Travel Day to Newfoundland

Hello all!  Today was our travel day to the beautiful province of Newfoundland, Canada.  We were up very early (2 a.m. for Hannes and 3:10 a.m. for me).  Needed time to shower, eat, have coffee (or tea), last minute running around, feed the bird, etc.  Our SIL drove us to the airport and was at our house ahead of schedule, just before 5 a.m.  About 4:50 a.m. there was a huge downpour of rain that lasted for about 5 minutes.

Got to the airport and waited in line to check in with WestJet.  I had attempted to get our boarding passes on line the day before, however, after reading  the dangerous goods list (that included lithium ion batteries, which I declared that I was packing) I could not get the boarding passes.  So when we got there, I told them the battery was for my point and shoot camera, which ended up to be no big deal. That was great...Next, security...this should be a breeze as I have no metal belts or anything that should beep...not!!! Lucky me I was "randomly selected" for further security...I could choose a pat down or walk through the xray scanning machine...no thank you, I chose the pat down.  No problem as I had nothing to hide.  They also scanned my purse and backpack.  Well, what else could happen I thought?  They called for pre-boarding and then we waited and waited.  Then suddenly there was an announcement for final boarding for our flight! What?  Did I sleep through the announcement for boarding or what???  I think they forgot to announce boarding for regular folks.  Anyway we got on with plenty of time...full flight to Toronto.

Waited in Toronto for just an hour and a half before boarding our flight that would take us to Deer Lake, Newfoundland.  They offered us a snack, photo follows:

flight to Newfoundland was full.  A few folks on the plane were part of our tour.  The tour party met us at the airport to give us our special luggage tags that we need for the hotels we will be staying at.  The drive from Deer Lake to Corner Brook was about 50 km and it was very nice.  Our hotel is the Glynmill and is a historic building.  It is near a fabulous lake and walking path which we enjoyed.  Hannes went for a run and I went for a photo shoot. 

Before that we had a meet and greet with some of the people who will be on our tour.  Had coffee, juice and tarts...more info on that to follow.

We had a lovely dinner on our own at the hotel, photos to follow. 

Here are some scenic photos:  flowers and mute swans.

Early morning call tomorrow.  We have to be out of our rooms by 7 a.m., and luggage ready by then too, then go down for breakfast and be ready to go  by 8 a.m.  Don't want to keep Wayne waiting!!!  He is the driver and will take off even if we aren't there!  (or so he says).  He said that if we are late we may have to get a cab and catch up to the bus!!!  They seem to have a great sense of humor here!!

Today's temperature was about 24 celcius which was warmer than expected.  We may be in for a small amount of rain tomorrow. We need to pack our day bags accordingly.