Next we were off to Gander. There’s really not much there
except a big airport. We had not gone very far when we noticed some cars pulled off the road. Upon further investigation we saw that there were two moose. So, of course, we joined the group of moose paparazzi!
We camped at Jonathon’s Pond campgrounds and in the morning stopped at a memorial called Silent Witness. This is dedicated to the 101st Airborne division Screaming Eagles and the 256 individuals who lost their lives in a 1985 Air Crash. The Silent Witness memorial depicts an American soldier standing atop a massive rock holding the hands of two children. The boy and girl each hold an Olive branch indicative of the peace keeping mission that the 101st was just returning from. They were going home for Christmas.
This was quite moving.
Trinity is such a picturesque village. Very colourful and quaint. Population is 250 in the summer and 50 in the winter. Here $300,000 may get you a house, but real estate here is hard to come by. It was threatening to rain so we got the last cabin available in Trinity. We even tried one of the 9 B&B’s and all were full!
That night we went to Dock Marina restaurant for supper and some local entertainment. There were two ladies singing. One of the ladies owns a jewelry/artsy store and we bought a couple of gurgle jugs from here. hey are really fun!
The Anglican Church is absolutely huge! Apparently "back in the day" Trinity was a more important port than St. John's and the population was 2500. The cemetery has seen better days!
This place was full of locals, and as soon as the singing was over, one of the locals came over and chatted with us and then she had us over to her table and introduced us to all sorts of people- authors, musicians and local celebs - all very interesting and talented people. We are now the proud owners of one of the author’s books.
Josephine Johnson, author "The Flower that Bloomed on Ragged Island"
We met Mary, a very nice lady from England who came to Trinity for a visit some time ago as her grandfather had roots here. She now owns a B&B, BUT, we found out the next day from the jewelry lady, that Mary had been the nanny for young Diana who became Princess Diana!! Apparently she has written a book. We must look it up.
Mary told us that there are three groups of people in Trinity. The ones who live there year round and the other two groups live there mostly in the summer from two and a half to six months. Such an interesting mix of people.
There is so much to do here in the evening that one could go out for dinner, then to a play, then at 9:30 go back to where you had dinner for entertainment and THEN after 11:30 you could head off to Rocky’s for yet another show of comedy or musical entertainment and dance the night away! It’s a happening place!!
Now we are headed to St. John’s, a vibrant, historic, yet contemporary capital of 500 years . Val & Wayne gave us the key to their home. They live in Val’s family home. With the renovations they have done it is a really comfy place to take a rest day and just hang about before we began our sightseeing. There is a lot to see here and we did most of it.
St. John’s surrounds a tiny harbour that provides shelter from the mighty Atlantic. With a population of 190,000 it’s an oil port, a transportation hub and a creative and vibrant city,
Signal Hill, originally known as the Lookout, and Cabot Tower have come to symbolize St. John’s historic past. It has been used for signalling since 1704. It became the site of harbour defenses from the 18th century though WW11. Perched at the top of Signal hill is Cabot Tower where in December of 1901 Marconi received the first wireless transatlantic signal. We spent quite a while here and from the top of Signal Hill we could see the modern lighthouse at Cape Spear which is the most easterly point of land in North America - we went there on another day.
The view of the city from Signal Hill was awesome.
We could see the harbour, crowded hilly streets with colourful buildings.
We walked Water St. a few times. It has lots of cool alleyways, shops, galleries and pubs. If you watch the “Republic of Doyle” …we had a beer in “Duke’s”pub. We found out that only the outside of the building is used in the filming and that a replica of Duke’s has been built in the filming studio near the airport.
The Supreme Court house of NFLD is an impressive building.
We walked amid the colourful houses/buildings trying to acquire some really good photos…we think we were successful!!
A walk down towards the harbour took us to the Terry Fox memorial. He began his cancer run across Canada right in St. John’s. Talk about a hilly start!!
We spent a rainy morning at The Rooms - the provincial museum, archives and art gallery. The look outs offer great views of the city, however, they were closed.
