deer lake and home

Wouldn't you know it? The weather is brilliant today - warm and completely sunny. Ah, well.

With a morning to kill in Deer Lake, we drove to a craft studio in the nearby town of Pasadena. This was Meyer's Minerals, a shop that makes jewelry and other objects from local stones such as labradorite and marble. We had seen labradorite in all the gift shops, but I didn't care for it - and now I discovered why. The stuff sold in the gift shops is mostly cheap imitation, coated with beeswax. The real thing, cut by a craftsperson and polished to a high gloss, is beautiful.

The labradorite jewelry was out of my price range, but there were earrings made of other local stones that were more reasonable and really nice. I bought another pair of earrings: an abstract shape of a polar bear, cut from white marble. It used to be really hard to buy myself things on our trips - I would agonize over any purchase and Allan would try to talk me into it. It wasn't the money - it was buying something for myself, rather than a gift for someone else. Now I just buy it, and later, I'm always happy I did.

We had lunch in the best restaurant in Deer Lake: a diner attached to the truckstop-gas station. It's true! If you go to Newfoundland, you'll often find the best food in a restaurant attached to a gas station. Once we got over our aversion - fish chowder from a gas station? - we realized it was the way to go.

Now we're hanging out in the little Deer Lake airport, because our rental car had to be back 2-1/2 hours before our flight.

I can't wait to hug the dogs!