Bonavista

I woke up before 6:00 this morning and couldn’t take a breath without coughing. I know how this story ends... with me at Urgent Care, getting a breathing treatment. (There are two types of asthma- the one where you have asthma attacks, and the one where you can’t stop coughing. I have the latter.) My only option was to go to the ER, and I knew it would be crazy expensive. But after an hour of this, I knew I had to go. I texted Alex (who was still asleep) and made the ten minute drive to the Bonavista hospital. The nurses were so kind! They had no idea how to register an American, but they said they wanted me to see the doctor first and we’d deal with everything else later. The doctor immediately got me on a breathing treatment, and it’s amazing how fast that helps. He told me he’d prescribe one every six hours over the next two days, and I could come back and get them until I left town. (Which, unfortunately, was that night. But still- I went back for another that afternoon and it was great.) Poor Alex was super worried when he woke up and saw my text, but by that time I was a million times better and when I got home, we were both ready to do some exploring.

First stop- the puffin viewing area. Oh my word, these are the cutest! Puffins may be my new favorite animal! They mate for life and only have one chick each season. The guy volunteering there told us that the day before, the dad puffins were teaching their babies to fly. The baby would go on his back, and the dad would tilt to the side and the baby would fall off and flap his wings and do his best. Right before the baby would hit the ground, the dad would swoop under him and catch him. We also learned that they spend their winters out at sea, mostly swimming and sometimes hanging out on ice. They have waterproof feathers. They waddle like penguins and have this unique way of flying and they swim like ducks.

I couldn’t get any pictures because my camera doesn’t zoom in well, but here is a picture from the Cornell Lab of a puffin. It was actually kind of nice because instead of worrying about pictures, I just stood there and delighted in the moment. I felt like I couldn’t be any happier than I was right then. 

(The puffins were behind us in this pic.)

The area around the viewing site was scenic as well!

The water is so blue and clear! I’ve never seen such clear ocean water.

We drove out to Dungeon Provincial Park and saw this site:

(Bad lighting)

There were orange and yellow wildflowers and purple irises all around. We laid in the grass and enjoyed the moment. 

We drove out to see the lighthouse on Cape Bonavista.

And we saw some horses. One of them ran right up to Alex to say hi; his eagerness startled us!

Here are a few more pictures from beautiful Bonavista:

(The houses are all bright colors with white trim.)

This place is just calming and peaceful and quiet. Everyone we talk to is friendly. Nowhere we’ve gone has been crowded.

We stayed in Twillingate, which was a long drive. And actually, completely unnecessary because we went there to see icebergs, and a local told us they hadn’t seen any since March. So sad! But we did enjoy stopping at Dildo Run Provincial Park on the way.

(Twillingate)