We stayed at the Banberry House which was a lovely old home right downtown, just 2 minutes from the Archives, and a few steps from the Moo Moo ice cream parlour! The lady who ran the place, Elizabeth, was great - full of good advice on places to visit and eat, and directions for how to get there. It's a very approachable city, easy to walk around, lots to see and do, and we were right in the heart of it.

One day we went on a Whale Watching tour run by O'Brien's out of Bay Bulls. We saw several whales (Minke and Humpback) and tons of birds (Murres, Turns, Puffins and more).  Our tour guide Michael was both informative and entertaining, singing us a few chanties en route. Back in town we wandered around Signal Hill and the Cabot Tower, had a couple of dinners that couldn't be beat, Susan managed to get some shopping done and we managed to avoid kissing any cod fish.

In the morning we spent a few hours wandering through the Brigus graveyards and then headed off to see Ralph.  He is the president of the Brigus Historical Society and has a wealth of information (got to keep in touch with him!). We spent some time just comparing notes but decided that we could probably do that better by email at another time. But the one thing we could not do by email was visit Brigus, and he offered to be our guide. First he made us a great lunch and then we loaded in the car and started through town. Ralph knew where all the bodies were buried, including an old grave marker near the bridge over the 'gut' that said 'OHN ANTL' dated about 1840 on some land the Antles used to own.

We also had a puzzle to solve arising from the description of some property referenced in an old Antle will from the Archives. A little good guessing from Ralph and we ended up in a part of Brigus called Riverhead where a small stream came out into the bay. The land there was referred to as Antle's Beach and Antle's Hill and the Antle family used to have houses there. And it was also just over the stream from the old Wesleyan Chapel, long since gone, where the church records indicate the Antle family attended services. And while we were standing there, who should drive by but May Antle's daughter, so we got plenty of Antle on that trip! We never would have found all of that without Ralph.

Don't go out of your way to stay at the Hotel Harbour Grace - lumpy beds, little rooms and a seedy bar! But that was about the only thing there that we didn't like. The drive to town was quick and easy, just a short hop from Brigus. There didn't seem to be a lot to do in Harbour Grace, so we went over to Carbonnear for dinner and a movie. The local cinema was playing only one movie and a current one at that! "Two tickets for 'GoldMember', please. That'll be $6 each." It's no thespian delight, in fact Susan slowly sank into the seat just in case anyone might come in who would recognize her. The most interesting thing was wondering what the Toronto cinemas do with the other $6 per ticket per person they collect?

Two of the last 3 towns along that road are Grand Bank and Fortune and we explored both. The Ferry to St. Pierre leaves from Fortune, but there's nothing much else there. Grand Bank at least has some historic homes and a more functional harbour. But there was really no decent place for dinner that we ran into, so we went back to the motel where at least the menu looked like it would be OK. That was one of our big surprises on the trip - quite a good cook at this very plain motel out on the end of nowhere, and a great hostess.

Then we wandered all over town, up and down little side streets and up the hill to the old fort site. We had a great lunch at the Feu de Braise and slowly made our way back to the ferry dock in time for a mid-afternoon departure. We stopped in a couple of wine stores on the way just to see what was on the shelves and, of course, managed to walk out with a couple of interesting looking bottles. There was quite a selection. After paying the duty, the prices weren't all that spectacular, but still, nice to have something 'less familiar' in our cellar at home. The ferry got us back to Fortune for dinner, at the same spot, and nothing to do after dinner but take our cameras and go watch the sun set.

In retrospect, we probably should have stayed overnight in St. Pierre.  It's an expensive Ferry ride for just a few hours there. But the long drive out to the end of Burin, with little along the way to recommend it, meant that we really didn't have the time to spend given the infrequent ferry schedule.

One of the reasons to go to Botwood was to visit with some genealogy on-line friends - Judy and Paul Gill. We went to their house after dinner, and spent a few hours talking with them about all manner of things - genealogy of course, living in Newfoundland, family in Oakville (of all places) - and then we were off, with directions to Netta's house, right beside the place where we had just had dinner!

Netta is an Antle whose ancestors also came from Brigus and Glen had written to her once about the family. Netta was expecting us, but we sure weren't expecting Netta! She was a ball of energy at 88 years old, a going concern. She knew by looking at Glen that he was an Antle, and she told us stories of her ancestors, her youth and her late husband Jack Baker. She brought out photos and family tree charts and treasures. And then we had a 'mug up' - hot tea, bread and jam - a traditional snack. There are still a few links to confirm in the family tree, but it seems that Netta is probably Glen's 5th cousin once removed. She gave us the information to contact her son in St. John's and her brother (who is 91) in Dartmouth, NS.

We got to Woody Point on the south coast of Bonne Bay by late morning and everything was hidden in clouds and fog. Every now and then it seemed to threaten to clear up, but never did. We spent several hours in the afternoon at the Visitor's Centre learning about the park (got the T-shirt and book), and also dropped in at a local artist's studio, Christine Koch who makes wood-block prints, in Woody Point. The motel was nothing special, but had the weather been better, the view would have been excellent.

There is probably plenty of Gros Morne to see on the south side of the bay - such as the Tablelands - but the weather kind of suppressed the desire to go walking around outside. We had dinner that night at The Loft down by the shore in Woody Point and discovered, to our dismay, that they were not licensed. But wait - we have wine from France in the trunk of the car and they'd do the uncorking! After that, even the slow service and mist weren't enough to dampen our mood.