Up North we go! (Monday, June 12th)

Wake up by ocean with no plans for the day ahead! Do we stay put and visit here or do we keep going?  After checking out the hockey results (booohh) and Justin putting on his Pens hat, we decide that we will continue moving north.  We hit up the foodland that is across the street from the campsite because you never know when you will see a grocery store again.  On our way North we stop in St-Barbe where the ferry crosses to Labrador to get first hand info on whether we will be able to cross or not.  Almost everyone we talk to about crossing over warns us about the ice conditions and how the ferry that usually takes 1.5hrs has taken up to 8hrs to cross with the help of an ice breaker.  We weren't convinced that we wanted to go over but I exchanged emails with a girlfriend from RMC and she easily convinced us that we should cross and at least go up the coast a little. And really, it will be a while before we ever make it back here so why not!  The lady at the ferry tells us that things are running smoothly and gives us the crossing info and phone numbers to call to book our crossings.  There is also a campsite, or I should say a parking lot, adjacent to the ferry where you can leave your RV.  We also inquire there and are told that there is a caravan coming in and that we wouldn't be able to leave the trailer there until Friday.  We've been going back and forth about bringing the trailer or not and this makes the decision easy.  It will be less than 250$ total to bring the trailer there and back.  This way we will be able to make our own food, stop wherever we would like and not have to spend money on hotels.  So onwards we go!

The drive is super pretty as it follows the coast and we are excited because we know that we don't have far to go (about 1.5hrs).   At one point, I spot a tiny iceberg in the distance.  I am so excited.  It's actually embarrassing how excited I got.  As we keep driving, we keep seeing more and more icebergs - me and Gaby are overly ecstatic!  We convince Justin to pull over and we make our way down to the beach to see the icebergs up close!  We facetime everyone we know to share our over excitement (I have no idea how we had reception here but we did!).

On with our journey to Northern Newfoundland!  We arrive at Viking RV park and have our first true encounter with the Newfie jargon.  The man that greeted us at the park was so hard to understand.  I figured out somehow that he was just someone visiting and that I should come back after we are setup to settle up with the lady in charge (she was away for a bit).  We have a nice site and settle in nicely as we plan on being here for a few days.  We cook up some lunch.  Justin picked up a 'best deal ever' pizza at foodland this morning.  It was delicious and just what we needed to fuel us up for a drive to St Anthony's.

St Anthony's is the hub for the northern peninsula.  They have a hospital, a foodland, Irving, and a Tim Horton's.

Our little minions are tired!

We drive to the lighthouse at the tip of the bay.  We do the little hike that goes around the point.  The bay is beautiful and there are some lovely icebergs.  It's a perfect little hike for the late afternoon.

We LOVE icebergs!

We noticed a little gift shop and Gab wanted to go inside and have a look.  Us girls went in while the boys, including Bones, waited outside.  A little tradition we have is to pick up Christmas ornaments for our tree when we travel.  There was a perfect little lighthouse that Gab chose.  We then noticed there was a small museum at the back of the store.  We told Justin we would have a look and then we could switch seeing as Bones was with us.  The nice lady came and got Justin and told him he could come in with Bones.  It was a perfect little museum.  It answered many of our questions that we had following our drive up the northern coast.  Why so much cut firewood on the side of the highway? Gardens on the side of the highway?  Turns out the locals cut the wood during the winter and use the sleds to bring it close to the highway (similar to Chicoutimi wood cutting - one of our favorite things to do in the Saguenay with our friends Kathie & Dodoll).  No one steals each others wood!  The gardens are put in by locals as well.  They don't call it the ROCK for no reason.  Hardly nothing can grow in Newfoundland.  When the highway was built, they turned over the ground so it is easier to use the soil on the side of the road as opposed to attempting to do it in your own backyard.

Gab was a little scared of this polar bear.

On our way to our car, we are blessed by the most beautiful sight!  A perfect rainbow landing on an iceberg!  Everyone was snapping pics!  I grabbed a picture for a fellow tourist (I'm sure it's his new profile pic!) and he said sarcastically that all that was missing was a whale jumping out of the water in the middle!  :0
On our way back to the campsite, just outside St. Anthonys, we got another Moose sighting!

Moose sightings for the day = 4
Total Moose count = 6