We are planning our first trip to the "Rock" this summer (2023), and to be quite honest, I'm not too excited. I hear about the Scandinavia-like Gros Morne and the medieval Beothuks, but I'm thinking more about James Cook, the explorer, and the decade he spent surveying Newfoundland after witnessing the naval assault culminating in the "Plains of Abraham" at Quebec in 1759. Or perhaps the inspirational voyages of Farley Mowat along Newfoundland's ghost-like south coast and his fight to save a stranded fin whale near Burgeo.

Of course one cannot deny that Newfoundland and Labrador are marine wildlife extravaganzas strung around 10,000 kilometers of shoreline scraped by iceberg alley. The humpbacks, minkes, finbacks and a variety of dolphins and seals are best viewed peak season mid July to mid August. Geologically, the iron ore mines of Bell Island are an eyeopener, and of course botanically, the rhododendrons, heaths, heathers and mountain laurels are on splendid display at the Memorial University botanical gardens.

Thanks to Jennifer Leigh Hill and her COVID masterpiece published in 2021. You will enjoy the incomparable catalog of deliciously descriptive place names!