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Saturday, July 11, 2009

Day 28: Fri, July 10: Grand Falls to Rocky Harbour, NL



Fisherman and brewis ('broos'). Ever heard of it? Neither had I, but Tequila Sheila knew I wanted to try some typical 'Newfie' dishes if possible, seal-flipper being out of season ;-). Last night we had this wonderfully big lobster feed so today she fixed this dish for our brunch before we headed out.

The previous night, she took a salted cod and soaked it in water. The only way to describe the aroma is to conjure up the smell of sweaty teenage-boy sport socks combined with a touch of parmesan cheese and that other smell that occasions accusing looks around a room which mean, "OK, who let THAT one???"

Woof, I'm tellin' yah, at that point, I was definitely NOT lookin' forward to brunch. ;-)

But, next morning, when I got into the kitchen, Sheila was frying up 'scruncheons' (which is little pieces of fat back pork) and onions and cooking the fish with the brewis (which is like a hardtack biscuit which softens as it is heated) and it all smelled mahvelous, Darlings.

And believe-you-me, it tasted out of this world. I oinked up two helpings topped up with molasses drizzled over it, I liked it so much. The cod tasted amazingly delicate, which I didn't expect YUM. Anyway, I know Big Daddy would love it, so Sheil will send me some brewis when I get home and I will get some dried salted cod and give 'er a go :-) More broadening of my horizons, eh????

We got ourselves off on our journey to Rocky Harbour (me managing to leave my spare keys sitting on their kitchen counter!), westward on the TCHighway and then, at Deer Lake, heading north through part of Gros Morne Park.

We stopped for a bit of an ice-cream break at Deer Lake and visited the Insectorium there. Absolutely fascinating! We loved the butterfly house and I took tons of pics of the butterflies, which landed on everyone repeatedly (very tickley feeling on the skin); I was really trying to get shots of these two lovely bright blue ones, but they were too fast for me and when they did settle, they closed their wings up, so all you could see was the black outer side SIGH.

There was also a honeybee colony set up, enclosed in glass, so you really got a great look at the operation of the hive and a very informative guide told us all about the whole process of the birth of a queen, how she is in fact selected as queen (the usual fight to the death scene) and so on. Big Daddy woulda love it!

Our ride through Gros Morne Park was very impressive -- the scenery is astounding -- I did get some pics, as you can see, but the best vistas had no stopping places for us. :-(

Once we checked into our hotel at Rocky Harbour, we headed to the Lounge for libations. NOT the most efficiently run establishment we've ever encountered. Sheila and I were easy to serve, as we ordered Corona and lime (they had no lime and never did turn up with the lemon they claimed they had), but Mikey's Caesar was a tough nut for the (seemingly) teenaged bartender gal. In the end, Mike had to go behind the bar and demonstrate the making of one.

He was quite hilarious about it, actually, calling for Worcestershire, Tabasco, celery salt and making them open a new Clamato Juice cuz the open one was past-dated (!) Sheila and I (naturally) offered streaming comments and criticisms, so a good time was had by all.

After a couple (!) of drinks, we retired to the dining room and ordered dinner from our young waitress who turned out to be from the same training school (NONE) as our bartender gal. (Obviously, help is hard to get in the nether regions LOL) Anyway, the food was GREAT and we had a fun time, getting louder as time (and wine) went on. We soon put a muffler on it when a whole wedding rehearsal party trooped in to the dining room -- turns out they had every table reserved except ours. As they were rather a sedate crowd (no alcohol served there), we took the first opportunity to sneak off to the Lounge with our bottle of wine in hand.

We had a heck of a good time -- I will miss these two great folks a LOT!

Ta-ta-for-now!

Day 28 Deer Lake, Insectorium, Gros Morne Park

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