A-Z Challenge: I is for Island

I think the only island I've ever been to is Newfoundland, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I went with my grandparents one summer. My grandparents are reverse-snowbirds--they travel during the summer and stay home during the winter. They visit relatives and go hiking across Canada with their fifth wheel. I only went once, and it was amazing.

I was traveling as an Unaccompanied Minor (I had to wear a hat and a badge and everything and it was super embarrassing!), because I was flying out to meet my grandparents there. I was sitting next to two older women during the flight, and when Newfoundland appeared out of the fog, they both got really excited and it was clear that they were going home.

My grandma is really into birds, so I think we visited every single bird on the island. Aside from the puffins, it was basically seagull, seagull, slightly-different-seagull to me, but it was still pretty neat. We went on several whale-watching tours (I have so many pictures of whales' tails), including one on a reconstructed Viking ship. It had a motor, but once we got out into the water they turned it off and we sailed around for a while. Very cool. (They also had a helmet and sword for people to try on...and of course my grandparents took a picture of me with them...)

We also went to L'Anse aux Meadows, which is definitely worth checking out if you find yourself in Newfoundland...which you should! More pictures of me, blushing, standing next to people in historical costumes.

We went on one hike, up Gros Morne. It was very hot, and I do not deal well with heat, but I survived. Also, scree is evil. As tempting as it was to stop for a swim, I'm glad my grandparents talked me out of it or we probably would have had to spend the night!

It was so hot, I found out the next day, when my grandparents paid for me to go horseback riding, that horses had been fainting.

And we were climbing a mountain.

Both my grandparents and I are into museums and history and fossils and things, so we took a lot of interpretive tours and visited a lot of museums and things.

I got to eat a piece of an iceberg. (I told some friends about this recently and we decided that I'm single-handedly responsible for global warming, with my iceberg-eating habit).

I'm not sure if I could pick a highlight for the trip, honestly. I'd love to go back, with my wife.