Birthday on Bonavista Peninsula

Don turned 70 yesterday, and we did our best to celebrate it. We left Gander and are now parked at Cabot Hi-way Cabins & RV Park near Charleston on the Bonavista Peninsula of Newfoundland. There’s a small lake behind our RVs and we have water and 30 amps for $22/night.

I couldn’t capture any good sunset views, so this one will give you the feel of the lake.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many nice restaurants in the area, so we went to Greening’s nearby. I don’t think Don looks any older, do you?

Today we drove to the northern end of the peninsula, to the town of Bonavista and the Cape Bonavista Lighthouse. Along the way were many scenic spots where we paused for pictures or stopped for a walk. Here are some of them.

Everywhere there are unusual houses. We liked this mural.

And a painted rock.

There were lots of churches. Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, built in 1825, is beautiful. I don’t know why there are two front doors, each with their own set of steps.

We found a nice boondocking site along the road. Susie & Denny will report it for addition to the Escapees’ Days End directory.

We could see a few icebergs in the far distance out to sea. They’re hard to capture with my camera.

Susie spotted some wild berries, and we had a few for a snack.

Susie’s Café was open.

Later, Don wished we had eaten there because they had lobster!

Instead, we had lunch at Skipper’s Restaurant in the Harbour Quarters Inn in Bonavista.

Up the hill is the Ryan Premises National Historic Site which commemorates five centuries of commercial fishing on Canada’s east coast.

We spotted another iceberg!

The Cape Bonavista Lighhouse was built between 1841 and 1843. The building is a square 2-story wooden structure built around a masonry tower in the middle that supports the light. The first lighkeeper was still in his position at 80 years old, assisted by his son.

Here’s another iceberg, with several calves.

While trying to get the iceberg picture, I accidentally got some Puffins! Not the greatest picture, but they’re there!

A statue of John Cabot stands near the lighthouse, marking the site of his landfall in the new world.

The coastline on the eastern shore of the peninsula is rugged.

It seemed like another good place for a pose!

The Dungeon is an unusual rock formation, essentially a twin-entranced sea cave with a collapsed roof due to erosion. These rocks are over 600 million years old!

Our tour stopped in Elliston for a look at some root cellars.

The statue of a father and his 16-year-old son who died in each others’ arms in a sealing disaster on the ice in 1914 was quite touching.

Our final stop was in the town of Trinity to buy tickets for a pageant and dinner theatre tomorrow.

We’re looking forward to another interesting day!