Friday - July 27, 2007

Today was a lovely day, sunny and quite warm but there was a nice breeze so it made it very pleasant. We drove the Port au Port Peninsula today and what a beautiful drive and scenery. We crossed the Gravels, which is the isthmus connecting the peninsula with the mainland. We stopped at Our Lady of Mercy Church at Port au Port, it is the largest wooden structure in Newfoundland and a beautiful church. The Waterloo Region Police Choir is singing in this church next Tuesday night, too bad we won’t be here.

We drove along the Gulf of St. Lawrence through picturesque fishing villages with funny names, we stopped at Sheaves Cove to see the hidden waterfalls and traveled through places like Cape St. George, Mainland, Red Island, Black Duck Brook and Picadilly. The scenery was incredible, unfortunately there are no good places to stop so we got very few pictures. This area is very French and they are trying to maintain their heritage and language. We stopped at Picadilly and had an ice cream cone and there was a beach there with people in swimming – the first time we have seen anyone in the water. Mind you this was on the St. George Bay side and not on the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

When we got back to Gravels we took the road up to Point au Mal and Fox Island River, another scenic drive.

Some of the things we have noticed so far:
- the houses are very nice and there are some really beautiful homes out in the middle of nowhere
- most of the houses do not have garages, especially the older ones, garages are mainly seen on the newer homes
- there are beautiful wildflowers everywhere
- a lot of the shoreline we have seen so far reminds us of the Bruce Peninsula with the cliffs and rocky beaches
- there are very few scenic outlooks – very disappointing and the roads are narrow and without shoulders so it is hard to just pull over and stop
- although it is prime tourist season so far it has been quiet and without a lot of traffic, at one place we stopped today we talked to a couple from Brampton and they said they had noticed the same thing
- most of the cemeteries we have seen have been built on hills overlooking water
- we can’t believe the number of children running around on ATV’s – it seems like every house has an ATV
- I have never seen so many clothes hung out and blowing in the breeze

We are thoroughly enjoying the trip and the scenery is incredible.