Sonya's Blog - Day 86 - North Sydney and the Ferry to Argentia, Newfoundland

Sonya’s Blog - Day 86 - September 16th - North Sydney and the Ferry to Newfoundland

Our Cottage was with Aaron’s Dove House and breakfast was included with our rental and our sitting was for 8:30. We all got up and got ready and then walked the block down to the main house for breakfast. The hostess did up a full cooked breakfast to order and it was all very tasty and lovely.

We headed back to the cottage to do pack up our final items and get ready for our trip across to Newfoundland. The ferry was leaving at 5:30 PM, but we needed to be checked in at least 2 hours prior to departure. We didn’t really have much on the agenda and didn’t want to stray to far and have to rush back.

We went to Tim Horton’s so the kids could get some school work done. They both worked on math, English and Social Studies. I discovered that there was a Heritage Museum in North Sydney and we are going to head there when the kids are done their work.

The Heritage Museum is attached to the Library, so we headed over there. It is just down the street from the ferry, so we will have no problem making our check-in time. The museum was no longer open, but the librarian opened the doors for us and let us tour around on our own which was really nice of her. It was a small museum, but it had lots of artifacts that represented the history of North Sydney really well. Our favourite exhibits were on World War I and World War II and the role that North Sydney played in being a port and communications. There was a knapsack that a soldier from that area had used in World War I and a bomber jacket from World War II that was used by a soldier. Blake and Isaac really like the telegraph table. They also had a neat old firetruck that had obviously been well used in its day.

We spent over an hour in the museum and then decided it was time for lunch. The boys wanted pizza, but Natasha and I wanted nothing to do with that. There was a lovely little cafe across the road and two doors down there was a pizza place so it worked out perfectly. Natasha and I went to the Black Spoon and had a really good lunch. I had the seafood chowder and a salad and it was all really good. Natasha had a fish sandwich and a salad and she really enjoyed that. The boys met up with us afterwards and they had enjoyed their lunch of pizza as well.

It was now time to head over to the terminal and get checked in. We had a very nice chat with the lady checking us into the ferry for about 20 minutes. She was very interested in our North American tour and was just very lovely to talk to. After we were all checked in and found our line to park in we had about an hour until boarding. We just headed into the terminal and continued on with school work and blogging (for me) because they had wifi and the kids needed to do some more work.

We headed back out at 4 PM and we were one of the first lines to be put on the ferry. We grabbed our bags and found our cabin first. It was pretty tiny, 2 sets of bunkbeds with just enough room to walk between them, a bathroom, a small desk and a closet. We had to line up outside and wait till 2 of us were on our beds before we could all fit in together. It was very cozy. We had over an hour till the boat set sail. The kids just wanted to hang in the cabin, but Blake and I wanted to go look around.

I wanted to look around before we took off because I wasn’t sure how I would feel once we were out of the harbour. It was a pretty fancy ferry with a lounge, movie theatre, 2 restaurants, games room, internet room and a gift store. We had a good look around and then we went and got the kids so they could watch us leave the port. Things went really well until we were about 2 hours out and then the sea was very choppy and there was a lot of movement. I managed to eat supper, but then I had to go lie down. The ocean was getting rougher and rougher and Blake was concerned about me and the fact that we forgot to buy gravol before we left. I have never actually been sick on a boat, I just don’t feel great and I don’t function well. Anyhow, somehow he came back to the cabin with crackers, gravol and some water that he rounded up on the boat. It took the gravol to make me feel better and also to help me sleep and then waited till everyone else was in bed before I got ready, to give the gravol a chance to kick in. I managed to get ready for bed and fall asleep. It wasn’t the greatest sleep in the world, but I did manage to sleep on and off throughout the night. I woke up in the wee hours and the ocean was much calmer, which was nice, and I was able to get a few more hours after that.

Sonya