I wrote this for my friend and workmate, Lora, who lives in the prairies. Since the spring, she has stated that she is very much looking forward to my summer pictures post and a ‘vicarious’ vacation on the rock. I hope this post lives up to her expectations.

Dear Lora,

You know that saying – ‘Be careful what you wish for – it might just come true’? Well, I just want to put that out there as my disclaimer to this very long travelogue. Since you first said you were looking forward to my summer pictures and tales of my travels around the island, I began keeping a little ‘journal’ to share with you.

Sometime around the first day of spring this year, I decided I would have a goal to visit 100 beaches before the summer was over. My other goals were to be safe and have fun. It shouldn’t be hard to hit all three given that I live on an island and I’m always down for some good safe fun. But I had to start early to hit that 100 beaches goal, so I decided that my summer would begin on April 2 and end on September 22, the official last day of summer. Realistically, we have to extend the ‘summer’ season a bit here on the island because we are not known for the best weather and we have to take what we can get before it’s gone.

I kept track of everything. But don’t worry Lora, I’m not going to bore you out of your mind with pictures and comments on everything. I’m just going to hit you with the highlights that I jotted down as they happened. But still, I hadn’t realized how large that record had gotten until I sat down to put it all together for you – like over a month ago. I actually started this on the last day of summer and it’s already past Halloween.

Anyway – there’s no way I can make this long story short (although I did break it up into two parts). All I can do is tell you to pace yourself – you don’t need to read all this in one go. And you know how I like to talk. It’s not much different when I do it through the keyboard – there is no doubt that I am wordy either way.

Also, I do want to thank you for asking me (both repeatedly and pointedly, on multiple occasions, in front of other people, and so on) for this record of my summer. I thoroughly enjoyed putting it together for you and recounting my time and revisiting my memories. I hope you enjoy this ground-level view of the wonderful rock I call home. (And just click on the pictures if you want to see them at full size.)

C

April 2, 2021

Hi Lora! Well, today seemed destined for failure but it eventually worked out. (Our hot water tank broke last night. Of course it happened at 1:00 AM on the night before a long weekend. It was back and forth as to whether I could go or not, but my awesome partner got it taken care of and I was out the door at 7:00 AM with my sister-in-law.) We were in time for a wonderful pre-dawn ride to the southern part of the Avalon Peninsula and the first day trip of the season.

It was a wonderful little trip. We visited seven different communities and six different beaches. Along the way we saw this boat with this name – and we had a good laugh! (And wondered what happened to the first one.)

We also saw this…unique display. Again we laughed, but in a different way. (I wonder if one of the ‘twins’ is related to our ‘Woody’?)

We saw some merganser ducks along the way. They have spiky feathers on their heads.

We had some great fish and chips at the Riverside Café in Cape Broyle. The weather was so nice for this early in the year. We are both very glad we decided to get out of town today.

Additionally, I found this on the first beach I walked on this year.

You bet I brought it to dinner that Sunday and surprised (or terrorized, depending) my niblings whenever I could. It lived in my purse for about two weeks! Good times.

So Lora, I have begun my summer and my goal of 100 beaches – woohoo! And I have officially begun my travelogue for you. I’ll update you the next time I’m on the road.

Beaches total = 6/100

April 17, 2021

Hi Lora – well, we are on the road again, but just for the day! It’s me, my sister-in-law, my sister and niece this time. We have an ambitious agenda. We are going to nine different beaches today in the Conception Bay area. There are many places we haven’t explored yet on this list so we are all excited about going. And I love having my niece with us. She definitely brings a different tone to the day, being 8 years old and all.

We saw this beached boat in Colliers, called the Hamilton Banker just lying on the bank.

Not far from the boat was this rock that someone had painted to look like a quilt. It stood out from the grey rocks on the beach.

And, if you go into Chapel’s Cove one way, you get to see llamas! That was a delightful and unexpected sight along the way.

We had a good long day – this was another sunrise-start trip – and my niece was good and tired by the time we were done. We all were.

Beaches total = 15/100

April 30, 2021

Hey Lora! I hope you are enjoying your Friday. My sister and sister-in-law took the day off with me. We are off to the Baccalieu Trail today. Along with going to our favoured spots, we are also going to some places we haven’t visited yet that are a little west of the area we usually go to.

