Lighthouses and More Lighthouses

 Cape Forchu Lighthouse (also called the Apple Core Lighthouse) - Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

After a few hectic days in New York City, we are now in Maryland taking a few days of much needed rest in the heavily forested and VERY QUIET almost deserted Tuckahoe State Park.  During the last 2 months we have been on a rather tight schedule to get everything done that we wanted to this year.  And to think that retirement is just taking life at an easy pace!    We set up our tight schedule for the following reasons:

1. Two years ago, Canada declared that most of their lighthouses were surplus and asked for bids to be submitted for each of the ones being surplused.  The hope was that historical groups would get the lighthouses and restore them.  However, it looks like expensive insurance will be required and most groups do not have those kinds of funds.  So – we wanted to see as many of the lighthouses as possible before some of them are purchased by private individuals and moved, torn down, or just left to deteriorate.
2. We wanted to take the extended Boston Harbor boat tour to see many of the lighthouses up close and the boat tour is only offered once a month - so we needed to be in Boston by September 1st.
3. As the summer turns into fall, some of the National park Service Sites start of close up for the season and we wanted to visit Governors Island in New York City which closed just this past weekend.
4. And finally, we are not great fans of traveling in the northeast with all of the traffic, many parkways with low bridges, and not as many camping places as in the rest of the country.  We like to travel in the west and in most of Canada where there are more open spaces, fewer people, and less congestion.  So we were trying to complete the items we have had on our bucket list especially, in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, & New York. 

And we can report that when all is said and done, we have managed to successfully complete all that we had hoped for and even more and the really great weather we enjoyed most of the time really helped.  Here are some of highlights of our recent travels:

