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Then it was time to watch birds! The boat ride over was punctuated by gulls and puffins flying to and fro. The gulls are so graceful, gliding along. Then there are the puffins! Little birds with huge colorful beaks and feet. Bodies shaped like a sunfish, wings flapping frantically. Looking like they are having a hard time staying airborne! It was comical. Turns out the wings are used for �swimming� underwater! They can dive 150 meters down for food. They burrow in the side of the hill to nest. The Herring Gulls and Kittiwakes (that�s how they sound) wait at the burrows entrance to grab the fish the puffin has brought back. Lazy birds! Some other birds there like razor billed auks looked like penguins on the rocks. They can dive 600 meters under the sea! We also saw murres and tickle aces (you don�t want to know how they got their name!) Millions of birds on this island. I am in heaven! The puffin is my second favorite bird after the Blue Heron.

The boat then turned to a spot where there were lots of birds swirling around the water. That apparently meant whales! The capelin fish were near and the whales and birds follow them. There were 4-6 Minke whales and 3-4 humpbacks in the inlet. Some sea kayakers were getting a real good look close up. The humpbacks were blowing wide sprays out of the blowholes. They smacked the surface with their tales and one came particularly close to the boat. A little girl had dropped her binoculars overboard and the whale came up to check out what it was. He/She did a couple of belly rolls for us. She/He seemed to enjoy �performing� for us! What an exciting day!

Vic had been apprehensive about going on the whale sightseeing tour boat. He was concerned that they would run down the whale and disturb it and the wildlife. The O�Brien�s boat was not like that. They got within a respectful distance, turned off the engine and waited for the whale to come to us. It was very ecologically sound. Compliments to the crew. The O�Brien�s kept us entertained on the trip back. The captain sang I�se the B�y and Laurie sang the song she did at the Folk Festival on Sunday. She sounded great on the water as well as the land! A couple of people got screeched in, but didn�t have to kiss a cod. They kissed a fake puffin�s butt instead. That�s cheating, I think. �Long may your big jib draw.� Say THAT 5 times fast! Jenny told us that Caroline was screeched in when she brought Jenny �home.� Sounds like she wouldn�t have remembered much the next day! Talk about blackmail opportunities!

Went back by Petty Harbour and took a couple of pictures. Ate lunch at the Heritage on Duckworth again. Tried NFLD. pea soup. A whole bunch of stuff besides peas were in it � carrots, potatoes, meat� It was a taste I�d like again! Called Marcus to wish him and Danni good luck and happy times in Portland. Wish I could have been there to give him a hug. I will definitely miss him, as usual. Finally saw Bowring (baw ring) Park as we drove past. Next time I want to see the swans and the Peter Pan statue there. It�s fairly far from downtown. Not walkable for me. Drove to Trinity, but too late to see anything. Everything was all closed up. Nuts! Won�t have time to see Cape Bonavista either. Grrr. Planned on being in Gander tonight for fireworks. On the way back we saw a young moose right at the side of the road. Karen saw a bald eagle too. Had to come to Canada to see our national bird. Stopped at the Comfort Inn in Gander for the night.

August 8, 2000

Dad�s birthday. Vic called him but no answer at 8 AM Philly time. Went to the Visitor�s Center across the street and bought souvenirs. Finally got Dad on the phone and sang him a long distance Happy Birthday. We drove around Gander and stopped at the Silent Witness Memorial. How sad that those men lived through such a dangerous time in the Mid-East then were almost home, and crashed on take-off at Gander! It was a lovely memorial, very touching. Drove right past the Aviation Museum twice without noticing it. Duh! Have to see it next time!

On the way to Port aux Basque we ate lunch at a place called Eddy�s. Great buffet lunch for $6.95 each. Meals are ridiculously cheap here. It was so good that we were tempted just to hang around and see what was for dinner, but drove on to Cornerbrook to spend the night. We were planning to anyways, but after driving around Cornerbrook and getting slightly lost, we decide to make a go for Port aux Basques and see if we could get on an earlier ferry. I think the torture of leaving Newfoundland was making us nuts.

We HAD to get off the island if we wanted to stay relatively sane. It sounds weird, I know. We loved our visit so much and didn�t WANT to leave. So we had to get off quickly to reduce the depression we felt. The weather was miserable all day and the road to Port aux Basques still closely resembled Route 9 in Maine. During the ride, we heard a �POP!� Found out later it was brake related. I though we were going to spend the night in a hotel, but the ferry terminal was it. Waited in line for the 11:30 PM ferry but ,no go. Shoot! About 16 cars ahead of us was where the line stopped. Vic saw this guy in the Terminal that looked just like Dan Wallace. But the Wallaces are not due to leave the island for another 3-4 days. Funny Dan having a lookalike in NFLD!

August 9, 2000 Wednesday � Goodbye to the Smiling Land

Guess what? It WAS Dan Wallace! I almost fell off the front seat at 3 AM and decided to go into the terminal since I obviously wasn�t getting much sleep. Met Vic and Dan in there and chatted. Turns out their camping gear was all wet and the forecast for the week was rain, rain, and more rain, so they decided to take their chances on the ferry waiting list. Dan said it�s the first time they did that and didn�t get on the ferry. I hope we get on today but it�ll be the Max Mols (the Vomit Comet) if we do. I have mixed feelings about this. Chatted with Dan for a while then back to the car. I am annoyed. Once again, Karen is sleeping and I am not.

Finally fell asleep and then the guy woke us to see if we wanted to get on the Max Mols. We get into THAT waiting line and get packed in like sardines in the ferry. I could barely get out the car door. It was really not that rough a ride! Much easier than the ride over on the Caribou. A lot of people did get seasick, though. Vic fell asleep almost immediately � being on the water does that to him. Karen and I bargained for the earphones and she won. I had left mine in the car, darn it! So I leaned back to get some sleep, but then, lo and behold!, Jane came up and we spent the rest of the trip chatting about our trips and our jobs in the fall. It was great!