Day 5 - St.Bride's

Wow...so much to write about. The St. Christopher was SO comfortable. I'm appreciating queen beds and good shower heads. I must be getting old now too.

We left Port Au Basques to begin our drive across Newfoundland. We stopped for pickup at Tim Horton's. That's a fabulous restaurant all around up here. They have wonderful, fattening things for breakfast. Cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, biscuits, etc. Unfortunately my crew has only had the doughnuts. But boy, are they good! After changing hands 2 times it was purchased by Dave Thomas of Wendy's.

The first part of Newfoundland was rocky, full of brooks with rocks in them and gorgeous mountains. It is just breathtaking. I do think our boys were very impressed. M's boys have been before but I am sure they loved seeing it again. We passed so many 4 wheeling Newfies along the road. I guess since it was Saturday they were adventuring in the woods. I think we tooted at most of them. They all waved. The people here are so nice. We do stick out with our accents - and I don't even think we sound southern.

We found a Ches' in Gander for lunch. They are known for their fish and chips. It was fried, fried and did I say fried? But, boy was it good. We all really need to exercise about at this point. I'm sure our rears are growing wider. We boogied on = fast. Everything here is in km...we try to convert and then just keep going. Most of the time we flew across Newfoundland, only we were in a car. The roads signs said, "Is this your rush?" It had a pic of a moose being hit by a car. We didn't see any moose but the scenery was awesome. I will attach pics but it is hard to do it justice. Right at the beginning there were the twin peaks/mountains and Table Mountains. They are just gorgeous mountains with rocks and trees. We did see some snow on the highest peaks on our drive. We passed some HUGE lakes. I mean huge! They seemed to go on forever. And the water in them...hard to describe...but almost cobalt blue. They are the most pristine lakes in color I have ever seen. Perfect firs surrounding blue, blue open water. I think we might have seen 1 boat out on them. (certainly no one skiing or wakeboarding) If they do that, it wasn't yesterday. We saw ski areas void of snow and men fly fishing. We tooted at them too. It was a fabulous drive.

Every now and then you would come to a small town. Little siding houses (haven't seen a brick one yet) painted very vibrant colors. You would think you were looking at a postcard. The houses are pink, red, green, blue, yellow, etc. We saw many traditional Salt Houses (certain architecture) with the Atlantic Ocean for their backyard. They are perched on high rocky cliffs jutting out of the Atlantic. You just cannot understand without seeing but we are sending pics. It is amazingly beautiful. How these people live here now and in the past years ago is just impressive. I'm freezing and it is their summer. My youngest saw some boys his age - yes, I know a few were 4 years = honest - riding 4 wheelers along the road. He about had a fit. :) They were the youngest I have ever seen. He kept saying, "see mom...I can do it by myself."

As we drove across Newfoundland we forked off and drove to http://www.birdislandresort/. It is a tiny 2 building "resort" located in St. Bride's, perched high above the atlantic. Check out the link to get the full effect. They boys ran wild since they had been couped up so long. If you check the link you will see a great panoramic shot. Our family and M's family are in the long building closer to the ocean and Mom and Dad are in the one with the front doors under the porch entrance. There are only 2 more rooms occupied where Mom and Dad are. Some BBC TV crews are staying while they film in St. Mary's. Other than that, the season hasn't started yet I suppose. It was cold when we arrived last night. Cold enough for jackets, hats and I'm wishing I had gloves. Right in front of our "cabin" at the "resort" you can walk down an old wooden staircase that is VERY steep and reach the ocean. No sand dunes here. The beach is covered with amazingly smooth rocks and stones. They remind me of the ones you see advertised for hot rock massages. The boys could not stop picking them up to save. They are cool to the touch, smooth and beautiful. Some have layers in them and they are so cool. We are definintely enjoying our visit here. They have a putt-putt course which my J plans to play tomorrow. We thought his golf coach would be impressed since it is right on the Atlantic Ocean. :) I can't say enough about the views here. They have a fireplace, picnic tables and a swingset for the children. It is really awesome! M loves this place and has stayed here before. I told her she really needs to try camping if she enjoys places like this. :) The only bad thing here is the water is brown. Very brown. The man said it is ok to drink and use and it's just the way their city water is. We are just using bottled water instead. ;)

We will play putt putt this morning, walk the beach some more and then head to Bauline East and stay at http://www.celticrendezvouscottages.com/main.asp?page=home. We will be there 4 nights while we visit Petty Harbor, Cape Spear and Cabot Tower. We will also visit family while we are there. Dad is from The Goulds which isn't far from there. Our drive today will be part of the Irish Loop. It should be very scenic. The weather this morning is cold (jackets and hats would be nice) and overcast. We are just lucky it isn't foggy. The man told us sometimes it is so foggy you can't see the ocean. Amazing since the ocean is RIGHT here.

Wish you all could be here in person. It is truly beautiful. After taking 5 days to get here...we are appreciating the views. :)

See you...