Karen and I went to visit some friends we have made at a company called AbbyShot in St. Johns, Newfoundland.  We have two immediate conclusions.  AbbyShot has some amazing people working for it and we love them, and Newfoundland is an amazing area and we love it as well.  We were both really sorry to leave and come home...

Lorraine hosted a party at her cabin, which was a beautiful building her husband had built in the woods.  It featured a now-disused outhouse.  I just had to take a picture of that.  Here we were "Screeched In", a very strange process involving kissing a cod among other things, which made us honorary Newfies.  :-)

Lorraine's Cabin

The Outhouse They claimed to have modernized and have electricity and running water and stuff in Canada, but here's the proof.  They claim this was no longer used and is now a shed, and even had electricity and running water and stuff to try to convince Karen and I...but we knew.

Before we spent the night we went on O'Brien's whale tour...and found ourselves surrounded by something like 30 whales.  It was amazing...

The whole gang as we set out for the waling trip.	Patrick (aka Pierre) with Carly and Bonnie.	BRYCE!!!	A really pretty outcropping of land.

We also went to a place called Brigus South.  This is where I started to realize just how amazingly beautiful Newfoundland is. 

	Isn't Newfoundland gorgeous?	Me sitting on a rock.	Adam and Bonnie, surveying their domain.
I've heard of scotch on the rocks, but Abbyshot on the rocks?	Karen as James Dean in..."Hottie Without a Cause"	Pretty, pretty, pretty. Dang.  With prose like that, I shoulda been a writer.

Then back to Lorraine's cabin.  I did magic, then we got Screeched In...

Look, ma!  No hands!  Oh wait...never mind.	Karen and I wondering what the hell is going on.	They actually expected us to KISS this cod!  Fortunately there was alcohol to kill the taste...but we could still smell it on ourselves for a day or two.
Learning wise Newfoundland sayings such as "Long May Your Big Jib Dry".  I have no idea either.	After the cod kissing, we got bologna.	I just like this picture for some reason.

The next day we started with a visit to Abbyshot....

Bonnie, her daugher Julie, and Amy	Oooo, look at the sewing going on!
Amy with a bunch of patterns in the background.	Karen gets put to work.  Much to her delight...

and then went to Portugal Cove, and then over to Bell Island, where we saw an iron mine.

Did I mention this place was pretty?	Karen's pretty too.	More gorgeousness...	I thought this was one of the prettiest spots yet...though I think Flatrock gave it a run for it's money.
This is just to the right of the island rock above and to the right...the lighthouse was quite striking.	Looking down an iron mine...	And found Karen and Bonnie!

We also went to Signal Hill somewhere in there.  This is where Marconi received the first wireless transatlantic signal in 1901.  It was misty but very pretty.

Cabot Tower in the mist

WWII gun emplacements watching the harbor under Signal Hill

Later we went hiking at Flatrock...

A creek leading to the ocean	A waterfall in the creek	A Hottie and a Nerd...a modern fairy tale.  Sorta like Beauty and the Beast, but with less Disney.
Man I loved hiking around here.	Looking up at Julie and Bryce	Julie, Karen and Bryce, with Bonnie off to the right.
Bonnie is QUEEN OF THE WORLD!	The creek spread out over a flat area and dumped into the ocean.	Gerty doin' the supermodel thing

And just a picture of Miss Bonnie from later...