Day 4, Saturday

We awoke around 7 to our first sunny day in the Maritimes!  We couldn't see any land at that point, but by 8 the hills of Newfoundland came into view.  We were excited.

The ship landed right on schedule and by 10:15 AM, (Newfie time which is 90 minutes ahead of Eastern Daylight Savings TIme), we were on the road.

PRISTINE is the word that immediately comes to mind to describe the landscape that we immediately entered.  The bright sunlight helped, but everything just sparkled and the area is so rural; nothing but hills, lakes, oceans, mountains, rocks and forests.

We drove toward St. John's, stopped and checked in to our campsite at the Butter Pot Provincial Park, and continued on to the capitol city for either a late breakfast or early lunch at the Hungry Heart Cafe.  The cuisine was exceptional,  eggs Benny and a breakfast quesadilla.  We then walked around the heart of St. John's, exploring the main commercial area near the harbor which was filled with funky shops and restaurants.  The city is known for it's multicolored buildings and the area that we explored certainly exemplified what they refer to as "Jelly Bean Row".

St. John's has a population of over 100,000, but you don't have to travel very far to get back into the beautiful countryside.

Leaving St. John's, we drove to the suburb of Gould's which has a famous market that we've wanted to visit for two years after watching a segment of Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods.  I'll let my picture do the talking.

At this point it was time to return to our campground as set up our home for the next five days.  The topography in this area is very reminiscent of the almost above tree line sections of the White Mountains, and our specific campsite really resembled where Alex and I camped near Independence Pass last year in Colorado.  Check out the cliffs at the top of this photo.

Dinner tonight will be seafood chowder from that local market, and moose burgers.  I'm not sure Joni is going to indulge in the main course.  Stay tuned!