ElsieD

A couple of random notes. Yesterday we tried to go to Mistaken Point Ecological reserve to look at fossils of the oldest complex life forms found anywhere on earth. Some of these are as old as 575 million years. We got there only to find out that they were taking reservations from Sept. 6th onwards, so there was no tour for us. My husband was particularly disappointed. Today we walked the boardwalk which takes you through the Salmonier Nature Park. It is here that wildlife that are injured to such an extent that they would not survive are brought here to live out their final days. We saw a number of different species, but a lot of them weren't exactly posing for pictures. I'm looking at you Mr. Red Fox, Mr. Moose, Madame Lynx, Mr. Peregrine Falcon and the Miss Snowshoe Hare. We did get some shots of some of the others and I've included a picture of a Snowy Owl and a couple of caribou. That was a really interesting place and it took us 1 1/2 hours to go around it. We got to talking to one of the biologists who told us a bunch of interesting stuff about the moose and caribou. The moose were introduced to Newfoundland in 1904. All 4 of them. Those 4 are responsible for the 110,000 that are on the island today. I know what you are all interested in first and foremost is the food. Places to eat here are not always easy to find. For lunch today 2 places were recommended, and one of the two not really. They were the only two places around where we were. Which is why we ended up eating lunch at the golf course. As I have mentioned before, in some places Newfoundland is very sparsely populated. Today we drove for half an hour down the only road going down the side of one peninsula and didn't see as much as one house let alone a restaurant. Then we went through a small community and for the next 15 or so minutes, didn't see a thing other than some VERY big potholes. So I can see that sometimes you feel pretty happy just to find a place to eat because the alternative ain't pretty. I just decided that I will also include a picture of a bakeapple (cloudberry) patch that we came across in the Nature Park. They were all over the place. But, they are still red which means they aren't ripe. They ripen to a yellow/gold colour. No bakeapples for me.

I watched this and I felt kind of sorry for them, but i'm sure that's because of the cuteness factor.

Perhaps I should have because I love aged cheddar cheese with apple pie. But I was so stuffed I wasn't sure i'd be able to eat the pie let alone with cheese. Reading chromedome's comment I may not have gotten it if I had asked. About the pie - it was the sad part of the meal. The crust was very thick and unpastry like and the apples were only very slightly cooked. I didn't touch the crust, and only had a bit of the apple. My husband had one bite of his and that was it for him. the rest of the meal was sure good, though. By the way, I also like cheddar on apple crumble. Actually, cheddar with apple anything, as long as it is an old cheddar.

Huiray, thanks for your post. The shrimp were hot when we got them and stayed hot because it took us just 18 seconds to eat them. Just kidding, but only about the 18 second part. I think I will assume that they were shell on. I don't know if they were seasoned with anything or not because of the sauce which reminded me somewhat of a sweet Thai chili sauce. Maybe I will try the shrimp head and tail on one day but I have never heard of them being served in a restaurant in my city.

An example of the scenery we are going through. (Still have Internet! ) On the highway picture, there is a Penninsula across the water which we will be travelling on tomorrow. It is the Burin Peninsula. The road picture also shows what shape the roads are in. One piece of highway was downright terrible.

A lot of today was spent driving back roads and Internet reception was spotty to non-existent. So this is quick post to tell you what we had for lunch. We had an appetizer of bam bam shrimp. They were delicious. We couldn't get an answer to our question and we have never eaten shrimp with the shell on, but these were deep fried and whatever was on the outside was shatteringly crisp, and didn't remind me of any batter coated shrimp. Can anyone tell me what shrimp deep fried with the shell on are like? This was followed by cod au gratin for me and fish and chips for John. The fries were bad, but the rest of the food was fairly good.

So on to dinner. The soup course is set and tonight it was cream of carrot. It was as smooth as silk, they obviously had put it through a sieve. It was served with a piping hot tea biscuit, and regular and roasted red pepper butter. This was followed by cod with homemade tartar sauce for me, while John had pork tenderloin with a balsamic glaze and a roasted granny smith apple stuffed with partridge berry. We had noted that a crab claw was available for an extra cost and we had asked for one but they are out of season. Both dishes were served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and a sweet pepper/zucchini medley. We had some Pinot Grigio with this. They were generous with their pours as they were 8 oz. each. By the time we were finished with all that, and lunch having been not that much earlier, we were stuffed and decided to take dessert back to our room. We don't normally eat dessert but we do like something sweet before we go to bed. So, we each got a piece of apple pie. Since it has to sit around for a couple hours we just asked for it plain so doesn't look all that great. But I can say, that I am sitting on the bed typing this and that pie is about 15 feet away and I can smell the filling way over here, and it smells gooood!