• For most of the month of August, we went around the coastline of the mainland part of Nova Scotia (we had already done most of Cape Breton Island previously) and were very successful in seeing over 80 lighthouses.   The weather cooperated most of the time (except around Halifax where it was foggy every day that we were there).  We even managed to photo the famous Peggy’s Cove lighthouse (the fog lifted just before we got there).   It was very crowded on the rocks around the lighthouse with busloads of people there (quite different from most of the lighthouses that we visit). 
• While in Halifax, we went on tours of Province House & Government House to continue our tradition of visiting Canadian provincial & territorial centers of government (with only Yukon & Nunavut left to visit).  We also camped in one of the two National Parks in Nova Scotia (Kejimkujik – referred to as Keji (keh-gee)).  A few years back we had driven the Cabot Trail and camped in Cape Breton Highland National Park.
• After completing Nova Scotia, we took the ferry to Prince Edward Island to enjoy a few evenings of music gatherings called Ceilidhs, a couple of nights of bluegrass , and one night of Highland bagpiping, Scottish-style drumming, Highland dancing, and island step dancing.
• Then it was time to head to Boston for the LH boat tour & to visit additional places like The Longfellow House and Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Sites.  The weather and the boat ride were perfect which made our stay in Boston really special. 
• After Boston, we headed down to the Cape Cod area.  On the way, we did have a glitch when the truck would not start after stopping at a small pull-off on a very busy highway when it was raining.  We had to call a tow truck & luckily were on our way by noon the next day with a new alternator.
• After touring around Cape Cod a couple of days, we rode a passenger ferry to Nantucket Island and went on a very good bus tour of the island.  We really enjoyed this relatively small island and even managed to take photos of 5 lighthouses.
• A couple of days later, we rode another passenger ferry to Martha’s Vineyard Island.  This island is much larger than Nantucket & so we rented a car in order to see the lighthouses around the island.  While there, we parked the car and rode on “Chappy” - the shortest ferry we have ever taken (only 542 feet from shore to shore) to get across the channel to Chappaquiddick island.  We were met there & went on a tour over the sandy coastline to the Cape Poge lighthouse at the northern tip of the island.
• After our visit in the Cape Cod area, we drove to the Fishermen’s Memorial State Park in Rhode Island for a week.  While there, we took a boat tour to see 10 lighthouses in lower Narragansett Bay, rode a ferry out to Block Island to visit a couple of great LHs, drove along part of the Connecticut coastline for more lighthouses, and then around in the Providence, RI area.   While in New Bedford, CT we arrived by chance when the New Bedford Whaling Historic Site was celebrating their 15th year anniversary and so we enjoyed some cupcakes & a special dancing group performance.
• After seeing all of the lighthouses there are in Rhode Island, it was time to take our 5th wheel on a ferry from New London Connecticut to Long Island where we stayed at the very nice Wildwood State Park.  We took a few day trips to photo most of the lighthouses on Long Island and to visit National Park Service sites such as Fire Island National Seashore and Sagamore Hills National Historic Site (Theodore Roosevelt’s Home).
• Then it was time to tackle the New York City area with an RV.  We had been there in a small VW Bug in 1965 during the World’s Fair and had seen many of the popular sites, and this time we just wanted to see a few selected sites.  So we decided to head to Liberty Harbor RV Park in Jersey City, New Jersey (a park that is quite expensive, but has great access to Manhattan).   After studying the routes thru and around Manhattan we decided to take the southern route.  For some reason on the way, our trucker GPS told us to take an exit due to a low overpass and before we knew it we were driving over the Manhattan Bridge right into lower Manhattan – thru Manhattan on the very busy Canal Street & finally going thru the Lincoln Tunnel.  When we got to the tunnel, there was a sign posted that said campers with propane tanks were prohibited, and with no place to turn around, we had no choice but to go thru the tunnel.  Fortunately, we made it safely to the RV Park.  What made the trip even more stressful was that the roads had lots of potholes and bumps along the way & we were really hoping that we didn’t have a flat or a breakdown on the way.
• After recovering from the drive and settling into the RV Park, we rode a ferry over to Ellis Island & the Statue of Liberty.  The next day, we only had to walk 1 block to catch the NY Waterway commuter ferry right over to the dock at Wall Street (note: this ferry only runs on weekdays).  It was interesting to ride with so many people dressed in suits & carrying briefcases.  We then visited 4 National Park Service sites on Manhattan (including Theodore Roosevelt’s Birthplace and Federal Hall (where Washington was inaugurated & the first congress met)).  Then we rode the free Staten Island ferry roundtrip to photo another LH (note: This ferry system carries more than 60,000 people daily between Staten Island & Manhattan).  Then it was time to catch the commuter ferry back to the RV Park.  Note: We decided to take the taxi a couple of times while in Manhattan and it was not as expensive as you might think and was much faster.
• After a day of rest while it rained, we walked a half mile and rode the PATH subway train to the World Trade Center station.  In Manhattan we went on a very well narrated 3 hour boat tour completely around Manhattan Island and under 20 bridges.  On the way we photographed 3 lighthouses including the ‘Lightship Frying Pan’ and the very special one – ‘Jeffrey’s Hook’ (also known as The Little Red Lighthouse under one end of the George Washington Bridge).   Not only was this our 1,200th lighthouse, but our son’s name is Jeffrey.  After the boat tour we rode the ferry to Governors Island for a breath of fresh air (great place for picnics, hiking, and riding bicycles on weekends in the summer thru September).  On the way back to the PATH subway, we were moved when we passed the firehouse next to the WTC site and one of the retired firefighters was polishing the large plaque dedicated to the fallen firefighters.

Since lighthouses have been our main theme recently, you will notice that most of the following photos are of lighthouses.  We did manage to detour slightly and photo the longest covered bridge in the world in New Brunswick.  Since we have been so busy, we have only processed our photos thru Rhode Island – so we will include the rest of them in our next update (including the great Fire Island & Montauk lighthouses on Long Island)

Tomorrow we head to Greenbelt Park (part of the National Park Service & within 2 miles of Washington, DC Metro station).   While there, we plan to visit numerous monuments, places, & parks and even take a couple of day trips to eastern Maryland & Baltimore to photo some more lighthouses and see Fort McHenry, Jamestown, etc.  And finally, we will head back to Texas for the winter months and really take time to rest, read, process photos, visit our doctors, and spend time with family and friends.

We hope that this update finds you all doing well.

Grandique Point Lighthouse - Nova Scotia

 

Queensport (Rook Island) Lighthouse - Nova Scotia

 

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse - Nova Scotia

Steeple of the largest & tallest wooden building in North America - Eglise Sainte Marie - In Church Point, Nova Scotia.  The steeple from the floor to the top of the cross is 190 feet.  It was built in 1903 by a master carpenter with the help of 1,500 parishoners.
 

The 'Theodore Too' tugboat comes in out of the fog in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Wood Island Lighthouse on southern coast of Prince Edward Island (with the red dirt that PEI is known for).  This is where the ferry lands coming from Nova Scotia.

Hartland, New Brunswick Covered Bridge - Longest Covered Bridge in the world - measuring 1,283 feet long.  It crosses the Saint John River.

Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site in Cambridge, MA.  It was used by George Washington as his first offical headquarters of the Continental Army and later Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived in it for almost 50 years.
 

Cape Ann (Thatcher Island) Twin Lighthouses - Northeast of Boston Harbor - Sailors could distinctly identify the two lights as a pair to help guide them.

 

Dog Bar Breakwater Lighthouse - Entrance to Glouchester , MA harbor.

 

Graves Lighthouse - Boston Harbor

 

Nantucket Lightship WLV112 in Boston Harbor - Just newly refurbished this summer.  Three of the eleven commisioned Nantucket lightships that were built are still in existence (one in Boston, one in Wareham, MA, & the other travels around).  These ships marked the hazardous Nantucket Shoals south of Nantucket Island.  The lightship that rtavels around was remodeled inside to be a luxury yacht for rent.  We just happened to see it when it was in Newport, RI

 

Sankaty Head Lighthouse - Nantucket Island

 

Brant Point Lighthouse - Nantucket Island

 

Nobska Point Lighthouse - Woods Harbor, MA

 

Edgartown Lighthouse - Along the channel between Martha's Vineyard Island & Chappaquiddick Island

 

Block Island North Lighthouse - Block Island, RI

 

Block Island Southeast Lighthouse - Block Island, RI

1,000th Lighthouse and Trip To France

Cape Bonavista Lighthouse

We are back in Nova Scotia after traveling almost 8 weeks in Newfoundland.  We enjoyed our visit there so much that we have made this one of our premier places to revisit (and have started to make plans to come back in 3 or 4 years).  Here are some of the highlights from our last few weeks in Newfoundland:

• We reached a milestone on a foggy day on the Burin Peninsula (south central Newfoundland) when we took photos of the Middle Head lighthouse (near St. Lawrence).  This was our 1,000th lighthouse photographed so far.  In order to reach it, we had to drive down a pretty rough narrow gravel road for over 2 miles and the lighthouse was not all that impressive – but it still had that mystique that draws us toward these lights in the night.  Instead of celebrating very long, we drove back the gravel road and headed to the next lighthouse on our way to our new goal of 1,250.  This will probably be our last realistic goal as we are running out of lighthouses to see in the USA and Canada.

• While on the Burin Peninsula we took a day trip to France.  You might say ‘How is that possible?’  Well, just a few miles off the coast of Newfoundland are small islands named Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.  This is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France and it is the only remnant of the former colonial empire of New France that remains under French control.  Two of the islands are permanently inhabited (Saint-Pierre has 6,000 and Miquleon has 600 permanent residents).  After a passenger only ferry ride and going thru customs you step into another world.   Some of the things different are: most of the cars are small European ones; all signs are in French; the currency is the Euro; they are on a different time zone (same as Greenland, the Falkland Islands, & Argentina);  almost everything closes for lunch from 12 noon to 1:30 (except restaurants); the police (gendarmes) come from France with their families for 3 years (free housing included); and (from what we understand), the French spoken here is Parisian and not the Quebec Canadian version.  On the day that we went, it was so foggy that no one got off our tour bus at the view points that we stopped at, but we did manage to take photos of lighthouses when the fog lifted for a few minutes.

• We spent almost 2 weeks in St. John’s in Pippy Park which was very convenient right in town.  While there we took 4 day trips to the 4 mini peninsulas of the Avalon area (the southeastern part of Newfoundland) and visited Cape Race where the first SOS signal from the Titanic was received; the Cape St. Mary’s Seabird Ecological Reserve; and Hawthorne Cottage (the home of Captain Bob Bartlett – world famous Arctic Explorer - he was the unsung hero in Perry's expidition to the North Pole).  Of course, we took photos of multiple great lighthouses along the way. 

• In St. John’s we visited the provincial government’s Assembly room in the Confederation Building.  One of the things that we like to do is take tours of the center of the government in each of the provinces & territories.  We have found this to be an excellent way to learn about the unique history of each one.  Some have a parliament (with 2 houses), some have only an Assembly, and in the Northwest Territories the 12 delegates sit around a table.

• The 2 outstanding places we really enjoyed in St. John’s were to go up to the top of Signal Hill (where you can get great views of the city, the harbour, and the ocean) and the beautiful new ‘The Rooms’ (Provincial Archives, art gallery and museum).