Just because I know your sense of humour is as juvenile as mine, I have to tell you that we visited Dildo again today. But we also went to Spread Eagle. As you can imagine, it’s not far to get from Spread Eagle to Dildo – especially if you are motivated. (Sadly, there was no ‘Spread Eagle’ sign, but I never pass up an opportunity to grab a pic of the Dildo sign.)

We had a really great day, good food, and lots of laughs. (I wish you could be with us – there’s room in the car!)

Beaches total = 22/100

May 14, 2021

Hey Doll! So today we did a half-day trip to five beaches around Colliers and Avondale on the Avalon Peninsula. It was the three of us again today – me, my sister and sister-in-law. We took a steep hike to a place called Salmon Cove in Gasters.

This rock was questioning something, but I’m not sure what.

Although we went to five beaches, only three of them were new to me this year, so that’s all I’m counting.

Beaches total = 25/100

May 24^th Weekend 2021

Lora! I hope you have some plans for this long-awaited long weekend. I am so happy to be on my first overnight trip of the season with my wonderful partner. We visited the Baccalieu Trail area on this trip but started with a great night at his folks place in St. Joseph’s.

I know it may seem like I keep going back to the same area over and over again – but that’s because I am. It’s a great area of the province and I love that it’s only an hour or so away. We were all over the place for four days and it was very freeing to spend the days and nights somewhere else besides home – for the first time since last year. We had a great time and saw some awesome things along the way. And I got to go to five new beaches as well.

A cute little goat we saw.

Thankfully, this was the only moose we saw.

The loons were nice to see in Vitter’s Cove.

And this neat little window along the way.

There’s always the view of the water.

Lora, I hope you enjoyed your May 24 as much as I enjoyed mine!

Beaches total = 30/100

June 5, 2021

Hi Lora – I hope you are having a great Saturday up at your place. My sister-in-law and I took a day trip today around Carbonear, Harbour Grace and the Spaniard’s Bay area.

We saw this at one of the first places we stopped.

There were some bones on one of the beaches. I’m no ‘boneologist’ so I have no idea what used to be on the outside of these.

We did more beaches than we thought we would today – I have eight to add to the total.

Beaches total = 38/100

June 26, 2021

Hey Lora! Today my sister-in-law and I took a day trip to visit three communities called Heart’s Delight, Heart’s Desire, and Heart’s Content. They are all on the Baccalieu Trail and it’s a stunning sunrise drive this morning. It’s a nice time of year with these long lovely days.

These are a few of the sheds we saw.

And here’s the Heart’s Content lighthouse.

Another day of beaches and I’m beat again. There’s something about the salt water and the walking and looking that really tires me out, in the best kind of way. And I have five more beaches added to my total.

Beaches total = 43/100

July 7 to 11, 2021

Hey my prairie doll! It’s the start of a staycation with my sisters. We are heading to the Bonavista Peninsula. It’s about a three and a half hour drive from home. We are spending two nights in Upper Amherst  Cove and two nights in Bonavista. So this is a four-night and five-day trip. We are totally pumped and can’t wait to go.

We didn’t leave really early today so no sunrise, but thankfully we drove out of the fog and into some better weather.  We stopped at a wonderful place called ‘Round Da Bay Inn in Plate Cove West for a picnic lunch, and a little local craft shopping. We took our time and visited a beach or two before heading to Upper Amherst Cove to check in. This is our cute and quirky place for the next couple of days.

It used to be a post office at some point and it was surrounded by lupins.

There was a beautiful sunset that night.

July 8, 2021

Hey Lora! Today we went exploring the area. The first place we went to is a place called Keels. It is a very tiny community with a very long history. We followed a road that kept getting narrower and rougher and this is what was at the end – the Devil’s Footprints! (Spooky!)

Information on how these ‘footprints’ were formed.

There were many of them on this rock.

On the other side of the road, and around this formation, are buildings that are original to the area. Part of the movie Maudie (about the Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis) was filmed here. The place where we ate lunch had lots of photos from the filming.

We also saw this great sign along the way. And we visited this lovely beach.

We explored Duntara and King’s Cove and walked the beaches. We did the same in Stock Cove and Knight’s Cove. Then we drove up the Bonavista highway to visit more of the beaches there. One of those places was called Newman’s Cove.

There was a walkway to the beach there. And there was a strong smell as soon as we got out of the car. But we figured it was probably just capelin from the recent rolling that were left rotting on the beach. (Long story short for you my land-locked lovely – capelin are small fish that come up on the beach, called ‘rolling,’ to mate each year. Almost all the male capelin die after this activity and many are left rotting on the beach until scavengers or tide and time take them away.)

