Champney's West Dockside B & B and Trinity, NL - September 1 and 2nd

Hard to believe it's September 1st today!

Tuesday, we have a long drive, so we quickly had the buffet breakfast at 7 and then hit the road after fueling up by 7:30 am. Very little traffic on the road. We made it to Gander in about 3 hours. We wanted to see the North Atlantic Air Museum which houses the stuff from 911. 

We hit showers off and on for the drive but nothing too substantial.

The North Atlantic Aviation Museum in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, preserves the rich history of transatlantic aviation and Gander's pivotal role during wartime and crises.

Historic Aircraft: Features a rare, intact Lockheed Hudson bomber, a de Havilland Tiger Moth, a Beechcraft Model 18-S, and a Canso waterbomber. 

9/11 Exhibit: Highlights Gander's response during Operation Yellow Ribbon, featuring a World Trade Center Twin Towers steel beam and local memorabilia.

Interactive Elements: Includes a multimedia display and an on-site flight simulator.

Original airport spot light.

A DC3 cockpit with all the sounds and movement of a real plane flying, it's pretty cool.

The stuff about 911 is really moving. I almost cried reading some of the "thank you's".

This notebook is 4" thick of thank you's

Another Canso

Apparently one of the air craft controllers today, at Gander, was a young women at the time, who was in training when 911 happened. It's pretty incredible to look at the radar screens with all the planes heading towards them that day and how they had to safely land them.

Back in the car after an hour, heading to our AirBnB. (another 2 hours to go.)

Boy did we luck out with such a sweet place. A fishing shed on the water converted into a cute 1 bedroom cabin with the bed in the loft. We are in the yellow one. Darryl and Krystal are great hosts.

Apparently this whole spit of land and up the hill is all owned by generations of the same family, all fishers. Fixing up cabins and sheds brings in extra money with rentals in the cabins. They apparently got the ideas of decorating from staying in a little community called Dockside Green, up the Gorge in Victoria.

Let me tell you about "Cinderella". As we are on the water and no sewage can be dumped, they installed an incerator toilet that burns up the waste! Quite the thing. Took a little getting used to to operate it.

It was 2 pm so we just dumped off our stuff and headed out to Trinity, about 20 minutes away to the Dockside Marina for a late lunch. Delicious.

Back to the cabin for the rest of the day. Ray went out to get some other pictures. I was able to sit out on the deck for a bit before the showers started. It's definitely cooler outside compared to the past few days. Highs of only 15C.

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This is Darryl's next project to make a cabin out of this boat.

The rest of the evening we spent in the bed in the loft watching a show on Netflix.

We didn't sleep that well unfortunately, my cold is coming back into my chest this time and his back and shoulders just plain hurt (newly diagnosed osteo arthritis). Sleeping in a smaller bed didn't help. I'm concerned with both of us coming down the ships ladder stairs to go to the bathroom in the dark lol Don't fall!!!

We both survived. lol and didn't get eaten or any singed hair by Cinderella!

Wednesday morning we headed out after breakfast to go back and tour Trinity. First though, we headed to Fort Point Lighthouse. It's about a 17 km drive from the highway and 7 km of it is dirt road. Which to be honest, was better than some of the paved rural roads around here with all the potholes.

Fort Point (also known as Admiral’s Point) in Trinity, Newfoundland and Labrador, was established as a British military fortification in the 1740s to protect the region's valuable mercantile and fishing assets.

Military History

1746–1748: The British first fortified the narrow peninsula, building batteries, barracks for over 200 soldiers, a powder magazine, and storehouses.
1762: French forces under Captain Chevalier de Boisgelin invaded and captured Trinity, reducing the fort to ruins, burning the structures, and destroying the cannons. The site was left un-rebuilt for decades.
1812–1815: The location was partially refortified and active during the War of 1812, guarded by local militia such as the Loyal Trinity Volunteer Rangers to ward off American privateers. 

Lighthouse Era

1871: A navigational light was established on the point to guide ships into Trinity Harbour.
1990s: The lighthouse operated with year-round resident keepers until it was automated and eventually decommissioned toward the end of the 20th century.

We paid our $5.75 each fee to access the 1 km trail around the lighthouse.

Bundled up, it 's cold at 12C and a very brisk breeze.

Looking across at the Skerwinks point where one of the most popular hikes in Newfoundland is and we saw everything including sea stacks from here. lol

A hardy sole going out in the waves and wind!

Cormorants

Back into the car to warm up. Next stop, the Historic Village of Trinity. They have a historical society to maintain the look of the town. The soceity dictates what you can or cannot change with your house. Only 30 people live here in the winter, the rest go to warmer climates, mostly Ontario (I don't know how much warmer it is there) . A lot of the old houses are B & B's for the tourists.

View from the road to Fort Point.

Yes we stopped at the Chocolate Shop for Ray. Yummm!

Ray managed to find a root cellar.

What a garden of colour. Gorgeous. The wild roses smelt awesome.

We noticed a bus tour group walking through the town so time to go for lunch before they take up the restaurant. As it turned out there were 49 of them! We got our meal in first. The group has to put their order in a day earlier so the kitchen have theirs prepped to go already.

Next up we headed to Trinity East to have a look.

I have seen this purple house across the bay.

Heading back towards our cabin we decided to go see the Champney's West Aquarium. Gorgeous wildflowers.

There were a few youngsters there playing with the touch/feel tanks.

They have rock crab here.

These guys are "doing the nasty" lol

Sea Turtle Skeleton

Gorgeous wildflowers.

A great place to sit a spell if it wasn't so breezy and cool outside.

Looking across to the backside of where we are staying.

Tomorrow we head to Bonavista and hopefully see puffins!

Our entertainment tonight is watching the guys move their boats around at the government dock lol This one used to be at the end. Seem to take 4 people to juggle everything.

Goodnight from Champney's West.