• While at the Iceberg Festival in St. Anthony in early June, we so enjoyed an evening listening to ‘Ennis’ (a Newfoundland sisters singing group) that we checked to see where they were performing again.  We were fortunate to get tickets to hear them again in Tors Cove (near St. John’s).  What made this so special was that there were only 40 tickets available for this evening.  It was a family affair with their parents and other relatives there mixed in the group.  There was another couple there from Texas that had flown in to see Ennis and to go swimming with the whales (which you can do here).  I think that the four of us from Texas were the only non-Newfies there.  What a wonderful evening we had.  We called this our bookends event since we first heard them in the far NW corner of Newfoundland & then here on almost the far SE corner.

• All in all, we enjoyed exceptional weather (except our foggy trip on the Burin Peninsula and to Saint Pierre and Miquelon).  We had been told to expect foggy overcast days in St. John’s but were blessed with many bright sunny days.  The temperatures were also quite comfortable and cool.   It was sort of humorous to us when the temperature reached 85 degrees Fahrenheit one day and we overheard some Newfies say that it was ‘sweltering’.

As we continue our journey in Nova Scotia, we are now looking forward to seeing Nova Scotia (most of which we have not visited before, except for the Cape Breton Island part).  We have been asked so many times ‘Have you been to the Peggy’s Cove lighthouse near Halifax? (and we have not been) that we have to go there this time.  Since there are over 100 lighthouses in Nova Scotia (80 of which are accessible that we have not seen), we will be kept busy. 

Hope this update finds you all doing well.

A view of the tickle (an inlet) at Newtown.  The yellow buildings on the left are part of the historic Barbour Living Heritage Village (place where a merchant family in the sealing and fishing industry in rural Newfoundland lived).  One of the Barbours was the captain of a sailing ship adrift in the Atlantic for 48 days and managed to finally make it to Scotland.

Atlantic Puffins in the colony at Elliston (near Bonavista).  You can walk out to get a pretty good view of the puffins there.

Cape Spear lighthouse (old one) - there is a newer one close by.  This is the easternmost point in North America (however, if you want to be technical and include Greenland as part of North America, then it is further east - and to be really techical and use true longitude, there is an island in Alaska that is further east).

Northen Gannet perched on a rock at the rookery in Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve.  Note how flexible it's web feet are clinging to the rock edge.

Here it is.  Our 1000th lighthouse.  Middle Head lighthouse as seen on a foggy day.

New Terry Fox Memorial in St. John's.  This is where in 1980, Terry Fox (after losing one leg to cancer) started his Marathon of Hope run across Canada to raise funds for cancer research.  He made it to Thunder Bay, Ontario (on northern shore of Lake Superior) where his cancer returned and he had to stop.  He so inspired the people of Canada that more than 600 million dollars have been raised in Terry Fox runs since his great feat.  We wanted to visit this memorial since we had visited the Terry Fox Memorial in Thunder Bay years ago.

Heart's Content lighthouse.  Notes: Heart's Content is a community adjacent to the communities of Heart's Desire and Heart's Delight. Heart's Content was the major transatlantic telegraph cable terminus in North America (connected to Ireland).

Ennis - Maureen Ennis (in the middle) is the main composer and singer - Karen Ennis (on the right) is the storyteller, singer, and tin whisle player - Mark Murphy (on left) co-composes some songs and helps accompany the group.

 

Fort Amherst (fort and lighthouse) - as viewed from the top of Signal Hill in St. John's

Our best campsite in Newfoundland - overlooking the ocean in La Scie (which means The Saw, because of the jagged coastline that looks like the teeth of a saw)

 

Some of the colorful houses in St. John's.  They were painted this way initially to help fishermen find the harbour in the fog.

A model community set up beside a house in Greenspond - with the Puffin Island lighthouse in the distance

Orange growth on rocks in front of the Green Point lighthouse near Bay Roberts

One of many wild irises found along trails (this one on Cape Bonavista).

A large number of the homes have a nice front door, but no steps or porch.  It is required for an extra escape door.  This door is commonly referred to as the 'Mothe-In-Law' door.

Newfoundland Wolf (became extinct in the 1930's).  This last known specimen was in 'The Rooms' musuem in St. John's

Icebergs, Gremlins, and The Big Rock

Map of Newfoundland (from postcard).  Note: Labrador is not to scale.

We have really enjoyed our travels the past 6 weeks (especially here in Newfoundland) and are now on our way to St. John’s on the east coast.  We have been here once before (back in 2006 when we drove across Labrador and then down the west coast of Newfoundland – but we did not see much since it was at the end of the season in early October and everything was closing up).  This year’s trip had been our last planned one here and we had set aside 7 weeks to see it – but this is such a special place that we are already planning to come back here in a couple of years.

