May 21- Corner Brook, Newfoundland

We are in Corner Brook, NewFOUNDland. We learned that all this time we had been pronouncing the name of the Canadian province wrong. The middle FOUND is really emphasized by locals. The first picture is what the internet and the Chamber of Commerce claims this community looks like and the other two are just what it looks like today…..and it is 42 degrees and raining. There are white caps on the water in the harbor which is part of The Bay of Islands.

Corner Brook is the 2^nd largest community in Newfoundland after St. John’s. Captain James Cook, the British Explorer, charted the coast in the 1760s and a monument to him stands at an overlook. We also traveled in his footsteps in Australia and we will in the South Pacific islands. The City, surrounded by mountains on three sides, is nestled among the folded and faulted Long Range Mountains, which are a continuation of the Appalachian Mountain belt, stretching up from Georgia in the southern United States.

Set at the mouth of the Bay of Islands, the City is 40 km (25 miles) inland from the open waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The landscape of the Corner Brook region is rugged and the scenery is spectacular. The surrounding coastline holds magnificent fjords, jagged headlands, thickly forested areas and many offshore islands. Wildlife, forest and water mingle with the City's borders on all sides and mountains fill the horizon in all directions. We wished for a little sun so we could see this scenery for ourselves, but today it is not to be in the cards.

The area is best known for its pulp and paper business which could be seen from the ship. Jim just returned from a walk on the deck and said he believed the wind chill made it about 30 degrees outside- so with the rain still falling we are happy we chose to stay inside.