the Kids Adventure in Newfoundland - part 2

​St. John's Harbour

We were in the vicinity of St. John's, and woke to another lovely, sunny day, so decided to go visit Cape Spear, the most eastern point in North America. But the fog was so thick there that we couldn't even make out either of the two lighthouses, so decided it wasn't worth the effort to climb the hundreds of steps up into the fog. So we went to St. John's harbour. It's always interesting to see all the fishing boats at the east end of the harbour, across from Signal Hill, which was hidden in the fog that morning..

​Cookie and Ringo went out on the docks to check out the boats...

With the decline of the cod fishery, attention has been focussed on lobsters and crabs. There were stacks of crab pots everywhere. The traps are designed so that crabs can get in the top to go for the bait inside, but the plastic 'funnel' shape opening prevents them from getting back out...

"Look over there. It looks like they are unloading their catch..."

So they went over to watch...

The bottom of the boat was filled with ice, and hundreds, if not thousands, of live crabs. One of the fishermen was down in the hold hand-picking the crabs and putting them into bins...

"Look, they gave us some lobsters they weren't interested in.."

Ringo was keeping at a safe distance as all the others were checking out the lobsters....

They looked rather scary to him....

David and Cookie were intrigued....

....but then Ringo did venture around, a bit closer.....

...to get a better look at the one Olivia was holding....

Cookie picked one up too...

...and getting rather fed up with Ringo......decided to tease him....

"You are such a chicken!!"

"Get that thing away from me!!"

"But it's already cooked, and can't do anything to you!"

"I don't care!  I've decided I'm allergic to seafood....live or cooked!!"

Celtic Rendezvous

We spent the night at a campground south of St. John's, and in the morning it was raining, and Paige was getting wet....

But Olivia had brought an umbrella....

She said there was plenty of room for Paige, so they could look around....

....and stay dry, together....

River of Boats

Just outside Witless Bay, we noticed one of the ponds was full of miniature boats....

There were some other people standing there talking to an older man, who it turned out, lived across the road, and had made all the miniature boats, and ships, which he had anchored in the pond allowing them to float around  somewhat freely....

There were also fishing sheds and docks around the shore....

All manned with an assortment of small dolls....

David and Ringo brought out their boats in the hopes they could sail them there too...

David brought his big schooner....

..and Ringo brought his smaller boat....

But it started to rain, and neither wanted to get wet again, so left. But I wanted to take a few photos of some of the old-timey ships, in case they might prove useful in Rex and Bianca's story....

Whales at St. Vincent

It had rained most of the day, but the further south we got, the better the weather looked. We arrived at St. Vincent under a sunny sky, in the evening....and the kids were so excited.  St.Vincent has a very unusual beach. The ocean floor drops very steeply right off shore, and the whales come right up close. And there were whales everywhere in the bay....

None of them had ever seen whales before...and the water seemed full of them.....

We all stayed on the beach watching the whales until the sun went down....

A Big Button

We were very excited about all the whales, so decided to stay another whole day at St. Vincent. There weren't many whales during the day. Seems they are most active in the evenings.

A local was handing out 'whale-watching' buttons, and Cookie got one...

"How come you were the only one who got one??"

Whale Olympics

"You know, the whales are so active, and they look like they are having a lot of fun. It might be fun for us to pretend we are watching the 'Whale Olympics', and we are the judges, giving them scores on their performances...."

"Sounds like fun!  I'll go make some score cards..."  ​

"Everyone ready?  Look over there!"

"Synchronized swimming!"

"Side stroke!"

"Synchronized breaching....."

"Ooops...looks like they crashed into each other. But they did all get their heads up..."

"Backstroke.."

"That's my favourite whale over there. Looks like he's going to do a breach and dive combo..."

"What do you mean giving that a ten??  He didn't even get up out of the water!! 
​ You can't play favourites like that!!"

"Wow!!  Look at this next guy!!"

"Now that's a LOT better!!"

"That one really deserved a ten!"

"Look how high he got his tail up out of the water!"

"That gets a ten from me!"

"But look over there..."

"His tail hit the water!  So low score from me...."

Anyways, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon....

* continued - Part 3

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