Want to get away from it all? Try Newfoundland!

By Carolyn Rice

Thirty-nine years of marriage to an introvert have obviously worn off on my extroverted husband.  When searching for vacation destinations we tend to head for those with fewer people preferring Salida to Summit County, the north end of Vancouver Island to Victoria and our newest find, Newfoundland.  Newfoundland has roughly the same number of square miles as Pennsylvania with roughly 4% of the population.

The highlight of our trip was two nights at the Quirpon Lighthouse Inn on Quirpon island on the northeastern corner of Newfoundland.  The lighthouse keeper’s house on this deserted island has been turned into an inn.  When we arrived there were 12 other people staying there plus the staff.  All 12 left after breakfast the next morning and we had the island to wander by ourselves until early evening.  We were too late for the ice bergs but had a pod of gray whales hanging out in the small harbor close to the house.

 

We also spent time in Gros Morne National Park taking the boat tour on Western Brook Pond.  Western Brook Pond is a freshwater fjord, carved by glaciers and then cut off from the ocean.  Eventually the saltwater was flushed leaving the lake fresh; the water in the lake is pristine to the point that, like distilled water, it will not conduct electricity.  The boat tour takes you to the eastern end of the lake past numerous waterfalls, including one of the highest in North America, imaginatively name Pissing Mare Falls.

When we returned to St. John’s, the capital best known for its brightly painted row houses, for our flight home we realized we hadn’t heard a siren in the week and half we’d been up north.  Since we live one block from a fire station this was a rare hiatus.  St. John’s is an interesting city, settled in the 1600s with interesting neighborhoods, a fun downtown and wharf area, lots of history.  We didn’t leave enough time to fully explore it, so we might need to go back.

 

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