Blame it on Broadway: We’re Heading to Newfoundland!

Right from the beginning, I have to confess that Newfoundland was never on my travel bucket list.  In fact, up until a few years ago, while I knew that it was a Canadian province, I couldn’t have pointed it out on a map of Canada. For all I knew, it could have been located right next to the western province of Saskatchewan, which I also do not think I could identify with any certainty.  But geography aside, none of that seemed to matter after seeing the Broadway musical,  “Come from Away.” Soon after seeing the show twice and reading the book, “The Day The World Came to Town,” I got out a map of Canada. 

If you haven’t seen it, the musical is based on the events taking place in Gander, Newfoundland, during the week immediately following the September 11th attacks, when planes carrying about 6,500 passengers were ordered to land at the very large Gander International Airport and stay there until the skies were safe again.  While the circumstances were unimaginable, for six days, the 10,000 residents of Gander fed, clothed and provided care and comfort to the terrified passengers.  While it’s difficult to think about a musical based on such a tragedy, the show is a heartfelt story with plenty of great songs AND you can still watch it on Apple TV or Amazon Prime!

I first saw the show with Bob and our daughter, Hope and loved it so much that when friends from Maine and Philadelphia came to town, I knew that they would love the show as much as we did. We went, they loved it and we started talking about someday going to see this place.  As we are not getting any younger, we decided on this summer. Besides, a huge airport and incredibly wonderful people, our research made clear that there is so much to see once we arrive, including charming little fishing villages, whale watching, puffin spotting, lots of fish-eating (yeah!)and micro-breweries (not so much!)and even icebergs that will potentially float by us. 

Our travel to Newfoundland varies…significantly. Our friend Mary will travel tomorrow from Philadelphia to our house and she, Bob and I will fly the next morning, first toToronto, and then to St. John’s, the capital of Newfoundland.  Our Maine friends, Judy and her husband, Karl, a.k.a. “K-Dazzle,” have opted to drive.  They have left already, 2 1/2 days before Mary, Bob and I arrive.  Their journey requires them to drive from Portland through northern Maine, into New Brunswick, Canada, over to Nova Scotia, then take a seven hour ferry from northern Nova Scotia to the southwestern point of Newfoundland, (which by the way, is nearly the same size as Montana) and then drive across the island to St. John’s, located in the eastern part of the province. I am thinking that their journey is just slightly shorter than that of the explorer, John Cabot, who arrived in Newfoundland from England in 1497. 

The slight snag in our summer adventure is that by our definition, summertime doesn’t appear to  exist in Newfoundland. Apparently, there is a saying in Newfoundland, that if you don’t like the weather outside your front door, go out your back door, because it will probably be different. That’s quite catchy, but for us, regardless of what door we exit, it doesn’t appear that the temperature will ever get above a balmy 59 degrees. Fortunately, we recently returned from Ireland, another country not known for its warm temperatures, so all my winter clothes were out already and just needed to again, be packed to go!



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