Church

Sorry, no icebergs yet...

I came across this the other day and I wanted to share it. In my opinion it's a great definition of church that's not commonly understood. So enjoy!

http://www.dealministry.com/blog/2005/02/when-we-say-church.html

Western Newfoundland - Part 4

We moved our campsite from trout river to berry hill after hiking Green Gardens. The campsite we were assigned basically had no spot for a tent that was flat and the floor was gravel... so Tim went to see if we could get another one. He did and we moved over there. It was a bit bigger and flatter but still gravel. Oh well. We set up our tent, made some supper and relaxed the rest of the evening. It was even dry enough for a campfire! We stayed up late chatting around the fire and it was wonderful. We planned on hiking Gros Morne mountain the next morning but when we woke up we just weren't feeling it. We wanted to take it easy and go to the beach (even though it wasn't that warm) so we did! We took our time and drove north stopping at some sites along the way.

Some rocks Tim wanted to see...they are special! You can ask him about them...
We saw some fish drying in the sun.
We stopped to check out a ship wreck.
We made it to the beach!
We saw a mermaid....
And a moose!
We ate out and went to the Gros Morne theater festival both of which were really good! We headed back to our campsite, had a fire and went to bed. The next morning we had to get up early because we went on the highly recommended bout tour of Western Brook Pond to see a fjord up close and personal. This was quite expensive but absolutely beautiful and I would recommend you take it in as well.
We also saw some bake apples (the first time I saw them growing in the wild) they weren't ripe sadly.
And some laurel, I had to take a picture because it's pretty just like my mommy!
Next post: L'anse aux meadows and icebergs!

Western Newfoundland - Part 3

The next day we decided to return to Green Gardens and do the short hike. I really wanted to do it because it was my favourite hike the last time I was there and I didn't want to leave with such a disappointing experience associated with it. Tim wasn't too sure about returning there because he wanted to do another hike and we only had a few days left in the park. But I was insistent and it was worth it (Tim even said so)! Here are some pictures of one of my most favourite hikes!

Western Newfoundland - Part 2

We started off our second day of hiking with big plans. We were going to go to do the Green Gardens hike. Now, if you're familiar with Gros Morne you will know that this hike is a favourite of many but you will also know there are 2 options for hiking it - the long route or the short route. The short route is 9km return and the long is a 16km loop (maybe if it was flat). We decided that we were going to do the 16km route, I was a little unsure about this because we had a topo map and at some points the hike was pretty steep, but we decided to go for it anyway. Green Gardens is trail 2 on this map in the south west corner. We started at the western parking lot.We packed up a lunch and some snacks and headed out. We hiked in to where the trail forked and took the right path, the left being the path that most people take. It wasn't too bad, we encountered another couple going to opposite direction and they seemed like they were doing fine. We began a long descent into the river valley. At this point I was thinking there was no way I would be wanting to come the other direction because we were going down for a long time and there were lots of stairs. We finally reached the river and forded it (we were prepared for this and we would have to ford it again down stream) and then rested on the other side. At this point I was exhausted and had already drank half my water, we weren't even half done the hike!

We ate lunch and discussed what we were going to do. The options were to continue on our planned route or take the other fork back to the second parking lot. I knew there was no way I could have done it, I was pretty sure Tim was more tired than he was letting on. I'm sure he could have done the planned hike but it would have been really difficult for him and impossible for me (we found out later that many people say this hike is more difficult than Gros Morne mountain) so we decided to head back to the second parking lot and hitch a ride back to our car at the other parking lot. I wasn't even sure if I was going to make it back my legs were so shaky. We realised that day that we wern't as physically ready for intense hiking as we thought we were, and we didn't have nearly enough water for a hike like that. Here's the one picture we took that day of the river we forded.
Honestly it was difficult to enjoy the beauty of the place because we were so exhausted. My advice? If you want to do this hike then take over night things because there are tent sites along the way. This would be the only way to appreciate the beauty of this hike and have a chance to explore the sea caves and beach that this hike is known for. If you don't want to do this than do the short route because it's a lot easier and just as rewarding!