The Johnson GEO Centre was very interesting and we spent quite some time here. We watched the “Butterfly Flight” movie – a film about the monarch migration to Mexico - really informative; read a billboard exhibition on the Titanic disaster - very interesting; walked through a geological exhibition and Oil & Gas exhibition, both informative and educational.
Time to get Screeched In!!! We went to George St. It is only 2 blocks long and has approx. 27 bars!!! There is nothing but pubs and bars on this street. Our screech in was held at Trapper John’s. It was okay, but I have to admit that when my Newfie friend Andy held his “Honourary Screech In” in Surrey many years ago…it was much more fun! However, we now have a certificate authenticating our NL status!!
We took a drive to Cape Spear. Not only is this the most easterly point in North America, it houses the oldest surviving lighthouse in the province. We went through it and were surprised that it was quite spacious for a family of 5. In the distance we could see Signal Hill. There are lots of walkways and hiking trails. The openness was unusual for us and we thoroughly enjoyed our 3 hour hike. We were right on the top of the ridge overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Pretty cool!! As we walked along we found many, many pockets of wild blueberries. We picked several handfuls and immediately ate them…..they tasted soooo good! We even had some with our picnic lunch!
We also enjoyed a scenic drive to Torbay, a small town about 15 min from St. John’s and drove through Quidi Vidi Village Plantation, an iconic fishing community.
Val & Wayne came home early as it began to rain steadily in Gros Morne. It was a treat to have an extra 2 nights with them and meet Wayne’s mom, and a group of Val &Wayne’s friends who were so
much fun!
Wayne, 1st cousin Val , Sharen, Keith
1st cousin Lorna & Brian
Lorna & Sharen
We camped at Jonathon’s Pond campgrounds and in the morning stopped at a memorial called Silent Witness. This is dedicated to the 101st Airborne division Screaming Eagles and the 256 individuals who lost their lives in a 1985 Air Crash. The Silent Witness memorial depicts an American soldier standing atop a massive rock holding the hands of two children. The boy and girl each hold an Olive branch indicative of the peace keeping mission that the 101st was just returning from. They were going home for Christmas.
This was quite moving.
Trinity is such a picturesque village. Very colourful and quaint. Population is 250 in the summer and 50 in the winter. Here $300,000 may get you a house, but real estate here is hard to come by. It was threatening to rain so we got the last cabin available in Trinity. We even tried one of the 9 B&B’s and all were full!
That night we went to Dock Marina restaurant for supper and some local entertainment. There were two ladies singing. One of the ladies owns a jewelry/artsy store and we bought a couple of gurgle jugs from here. hey are really fun!
The Anglican Church is absolutely huge! Apparently "back in the day" Trinity was a more important port than St. John's and the population was 2500. The cemetery has seen better days!
This place was full of locals, and as soon as the singing was over, one of the locals came over and chatted with us and then she had us over to her table and introduced us to all sorts of people- authors, musicians and local celebs - all very interesting and talented people. We are now the proud owners of one of the author’s books.
Josephine Johnson, author "The Flower that Bloomed on Ragged Island"
We met Mary, a very nice lady from England who came to Trinity for a visit some time ago as her grandfather had roots here. She now owns a B&B, BUT, we found out the next day from the jewelry lady, that Mary had been the nanny for young Diana who became Princess Diana!! Apparently she has written a book. We must look it up.
Mary told us that there are three groups of people in Trinity. The ones who live there year round and the other two groups live there mostly in the summer from two and a half to six months. Such an interesting mix of people.
There is so much to do here in the evening that one could go out for dinner, then to a play, then at 9:30 go back to where you had dinner for entertainment and THEN after 11:30 you could head off to Rocky’s for yet another show of comedy or musical entertainment and dance the night away! It’s a happening place!!
Now we are headed to St. John’s, a vibrant, historic, yet contemporary capital of 500 years . Val & Wayne gave us the key to their home. They live in Val’s family home. With the renovations they have done it is a really comfy place to take a rest day and just hang about before we began our sightseeing. There is a lot to see here and we did most of it.
