Our time at St. John’s was a bit gray, wet, windy, and cold so we mostly did errands. We shopped at the only Costco in the province, where they sold a local food: big tubs of salt beef! St. John’s also had one Old Navy, but no Trader Joes… does this city sound like the mega Newfoundland big city where half the population lives? Well, it is. And the population of St. John’s is about 250,000.

Despite the bad weather, we went to Cape Spear, the eastern most point in North America, and a fort called Signal Hill. We also saw the rows of brightly colored “jellybean houses” as we explored the port and downtown of St. John’s.

We stayed in Elliston, the root cellar capital of the world, right near a puffin colony. The puffins were adorable, and very curious. Sometimes they would fly from the little island that they lived on to the mainland, and sit a few feet away from us. They would look at us with their cute little faces, like they were wondering what the heck we were, and then go back to their normal business. I loved when they would land by flying, hovering for a few seconds, and then dropping straight down onto the rock.

Along with the puffins, there was the puffin festival right in the campground. We all loved the music, especially Little Kid. There were also lots of fun games, and one of them was led by a Member of Parliament. He was very funny. When he asked who was from outside Newfoundland, Ma and I were the only ones. He asked where we were from, and he was pretty surprised when I said Arizona. I was called up on stage to do the “puffin dance” with him and another Member of Parliament.

There were also tons of root cellars, and Little Kid and I had a lot of fun playing in them. In the tiny town of Elliston, there were over 150 of them!

When we were at the lighthouse in nearby Bonavista, we saw a whole pod of whales. One of them jumped completely out of the water!

On our way out of town, we stopped in another town named Trinity. There was an old forge that was still being used, and we spent a long time watching them black smithing. It was very cool. Pa also started chatting with a sailing couple, and before we knew it, we were helping them get to the fueling dock.

I am definitely going to miss seeing puffins everyday, but there is cool stuff ahead!

The end of the earth? Well, a long time ago the Flat Earth Society believed that Brimstone Head, where we were staying at Fogo Island, was one of the corners of the earth. It did look like the sparkling blue ocean just went on forever.  On the ferry ride over, Pa and I were invited in to the bridge by the captain!  They had and old fashioned steering wheel that they actually used, no auto pilot, and a repeater to send signals to the engine room (they didn’t use it).

Fogo Island looked liked a mash of different centuries and places. The tundra with stumpy trees reminded me of Alaska, and the little red shacks along the water looked like a picture of an eighteenth century village. The people were very friendly, and it was pretty hard to just take a walk without spending hours chatting with locals. A lot of people had Irish accents!

We did a few hikes, and one of them was to a sculpture of an auk, an extinct bird. We got an added bonus: a herd of caribou was grazing near the trail!

We spent a week
At Dildo Run,
And everyday
There was much sun.

The water was cold
Frigid but clear
And wherever we turned,
There was an old fishing pier.

There were animals on the ground
And birds in the sky
But unfortunately this was
A favorite spot of the fly.

There were broken houses
Lying in a heap
But there was pretty sea glass
Sea glass to keep.

The cliffs might be steep
And the beaches few
But I love this place
I really do.