In early May I travelled to Newfoundland for a work conference. Once a year we go to a different area of Canada, and I’ve been lucky enough to see a few new places, and some great repeats. My first was in Lake Louise, then Whistler, Halifax, Kelowna, and most recently St. John’s. When I visit a new place, I try to stay an extra few days to see some more of our amazing country. Canada is so different from coast to coast, and I love exploring it as much as I’ve enjoyed travelling abroad.
This year, my mom decided to come with me! She hung out in the hotel room in St. John’s for a week while I did the conference thing. My office organizes the conference, so it involves a lot of long days and I didn’t get to see her much except for a quick goodbye early in the morning and then a tired hello late in the evening. I’m proud to say that the last night, however, I got her out to a bar on George Street, and we stayed up until just about 5am! I learned that she’s still very popular with the men-folk!
We slept in on Saturday, checked out at noon, and then went to pick up the rental car. Over the next four days we put nearly 1600km on a tiny Chevy Sonic, and somehow managed to avoid losing the thing in potholes. We only needed to turn around twice during our off roading! Our goal was to see as much of the Avalon Peninsula coastline as we could. We drove a good 12 hours each day, stopping in out of the way coves and hunting for icebergs. Guys! It was prime iceberg season, and we saw so many that we started to get pretty blasé about them; “meh, that one’s not big enough to stop for a picture.” We learned that there are ‘bergy bits (not to be confused with pack ice), growlers, and full-on icebergs. We didn’t see anything as huge as the one that made national news in Ferryland, but there were some really sizeable ones!
Our weather for the trip was typical Newfoundland for the first day: foggy, rainy, and freezing. But we had the best clear weather imaginable for two full days. Even though I’d been to Newfoundland once before (doing the West Coast) and my mom has been twice, this was a whole new view. Some of the water looked tropical the green and blues were so vibrant! It was 15 and sunny, and we were so grateful. We stayed the nights in motels along the way (B&Bs weren’t really open for the season yet), watching playoffs on cable, and bought groceries to graze on while we drove (hello, bakery cinnamon buns). Our last night we stayed near to St. John’s, and indulged in some fish and chips and live music. It was a great way to end the adventure!
I’m really happy with the images I was able to get, especially of rural coves. There might be some we need to frame around the house!
