Sat July 13, 2024
Hi All! We were docked in the town of St Anthony today. It’s a town on the northern reaches of the Great Northern Peninsula of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. St Anthony has a population of only 2,180 so when our cruise ship arrived, we doubled their population. Crazy!
We slept in a little, had breakfast, then got off around 10:30 AM. We had to take a tender boat in since the town is so small it can’t handle cruise ships at its dock. Once on land we took their Hop On Hop Off bus around the island. We went to a place called Fishing Point Municipal Park. They had a lighthouse, gift shop and a great view over the bay. They said you sometimes can see whales from there but we didn’t see any. But we did see a polar bear! But it was a stuffed one in the gift shop!
We walked around for awhile and took in the nice views then hopped back on the bus and it took us to the “Viking Mall”. They were using their term “mall” loosely. It was like a mall from the 1950’s. But it did have a Canadian Dollar Store in it so we stocked up on some snacks!
They did have a stop at the Grenfell House museum but we skipped that because we had to get back for trivia! Lol. We did read that it was the house of St Anthony’s most influential historic figure, Dr Wilfred Grenfell.
Born on February 28, 1865, in northern England, Grenfell entered the London Hospital Medical School in 1883. While in London, Grenfell heard the Americanevangelist Dwight L. Moody. The event inspired him to a life of Christian charity.
A member of the Royal National Mission To Deep Sea Fishermen, Grenfell was sent to investigate the conditions of fishermen in the Labrador region in 1892. He was said to be the first doctor to reach the region. He would later establish a string of hospitals, cooperatives and schools for people in remote Newfoundland and Labrador towns. Dr. Grenfell’s contributions to the region are honored at this museum.
After we got back on the ship, we went to trivia. We played with our friends from Albany. The category was geography and we did OK with 9 points but the winner had 14.
After trivia we went to the port talk on St John’s Newfoundland. It’s the Capitol of Newfoundland and has a lot more people than here. We haven’t been to this port either before so we’re really looking forward to it.
That’s all for now, I’ll do an update after dinner. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
The Wandering Italian 