Yes, that bottom picture shows the cod tongues. I couldn't stop oohing and aahing over those miniature boats and village. Some things are so strange here compared to what I am used to, and in a good way. That miniature setting and the folk art being two such examples.

Someone asked about the price of onions here and I can't seem to find the post. We were in a grocery store today so I had a look. A 2 pound bag of cooking onions cost $2.99. Red and Spanish were just a bit shy of $3 a pound. Red, orange and yellow peppers were $5.89 a pound.

I don't know what the coffee scene is like as it isn't something I go looking for. We have had some excellent coffee in two places - Rocket and Coffee Matters. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

I have never seen halibut cheeks on any menu here, but if I see them, i'll try them.

The last picture is of the cod tongues, which are deep fried. The scallops were sautéed in a pan. I will be having cod cheeks before the week is out. They are tasty. At home you would never get 8 sea scallops for that price. You might get three, which is about what I was expecting.

We have just had lunch at In Da Loop, a restaurant in Fermeuse. We both had an outstanding fish chowder made with crab, shrimp, scallops and cod. It was all seafood, no spuds or any other filler. I decided to get an appetizer serving of scallops. Their idea of an appetizer was 8 large sea scallops which cost a measly $7.50. I was expecting maybe 3. God thing John was up to the task of finishing mine off. And for you, Rotuts, he had cod tongues. He enjoyed them but said he doesn't think he would get them again. He said he felt like he was eating chewy cod. Back on the road we go.

A couple of random shots of the scenery on the Irish Loop. We have stopped for lunch and are waiting for our food.

A couple of pictures of something John spotted from the highway outside of any town. A miniature fishing village. You can see an oil rig, as they have the Hibernia rigs, a light house and various boats. The other shot shows a fishing stage and flake. The detail is incredible.

Today we are travelling down the Avalon Peninsulasula, going south from St. John's. The route we are travelling is called the Irish Loop, presumably because it was settled by the Irish. We plan on seeing a few things along the way and will end up in St. Mary's for the night, a metropolis of around 440 people. We are staying at a place called the Claddagh Inn and had thought to go for dinner somewhere, then figured in a place that small, there wouldn't be a lot, if any, choice. So we will eat at the Inn, andto be able to do so, we had to pre-order our main course, which we did last night. We passed another piece of road art this morning, this one was at the end of someone's driveway.

Kerry, those are partridge berry tarts.

For dinner we went to a local institution that had been recommended to us last night by a local and Gary, John's BIL recommended it as well. So the four of us traipsed over. As you can see, it doesn't look like much and inside the place, well, you don't go for the armosphere. But if fish and chips are your thing, this is where it's at. Sue and I had the small which was one piece of fish, Gary and John had the medium, 2 pieces of fish. You can also get the three piece one called - you guessed it, the large! The dinner comes with Newfoundland dressing over the chips and gravy is poured over both. I believe chromedome can confirm that it is very common here to have dressing and gravy on the chips. (Last year we found that if you ordered a turkey sandwich, it too came with dressing and cranberry sauce as part of the sandwich.) Not being a lover of soggy anything, I got my gravy on the side. But then I tried the gravy over some of the fries and dressing, found out that I liked it and finished eating it that way. The gravy was good too, they make beef gravy from scratch. We are on our own now which means I have better control over when I can post. So, rather than getting everything at once as you are getting it tonight, I will post throughout the day, whenever I have something I think might appeal to you. The first picture is the two piece fish and chips, the one next to it is the one piece with gravy on the side. Oh, and the fish was cod.

After our boat trip we went to the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John's. There we had "tea in the crypt". The place was packed and since the place is run by volunteers, service was a bit slow, but very friendly. Even the priest was in attendance making small talk at every table and welcoming everyone. This is not a formal English tea. It is mostly sweet except for a couple of scones. Altogether a splendid way to spend an hour, and a bargain at $10 per person. Missing from the last picture are a couple of scones. Someone had scoffed them before I had a chance to take the picture.

