Excursion Around the Bay

Yesterday I went camping at Kettle Moraine (not around the bay, alas) so I could get a night out in my tent cot and discovered it had acquired a musty smell, so today I had to scrub it down with vinegar in the driveway and later I'll probably put some annuals in my thriving garden.  I've harvested rhubarb twice now!  I might have to start giving it away.  I don't know about the rest of the country, but apparently we skipped right over spring in southeast Wisconsin.  Maybe we had a week or two, but the temps have been in the 70's and 80's since we returned from Newfoundland.  And the sun's been splittin' rocks!  That's Newfie for hot and sunny, by the way.

The song "Excursion Around the Bay" sung by Great Big Sea has a completely different meaning than what I'm intending, but I thought it had a nice ring to it for another post about our short stay in May.

Now, I've never been to Harbour Grace in Conception Bay, but I've been a few places around Placentia Bay.

Placentia

 We usually take drives while in Newfoundland, and even though our stay was much shorter than usual this trip was no exception.  We took a quick ride out to Ship Harbour, a little village where Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met to discuss the terms of the Atlantic Charter in 1941.

Bog view on the Sugarloaf Trail, Ship Harbour

Until 1958 when the road was built, travel to Ship Harbour was mainly by boat, like our esteemed fellas mentioned above.

lichen on the Sugarloaf Trail

There is a lovely view of Placentia Bay from Ship Harbour as well.

Some views of Placentia Bay you don't even have to leave the back yard to appreciate.

View of Placentia Bay from my Nan's back yard

Cory took his own excursion with my Uncle Ronnie.  They hopped on the quad and took a tour of First Beach together one morning.

I can't remember if I mentioned it before or not but my mother's family lives in Freshwater.  If you stand on Castle Hill and look in one direction you see Placentia, if you turn and look the other way you see Freshwater.

View from Castle Hill of Old Settlement Hill, Freshwater

Until World War II it was a tiny fishing settlement that relied on the small-boat inshore cod fishery.  Until 1945 the population did not exceed 100 and generally was closer to 60.  Due to an influx of people at that time the population rose to 595...but that's a story for another day.

Nothing says Newfoundland like a dory out behind the house.  Complete with headboard.

Katrina and Aunt Agg

Unfortunately that's all I have for this excursion around the bay...I do have in mind to do a post about the history of the area at some future point, but that's going to be a project for a winter's day.   There's more to this area than meets the eye!  Here's a map of the Avalon Region in case you want to visualize the area I've been talking about.



The capital of St. John's is in the upper right corner and is where those arriving by plane will start their adventure.  If you take the ferry you'd end up in our backyard in the town of Argentia, at the bottom left corner of the map.  From there the possibilities are endless, don't forget this is just a map of one of the four major regions of the large island!  I've always wanted to drive out to Heart's Content and Heart's Delight myself.

Two more posts about Newfoundland, Tuesday's post will be full of fun slang!