And we are home from a beautiful tour of Newfoundland. Below is a full detailed day by day journal of our trip. But a few highlights : seals, whales, a moose, a bald eagle, alpacas, a miniature pony, mountains, lakes, ocean, rivers, ponds, Bays, Tickles, Straits, Arms, (LOL), Boats, Fishing towns, nice hotels, good company, friendly folk, and of course lots of Newfoundland music. If we could do it again, we could easily spend another week touring. There were alot of things that we wanted to see or do, but we couldn't fit it into our plan. And at some point, you just reach your limit for having 3 young children in the car driving. So someday, Steph and I will be back here doing it all again.
Hope you enjoy reading about our latest adventure! :)
Day 1 :
The drive went amazingly well. It was about 680km on highway 1. Our first stop was Clarenville where we stopped briefly at a park and let the girls stretch their legs and play for about 10 minutes. And then it was a quick stop at McD's for a bathroom break.
Next stop was Gander and a drive through McD's. We ate in the car to make sure we didn't lose much time in the driving.
Next stop was Walmart in Grand Falls. After 2 minutes, Steph was done in there. LOL We got a cable for the portable DVD's, and then headed out of there - and not a moment too soon. Walmart on a Sunday in a town that doesn't have much else isn't much fun.
A quick gas stop, and then we were headed to Corner Brook.
If i had to describe the drive, i would use the words "trees", "mountains", and "water" quite a bit. Steph says it's very similar to driving into Appalachians Mountains in Pennsylvania. The mountains aren't as tall as the Rockies, but much greener. The closer you are to the ocean, the more the trees are bent. The wind is so constant that the trees actually grow bent. It's quite the sight. The lakes, ponds and rivers have very interesting names, but I guess when you have so many on the island, you have to be creative.
The girls were great. The portable DVD players are a wonderful invention, and it kept Dani very entertained the entire trip. She only got cranky around Deer Lake - which is only about 30 minutes from our hotel, so she did great. And Kat and Ellie are much better at entertaining themselves - Leapsters, books, and even just looking out the window at things. The next trip up North to visit the Dubord's will be much easier in that we will be able to do it in one day now. :)
The Hotel we are staying at is called the Greenwood Inn & Suites. We were a little worried when we walked into our "King Suite" room cause all we saw was a King bed.. But Kat went exploring, and found a second bedroom which had bunk beds, a tv and a chair in it. So it's perfect. Kat and Ellie have the bunk beds, and Dani is sharing our King bed (which is a big King bed, so lots of room).
Day 2 :
Day 2 brought rain. So we hopped into the car, and drove to Port aux Basques. Our goal for this drive was to stand somewhere and watch the ferry being unloaded. But apparently (unfortunately) the ferry isn't a tourist thing, so there is no place to watch the boat, or even get close to it - without buying a ticket - and with the rain it wasn't even a good time to get out of the car. So it was a 2+ hour drive there didn't show us what we wanted. So we continued to drive. If it wasn't raining we were going to stop at a wildlife preserve, but what fun is visiting animals when it's wet. So we drove to Stephenville, and stopped for a late lunch, and a quick trip to Walmart to get an emergency set of clothes for Dani (who had somehow leaked through her diaper since leaving). The sun was peaking, and there was a beautiful drive that we could do around the French Ancestor's Loop. Kat wanted to go back to the hotel, Ellie sometimes wanted to go for the drive but sometimes wanted to go back, Dani was happy, and of course Steph and I wanted to go for the drive. It was definitely worth it. We saw Alpacas, Llamas, minature ponies at our first stop. I could have spent hundreds of dollars in that store - such beautiful stuff - but so expensive (a pair of alpaca wool socks for 42$!!!), so didn't get anything. Then the road took us right up the coast, and through little fishing towns and then right up to the peak of the cape, and then back down again. It was long, but we watched the sun start to lower over the ocean (we saw the sun set over Corner Brook).
Another highlight of the day - a moose! :) It look like a yearling moose, just standing on the side of the road.. We pulled over, got a few pics, but when we tried to back up to get a little closer, it got scared and ran across the road.
So after a long day in the car, we arrived back at the hotel at about 930pm with three tired little girls.
