Feeling Young!

July 11, 2015 – Day 26

Here we are in a land where things are thousands of years old, so it makes me feel  young even on my birthday!  I celebrated with two desserts and an iceberg martini at lunch-- made with iceberg vodka, with an iceberg icecube and local partridge berries—what a great way to celebrate!

 

Today we visited a village where the Norsemen arrived over 1000 years ago!  L’Anse aux Meadows is a World Heritage Site that commemorates the only authenticated North American Viking Settlement.   It is right on the tip of the northern peninsula, so you can see why the Vikings travelled here from Greenland and set up camp.  This is the earliest evidence of Europeans in North America.  The site was not discovered until the 1960’s, and we were lucky enough to have Clayton as our guide—he grew up here and remembers playing on the mounds that they thought were Indian mounds until they were excavated and found to be remains of the Viking village.  We walked the site and then went into the sod covered buildings. The walls were 6 ft thick, and the fire inside warmed it thoroughly.  It was interesting to hear the stories and imagine how the Vikings might have lived so many years ago.

We were entertained by moose in the distance…a mama moose and her calf.  They stood still for the longest time, and I’m sure they wondered why all of us were standing there trying to snatch a photo.

We also met Gina Noordhof the author of a local book “A Puffin Playing by the Sea”…she owned the restaurant where we ate lunch.  (Guess what the grandkids are getting for a surprise!)

We had pizza for dinner and went to church at St. Francis Xavier in Goose Cove.  There were about 30 people at mass, said by a priest from Nigeria who sang part of the sermon.  We about dumped the lady in front of us because the pew wasn’t attached to the floor…how embarrassing!

I started the morning with a gift from mom stashed on the motorhome as a surprise.  Then, this evening, when we got back to the campground, our friends had an ice cream cake and a special gift waiting…what great friends.   It was a wonderful birthday from start to finish! I guess it’s not all bad being a year older…