friday 17 july –
saturday 18 july
reveling in the
morning boat tour and scarfing down farmstand strawberries, we drove to our
next destination: twillingate. technically we were staying in lewisporte, and
after three nights of camping it was time to treat ourselves and splurge a
little on our accommodations. we upgraded to an apartment-style room overlooking
the water with TWO queen beds (one each!) and a huge bathroom (i’m almost
positive the bathroom was the size of my living room...). we were pretty
pleased with ourselves.
since we had driven
for most of the day and subsisted on car snacks, we grabbed an early dinner at
chelsea’s fish & chips where we had a lobster sandwich and fried cod
tongues. we followed that up with a sunset drink (or digestif) on the dock
behind our hotel and called it an early night.
we were scheduled
for a morning iceberg boat tour in twillingate, but as it seems to be the way
with us, the tour was cancelled due to rain ::sigh:: so, again, instead of
taking a scenic boat tour we filled our day with eating, drinking, naturing,
and more eating and drinking. we started with a leisurely brunch at the crow’s
nest café: a latte for sean, green tea for me, and a seafood chowder with
cheesy soda bread for both. so warm and comforting, especially on a damp and
cold day. after properly warming up, we tested our temperatures by exploring a bit of the area (crow head).
we stopped at a blustery lookout next to the long
point lighthouse and hiked down to
sleepy cove and out to nanny’s hole O.O the rain let up, so at least all we had
to contend with was the cold and wind—i guess that’s something... i distracted
myself from the cold by making a colorful wildflower mini bouquet.
the most unique one
was the bakeapple iceberg wine which is made from bakeapples (duh), also known
as cloudberries. the berries, which seem to be unique to newfoundland, look
kind of like blackberries but golden in color and taste tart but also
creamy—like yogurt maybe? it’s a subtle yet distinct flavor. i had some
homemade bakeapple jam on ice cream after the winery, and even then it was
still hard to describe the flavor. i think i like it though :P
there wasn’t really
much left to do in twillingate—the iceberg tour was a major attraction—except
DINNER. we really wanted seafood and fortunately there was a fairly popular
spot (according to tripadvisor), doyle sansome and sons lobster pool. the
restaurant was right on the water, and the lobster pools were in the next
building (we took a peek after dinner).
the food was simply prepared and
exactly what we were looking for. we feasted on the lobster and snow crab
dinners and TWO desserts of partridgeberry
cake with honey syrup and cheesecake with a blueberry topping. we left full and
happy.
to complete our day
of eating and drinking, we enjoyed a bottle of the bakeapple wine in our
apartment and mellowed out and planned the next couple days of our trip.
sunday 19 july - monday 20 july
we left our lewisporte apartment and headed southeast to trinity, four hours away. our first order of business was a late lunch (more like breakfast since we tend to skip proper morning meals) at trinity mercantile: ham and cheese sandwich, seafood chowder, and two coffees. it was still too early to check into the b&b so we wandered around a bit. the town felt sleepy and quiet but visually colorful and the definition of quaint.
we left our lewisporte apartment and headed southeast to trinity, four hours away. our first order of business was a late lunch (more like breakfast since we tend to skip proper morning meals) at trinity mercantile: ham and cheese sandwich, seafood chowder, and two coffees. it was still too early to check into the b&b so we wandered around a bit. the town felt sleepy and quiet but visually colorful and the definition of quaint.
i was in love with all the flower gardens and
wildflowers growing everywhere. i got a little photo-happy with the lupins~
naturally, i assembled another signature wildflower bouquet; it made a nice addition to our tiny room.
i was beyond excited, and sean
kept trying to temper my excitement in case we didn’t actually see any. well,
that was completely unecessary; as we made our way along the path toward the
cliffs we saw the little island dotted with dozens of puffins. eeeeee! i was
mesmerized. we stayed there for maybe half an hour before i was ready to leave
(it was getting cold anyway...).
on our way to the bonavista we spotted a tiny
iceberg! we didn’t realize how special this was until we chatted with some
people the next day whose goal was to see an iceberg and were using the iceberg
tracker website to follow them. team hapa wins again! haha.
when i was researching things to do in trinity, the bonavista social club kept coming up as a must-eat. the restaurant is part of a farm where most of their produce comes from—locally grown cuisine. there were some neighboring sheep that i also paid a visit to, and i'm happy to report that i can speak newfie sheep.
we tried a little bit of everything on the menu: moose burger with partridgeberry ketchup and garlic aioli, hand extruded cavatelli with lamb, beet greens, and veggies, and cheese pizza. we didn’t realize the place was byo, but at least they had a sparkling rhubarb lemonade which was really nice (i always like bubbles~). we finished with chocolate eclairs and a plate-sized chocolate chip cookie.
we started our second day with a morning walking tour led by kevin toope, who was born and raised in trinity. he guided us on an extensively informative and interesting walk, where he talked about the town’s history and transition from a shipping/fishing hub to what is now a very small tourist-driven town. (fun fact: ‘the shipping news’ was filmed here.)
after the tour sean and i needed some fuel before we trekked the skerwink trail on the bonavista peninsula. we had a light lunch at the two whales café (corn chowder and the plowman’s sandwich & salad), which was just up the road from the trailhead. we were hoping the weather would clear up a bit but no such luck. on the bright side, it kept things cool so i wasn’t as much of a sweaty mess :D
we took the coastal loop, hiking along the cliffs looking down on the sea stacks, sea caves, and beaches. the views were amazing; the plant life was super diverse and ever-changing; AND, to top it off, we saw humpback whales!!! definite highlight. the sun even came out towards the end of our hike as we made our way back to trinity.