Day 3 :
A beautiful day. Beautiful weather, beautiful scenary. Today, we visited Gros Mourne National Park. It's really an amazing park. The mountains are amazing, and then add ocean and it's perfect. We drove right through the park to St. Paul's, where we boarded a boat to tour around St. Paul's inlet, and the various islands around there. The tour promises the sight of seals but moose, caribou, and bald eagles are also common to see. The Seals around 2 islands (one nicely named : Seal Island) were adorable. What a life they have - lie on their backs and sunbathe, take a break and dive for a fish, then sunbathe some more. Not sure how many seals were out there, maybe 2 dozen in total. Some were completely still basking in the sun, others were curious about the boat so actually turned their heads a little, and some flopped a little. None of them were that eager to move, so none swam or dove. But very cute nonetheless.
Unfortunately the tour brought no sightings of any other animal. A little disappointed in that, but we still enjoyed the seals. :)
After St. Paul's we stopped at a little chip stand (a Snack Shack) for lunch. Very good fries and hotdogs.
Next we drove back through Rocky Harbour and down to Norris Point at Bonne Bay for a very cool visit to the aquarium. There was a touch and feel tank right at the beginning of the tour. Kat and Ellie touched almost everything in there. Within 10 minutes, Kat was picking things right out of the tank - including hermit crabs, and spider crabs. I see a potential marine biologist in her future. After the touch tank, we were taken to the back of the aquarium where there were several tanks of different marine life - including a lobster that is split right down the middle, one side orange and the other side brown, perfectly straight line dividing his body. There was also a few BIG starfish, and some snow crabs - that kind of crab has a bad proportion for females versus male.. The females rarely reach 95mm across, while the males are at least 3 times the size. When fishing for crab, generally speaking, you are looking for the males for the snow crabs. There was a wierd flat fish that has both its eyes on the same side of its body - but what is odd about it, it's born like a normal fish with an eye on each side, but when it reaches a certain age, its body flattens and over a few days one of its eyes then travels over the top of its head to the other side. WIERD!!
After we had fun with all of that, we headed out of Gros Mourne, with one last little stop before hitting Deer Lake - the Insectarium. Beyond cool. They have a live butterfly exhibit with tons of butterflies just flying around. On the second floor, they had a bunch of bugs on display - both alive and mounted. Plus a live bee hive enclosed totally in glass. So you can see the bees crawling around making honey. On the top floor, it was the spiders - LIVE. Furry, big spiders - stuff that nightmares are made of. During that visit Kat lost her Princess status cause she would rather hang out with the spiders rather than the butterflies. LOL
After a very long day, we headed back to Corner Brook, picked up some subway, and headed back to the hotel for a very late supper, and BED.
Day 4 :
Just a few words to describe today - Playful, Frisky, Showing off.... And not talking about the girls. ;)
We checked out of the Greenwood in this morning, got everything loaded into the car, and headed out. We had a very long driving stretch to start out. Driving from Corner Brook to Grand Falls - Windsor where we stopped for lunch, and then we headed up the "Road to the Isles". It was a last minute (as in we decided the night before) detour. We made our way up to Twillingate. Twillingate is a very cute little fishing town. But for tourists, there is really only one reason to travel up there and that would be the boat tours. There are three big boat companies up there. We had no idea which one to take, so really, we took the first one we saw. And O M G was it ever an amazing adventure. The driver / tour guide said that they hadn't seen any whales on the morning trip, and only seen one at the 1pm trip. Our trip left at 4pm, and we were really hoping that 1 whale would be out again. He took us for a quick tour of the harbour, and then we headed out to the open ocean. We first saw one whale far in the distance by the other tour boat. We snuck up on the other side of it, and watched it come to the surface a few times. And then... in the distance on the other side of the boat... A whale flipping out of the water.. And then a second whale flipped out of the water. So we left the lone whale, and went to those two. Those two put on a magnificent show for us. Boat guy told us this is the first time he has seen a show like this all year - so either we are very lucky, or very very lucky. ;) We probably watched these two slap their fins on the water, and dive, and flip out of the water, and roll around for a while. At one point, they both dived down, and must have gone down quite a bit, so we waited, and waited.. Steph with a sleeping Dani at the back corner of the top deck. Ellie was beside him on the side of the boat, i was near them camera ready, and Kat was at the front of the boat.. Kat was in the right position. No further than 6 ft in front of the boat (and Kat), one of them came right out of the water and flipped onto its back!! Kat was RIGHT there to see. Her story changes every time she tells it, but really, no matter what she says, it's pretty cool what she saw.. A 45 ft whale about 6 ft infront of her, clear out of the water!!
