Newfoundland May 17/16. .

Guess I having some catching up to do!

Last Saturday the weather was sunny (not common here!) so we decided to walk around town. We purchased some jewelry made of Labradorite, which changes colour depending on how the light shines on it, and is quite pretty. We also took lots of photos of the "jelly bean" houses that are so common here. We had dinner and a lovely visit with Claire's family that evening. 

Sunday was sunny too, so we drove up to Signal Hill, where we would have had a great view of the harbour and the city, except for the fog, so we stopped in at the Geo centre on the way down. It has a glass elevator which takes you down to a cavernous room where one entire wall exposes the 550 million year old bedrock. There's also a Titanic room, telling the complete story of that disaster. We went along Battery Road and the old village of Quidi Vidi, which has a pub that advertised "stories" on the outside wall. If it hadn't been mid-afternoon we might have checked it out! Apparently it's quite unusual inside. We then drove out to Conception Bay S to have dinner with Maureen Chafe and her family, whom we had known for many years in Calgary (she ran the Kodaly music program there, and was part of the ladies' Monday night music circle for a while.) She and Rob cooked us a delicious Jiggs supper, which is very salty but good! Among other things, it contains root vegetables, salt beef and peas pudding, which I especially loved. Maureen had strained some of the salt off, thinking we wouldn't like it, but she noticed that I had second helpings of all the salty components of the dinner! Their youngest daughter, Lucy (6 years old) is learning to play accordion, piano and fiddle, and she played a bit for us. Afterwards we went to the arena for a benefit concert for Fort Mac. The musicians were local, and included Alan Doyle, but the music was very loud and there wasn't time for a sound check, as there were so many groups performing. It was touching to see how much people here want to help their friends and family in Fort Mac, and also to see the pride that they have in their own province. They sang I'se the Bye at the end, as well as "Ode to Newfoundland". Newfoundland is the only province to have an official provincial anthem, and everyone stood up, and the men even took their caps off! The whole event was put together in only six days, and raised over $20,000. - not bad for a small town!

On Monday we drove for 2 hours down to the tip of the Avalon Penninsula to Mistaken Point, where we went on a guided hike to see the oldest and largest known fossils of complex, multicellular organisms from 579-560 million years ago. On one area there were over 6,000 specimens! Once at the visitors' centre we had to drive for 30 minutes on rough road, and then hiked for 1 1/2 hours to the point. When we got to the fossil area we had to put on soft slippers so as not to damage the fossils. It was important to do this trek, as Michael has always wanted to see the fossils at the Burgess Shale in B.C., but doesn't think that his asthma is in good enough control to do the climb there. Afterwards we took a short drive down to the lighthouse at Cape Race, the most south eastern part of the province. 

Yesterday was a long day, so today we are taking it easy. The weather isn't the best, but we didn't see any fog in the harbour, so decided to try Signal Hill again. The wind was vicious, but we had a very clear view, and saw our first iceberg! There's an iceberg tracker, and Maureen heard about it and sent us an email, which is another reason why we decided to try the hill. We should see many more along the northern coast when we get there! We took a short drive north of St. John's and saw a few coves along the Killick coast. We then headed to Rocket's Bakery, where we knew there was a traditional session in the cafe from 12:30 - 2 ish. They had wonderful coffee, pastries and lunch options, and the music was great! There were 2 fiddles, one octave mandolin shaped like a guitar, one accordion and an autoharp player! They played many tunes that we know, and their tune sets flowed nicely. The place was decorated right out of the 50's, and it was a cosy place to be on a dreary afternoon. We could have done another short drive but chose instead to rest at the B&B, as we were still tired from yesterday, and the weather had deteriorated anyway. We booked dinner at a place that Michael especially wants to try, and decided to go early, as we'll be having a long day tomorrow.