Since Newfoundland is mostly unknown in the states, here are a few facts:

• It is part of the Canadian province called Newfoundland and Labrador (NL).  Labrador is part of the mainland of Canada and Newfoundland is a very big island off the coast of Labrador – it is almost as big as the state of Ohio and the driving distance from the farthest little community in the northwest (Quirpon – pronounced kar-poon) to Cape Race in the southeast is 1,138 kilometers (711 miles).
• To get to the island you sail from Nova Scotia on some of the largest ice-breaking ferries in the world (1,200 passengers and 350 cars) - either to Channel-Port aux Basques in the southwest (~110 miles (5 ½ hours)) or to Argentia in the southeast (~325 miles (14 hours)).  The cost one way to take our 50 foot long RV (truck + 5th wheel) is about $375 on the short route and $850 on the long route.
• Nova Scotia is on Atlantic Time (1 hour ahead of Eastern Time) and Newfoundland is on their own time zone – a half hour ahead of Atlantic Time.
• It is very rocky here (and is often referred to as The Big Rock).  It is also hilly in many places with mountains on the west coast that are the northernmost part of the Appalachian Mountains.  The Long Range Mountains in Gros Morne National Park are the oldest in the world.
• There are about 500,000 people living here on the island and about half live in the Avalon area which surrounds St. John’s (the capital).
• Life in Newfoundland has been (and still is) based upon fishing.  All around the island are countless little fishing communities nestled around protected harbours.
•  A moratorium on cod fishing was issued in 1992 and many of the fishing communities are having a really tough time economically.   To give you an idea of the economic conditions  (not only in small communities, but even in larger ones), one of the rental car agents (about 25 years old) said that 85 out of his high school graduating class of 180 are now working in Alberta in the oil industry.
• There are about 10,000 moose here and we have seen about 10-15 of them so far.  While driving one must always be looking out for them, since hitting one (over 1,000 pounds) can be devastating.
• There are very few roads in the interior – the main one from Channel Port aux Basques to St. John’s is Hwy 1 – Trans Canada Highway – referred to as TCH.  This is a very good highway with most of it being limited access and two-lane with many intermittent passing zones.  Once you get on some of the side roads, however,  it is a different story – many potholes and multiple patches and dips (heaves) in places – so driving can be fun (looking for moose, potholes, and the beautiful scenery all at the same time).
• In all of our travels in Canada, the people here in the Atlantic Maritimes (especially in Newfoundland) are the most friendly that we have met.  A lot of people found out how great the people are during the 9/11 disaster when people in the small community of Gander (population of about 10,000) and the surrounding communities volunteered their time, food, homes, etc. out of the kindness of their hearts to help the 6,595 stranded passengers and crews of the 38 planes that were diverted here for a few days.

Before heading for Newfoundland, we spent a week in the Boston area parked in the driveway of fellow New Horizons 5th wheel owners in Lexington.   While there, we took photos of numerous lighthouses; visited with one of Jan’s schoolmates from childhood in Richmond, Indiana; went to some of the numerous historic sites; visited the John F. Kennedy birthplace and Presidential Library and Museum; and also enjoyed seeing some wildlife in a couple of National Wildlife Refuges.  There is so much to see and do here that we plan to spend a few more days on our way back in September.

After spending 2 days at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine we headed for Canada.  This time the customs agents asked us to open all of our truck and trailer compartments and then they searched thru things for about 15 minutes, but of course, did not find anything.  After clearing customs and about 40 miles before reaching the large city of Moncton, the gremlins that had left us alone for well over a year decided to visit us again.  One of the trailer tires blew out caused by the wheel bearings disintegrating and the resultant wobbling tire rubbing against the bracket holding the brake calipers.  There was no way to have someone tow us in (we would have been loaded onto a low bed truck and would have been too tall to go under the overpasses in front and behind us).  So, we took off the bad tire and drove the last 40 miles very carefully on 3 trailer tires into a campground in Moncton.  The next day, Jan removed the bad bearings, had new ones pressed into the wheel hub, got a new tire, and we were back on our way.  Fortunately, we had spare bearings with us.