So, we each split up at the entrance to the beach. My sister-in-law went left, my sister went right, and I went down the middle. The smell was really strong and you could feel it and taste it in the back of your throat. I could see that there were some capelin rotting but they really were not enough to account for the overwhelmingly-pervasive stench.

Within just a few minutes, my sister-in-law called out to us over the sound of the waves. We walked towards her as she came to where we were. “I found the source of the stink – it’s a dead whale!” she said. “It’s horrible!”

Well, my sister and I had to see that so we walked over towards that side of the beach. As soon as we saw it, the smell seemed even worse – it was like I could feel it in my eyeballs. It was pretty big. It looked like three big lumps with bloated and deflated areas. It was about the size of two or three cars and dark-grey all over. We couldn’t tell what kind of whale it was and we didn’t get closer to try and find out – I’m no ‘whaleologist’ anyway. And we couldn’t stand the smell anymore. Neither of us had a phone or a camera so we didn’t get a picture, but, to tell the truth Lora, nobody wants to see that! We hightailed it out of Newman’s Cove and headed to any other place where there (hopefully) wasn’t a dead whale.

The rest of the day was much nicer. We drove around Bonavista and got our bearings in anticipation of the next two days. We had lunch at a seaside café and did some walking and driving on one of the main streets. We saw this little place – too cute!

And this – fish on a line and a tasty cupcake place just behind.

Then we went back to Upper Amherst Cove for dinner at the Bonavista Social Club. Afterwards, we had some laughs playing word games and chatting about tomorrow.

July 9, 2021

Hey Lora – today is a big day for us! We are leaving Upper Amherst Cove and heading to our next place in Bonavista. We can’t check in until late afternoon so we have some plans for sight-seeing around the area, starting with the Bonavista lighthouse.

Before we even got to the lighthouse, we knew we would see whales. Cars were pulled over on the side of the Cape Shore Road with windows down and sometimes phones or cameras out. Most Newfoundlanders know this means there are whales in the area for anyone that wants to stop and take a look. Of course we did! But we didn’t stay too long as the whales were moving north. We went up to the lighthouse to see if the view was any better.

We got to the lighthouse and headed down to some of the viewing trails. There were a couple of serious photographers there who gave me lens-envy with their forearm-size zoom attachments. And, we were told we had just missed the foxes! They are often seen around this old shed by the lighthouse.

But the whales were enough of a treat for us. The experience and the view was just spectacular, but my pics – not so much. It’s kinda hard to know where the whales will surface next and I had to decide between trying to take pictures with my camera or make memories with my mind’s eye. My mind’s eye won out and I sat with my sisters and just enjoyed the view and the combined wonder and awe we and the other visitors had that morning.

These were the best pics I got before I stopped trying.

Lora, I think I’ve told you that I’ve been to Bonavista before. I was here for the wonderful wedding of my partner’s brother and his lovely chosen. That was in 2019, during iceberg season. I visited many of the same places. But there is always something different to see on this rock – even in the same place.

Like the horses of Dungeon Provincial Park. I knew about them, but we didn’t see them last time. Dungeon Park has this rock formation that looks a little spooky and skull-like.

For a prairie girl like you, seeing horses is probably an everyday occurrence. But for me it’s a real treat!

I’m sure you have many kinds of horses up there too, but I bet you don’t have any of these cuties – a Newfoundland pony here looking fab-u-lous!

We have one more stop on the wildlife train after this today. We are off to Elliston to the puffin viewing site. Rumour has it that there are still some out there to see. But at this point we were hungry! It’s been a busy day so far. We stopped at the aptly named Puffin Café for a quick coffee and a bite to eat before taking the trail to the viewing site.

Along the way we also stopped at Sandy Cove Beach. What a lovely, peaceful place. If you don’t live near the ocean, you probably don’t know that different beaches have different sounds for different reasons. Today, at this beach, the ocean was like some kind of highly-engineered soundtrack. The soft sound of the waves gently washing the sand was beyond soothing. It was the kind of beach where we felt compelled to just sit and take it in rather than roam and beach comb. The sound and the view were of more interest than any items washed up on the shore.

There were also flaggies all over the entrance to the beach, which helped to make it even more magical.  (A ‘flaggy’ is the wild Blue Flag iris found all over Newfoundland. They were one of my dad’s favourite flowers so I never pass up the opportunity to take a picture of these purple beauties.)

