The weather was rainy this morning, so the group decided to dispense with a short hike in favor of indoor activities. It turned out to be a good call. We headed out to Port au Choix and made a bunch of stops. The first was at Ben's Museum and Art Studio. Ben wa quite a personality. He had a complete sperm whale skeleton which he recovered from the beach and processed himself. He also had a bunch of other fishing and maritime related stuff that was fun to look at. His art is fairly well known around these parts. I am not sure how far afield it is well known. He has a piece which he would like to sell for about 2.7 million dollars. He figures that after taxes that would net him a million bucks then he could retire. Dream on.
We stopped at the French Rooms Cultural Center. They showed us a movie about moving houses during the resettlement program. I had never seen anything like it. The moved the house by floating it and pulling with boats to Port au Choix. I find the whole resettlement program to be quite disturbing. It was new to me. This trip is turning out to be very informative as far as Canadian history and politics is concerned. This was also the site of the 6000 year old burial ground.
We had lunch at the Anchor Inn. Just about everybody had moose stew. That was new to me, and it was very good. My first encounter with moose meat. I would have it again any time. As a matter of fact I would find it a fun challenge to make a bunch of different stuff with moose meat. Think of it, smoked moose meat jerky. Dang, my mouth is watering!
Right after lunch we went out to the Port au Choix lighthouse. It was raining and we couldn't go inside for any interpretive activities.
Later in the afternoon we visited the Port au Choix National Historic Site. This was very interesting. The French Rooms Cultural Center is located adjacent to an archaic Indian burial ground which is 6000 years old. It was undisturbed when it was found about 30 years ago. The result was a treasure trove of artifacts which told quite a story of the archaic Indians. I found the artifact exhibits to be very interesting. I like that old stuff.
After that we headed out to St. Barbe for the night. This is where we were to catch the ferry for a passage to Labrador. We had a nice dinner and our trip leader entertained us with his music and included a good discussion of other ancient Indian cultures.
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