Saturday - August 25, 2007

Today is our son and daughter-in-laws anniversary – Happy Anniversary Mike & Franneca. A Happy Anniversary also to Doug & Fran – John’s brother and sister-in-law.

Another day without rain, it was overcast most of the day but as long as it didn’t rain what the heck. There was a very cold wind today; it was a jacket day whenever we got out of the truck.

We drove down the other side of the peninsula and visited a lot of pretty villages and out ports, but for the first time since we have come to Newfoundland we found a village that didn’t appear to have one redeeming feature – it was very depressing looking and all the homes were in a sad state of repair. It was very sad to see; obviously it is a village that did not survive the cod moratorium. Most places here have put a lot of effort into attracting tourists and it seems to be paying off for them. I think mid June to mid August is the busiest time for tourists as most places seem to be pretty quiet now. I suspect St. John’s area will still be busy though.

We came back and went to Elliston, the root cellar capital of the province – they have found over 144 root cellars and some of them are still in use today; (they even do tours of them). We have noticed a number of them around the island but must say that we did see a lot in Elliston. We also saw some puffins today, there is a rock at Elliston where they nest and we could see them with the binoculars but that was as close as we could get, at least we have now seen them, if not up close. We went back the Cape Bonavista lighthouse as apparently they also nest in that area, but there were none to be seen there. I think there is also a place somewhere on the Avalon Peninsula where they nest so maybe we can see some there - and up closer.