 After a quick drive thru Nova Scotia and a very good ferry ride (short route), we arrived in Newfoundland and toured the southwest part of the island (mainly taking photos of lighthouses).   We even rented a car and drove to Burgeo on the south coast and took a small ferry to the small remote island of Ramea to see the lighthouse there and also spend the night at a B&B.  The return ferry to the mainland in the morning had electrical problems, but fortunately was fixed in time for the afternoon trip (otherwise we would have had to spend 2 extra nights on the island).

Then it was on to the far northwest part of Newfoundland to the Iceberg Festival in St. Anthony.  While there, we saw some icebergs, enjoyed the concert given by Ennis (a Newfoundland sister music group), attended a couple of ‘kitchen parties’ (an evening of music including visitations by mummers [veiled people in outrageous costumes]), and got to meet 2 big Newfoundland dogs.   In addition, we visited L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site – the only authenticated Viking landing location in North America.  And then we finally fulfilled one of our bucket list items and spent our first night in a lightkeepers house at the lighthouse on the farthest north point in Newfoundland (the Cape Bauld lighthouse Inn on Quirpon Island).   What a delightful evening we had visiting with the other guests and the staff at this isolated lighthouse!

Then going back down the west coast we visited the beautiful Gros Morne National Park and hiked in over 1 1/2 miles on a fabulous sunny day to take a boat ride thru the very scenic Western Brook Pond fjord with its high cliff sides.  This was a salt water fjord, but glaciers 10,000 years ago blocked the entrance and now it is a fresh water pond.  Side notes: a lot of the lakes up here are called ‘ponds’; bodies of water smaller than bays (but larger than coves) are called ‘bights’; and narrow bodies of water between 2 islands or an island and the mainland are called ‘tickles’ (probably named that because crossing one of these when the tides are rushing in or out can be a ticklish proposition).

One of the long side trips we made in a rental car was driving down frpm Grand Falls-Windsor to the central south coast to Harbour Breton to photo some lighthouses.  We enjoyed the beautiful scenery (including some great fjords), but did not like some of the roads (especially one gravel road that we should not have gone on (but made it back OK)).  After this trip we drove up to Twillingate on the north shore and spent a few days there.  While there we enjoyed a very funny dinner theatre production and 2 nights of really great music; took photos of lighthouses; and rode a ferry over to Fogo Island for a day to visit the communities of Fogo, Seldom, & Tilting.  Twillingate is definitely one of destinations on our return trip in a couple of years.

We are already starting to feel like we don’t want to leave the Big Rock even though we still have 3 more weeks to go before heading to Nova Scotia.  To extend the time here and see more places, we have decided to drive the 500 miles from the St. John’s area back to Channel Port aux Basques and take the short ferry ride (instead of the long ride) back to Nova Scotia.

So far, the weather has been great (lots of sunny days) and cool - in St. Anthony it would drop to 4 (upper 30’s F) at night and some days would not rise above 10 (50 F).  The hottest it has been so far has been around 27 (80 F).   However, our great weather may be changing now to a lot of cloudy, rainy days, with lots of fog as we near the eastern shores (St. John’s is noted for fog).  We really wish that we could send of the cool weather from up here down to all of you that are trying to withstand such high temps.

Hope this update finds you all doing well.

Cape Bauld lighthouse - on Quirpon Island

Iceberg along west coast of Newfoundland

Large iceberg (it was estimated that about 130 feet of it is below the water line).  This is one that we went around on a boat ride.

Moose near St. Anthony

Eastern Point lighthouse - near Gloucester - near Boston

Boston Harbor lighthouse - Oldest lighthouse in the US, however, it was later reconstructed.  The Sandy Hook lighthouse in New Jersey is the oldest one that is still standing as originally constructed.

Scituate lighthouse (south of Boston) - the 5th oldest lighthouse in New England

The beginning of the Western Brook Pond fjord in Gros Morne National Park

Blue Denim Falls on the cliff walls of Western Brook Pond fjord

Sebastian - A Newfoundland dog - weighs about 130 pounds and requires a lot of grooming.  Great water rescue dog and helped fishermen with their nets etc.

Harbour Breton lighthouse (central south coast of Newfoundland)

View of coastline at Long Point (near Twillingate)

Gardens along the roads.  Since it is so rocky near the coastline, there is not much topsoil - so people have their gardens inland along the roads (the fences are to keep the moose out).  There are also countless stacks of firewood along the roadside where it is stored (since they don't have the room in the tighly packed coastal communities).

Typical stream bed strewn with rocks

Rose Blanche lighthouse along southern coastline