Icebergs, Theatre, and the Skerwink Trail

So, for my birthday this year we took a trip to Trinity and Bonavista, Newfoundland. It was a really nice trip and we got to see some pretty stunning views and meet some great folks.

We left on Thursday, Oct 22 after work and drove to Trinity that night. It was pretty tough to find it, but we got there eventually. We took a couple wrong turns and missed our chance at McDonalds :( So, we ate at the Bed and Breakfast we were staying at. Luckily they were still open and we had a yummy dinner there.

The place we stayed was called the "Eriksen Premises" and was this cute B&B in the middle of town. The town was so small! The people who ran the B&B mentioned that during the winter there are only about 30 people who live there. However, the summer brings lot of tourism as they have a great theatre there.

We finished our dinner around 9:30, and went to our room. The rest of the town was just completely dead. It was really eery and so quiet and dark.

The next morning we walked around Trinity a little bit and took some pictures. It is such a photogenic little town. Here are a few of the pics we took in the morning.

After wandering around Trinity for a bit, it started raining so we drove to Bonavista, which was about 45 minutes away. We were on the hunt for icebergs since we saw on the icebergfinder website that there were a few just off the coast. We were not disappointed! WOW!! The icebergs were absolutely fabulous. The first two we saw were further away and we tried to get closer. We parked our car and made our way through some trails to the edge of the land closest to the icebergs. When I was walking along, I came across a bunch of goats! They were really cute and all so different. I yelled a little when I first saw them because they scared me, which scared them away, but then I stood still enough that they stopped running away and we got some cool pictures with them.

The next iceberg was closer to shore and we got some pictures with us and the icerberg in the background.

Bonavista Bay is also where John Cabot initially landed in Newfoundland. Here is the statue they had in the bay that had the icerbergs. He landed a REALLY long time ago!

We went to this place called "The Dungeon" and it was this really neat rock formation. This is a picture of Jordan running around it. I don't really know how this happened over time, but it is a pretty spectacular thing.

The last iceberg was actually pretty small but it was right next to the land and it was shaped in an amazing way. We think it looks like a mother holding a baby. But, seriously, how does this shape happen??

Another thing we noticed in Bonavista was that everyone had these HUGE piles of logs around their house. I guess the electricity isn't as reliable, or they all have woodburning furnaces in their homes. Anyway, here is a picture of one. Pretty impressive, right? I wonder how long it takes to make these stacks.

After Bonavista, we drove back to Trinity for our dinner reservation. We ate at a place called the Artisan Inn. I had orange carrot soup, pecan crusted salmon with potatoes, spinach salad, and an amazing partridgeberry bread pudding. Jordan had tomato basil soup, lamb shank, spinach salad, and the same bread pudding. They had these fun candles on the tables... :)

After dinner we went to the "Rising Tide Theatre" where we saw a play about a couple in the 1920s. There were only two actors (boy and girl who end up together at the end after a lot of arguing) and there were only about 16 people in the audience. We had front row seats and we were only about 10 feet from the actors in some parts. It was really good though, and they did a great job weaving in Newfoundland history into the whole thing.

The next day we went on the Skerwink Trail close to our B&B. It is supposed to be one of the top 3 trails in Canada to go on, and it did not dissapoint! Here are a few of the amazing views from the trail. The fourth picture down is actually a picture of the town of Trinity. So amazing!

Just wanted to leave you with a picture that to me captures some of the spirit of Newfoundland - Clothes out on the line to dry. Love you guys and miss you tons!

The Great "White" North: Wintertime in Newfoundland

Dear Family and friends: So Lina and I have made it through our first winter in Newfoundland--barely! We're not going to lie, it has been brutal at times. It also included some firsts for Lina: such as shoveling snow and driving in snow. Although I (Jordan) have lived in cold and snowy places before, I've never experienced any winter as intense as Newfoundland's (all things considered). We thought we'd post a few pictures that will tell the story better than we could with words. Much of the snow in the pictures below has melted now (phew!), but it's still not all gone yet. The pictures below show it near its deepest point of the winter. These photos are not in order, but will provide some info. for those interested in perusing some experiences and adventures of the past six months or so... The following several pictures were taken last night on a trip to the Southern part of the Island along the coast. There are few things as beautiful in North America than the Newfoundland coast. It is rocky, rugged, and picturesque at nearly ever turn.

"Part of your world" ... This is Lina impersonating the Little Mermaid (in imitation of Lucia Tucker's priceless video performance on Facebook. Thank you for the inspiration Lucia! We love you.)

Another stunning breaking wave/coastal splash...

The critter in this picture is a MOOSE! There are allegedly about 150,000 moose in Newfoundland. It is a commonly hunted animal and they are huge! It makes us nervous driving at night in the "bush" (wilderness) because they are about as big as our car.

To date, Lina and I have gotten to taste moose sausage and moose roast from some locals (tasty!), but it took us until last night to get to see our first ever moose in the wild. This is a female. The picture belies her true size. She was absolutely enormous; and the bull's (male's) are even bigger, as you could imagine. We actually saw a full-size stuffed bull in a Smithsonian musuem recently and compared to deer, they are unspeakably large. I was hoping for a better picture than this, but unfortunately, our city-slicker like excitement induced a mild roar of over-eager squeals and thoughtless door slams which understandlably frightened the poor critter away. By the time I snapped this photo, she was probably at least 150 yards away or so, and it was getting dark.

The rugged shoreline...

Lina on the East Coast with some small islands in the immediate distance.

Jordan on the East Coast shoreline at dusk.

The snow accumulation on the street where we live.

The snow in front of our place. We live upstairs and have a neighbor who lives in the downstairs (private entrance). At it's peak of accumulation (snowfall and shoveling combined) the snow on our property was 2-3 feet above the top of Jordan's head. Some of our friend's had a pile 12-13 feet high in front of their house. We received over 200 centimeters (6.5 feet) of snow in February alone.

The snow in front of our house during a light snowfall; notice the height of the pile compared to our car.

A gift and a new friend amidst the rough and tumble of winter.

Christmas time at our Branch President's house.

This last picture was taken from the backyard of our last basement apartment (where we lived from August-January). This was taken around Thanksgiving time before the snowfall started nailing us. In the distance you can see the famous Signal Hill (left) and the Atlantic Ocean (right). It was pretty cool to be able to see the Ocean from our house. That may never happen to either of us again. We both love the Ocean, so our proximity to it has been one of our favorite things about living in Newfoundland.