We did a few root cellars before we headed out the trail to the puffins.

Here’s more info on root cellars if you find yourself just yearning to know more.

And of course I took a few pictures of this house that is just there for the photo-op.

And then we were walking out the trail to see the puffins!

We saw this little collection that somebody made by the trail.

And then we were at the puffin site and there were still lots of these picturesque little birds left to see.

This one seemed to be posing for the camera.

We had to walk out on a trail that spans a few still-attached pieces of land that will become sea arches in the future. It was windy enough to blow the head off ya (as we say around here) and there was some drizzle falling as well. But there was a big crew of people out there to see the puffins just like us. And, just like at the lighthouse, there were whales feeding nearby. Many people were just sitting and watching both and taking pictures here and there.

We stayed as long as we could before the other ‘nature’ started calling and we headed back to the car. It had been a full day so far and we still hadn’t checked in to our place for the next two nights.

We saw this little shed on the way back and my sister loved the colour of it against the green field and the grey sea.

We came around a corner and saw this pony in somebody’s yard.  This one had a bang trim, it would seem.

Our place in Bonavista is lovely! This is the house.

It has a great open layout and all the things you could want for your stay. It is on a boardwalk around a lake on one side, and a two-minute walk to the ocean on the other side. It also had a shed with the deck chairs and BBQ if we wanted or needed them.

But I was the only one who went out there to get some chairs. It had a loft, so of course I had to climb up to have a gander. This was all that was there.

For some reason, I was fascinated by the look, layout and light of this sparse scene. I went back in the house and got my camera and took several pictures. I titled this one ‘suggestive’ – I will let you decide what it is ‘suggestive’ of.

Anyway, enough of the shed! Like I said, the house was really nice. It had these space-saving stairs to the loft bedroom. (You have to be careful to start on the right foot!)

And when I saw these chairs, I knew you would find them as ‘shexy’ (in Sean Connery’s voice) as I did! My sister had the loft and these two chairs to keep her company in the night.

Supper tonight was at Ragged Rocks Gastropub – we had a very good meal in a very upbeat atmosphere. We saw a sign for a concert while we were walking back to the car. It was at the Garrick Theatre, which originally opened in 1945. We decided to see if we could get tickets and go to our first concert (socially distanced and masked, of course) since the pandemic started! It was a local band called Mick Davis and Thin Love. My sister found out there were tickets available and booked them. So that was Saturday night sorted – we were going to see a band. Woot, woot!

On July 10, 2021

Happy Saturday Lora! Today we visited a few communities and beaches in the area. We went to Little Catalina, Catalina, Port Union and Melrose. It was another great day with a little warmer weather than yesterday.

Somewhere towards the middle of our adventures today, it became obvious we weren’t going to have time to do everything on our itinerary. There just wasn’t enough hours in the day to go everywhere and see everything – this rock is bigger than it seems sometimes. We chatted about coming back again maybe for a weekend to see the places we missed.

We headed back to Bonavista in the late afternoon and picked up supper at the Bonavista Bon Appetit food wagon.

The concert was shortly after supper. I’m no ‘bandologist’ but it was a rockin’ good time! The house looked about half-full (which means a near full-house in pre-pandemic speak) and the band was really good. There was a lot of talent up there on the stage.

By the time we got back to our place, we were beat. It had been a large day with lots of excitement, good times, big laughs, and great memories. We played a little game and began to pull our stuff together in the hallway. It was hard to believe, but we were going home tomorrow.

We were all suffering a bit from the pull between spending more time in vacation mode and getting back to our loved ones and regular days. But we still had tomorrow and were not expected home until early evening so we looked forward to that.

July 11, 2021

Hey Lora! We checked out this beautiful sunny morning and went exploring for awhile before our brunch reservation at the Boreal Diner. We had a wonderful tasty meal and then went back to one of the beaches we liked before deciding to leave the area for the drive home. There were a few more places to explore and re-visit on the way back. We began our last drive through Bonavista and the beginning of the end of this trip.

Bonavista is a small town and the speed limit is pretty low (30kms) in many areas. As we wound through the streets of the town to the highway, we came upon a car that was in the opposite lane but stopped. The driver motioned to our car and my sister-in-law stopped (thankfully) to see what was happening.

