELY looked like tourists!!!!????????

This was probably my favourite iceberg! (The one part way up the slope) It just looked like an… Well, an iceberg! It was triangle. I really can’t explain why I liked that particular one the best…?

I’m sorry if I offend any Newfie’s by saying this – but the roads were AWFUL! Thankfully there wasn’t too much traffic or we would’ve been going around 15km/h. Sometimes while towing the camper we had to!?

This HDR picture captured the gorgeous turquoise blue we sometimes saw in the ice!?

Cute little town on the Trinity Bay.

We found a dead bald eagle on the road so Dad grabbed a free souvenir from one of its wings!

One last picture of the beautiful sea ice!?