Dear Kid,

If you’re a well-traveled person, having visited all 50 of These Here United States, you might look around and think “what next?” And you might be bold enough to answer yourself, “How about all the provinces in Canada?”

You might then contemplate your past travel and realize that while you’ve been to many of the provinces, you’ve never been to Newfoundland. And then you might book tickets pronto.

In case any of that happened to you (or to anyone you might happen to know), you might want to learn a bit about Newfoundland before you go. If you’re not the one going, you might wish to learn about Newfoundland anyway.

Fortunately, I am here to help (you are so lucky to have me!).

Newfoundland (please pronounce the end as “land” not “lund”) is officially Newfoundland and Labrador (yes, the dogs were named for them). 94% of the population lives on Newfoundland–Labrador is bigger, but not so populated. Newfoundland was its own country until 1949 when it joined the Maple Leaf.

Fabulous Bizarre Fact #1: Saint Pierre and Miquelon is physically within the province of N&L but is officially part of France. Two countries for the price of one!

Fabulous Bizarre Fact #2: N&L is so cool it has its own time zone–and it’s one of the super cool time zones that is 30 minutes different than its neighbors.

Newfoundland is an island (a big one, but still an island). It also has a weird sense of humor when it comes to naming cities: Conception Bay, Heart’s Desire, Heart’s Content, Dildo (you get the idea).

Newfoundland and Labrador has its own dictionary because the language and dialect are so diverse (I am not making that part up). Maybe those city names mean something different in their dictionary.

Fabulous Bizarre Fact #3: Christopher Columbus was not the first European Dude to discover North America. Turns out the Vikings wandered into L’ase aux Meadows at the very northern tip of the island waaaay before C’bus ever thought about getting his passport stamped.

Speaking of things that aren’t right in the history books, it turns out the Germans landed in North America during WWII. In Newfoundland and Labrador. On October 22, 1943, a German sub landed on Marin Bay and set up a remote weather station. Did you ever learn about that in school? Neither did I.

Love, Mom