We awoke to fog and rain and we really couldn't see much as the ship sailed into the Red Bay, Labrador harbor . We had a Holland America tour scheduled called "Lighthouse Journey". After a room service breakfast, we headed to the showroom to wait to leave on our tour. There was a little confusion about the tour because there were several departures for the same tour. We ended up on a tour 15 minutes later than what our tickets said. This was our first tender port -- which means that the ship isn't docked, but instead is anchored in the harbor and we are taken to the dock in the ship's tender boats (they use some of the life boats). It was still raining and foggy, but we saw our first iceberg of the cruise on the tender ride to the dock. When we got to the dock, our buses were waiting. Our tour bus was a school bus and our guide a young woman named Amy.

Amy told us first about Red Bay. Named for the red rocks, Red Bay is the easternmost Canadian community that can be reached by roads. The population is 264 people. It was originally a summer whaling station for Basque whalers who hunted the bow whale and the right whale (these two types of whale were the preferred quarry because they float when they are killed). Another interpretation of Red Bay is that it was named for all of the whale blood that was spilled here. Red Bay was recently named a UNESCO World Heritage site as it is considered the most complete and well-preserved example of historical whaling and whale oil production port in Canada. Its harbor is the site of underwater archeological studies . Our tour, however, wasn't about the whaling, but was about the beautiful scenery and the Point Amour lighthouse. Unfortunately the rain and the fog made it hard to see much of the scenery.

By the time we got close to the lighthouse, the rain had stopped and the fog had lifted. There were even a few peeks of sunshine. Just before we got to the lighthouse, we made a brief stop (we weren't allowed off the bus) to see the burial mound at L'Anse Amour. Anthropologists say that a Maritime Archaic adolescent was buried there about 7,500 years ago. It is the earliest known burial monument in the new world. There were several buildings at Point Amour, including the lighthouse, Max's house (Max was the last lighthouse keeper and was our guide Amy's grandfather), the foghorn building and a gift shop. Also on the site were the ruins of a Marconi radio station, and the ruins of a Diaphone Foghorn building (a state of the art foghorn when it was installed in 1906). The lighthouse is the tallest in Atlantic Canada and the original lighthouse keeper's residence housed displays on its history . The weather really hadn't cleared enough to make it worth the 128 steps to the top, so we decided to skip that. Our tour included a snack, which was served in the foghorn house. We had a piece of lingonberry bread (which was very good) and a cloudberry tart -- both made by local people. The young man who was serving said his grandmother made the bread. Probably the most interesting thing we saw at the lighthouse was an area of the beach that looked as though it had been paved with large stones. The "stones" are actually called a patch reef and are composed of the calcite skeletons of an extinct group of sponge-like animals called Archaeocyathids. The reef, which was formed about 530 million years ago, provides evidence that this area was a shallow, warm tropical sea at that time.

The weather continued to improve as we left the lighthouse and made our way back to Red Bay. Our bus driver made a short detour in L'Anse Au Loup, the largest community in the area, to show us the waterfront and the Labrador Fishermen's Union Shrimp Company . One of the largest businesses in the area, the company was formed by local fishermen. It employs about 600 people seasonally and processes the catches of about 800 fishermen.

The views on the way back with no rain and less fog were much nicer. The bus made a quick photo stop at a viewpoint over the Pinware River and we learned quickly about another thing that Labrador is famous for -- black flies. Amy told us that as soon as the breeze dies down and it warms up a bit, they come out. And they did! Lots of them joined us in the bus for the rest of the trip back to Red Bay. I probably killed a couple dozen of them. Luckily, both Karl and I seemed to escape without any bites. Someone on the bus asked Amy if she had a Newfoundland or Labrador jokes -- and she told us a couple. The first one she told: A Newfie, an Albertan and an Ontarian (that's what she called them) went into a restaurant. The special of the day was "Lobster Tail and a Beer". The Newfie said "Oh, good -- three of my favorite things!"

We were lucky to be the last two people allowed on the tender that was loading when we got back to the dock. We shared a hamburger for a late lunch (the serving staff always shake their heads when we tell them we want to split a sandwich). Because of the late lunch we skipped our dinner in the dining room and had a light supper in the Lido buffet. We were both feeling a little beat up from our long ride in the school bus (not the most comfortable seats), so we went to the pool and hot tub instead of the show. The pool was nice and warm and the hot tub warmer, but not hot, so we stayed there for about an hour. After our relaxing time in the warm water, we were both ready for bed.