This page describes the first day of our trip, a day that was mostly occupied with travelling to Newfoundland and getting settled into our initial 'digs'.
Home PageInitially, two groups departed from separate cities. Andy left first from Ottawa, flying on WestJet to Halifax, where he had a wait of over an hour for the rest of the family to arrive. Linda and Jeff drove from St. Catharines to Pearson International early in the morning where they met up with Jamie, Megan, and Oliver. (Toby was stying with his grandparents for the trip!)
A description of the first day's events which included:
The first destination for the day was Halifax, where we all met together for the first time. Jamie, Megan, Oliver, Linda, and I all flew on the same Air Canada flight to Halifax, and, on our arrival, we met Andy, who had flown in from Ottawa via West Jet and had already been there for over an hour.
Once we were together, we had a quick lunch at the airport restaurant in Halifax, and then boarded out flight to Deer Lake. The plane was a Bombardier Dash 8, and we all landed at the pretty, very clean Deer Lake Airport where we picked our rental vehicles, a Dodge Caravan, and a Chevrolet Ex-something. The airport at Deer Lake was very modern, and had a well stocked travel information section that allowed us to get lots of pamphlets and information for the trip. It was also clear, watching the passengers that travelled with us, that a lot of the visitors were hunters.
We then stopped at a local grocery store in Deer Lake and stocked up on supplies, enough to last a few days. We then hit the road, and took Highway 301(?) to Deer Lake, a drive that took about an hour. It was very apparent right from this point that the geography of Newfoundland was spectacular, and very different from other parts of the country. Jamie, Megan, and Oliver took the van, in which Oliver's car seat had been installed, and Linda, Andy, and Jeff drove the SUV, a Chevrolet E????.
When we reached Rocky Harbour, we had some trouble finding the lodgings. Despite the small size of the town, the directions didn't seem that clear, and we had to phone the owners, but, when we got through to them, the directions were simple, and we found our place to be lovely, spacious, and with a fabulous view of the harbour. All in all, a wonderful start to the vacation!