St. John’s surrounds a tiny harbour that provides shelter from the mighty Atlantic. With a population of 190,000 it’s an oil port, a transportation hub and a creative and vibrant city,
Signal Hill, originally known as the Lookout, and Cabot Tower have come to symbolize St. John’s historic past. It has been used for signalling since 1704. It became the site of harbour defenses from the 18th century though WW11. Perched at the top of Signal hill is Cabot Tower where in December of 1901 Marconi received the first wireless transatlantic signal. We spent quite a while here and from the top of Signal Hill we could see the modern lighthouse at Cape Spear which is the most easterly point of land in North America - we went there on another day.
The view of the city from Signal Hill was awesome.
We could see the harbour, crowded hilly streets with colourful buildings.
We walked Water St. a few times. It has lots of cool alleyways, shops, galleries and pubs. If you watch the “Republic of Doyle” …we had a beer in “Duke’s”pub. We found out that only the outside of the building is used in the filming and that a replica of Duke’s has been built in the filming studio near the airport.
The Supreme Court house of NFLD is an impressive building.
We walked amid the colourful houses/buildings trying to acquire some really good photos…we think we were successful!!
A walk down towards the harbour took us to the Terry Fox memorial. He began his cancer run across Canada right in St. John’s. Talk about a hilly start!!
We spent a rainy morning at The Rooms - the provincial museum, archives and art gallery. The look outs offer great views of the city, however, they were closed.
The Johnson GEO Centre was very interesting and we spent quite some time here. We watched the “Butterfly Flight” movie – a film about the monarch migration to Mexico - really informative; read a billboard exhibition on the Titanic disaster - very interesting; walked through a geological exhibition and Oil & Gas exhibition, both informative and educational.
Time to get Screeched In!!! We went to George St. It is only 2 blocks long and has approx. 27 bars!!! There is nothing but pubs and bars on this street. Our screech in was held at Trapper John’s. It was okay, but I have to admit that when my Newfie friend Andy held his “Honourary Screech In” in Surrey many years ago…it was much more fun! However, we now have a certificate authenticating our NL status!!
We took a drive to Cape Spear. Not only is this the most easterly point in North America, it houses the oldest surviving lighthouse in the province. We went through it and were surprised that it was quite spacious for a family of 5. In the distance we could see Signal Hill. There are lots of walkways and hiking trails. The openness was unusual for us and we thoroughly enjoyed our 3 hour hike. We were right on the top of the ridge overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Pretty cool!! As we walked along we found many, many pockets of wild blueberries. We picked several handfuls and immediately ate them…..they tasted soooo good! We even had some with our picnic lunch!
We also enjoyed a scenic drive to Torbay, a small town about 15 min from St. John’s and drove through Quidi Vidi Village Plantation, an iconic fishing community.
Val & Wayne came home early as it began to rain steadily in Gros Morne. It was a treat to have an extra 2 nights with them and meet Wayne’s mom, and a group of Val &Wayne’s friends who were so
much fun!
Wayne, 1st cousin Val , Sharen, Keith
1st cousin Lorna & Brian
Lorna & Sharen
Both Val & I had tears in our eyes as we said so long to
each other……we will meet again, there is no doubt!
We both loved St John’s and NL and would love to come back. We have yet lots to explore. Next time, we fly!
We decided to take the long ferry back to NS. On our way to catch the ferry at Argentia, we spent a very few minutes at Castle Hill. It overlooks the original French capital of NL, now known as Placentia. The view is amazing, however with the rain, wind and cold….not so much!
Once on the ferry, we took our sleeping bag and pillows from our car and camped out in the movie theatre. Saw two movies and then went to sleep. The 17 hours passed quite quickly!
We both loved St John’s and NL and would love to come back. We have yet lots to explore. Next time, we fly!
We decided to take the long ferry back to NS. On our way to catch the ferry at Argentia, we spent a very few minutes at Castle Hill. It overlooks the original French capital of NL, now known as Placentia. The view is amazing, however with the rain, wind and cold….not so much!
Once on the ferry, we took our sleeping bag and pillows from our car and camped out in the movie theatre. Saw two movies and then went to sleep. The 17 hours passed quite quickly!
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