After those two had enough playing around, and everyone on the boat was happy, we headed closer to the Bay, and the boat people "jigged a cod". LOL Basically, they throw into the water a line that is weighted at the end with a hook, and just keep throwing more line into the water, and then pulling it back a little, and then all of a sudden, out comes a cod on the line. They pulled out 4 fish (2 cod, 1 bottom feeder, and one other keeper fish) in a matter of no more than 10 minutes. I held a Cod. :) Neither of the girls were willing to kiss it though. LOL Dany was still sleeping so she didn't see the fish.
Then we headed back to shore with memories that will last a lifetime i'm sure.
And back into the car for about 1.5 hours to get from Twillingate to Gander. We had supper at Jungle Jim's, and now are getting ready to tuck everyone into bed.
Day 5 :
I think we all needed a break today. We stayed in bed until almost 10am.. Then the girls had a quick bath (first in 4 days - ewwww LOL), and then we got ready to check out of hotel #2.
We took about an hour trip down to Eastport, and then went to Sandy Cove from there. The cove certainly lives up to its name - it's definitely sandy. ;) It's shaped like a horseshoe with sand walls around part of it. It's quite pretty. Everyone got into swim suits and we went for a dip in the ocean while trying not to get bit by the giant flies buzzing around us. The water was freezing cold. But we all really enjoyed the break.
We headed straight to the Terra Nova Golf and Resort for an early check in and relaxing afternoon. The girls played on the playground for a bit. we hung around the room (which is nice and big, but unfortunately just has two double beds like last nights hotel room). And we toured around the hotel and parts of the resort (which is mainly a golf resort, so the holes take up a big portion of the resort).
We ordered room service for dinner - salad, chicken, ribs, chicken fingers and fries. Excellent food, and nice and quiet too compared to the dining room or Pub.
We didn't venture far this night. Dani was showing signs of tiredness by 530pm, and anything could set her off. Even at just before 8, she was beyond DONE. She is just a big ball of whines. Poor little thing, the last 3 days have just been too much for her little body - even though she has been the one that sleeps in every morning. But still not enough sleep for any of them.
So tomorrow we are heading home.. Kat and Ellie are disappointed that vacation is already over. They have really enjoyed their first family vacation.
Day 6 :
Heading home. We decided for a relaxing day. Sleeping in.. A real breakfast at the hotel restaurant... Swimming in the pool.. The girls had a lot of fun in the pool. Dani and Ellie are going to do great in swimming lessons. Both love the water, and are really trying to swim, float, jump and dunk their heads. Kat is still really nervous around the water, but by the end, she was jumping off the side of the pool into the water into Daddy's arms. So getting there. After a fun time in the pool, we checked out, and started the drive home, with only one stop in Clarenville for some drinks and snacks.
We made it home by 330pm, unpacked the car, and then headed to the library. What better way to end a vacation than with new books to read. ;) (and of course a home cooked meal too).
So we are home now, with lots of memories, and lots of pictures (still need to go through them). And everyone is looking forward to next summer, and our next big vacation.
And even feed them.
This one was especially cute. I think he needs a hair cut. LOL
Welcome to Gatherall's Puffin & Whale Watch Boat. :)
We got a ROOF!!
Close up of the wounds.. You can tell that her right knee was the morning fall. Left knee was the evening fall.
9 little ducklings in total - probably from 2 mommies. Up and about, swimming with their parents, ducking their little heads under the water. I wasn't allowed very close to them before mommy warned me, or told her ducklings to move away, and i had just Kat's point and shoot camera. But next nice day, my big camera will be going for the walk, so even if i can't get close, i can zoom and get some good pics of the babies. :)
