More lobster and mussels and cod from the market. Went to Twillingate theater for a kitshy lobster or fish dinner theatre. experience  Cold rainy and windy night.Our neighbor Lou came over with frozen salt cod from the stoner kids next door. Hmmmm. Let’s not take that 10 lbs of stinky fish with us. But very thoughtful. Lou is a friendly Newfie from Corner Brook. Another rainy day so off to the museum in Durell. They have a stuffed polar bear that came in on an iceberg from Greenland. Bet he was surprised by his journey, must have overslept. Hiked over to the point by our house and spotted several root cellars. Unusual lichens and mosses. Spotted some big icebergs floating by today.

Lou told us the gannets were in the bay so Patty went to take pictures.

Lovely salad smoked salmon snow crab and scallops for dinner. Note : always bring your own chef with you on vacation.

Went to the shed party down the road after dinner. Lou was playing the zydeco tie and spoons with Karen Churchill. Very fun. We all had instruments including ugly sticks and spoons. Homemade snacks. Very down home and friendly.

Yes, made from real iceberg water in pretty blue bottles and only sold in Newfoundland.

Off to Doyle Samsome and Sons Lobster Pool. Yes, they were swimming until they showed up on our table with butter.

1 1/2 pounds of glorious lobster for $32 Canadian which is 25% less in Us dollars right now. For some reason though they love Kraft dressing on their iceberg lettuce and the potato salad has peas carrots and sugar. But who can complain, the lobster was fresh and delicious.

Saw the candy stripe lighthouse at the park, foghorn blowing loud. Stopped for dinner in town after at Skippers. cute fishing town but the food was only so-so. They had fresh lobster but we had a seafood plate with crab salmon and cod fishcakes, cod tongue and cheeks (their tongue is surprising large, or maybe the cod it came from was). Patty got a screech and Pepsi and it was her go to drink for the entire trip! Of course I had to get some Old Dutch on the way back to the hotel.

Elliston on the Bonavista peninsula has the best spot for viewing puffins. Walk a short distance to the top of a rock and just across the way thousands of nesting puffins. I hear they swim all the way back to Greenland after the babies are ready to go. Their survival rate is low – one egg per year and 20% chance of survival due to the love of the gulls for egg mcpuffin breakfasts.

Elliston’s other claim to fame is the high number of root cellars per capita, but we found quite a few in Twillingate also.

The view is gorgeous here from Gertie’s Place, so peaceful and quiet.

Visited every indoor place we could in town due to the rain. Twilligate Museum, Durell Museum, art gallery, Auk Island Winery…all fruit and berry wine but great labels. Stopped at D&J Seafood for lunch and tried fisherman’s brewis -made with hard bread biscuits soaked and mashed with cod, fired pieces of pork fat called scrunchions on top. I love them! Molasses bread and partridge berry jam, A local favorite.

It always helps to bring your chef with you of course. The fish store was a bounty of fresh seafood – smoked salmon, scallops, snow crab, fish cakes. Greens with apples, walnuts, gorgonzola and kraft vinaigrette (the only option in this part of the universe). Mashed with garlic, spinach, peppers and onions with garlic butter sauce. Wine is expensive here but we splurged on a sweet Chilean red wine for this fine dinner.

Iceberg Man tour in Twillingate. Bundle up! We got up close to some amazing icebergs. They do make it cold out though. All look different with viens of pure blue ice and volcanic ash. Some grounded or flipped. They pulled some ice up for us to taste and take some home for a cocktail later.

We arrive in St Johns on June 4th and head to Clarenville for a two night stay so we can visit the Bonavista peninsula.We visited Trinity a cute little historic town. Then off to Port Rexton to take the Skerwink trail listed as one of the best trails in North America. 5.3. KM, lot of ups and downs but beautiful and we spotted our first iceberg in the distance.