“Baby birds” he called out. “There are baby birds on the road!” Well, you know I am a lover of our finely–feathered friends so you can imagine how quickly I undid my seatbelt and jumped from the shotgun seat to hit the street seconds after hearing this. All I could think is – I have got to help these baby birds

“Right there!” the other driver called out and I could see the little tiny brown birds with white splotches and long legs and beaks. There were three of them. Two were heart-breakingly close to the tires of our car. And one was around the yellow line of the road and heading towards the other driver’s stopped car.

The parents were flying overhead and calling out. The two of them darting frantically back and forth over the road. Cars were backing up on both sides of the road. A young boy was walking his bike and also stopped to watch. It was quite the small-town chaotic scene.

And I inserted myself right in there and scooped up the two little ones by the tire of our car. I have never held a wild baby bird before in my life. I admire and enjoy birds from afar, feed them, and try to capture their beauty with my camera – but that’s about it. Until now, when I have two of them in my hands and I’m desperately trying to get the third. And I keep looking up to see if the parents are still flying about and watching their young.

Oh my god Lora – they weighed less than a cotton ball, all three of them together! There’s nothing to them. I’m trying to save them in my cupped hands and one slipped right through a space that didn’t seem big enough for a toothpick. I had to back track and scoop that one up again. Meanwhile, the third one was getting itself under the other driver’s tire.

As soon as I got the second one back, the first one slipped through. They were so scared. I was so worried about squishing or hurting them but at the same time trying to keep their little bodies safe within my cupped hands. They were chirping and making noises that made me feel so bad for them to be separated from their parents at such a young age and to be suddenly thrust into the hands of a stranger from a different species.

And all through this I keep looking up and saying “Momma bird – comeback” like some kind of idiot who thinks these birds know English and would obey my commands.

Finally, I manage to get all three of them in my hands and I run to the side of the road where there is a deep lawn and some fencing close to the roof of a building where I had seen one of the baby bird’s parents landing and looking. The little boy on the bike followed me a bit. I asked him to wait a minute while I laid the birds down.

As I crouched down and they were still in my hands there were so many thoughts going through my head. First it was “I hope the parents come get them, I hope they survive” then it was “I wish I had my camera or phone to take a pic” and then I settled on “You’ve done what you can. Look. Blink. Take a picture for your mind’s eye.” So I did. And I laid the three baby birds in the corner of the fencing and looked around for the parents. They were close. I think they saw. I hoped they saw.

I made the short walk to the road and spoke to the young boy. I asked if he lived close by. I asked if he could check on the birds in a little while to see if the parents took them to a safer place. He said he was just going to the store down the road. He would check when he came back. I thanked him and went back to the car – by this point there were a handful of cars backed up on each side of the road.

I now had only two thoughts on my mind. The first was the hand sanitizer. Birds are beautiful but they have diseases and I needed to clean my hands after this adventure.

The second was blurted out as a question. I quickly got in the car and grabbed the handy hand sanitizer and, in a big whoosh of air and adrenaline, asked “Please tell me one of you b*tches got a picture of me saving those baby birds?!” (Yes, my exact words.) My heart was beating like a drum. I could barely believe this had all happened in a few minutes. I was still processing the feeling of those birds in my hands, the feeling of helping those little helpless fluffs of feathers.

My sister-in-law started moving the car as they both told me they had tried but it all happened so fast and I was moving all around and they just couldn’t get a picture. “But” my sister-in-law said “Everybody in all those cars were smiling and watching and cheering like we were!”

The driver who was stopped and alerted us to the birds had pulled over into a vacant lot. My sister-in-law pulled over where he was and we had a little chat. He thanked us for stopping and helping the baby birds. We thanked him for letting us know they were there on the road. We both spoke of the parents and hoped they would come rescue their young. We did another round of thanks and headed off in our different directions.

I asked again – “Not even one pic?”

They said “You should have seen everybody watching. They were smiling when you got the two, and hands-to-mouth when you dropped that one, and smiling again when you got it back. They were all smiling when you put them in the field.”

That would have to do, I thought as I looked down at my cupped hands and recalled the picture in my mind. That would have to do. And it did. I had no proof, but I had witnesses and my memories. And that would do.

The baby birds were some kind of sandpiper. They had long beaks and long legs. At the last beach we visited, there were no sandpipers, but they had been there. These are their footprints in the sand.

I’m heading home with my heart full of joy, my head full of great memories, and my hands that can still feel the life of those three little birds.

It would definitely do.

Beaches total = 62/100

(Lora – this is getting really long so I’m going to make a part 2 to finish it off!)