Porter Airlines

Are you going to kill someone?

Turns out that I was just a stage too intense for the rest of the family. At the foot of Bathurst you pick up a ferry that takes you to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. VERY busy with a taxi loop/lineup numbering in the high dozens of cabs lined up. No room to drop off. Sorry mom, didn't have time to give you a hug good-bye; I was too busy yelling at my family and telling them to hurry up.

Then, at security, lo and behold one of us, who shall remain nameless, ends up with scissors in their carry on. Bye bye scissors. They were nice about it though, but one of us was embarassed.

Nice lounge at Porter Terminal. Free food and coffee. Ikea lamps on all the tables. Here we go.

Trip Day

Setting: Kitchen at 7:30 AM after rousing the entire team.
Traveling Beauty to The Son: "Are you dressed?"
The Son: "No, I'm naked."

The Whales follow the Capelin

You know, when you go into the grocery store and buy some fish, you never really give much thought to the bigger picture.

I got talking to an Australian friend the other day who had just returned from a Newfoundland holiday. He got talking to an old guy from Twilingate who was describing the situation in years past: "The capelin are little fish about yea big," (holding his thumb and first finger spanned apart) "and they would come running in from the open sea to this harbour to spawn. And the whales would follow the capelin in to feed on them. There used to be whales everywhere in this harbour because of the capelin. Now, because the capelin fishery has been overfished, there's hardly any coming into the harbour, and so there's no whales either."

So, we'll be seeing "post fishery" Newfoundland in a stage of transition to other types of industry. Fishing will be more and more of the past, and something to reminisce over.

The List, and the Results

Off the top of my head, here are some things I'm hoping to do:

• salt water fishing
• whale spotting
• see an iceberg up close and personal
• become an Honorary Newfie
• see some good fiddlin'
• spend some time enjoying a pint in a nice pub with Traveling Beauty
• walk around St. John's with my kids and explore
• see the Superpickers concert
• see a moose
• eat a moose burger
• have a Newfie steak (thick, fried bologna)
• find out what a cod tongue actually is (fish don't have tongues do they?)
• enjoy bakeapple pie
• eat some nice fish 'n chips
• see Signal Hill and Cape Spear
• get down to Witless Bay wildlife preserve to see the puffins
• travel to the beautiful town of Trinity
• go to Fogo Island

And here's my post-trip review of the list:

• salt water fishing (didn't get to actually do it, but we watched the locals netting capelin)
• whale spotting (we tried, and saw a couple from the shore; nothing up close)
• see an iceberg up close and personal (not a single one)
• become an Honorary Newfie (nope. next time I'll have to pursue that one more directly)
• see some good fiddlin' (saw some good guitar playing at Kelly's Pub and The Superpickers performance)
• spend some time enjoying a pint in a nice pub with Traveling Beauty (definitely did this one!)
• walk around St. John's with my kids and explore (many times)
• see the Superpickers concert (yup, done)
• see a moose (unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, no)
• eat a moose burger (nope; didn't see it offered on any menus)
• have a Newfie steak (thick, fried bologna) (nope; didn't see that on any menus)
• find out what a cod tongue actually is (fish don't have tongues do they?) (yes they do!)
• enjoy bakeapple pie (nope; not available. But we did buy some bakeapple jam)
• eat some nice fish 'n chips (definitely yes; at Portugal Cove)
• see Signal Hill and Cape Spear (oh yes)
• get down to Witless Bay wildlife preserve to see the puffins (we saw puffins on our boat tour)
• travel to the beautiful town of Trinity (didn't make it; but we did see many other beautiful places)
• go to Fogo Island (we considered it, but ran out of time and good weather)

We're heading out again!

So, here we go on our next family trip, this time to Newfoundland. Newfoundland is the only province in Canada that we've never been to. It's been on our list for years; we almost got there last year but went back to Quebec City instead!

I'm traveling with my wife, a.k.a. Traveling Beauty, Daughter1, The Son, and Daughter2. Won't you join us?

Our initial idea was to visit St. Pierre and Micquelon so that the two french-immersionist daughters could practice their French (and save the rest of the family from hopeless embarrassment), but as we started looking at prices it became a bit too costly and complicated. So, after finding some decent air fares on Porter Airlines out of Toronto Island airport, we set our plans: 5 nights in St. John's, 3 nights out in Twilingate, and then a final night up for grabs.

So, what's on the list? After talking to The Son, he's okay with going salt water fishing. Daughter2 is okay with that too. Traveling Beauty isn't too excited about fishing, but she's into sight seeing, ocean vistas, wildlife viewing and village atmosphere and long walks along the rocky shore. Daughter1 wants to walk around St. John's and see what she can find. As for me, all I'm looking for is a good meal and a bit of adventure. I want to find a happy pub with a warm heart, a local fisherman to take me out fishing, and lots of time to just enjoy being there with Traveling Beauty.

First objective: Get everyone to read up and talk up more about what they want to do.