A Vacation Like No Other

I’m just back from a vacation like no other.

Where? Newfoundland. The Canadian province renowned for welcoming over 6,500 passengers and crew from 38 aircraft on September 11, 2001.

The correct title of the province is Newfoundland and Labrador. However, for the purposes of this post, I’ll refer to it as Newfoundland. We didn’t get to Labrador – the province is far too big to see in just two weeks.

I will admit I’m finding writing about our experiences somewhat challenging. Not because we had a dreadful time but because we packed in a whack of adventures. So bear with me. I fear I’m going to have to split this into several posts to do it justice. Even now, I feel I’m just skimming the surface.

Okay, so why Newfoundland?

It’s all thanks to my best friend. Meems went to Newfoundland with her husband and another couple in 2019. One look at her picturesque Newfoundland memory book and I was in.

A Vacation Like No Other

Visitors quickly learn that no trip to Newfoundland is complete without witnessing or participating in the unique ceremony of becoming honorary Newfoundlanders, commonly known as, “Being Screeched In.”

Why is it called that? Local lore attributes it to the shriek expelled by an American serviceman upon hurling back a tot of Screech, the powerful local rum.

Check out the yellow hats. Called sou’westers, they’re a requisite item in being screeched in. While our celebrants were forced to recite the usual complicated verse and down a shot of Screech, they missed out on the highlight of kissing a cold cod. Yes, on this boat tour, the fish was swapped out for a dipped-in-sea-water, soaking wet puffin stuffie. Too bad, huh?

Another Newfoundland highlight?

Puffins!!

Going in, I was the rare bird who knew very little about puffins. I thought they were adorable and was very sad to learn it wasn’t puffin season when I visited Iceland in late September of 2018.

Thankfully, most Newfoundlanders are delighted to share their puffin knowledge. As a result, I now know that every three years, these orange-billed wonders hang out at their birthplace from the end of May to early September and spend the rest of their lives at sea, far out of reach of seagulls, their main predators. With an average lifespan of 20 years, puffins can dive 200 feet deep, they mate for life, and their bills turn brown once breeding season is over.

We managed to observe hundreds of them at three different locations – Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, Elliston and Bonavista. While some lucky guests at one of our B&Bs had birds flutter within mere feet of them, we were treated to seeing them from a distance, squirrelled away, high up on the cliffs hunkering in their burrows. When they ventured out, they tottered to the edge and dive bombed onto the ocean below; their flight path swift and somewhat distant.

This late in the season, this is the closest I got.

Newfoundland Souvenirs, Anyone?

Another wondrous delight of Newfoundland is the abundance of craft shops selling unique handicrafts. I’m a titch obsessive when it comes to souvenirs. My strict policy? The item must be made in the country/province/state I’m visiting. I refuse to purchase something that is designed there but made somewhere else.

Okay, I might have gone a bit overboard in the purchasing department during my two weeks in Newfoundland. Can you say, “Christmas shopping?” Yep, I’ll be pretty smug come this December. Unfortunately, as certain folks might stumble across this post, I have to put the kibosh on showing you what I bought.

However, I can give you some idea of what’s on offer.

A Sign From Francine?

If you visit one craft shop in Newfoundland, make it  Herbie’s Olde Shoppe in Petty Harbour, located just outside the capital city of St. John’s. Staffed by the makers, everything is designed and made locally.

Okay, okay I’ll show you one purchase. The one that gave me goosebumps.

Yikes. But wait. The word count here is getting excessive. Sharing this particular beaut would put me waaay over my word count limit of 750 (much more and I fear your patience would melt like ice on cod barbecue plank).  Sorry. I’m shutting her down for now.

Thanks for hanging out with me and learning about a vacation like no other.

I’ll leave you with this teaser …

Catch you sooner than soon. In the meantime, Google, “Mummering in Newfoundland and Labrador…”