Home, Twice Over
If you noticed I was quieter than usual last week, you weren’t imagining it. I was home. Newfoundland home.
https://youtube.com/shorts/X_dGnLPN8as?si=sqR33j0UUOWDO2x-
We started on the west coast and drove to the east coast, to St. John’s, for a family wedding — the kind of celebration where you hug people you haven’t seen in years and somehow pick up exactly where you left off. Then we made our way back across to the west coast, to Corner Brook, where I grew up and where most of my family still is.
Two coasts. One week. And honestly, more Return on Life than I’ve felt in a while.
The Drive That Says Everything
I want to tell you about a drive we took while we were there — because I think it says everything about why I do the work I do.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mpPLpgpDnbE
We drove from Frenchman’s Cove to Lark Harbour, along the Bay of Islands, with my husband Bill, my daughters Ceili and Ciara, and Ciara’s boyfriend Nick all packed into the car. Sunshine. Salt water. Fishing boats tucked into little coves. Mountains dropping straight down to the sea. And a road that just keeps curling around the water, turn after turn, each one better than the last.
I travel the world for a living. I’ve stood on the deck of an expedition ship in Antarctica. I’ve sailed the Danube past castles lit up at night. I’ve seen places that most people will only ever see in photographs.
And the west coast of Newfoundland still stops me in my tracks every single time.
Maybe it’s the mountains meeting the ocean. Maybe it’s the fishing boats. Maybe it’s the road itself, the way it insists you slow down whether you meant to or not.
Or maybe it’s simply that this is home.
Some places you travel to. Some places never really leave you.
What the Week Reinforced
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/k8gqaETazwQ
That drive ended, eventually, at Bottle Cove — a small cove that’s become something of a personal touchstone for what I believe luxury travel should feel like. [Read more here.]
And the whole trip, start to finish, taught me something about wellness I didn’t expect to relearn at 50-something — the kind of restoration that has nothing to do with a spa and everything to do with people and place. [Read more here.]
Between the wedding, the drive, and a week spent somewhere my shoulders finally dropped, I came home reminded of something I tell clients constantly: the best trips aren’t always the ones that take you the farthest. Sometimes they’re the ones that take you exactly where you need to be.
Sheila Gallant-Halloran is the founder of Lush Life Travel in Ottawa, Ontario, and a three-time Virtuoso Cruise Icon (2024, 2025, 2026) — top 1% of cruise advisors worldwide. A proud Newfoundlander, she brings the same philosophy of presence and intention to every journey she designs, from her home province to the rivers of Europe and the shores of Antarctica.
Virtuoso Cruise Icon — Three Consecutive Years (2024, 2025, 2026), Top 1% of Cruise Advisors Worldwide
📧 sheila@lushlife.ca | 🌐 www.lushlife.ca
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