We boarded the sightseeing boat at Bay Bulls at 11:00 and off we went to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. The reserve is made up of several islands. We did see thousands of puffins but they are very small birds, only 6" to 7" and since tour boats are not permitted to land on the island we only saw them from a distance. I have included a couple of pictures of them mainly so you can see their habitat. Sadly, it was hard to see their colouring which was a disappointment as I really wanted to have a close up look. A few interesting facts about puffins are that they mate for life, they can dive to a depth of 300 feet, the babies are called pufflings. Another bird we saw was the murre. The murres breed in colonies so close together that they can touch their neighbours and the female lays one egg per season. All the eggs have different markings and the adult recognizes their egg by the markings on it. They can dive to a depth of 600 feet. We did not see any whales. Other than that, the excursion was interesting. When we started out it was a bakmy day. The farther out from shore we got, the colder it got. I was happy to be wearing both a light fleece and a jacket. The boat rocked and rolled quite a bit which made it hard to take pictures. I was using a tablet and it doesn't lend itself too well to taking pictures with one hand. One other thing I learned was how one fishes for cod. They are bottom dwellers and you catch them with a lure which has a weight in the middle and a hook on each side. Bait is not used. You lower this down until it hits bottom and then bring it up a couple of feet. Then you lower it again, raise it, and repeat. You snag them on the side with said hook. Jigging is the process of raising and lowering the lure. The attached pictures are of the dock in Bay Bulls, the nesting spots of the puffins and murres and a bald eagle whose picture I barely managed to snap.

Great question. I have no idea, but I'll try to find out.

Oh, one more thing. They take moose accidents and sightings seriously here.

Good morning! We are about to begin our travels in earnest today. Sue and Gary are already here and ready to roll. We are off shortly to Bay Bulls where we will be taking a boat tour to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. Newfoundland has a lot of quaint place names. We will see a huge Atlantic Puffin colony, apparently 1/2 million of them, Humpback Whales and hopefully some icebergs. The day is overcast but no rain is called for. Later this afternoon we will be going to "tea in a crypt", again something we did last year that we enjoyed. We actually did have a breakfast supplied hotel breakfast this morning but I didn't take any pictures because it was just the usual scrambled eggs and sausage. Nothing exciting. I have been told it is time to go. More later.

Oopsie, I attached the wrong picture. This is what we ate tonight. That's what happens when your eyes are at half mast.

Okanagancook, i'll watch the video tomorrow. The accents here can be pretty thick. The people here often add an s to their verbs. Like today, when at check-in the young lady said "when you leaves your keys"....... Rotuts, Tim Horton's used to have very good donuts. This was years ago. They made them at each location so they were always nice and fresh. They no longer make them on site. From what I understand, they are shipped to all the outlets from some central location. If anyone knows more than this, I'd be curious to hear it. Anyhow, I no longer buy them, they really aren't all that good. Remember, though, DD used to have the DD wih the handle? Those were GOOD! Having checked in, and done some unpacking, we went to the liquor store aka Newfoundland Liquor Corporation. Bought some Pinot Grigio and stuck it in the fridge in our room. Then we went to a place called Pi Gourmet Eatery. We had been there several times last year and really liked it so decided to go there tonight. I had a smoked salmon calzone and John had the Carnivore pizza. Both were good, but we did not tarry as we were keen to get back to the hotel. We made one wrong turn on the way there which added about 10 minutes to the trip. We have a navigation system in our rental but sometimes the arrow has you going one way while the voice tells you to go another. So we are trying to figure out where exactly we are going, it is dark, we are driving in an unfamiliar city and there are many, many one way streets, weird intersections and to top it all off, it is very, very hilly. Turning around is no easy matter. We are back in our room, sipping a glass of wine, the football game is on and it won't be long before we call it a night. Tomorrow morning John's sister and BIL are arriving from Calgary and we are spending the day with them. Hopefully I will have pictures of whales and puffins to share with you. There is a canvas print over the desk of a pair of puffins and I'll take a picture of it and attach it as well. I should have lots to tell you about tomorrow.