Brock and Becca: Tour Newfoundland and Labrador

By Lois W. Marlatt

Brock and Becca enjoy touring Newfoundland and Labrador with other families. John, the only other boy on the tour, has lots of good ideas when it comes to teasing the girls. Brock does a little showing off and gets hurt, but not badly. Mom is not amused. Every day at least one moose can be seen wandering down the road. Icebergs and whales are spotted from shore. Brock's favourite true story is about a Newfoundland breed dog that saved 92 people from a ship that was going down in a storm in 1919. Newfoundland dogs are huge, strong dogs with webbed feet. Everyone on the tour enjoys a boat trip out to the rocky islands where nesting seabirds abound. Your children will learn about Canada while being entertained with interesting and exciting stories in the Brock and Becca series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books for Pleasure
• Release date: Oct 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781553491187

Book preview

BROCK AND BECCA

TOUR

NEWFOUNDLAND

AND

LABRADOR

Written by Lois W. Marlatt

Illustrated by Gil Agis

Copyright Lois W. Marlatt 2011

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-1-55349-118-7

Published by Books for Pleasure at Smashwords

CHAPTER 1

Dad came into the kitchen.

We knew he was home because as soon as he is inside the house he always shouts, Hi, everybody. I’m home.

Mom was at the stove cooking supper. My sister Becca and I were at the kitchen table doing our homework. I was glad to see Dad. He would be my excuse to quit working.

Okay, kids, Mom said. Pack up and get washed for supper.

It wasn’t until we were eating our dessert that Mom told us about a phone call she had received that day from her mother.

Mom said her mother’s friend, Laura, wondered if we would be interested in taking a two-week tour of Newfoundland and Labrador in June.

Yes, I shouted, and Becca echoed my answer.

What’s this all about? Dad asked.

A club Laura belongs to wants to go on a tour of Newfoundland and Labrador, but they need four more people to fill the bus. Laura thought of us because she knows that we like to holiday in Canada. It is a tour made up of parents and children, so that would suit us.

I can’t believe you are even considering this, Dad said. You never want to take the children out of school to go on a holiday. What is so special this time? He looked at Mom.

I have always wanted to visit Newfoundland and Labrador, and if we go on a tour we will see so much more than if we go on our own.

Please, Dad, I begged. Anything that gets me out of school is a good thing.

We finished our dessert, and as soon as the table was cleared Dad got out the atlas. Newfoundland is an island, and is a big one.

Where would we be going? Dad asked, but Mom did not know except that it was a tour of the island, and also a side trip to Labrador by ferry.

If we are interested, she said, they will send us all the information. I do know the price and the dates. The tour company looks after everything for us, and that makes me happy.

Mom usually plans our trips and she spends hours on the computer.

I’ll ask for those two weeks as my holidays as soon as I get into work tomorrow, Dad promised. If it’s okay, I’ll call you and you can phone your mother or Laura. I would like to know a little more about the trip before we commit ourselves. Dad shook his head from side to side. I never thought I might be going to Newfoundland this year. The saying that one never knows what the future holds is certainly true.

The next few weeks were busy ones. Dad got his holidays, and he was pleased when he saw where this trip would take us.

I hoped there would be other boys on the trip about my age. I am almost nine. My sister Becca is only six. She has her dumb doll Krissy, so it does not matter if there are any other girls on the trip, or not.

Mom took us shopping before we left, and we both got two new toys. We each got one with a magnetic board to play with on the bus, and another for the nights in the hotel rooms.

The time flew by, and suddenly it was Wednesday, the night before we were to leave. Becca and I were in bed, and it was only 7 p.m. The limousine driver would be picking us up at 3:45 in the morning for the trip to the airport. That is the middle of the night.

I thought I wouldn’t go to sleep that early, but I did, and I didn’t want to get up when Mom called me. Half an hour later we were in the limousine on the way to the airport. It was dark out. Becca went back to sleep.

We were the only family from our part of Ontario going on this trip, so our first plane was to take us to Halifax, Nova Scotia. There we would meet the other people in Laura’s group who were flying in from Ottawa.

I have a watch so once we were in the air, Dad told me to put my watch ahead by one hour.

Our plane arrived in Halifax and we had time to have a sandwich before we moved to the next departure area.

I was getting excited. If everyone came with sons, there were lots of games boys can play. I had packed my softball, my Frisbee, some board games, a deck of