Tuesday, July 20—Day 23
I wake up early this morning and after a shower go into the living room to enjoy the morning light and work on the blog and check email. I wake Marshal and the girls about 8:00 a.m. to get ready for breakfast. Thelma has prepared a delicious breakfast of oatmeal, eggs, bacon, ham, partridgeberry muffins, toast, homemade jams (partridgeberry, bake apple, blackberry, and squashberry), coffee, tea, and milk.
It is overcast this morning and sprinkling rain now and then. We have booked a whale watching tour for 1:00 p.m. in St. Anthony's and hope that the weather improves before then. We leave for St. Anthony's at 9:30 a.m. because we want to visit the Grenfell interpretive center and house. The drive to St. Anthony's should take about 40 minutes.
As we drive along Route 436 we have to stop suddenly because two young moose have decided to see what's on the "other side of the road." Even though these are young moose, they are quite large. Without their antlers they look a lot like horses. We let them move across the road and then stop to take a picture (from the safety of the car, mind you).
We continue our drive into St. Anthony without incident. When we get to the Grenfell interpretive center we watch a short film about Sir Wilfred Grenfell's life and mission in Newfoundland and Labrador and then proceed to the display area. Grenfell was a British physician who felt called to provide medical care to the people of Labrador and Newfoundland. He believed that he was called to do what "Jesus would have done had he been a physician."
Upon entering the displays we see a quote from Grenfell: "When two courses are open, take the most venturesome." Grenfell could have stayed in London and been a wealthy surgeon. Instead, Grenfell chose to go to Newfoundland in 1892, sponsored by the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, so he could improve the plight of the people there. Life in Newfoundland and Labrador has always been difficult, but the suffering Grenfell found was astonishing to him. He felt it was necessary not only for him to help these people, but to make their condition known to the world so more help could be provided.
The fishermen and inhabitants of Newfoundland and Labrador were suffering from malnutrition and the ravages of severe isolation. Scurvy, rickets, beri beri, and TB were widespread. The fishermen caught cod that was sold to merchants in St. John's, Newfoundland, and shipped around the world. The merchants had complete control of the situation and paid the fishermen in white flour and fish rather than money. The merchants set the price for the cod and the fishermen never came out ahead. Instead, every year they faced virtual starvation through the winter. Grenfell fought the merchants by setting up a cooperative fish market among the fishermen so they were able to make enough money to survive.
Grenfell treated the people's illnesses as best he could, but he also told the them that one of the most important changes they needed to make in their daily lives was to add fruits and vegetables to their diet of white flour and fish. He encouraged them to plant gardens and eat the local berries. They did these things and their health improved. I believe that the gardens we see along the sides of the road in Newfoundland today harken back to Grenfell's encouragement to keep a garden.
Grenfell married Anne MacClanahan, an American, in 1909. She worked with him in Newfoundland, traveled with him on speaking and fundraising tours, and edited his articles, short stories, and books. They were devoted partners and had three children. Their house in St. Anthony's is beautiful and filled with items from their life and mission and gifts from people who knew and loved them. Hilary and Olivia loved the polar bear rug that was in front of the living room fireplace! Anne Grenfell died of cancer in 1938, two years before Grenfell died of a heart attack in Vermont, where he and Anne had retired.
During his lifetime Grenfell wrote many books, but I am puzzled when we get to the gift shop and none of them are available for purchase. Most of them are out of print now, but after a quick search I found some of them available in PDF format online at http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/g#a8428. When we get home I'll check our public library to see if they have any of Grenfell's books. There is a biography of Grenfell that I want in the gift shop, but it is quite large and I can't imagine carrying it the rest of the way through Canada and back to California on the plane. I'm sure that I can buy it online when we get back home.
Grenfell is a hero even today in Newfoundland. He gave hope to people who were ignored by the British and French governments and who were taken advantage of by merchants. A final quote of Grenfell's that I like is:
"The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not 'to have and to hold' but 'to give and serve.' There can be no other meaning."
We enjoy our visit to the Grenfell interpretive center and house so much that we return to see all of it thoroughly after our trip on the whale watching boat.
The time for our trip on the whale watching boat is quickly approaching so we rush to Tim Horton's and get chili and a whole wheat roll for lunch. We eat in the car by the dock and the rain is coming down steadily. All of us are hoping that the cruise will be cancelled due to pour weather then we can try again tomorrow when it might not be raining. This is, however, Newfoundland. Rain isn't considered bad weather it is just regular summer weather, which is much nicer than winter weather. The trip is on. Sigh.
We dig out our raincoats and the girls' warm fleece caps and tromp down the dock to the boat. It's cold, but the thought of seeing whales gives us hope (although not much warmth). As it turns out, our guide is a marine biologist who has lived in St. Anthony's all his life, except for the time he was at Memorial University in St. John's. He knows about the whales and birds as well as the fishing traditions of Newfoundland. He's also a darned good storyteller, which does warm us up a bit as we laugh at the stories and listen to traditional Newfoundland music over the speakers. There is a bus tour group on the boat and their driver is a Newfie. The rain doesn't dissuade him as he dances jigs on the deck even as the rain pours down.
Eventually the rain slackens off to a heavy mist and we suddenly see a whale. It is a fin whale—the second largest whale in the world. Our guide estimates that he is over 60 feet long. He is beautiful as his back arches above the water and spouts. The fin on his back seems too small for his overall size, but he swims gracefully and quickly.
We see puffins in the water and flying by the boat. They are amazingly fast fliers and do a mean Australian crawl in the water! Puffins are small black birds with colorful heads and are the much beloved provincial bird of Newfoundland. We also see great northern gannets. They are graceful creamy white birds with black wing tips and a light yellow or peachy colored head. They have a wing span over 6 feet and dive into the ocean from great heights to catch capelin and other small fish. We see black cormorants and black backed sea gulls, the largest bird in the gull family. Grey-black murres whiz by us on their way to shore. On the rocky cliffs grey and white kittiwakes squawk and fly back and forth from the sea to their nests.
Sighting whales is difficult today because their spouts blend in with the grey mist. We do, however, see two more fin whales and two minke whales. We also see shrimp boats heading out to fish. In St. Anthony's there is a large shimp processing plant that cleans and freezes the shrimp to ship around the world. We go to a massive sea cave (the largest in Newfoundland) south of St. Anthony's. It is haunting in the mist with the teal and turquoise waves crashing at the edges. On the way back to the harbor we go by the small red and white St. Anthony's lighthouse.
When we get back to the dock we head to the car and drive to Tim Horton's for hot cocoa. We've come to like Tim Horton's. What isn't to like? Coffee, cocoa, donuts, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, soup and chili. Not gourmet, but it works for us.
Before going back to the Grenfell interpretive center we stop by the Viking restaurant to see if there is space available for dinner. Unfortunately, a bus tour has booked all the spots, so we won't be able to eat there.
We spend another 1½ hours at the Grenfell interpretive center and house (we're the last people to leave), then we make our way back toward L'anse aux Meadows planning to stop for dinner along the way. We find a good restaurant in Lunaire where Marshal orders local crab legs that we all help him crack and eat!
We return to the Viking's Nest B&B where the girls get a warm bath and we call it a night. Tomorrow is the celebration for the new visitor's center at L'anse aux Meadows and we are going to visit the rebuilt Viking village at Norstead.
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