2019 Year in Review

We spent February in Florida visiting Barbara’s family and volunteering at Habitat for Humanity.

And we plan to do the same in 2020.

In May Bill and Carrie explored Iceland driving the Ring Road seeing waterfalls, icebergs, thermal features, puffins, whales, and much more.

Then we took a 6-week RV trip to Newfoundland – early enough for icebergs and late enough for whales. We loved the scenic coastal hikes, bird watching and boat tours.

Later in the summer we helped Kate move to a house she and her boyfriend, Josh, purchased in Framingham MA. Kate & Josh have tech jobs in Boston. Carrie works for an economics consulting firm and is looking into grad schools for next year.

Carrie, Kate & Josh at Rattlesnake Knob Christmas 2019

We went to Ohio several times to help out Bill's family and for Barbara to letterbox with friends.

And we keep busy with Habitat for Humanity (Bill), Community Bible Study (Barbara), our church and small group, local hikes, and our usual projects.

Newfoundland Trip Summary

What a cool trip! And we don’t just mean the weather, which was cool! We made some wonderful memories in the easternmost province of Canada and along the way.

Our trip came on the heels of Bill and Carrie's trip to Iceland, which had some similarities: icebergs, puffins, rock formations, whales, waterfalls, and seafood.

Despite the similarities, Newfoundland offered new places to explore at a relaxed pace. We stopped briefly along the way in New Hampshire, Maine and New Brunswick and then spent some time in the northern part of Nova Scotia before taking the ferry to Newfoundland. Here’s our route.

Here’s just some of the things we saw.

Lighthouses...

Icebergs...

Birds...

Waterfalls…

Natural arches...

Jelly bean row houses...

Moose tracks!

We also saw plenty of moose poop, but didn’t see a Newfoundland moose until the very end of the trip.

We heard the history, learning about: early Paleo-Eskimo seal hunting, Norse explorations, John Cabot’s landing, British colonization, and the fishing economy that took a major blow in 1992 with the close of cod fishing.

The culture was and is connected to the sea. A painting called Maybe Tomorrow reminded us of the challenges.

We really had a great time. Glad we have the opportunity to explore.

Newfoundland to Massachusetts – Heading Home

We divided the trip back to Massachusetts into three days: the ferry from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia, driving almost to the US border, and driving from the border to Andover, Massachusetts.

The 7-hour ferry takes pretty much all day as you need to arrive two hours ahead of time and it takes a while to get off the ship once the ferry docks. Here’s the view of the deck. 

We grabbed seats close to the stern-facing window and watched as we got farther and farther from Newfoundland. Once we got to Nova Scotia, we went to a campground we stayed at back in 2000 – just stopping for the night.

The next day we drove through northern Nova Scotia and most of New Brunswick, camping in a quiet wooded corner of a provincial park on the Bay of Fundy. We were both pretty tired, but mustered the energy to walk to the beach. 

We included one last brief site-seeing destination before crossing the border – Kingsbrae Garden in St Andrews, New Brunswick. We spent a pleasant hour there walking through their various gardens.

And wouldn’t you know it. The very last thing we see before leaving is… a BIG red Adirondack chair!

 

Newfoundland – Last Day

Corner Brook

We camped at Corner Brook – the third largest city in Newfoundland, situated at the end of the long Bay of Islands between the mountains. Since we had time before we had to checkout, we hit a couple trails.

The first was a short hike to Steady Brook Falls.

Sometimes we spot interesting things along the way.

Second we walked the pathways by Margaret Bowater Park, which skirt a stream and pond in the middle of the city. A beautiful day for a stroll on really nice city paths.

The Granite Coast

We headed back to the provincial park we first stayed at when we arrived in Newfoundland – close to the ferry. We didn’t have time to drive the coastal road beyond the ferry the last time we were here, but this time we did. It’s an interesting drive. Bill said, “The land has wrinkles.” Lots of twists and turns as the road goes through an almost tree-less granite landscape with frequent ponds, distant views of the Atlantic and occasional harbor towns. Along the way we stopped for a short boardwalk hike to Barachois Falls.

Wildflowers lined the path, including many pitcher plants and some lady slippers.

The road ends at the small fishing village of Rose Blanche where one can see the restored Rose Blanche Lighthouse. The lighthouse was in operation until the 1940s when it was abandoned. By the 1980s the granite building fell into ruins except for the tower which was supported by a stone spiral staircase. A major restoration effort culled through the rubble to rebuild the lighthouse with mostly the original granite blocks and opened in 1999.

You get nice coastal views from the lighthouse.

There is actually another town beyond Rose Blanche, but you can only get there by boat. That’s like many coastal communities used to be in Newfoundland.

After dinner we took a walk on the same beach we walked when we arrived. 

Tomorrow we leave Newfoundland…