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Nova Scotia & Newfoundland, July 2008
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 We eventually made our way to the Cabot Trail which follows the rugged coastline, providing spectacular views of the ocean. The trail passes through an Acadian area, where descendants of the first French settlers in North America live. The Acadians have a rich history in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, although one very sad part of it forced some Acadians to migrate south, eventually settling in what is now Louisiana to become the the Cajuns. Just south of Cheticamp, an Acadian community, is one of the most bizarre sights we saw on our trip, Joe’s Scarecrows. It is an attraction that causes almost all tourists to stop and stare. The story goes that Joe tended crops on land that was 3 miles from his home. To keep rabbits, deer and other critters away, from the crops, he put up some scarecrows. Eventually, he had over 100 scarecrows. After some vandals one night destroyed all but one of the scarecrows, Joe pledged to recreate them and began soliciting donations from those who stopped to see the scarecrows. Eventually, his daughter and son-in-law erected a restaurant and gift shop on-site. Now, Joe claims that approximately 30,000 people annually visit the scarecrows from all over Canada, every state in the USA, and 29 other countries. Each scarecrow is made of two boards, real clothes, a Halloween mask, and strips tied to their arms to make noises that scare away animals, although there are no crops these days. In this photo, the scarecrows in the back, dressed in black pants and white shirts, are world leaders including Clinton, Reagan, Carter, Bush, Gorbachev, and Blair. What a riot!
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 We continued to the end of the Cabot Trail, into the town of North Sydney, where at 8:30PM, we got in line for the ferry to Newfoundland. What a night we were in for! The ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Port Aux Basque, Newfoundland, left late. We finally drove on to the ferry around 3:30AM, and it left an hour later. We slept when we could while waiting in the car for the ferry to leave, which was a challenge, and on the ferry itself, which was an even bigger challenge! This is a stock photo we of the ferry that we found online.
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 The next morning, we visited L’Anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site. It the only documented site of a Viking landing in North America. A Viking expedition from Greenland-- possibly led by Leif Eirikson, son of Eiric the Red -- landed here around the year 1000 and established a camp that served as a base for exploring south through the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The site was discovered in the 1960’s by Dr. Helge Ingstad, a Norweigan historian and explorer, and his wife Anne, an archeologist. After 12 years of research, it was declared an historic site based, in part, on the fact that it provides the earliest evidence of Europeans in the western hemisphere. Clayton, a life-long resident of L’Anse Aux Meadows, was our guide at this UNESCO Heritage Site. His tiny village is in the back left of the photo. Clayton gave us the Parks Canada approved tour speech, while including many his own stories from his childhood before the Norweigan researchers arrived and while they were there. In this picture, Clayton is standing on some of the grassy mounds that turned out to be Norse dwellings.
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 We joined other guests at Marilyn’s for a home-cooked meal prepared by Marilyn herself. The main course was moose (does this count as our second moose sighting?), which was absolutely delicious prepared much as a beef pot roast. Others at the table told us that moose tastes great any way it is prepared...more like beef and not at all gamey like venison can be. She also served us fish brewis, which is a traditional Newfoundland dish of cod and hard bread prepared together resulting in a stuffing-like dish. For dessert, she served us ice cream with partridgeberry sauce that she had prepared from fresh berries just before dinner. Partridgeberries, known as lingonberries in other parts of the world, are small, red berries that grow in Newfoundland. Known for its berries, Newfoundland has other native berries including cloudberries, squashberries, crowberries, and wild blueberries (go to www.darktickle.com if you would like to order some for yourself). We liked the partridgeberries best. After dinner, we watched a beautiful sunset...but our evening wasn’t over yet!
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 After dinner, Marilyn took all her guest to Skipper Hot’s for drinks and also to be Screeched. ’Screeching’ someone visiting Newfoundland for the first time is a longtime custom of many older bars in Newfoundland, in which the person is to drink a shot glass filled with Screech, wear traditional Newfoundland sea-faring garb (think Gorton’s Fisherman), kiss a codfish on the mouth, and recite a phrase in the Newfoundland dialect, one almost impossible for non-Newfies to understand. This photo is some of the other guests who were screeched with us: Ken and Carol from Ontario (guy with the white t-shirt and the woman standing to right of him) and the last two on the right, Jacques and his long-time girlfriend from Quebec.
Now, you may be asking what the Screech was that we drank. Newfoundland Screech is a particularly strong liquor sold in Newfoundland and originally imported from Jamaica, enjoys fame in many parts of Canada. The story goes that Screech was first created in the days of the Triangle Trade, where the same barrels were used to carry molasses and rum, and only occasionally cleaned. The barrels built up a deposit of impossibly sweet sediment at the bottom, which was melted out with boiling water and either fermented or mixed with grain alcohol. This concoction eventually became known as screech, because it was so strong and vile that one screeched loudly after having drank it. The Screech sold legally today in liquor stores both in and outside of Newfoundland is blended and bottled by the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation. However, many Newfoundlanders do not view the NLC-bottled Screech as the genuine article, as stronger Screech that cannot be legally sold continues to be blended and distributed in a manner outside the law. We drank the legal kind. It wasn’t too bad...pretty much like other kinds of rum. Afterwards, we received a certificate proclaiming that we are now Honorary Newfoundlanders.
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