Western Newfoundland - Part 1

We left Moncton early and headed for Cape Breton. We stopped in Port Hawkesbury and visited with my cousins for a bit, playing a great game of clue and then continued on our way to catch the ferry in North Sydney. We almost weren't allowed on because we were a bit late sue to a ridicules amount of construction along the way. But we made it and were on our way to NL.
We left Port aux Basques right away and headed north. We were planning on go right to Cornerbrook but we got too tired, and it was late at night, and there's always the risk of wandering moose on the road at night so we found a little provincial park campground and got a site for the night. We set up our tent by the car headlights (it was around 11 pm I believe) and then settled in for the night. It was a nice little campsite but the ground was gravel, which wasn't that comfortable for sleeping. I guess you're expected to have a thick air mattress or something. The next morning Tim was freaking out because he THOUGHT it was 10 am and he wanted to get going. He was practically taking the tent down while I was still sleeping in it. We took the tent down, went to the bathroom to brush our teeth and stuff and then went to pay for the night. When he started up the car I looked at the time and it was 7:30am...7:30.... I guess I should have bought him a digital watch. I wasn't impressed at all because I didn't sleep well and then he woke me up freaking out. We couldn't even pay because the office wasn't open until 8. If you know me then you know how I value sleep. Anyway we waited until 8 and then hit the road. I slept until Cornerbrook and we went to Tim Hortons for breakfast. We then got some groceries and some other things, like flashlights (a silly thing to forget when you're going camping for a week) and then headed up to Gros Morne.

We got our first campsite in Trout River, definitely a great campground. The sites were grassy, private and spacious. We set up our tent and got everything ready. We checked out the discovery centre to see what scheduled events were happening that week. It was rainy so we didn't really do much other than that.

The next morning we went to a guided tour at the Table lands (also known as a geologists playground). I'm not going to explain what makes them special on here but basically there are one of only a few places like this in the world and geologists say it's the earth's mantle hardened on the surface. Really neat place especially if you want to see some pitcher plants and I would recommend the guided tour because it was entertaining and interesting and we were of course able to do some exploring afterwards on our own.
It was a bit chilly...We were going to hike to the top of the mountain but since we couldn't see the top we thought it probably wasn't wise. So we decided to go back to the discovery centre and have some lunch and then figure out our afternoon from there.

We decided to do the Look Off trail that leaves from the parking lot of the discovery centre. It was uphill the whole way but definitely worth it. I highly recommend it because the view at the top is magnificent.
We didn't see a moose at the top (a couple who were descending while we were ascending told us they saw one at the top) but we saw a rock ptarmigan!
By the time we got off the trail it was raining and cold so we decided to treat ourselves to eating out rather then trying to make some food back at the campsite while getting soaked. We went to a delicious restaurant in Woody Point, I think it was called the Lighthouse restaurant, and had a delicious meal of seafood chowder, fish and chips and caesar salad (we were hungry) and then returned to our campsite to shower and sleep.

It's been a long time

So, I've been missing for a few months. Here's what's been happening:

I went to another friends wedding in Truro, NS. Congrats Shauna and Tyler!
Tim finally joined me in the Maritimes and the first few days he was down we stayed in a cottage in Hubbards, went shopping in Halifax, visited with my sister and did some touring around beautiful Nova Scotia.We spent some time with my family, with Tim's family, traveled to PEI for a day and hte next day to Fredericton to hang out more with our adorable neice and sister and brother-in-law.
We celebrated Charlotte's 1st birthday, even though it's tomorrow August 15th, I wanted to give her the quilt that I made. My first quilt ever! I'm very proud of it!
And here's another cute picture of her just because I can't resist.
Here's a great video of her playing with her puppy...(can you tell I love her?)


After our time in the Maritimes we traveled to Newfoundland via the ferry in North Sydney (the new one that caught on fire a short time later). The next post will have some pictures from our Newfoundland trip.