Greetings to our family and friends,

A final hello from Newfoundland, as we are starting our trip homewards on Sunday, taking the 11:45 pm ferry from Port-aux-Basques NL to North Sydney NS. We have had a wonderful vacation in Newfoundland, visiting with family and old friends, renewing acquaintances, and taking in the sights, both the new, and the dear and familiar. Myron has had a wonderful time (as have we all), and he has been feeling absolutely great. Other than some normal swelling in his right leg which has the blood clots, he has felt wonderful and has been very active. We continue to go to Sir Thomas Roddick Hospital in Stephenville for his weekly cleaning and dressings on his PICC line.

The man of the hour … Myron, who is looking more and more like his father every day!

This past week we have been travelling about his old stomping grounds in the Stephenville/Port-au-Port Peninsula area. Myron’s brother Charlie and his wife Susanna came over from their home in Marystown on the Burin Peninsula on the east coast of the province and joined us here at our home-away-from-home in Kippens. We have all loved having our own home while visiting here in Newfoundland and we thank Junior and Bernie dearly for providing us with it. We also thank Bernie for keeping us well supplied with her homemade bread. On Friday evening last week we attended a birthday party celebrating Junior’s 60^th, and on Sunday (after we attended mass at the church Myron grew up in, Our Lady of Fatima Church in Piccadilly), Junior and Bernie had us all out to their home in West Bay for a turkey/ham/salt beef dinner.

The “Kippens bunch”, heading out to Mass on Sunday morning.

We have visited Winterhouses (and our friend Jerome), Black Duck Brook and Blue Beach, Point au Mal and Fox Island River. Myron, Vern and Wendy also went for a hike up into the fields behind the property where they grew up, walked down the beach at Piccadilly, and then went on to visit with Myron’s sister Joan – and Dale who was already at Joan’s waiting for us. We also went for a drive around Harmon Field in Stephenville, visiting the sites at which Dale worked when he was in the US Army, posted in Stephenville in the 1960s.

 

Lobster traps at Abraham’s Cove.

Most evenings we put in some time at Lucy’s Bar across the street, where Myron, Vern and Dale try their luck on the slot machines with varying degrees of luck. Wendy, not being much of a gambler, spends her time uploading photos unto Facebook and writing this blog. Thursday we took a drive to visit the town of St. George’s. Friday (today), after Myron’s hospital visit, we plan to spend the day visiting with family and friends and saying our goodbyes, and our intention is to travel to Corner Brook on Saturday and visit the Railway Museum of Newfoundland to see “the Newfie Bullet”, Newfoundland’s infamous retired narrow gauge train. Sunday will be a day of housecleaning, suitcase packing, and final goodbyes before our departure for the drive to Port-aux-Basques early in the evening. We expect to arrive home sometime next week, probably Thursday evening, but it is all dependent upon the amount of sightseeing we do on our way home.

 

Heading back into Kippens, at the Romaines River

 

Lots of love and see you soon.

 

Myron and Wendy