Wednesday, June 15, 2011
It was a short night last night. I didn’t go to bed until late, I sat up and just looked out over the water and contemplated life. It was such an awesome sight, the full moon glimmering on the bay. It does not get dark until 10:30 or so and it is daylight again by 5:00 a.m. At 5:30 Doug is up clammering around down in the little kitchen area trying to get the coffee on. 5:30 in the friggin’ morning. I holler down at him wondering why and the heck he needs to get coffee on in the middle of the night. Doug does not wear watch and all the clocks in the cabin were flashing, it is so light he thinks it is at least 7:30. He stumbles back to bed and gets another 2 hours sleep while I lay there wide awake after only having a few hours sleep. We could have saved our $100 and just sat up in the truck all night for all the sleep I got. Oh well, I will just go to bed early tonight, or not, I guess the last hockey game is tonight. We ate our breakfast at Whalers Restaurant, the same people that own the cabin we stayed in. They were such an amazing couple. I’d say they are probably in their early 50’s, they have 3 older children that live in northern Labrador now. They have been foster parents to many children in need of love and care. They operate this restaurant, gift shop and cabins. Work 14 – 15 hours a day running these businesses and still try and nuture and guide 3 Inuit children ages 16, 14 and 12 that all have fetal alcohol syndrome. We were the only ones in the restaurant at the time so they took the time to talk to us and tell us all about their life in Labrador. They do not open the restaurant until the children have left for school and then they make sure one of them is home when they get back from school. Oh my, what an inspirational couple. He has had 2 heart attacks and is very diabetic taking 5 needles a day, and she has had several strokes. We asked why they still continue to do this and their reply was “we gots too, if we stopped we would probably be dead” and “this is our life and how we make our living”. They flew the Newfoundland flag, Canadian flag and the American flag. When questioned about the American flag she stated that in the early 1990’s a senator from North Carolina was in the restaurant and heard their story of fostering many Inuit children, and how hard and long they work to make a living. He was so impressed with this when he went back home, the story got all the way up to the president and they flew an American flag for them on the Whitehouse and then sent it to them. This senator sent Christmas gifts to all the children in the house each Christmas until his death 2 years ago. Amazing!
After breakfast we had time to head next store to learn all about the Basque Whalers that came to the Strait of Belle Isle in the 16th and early 17th centuries to hunt whales. This exhibit was so very interesting, there were lots of artifacts that had been excavated and put on display. 
We did not have near enough time to read all the interesting information. We had an hours drive back to the ferry and the roads were not always the best. We arrived back at the ferry terminal in Blanc Sablon Quebec around 11:30 in time for all the hub bub. Of course the Appollo was still in dry dock and they were flying the passengers across again. To throw a wrench into every thing a 51 passenger bus had arrived and all of those people had to be shuttled to the airport as well. The 2 ladies behind the counter were just a tad frazzled to say the least. Everyone was very patient, and the up side was we got to meet lots more interesting people and here about their travels. The Strait was quite rough and the 12 passengers riding on the ferry were going to have an interesting ride, I’m sure. Hemi was on her way across to Newfoundland about an hour before we even left the terminal. But that’s OK remember it only takes us 15 minutes to fly and 45 minutes to drive from St. Anthony to St. Barbe. We actually got to St. Barbe as the ferry started unloading. Poor Hemi was all salty from the rough crossing. We went across the street to have dinner with our new friends from St. Thomas, and watched the final Stanley cup game. Yeah for Boston, Doug sure was happy!
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