An end of winter break in the old city of St. John's, Newfoundland where my cousin Gayle lives with her family. Last time i came to Newfoundland in 1997 they were living in Grand Bank on the Burin Peninsula and i spent a few days in the city that trip too. This is just a 4-5 day weekend.

Newfoundland has received over 600 cm of snow this winter, breaking records. When i went over, some of it had melted off but there was still more snow on the ground and heaped into banks on roadsides and along the highway than i have seen since i was a kid.

I flew over on Thursday night, taking the airbus after work from the nearby hotel. The plane was full but i'm in row 6 up front so should at least get off quickly as i have no checked luggage. The plane was delayed a half hour because of one thing and another, then one passenger was called off the plane leaving a seat for a stand by passenger to get on. Then they had to de-ice the plane because it started to snow. Sheesh. Finally got there and home to Gayle's and greeted everyone. Am sleeping in Jonathan's room, putting him out onto a mattress on the living room floor. He doesn't seem to mind.

Friday, March 23

We've decided to do a bit of driving around this morning. The weather is overcast, cold and windy but thought the wind is chilly and damp, there isn't' the bitter bite to it that comes from a winter north wind. At least not as long as you aren't out in it very long. St. John's is on the Avalon Peninsula, a southeast bit of the island of Newfoundland. It's got a small natural harbour and a nice sized city with a lively downtown area fill of shops and restaurants including the infamous George Street. The malls in the area, and the "big box" super stores don't seem to have taken too much custom away from the downtown.

We drove out of the city and up along the northeast and northwest of a peninsular point of land north of the city stopping first at Middle Cove in Logy Bay. The cove was all iced in though the water was moving under the pack ice. The cove is surrounded by cliffs out of which spout frozen waterfalls and the "sand" is black crushed granite and pebbles, the beach littered with huge rock formations and immense "boulders" of dirty ice.  I stepped back off that beach realizing three rolls of film for a 4 and a half day trip might not be enough! (actually it was, but i bought more while i was there just in case)

From there we drove a bit further through Torbay and down a side road to Bauline, a tiny fishing village with narrow hilly roads twisting past a little church down to a small pier where most of the dories were hauled up out of the water and beached for the winter. It would have been really pretty  under a sunny sky but it still had a certain raw ruggedness with a cold wind blowing in my face as i took a photo of a rush of water emerging from an icy bank into the harbour.

Further along the road, after a detour into the nearby city limits for a bagel and tea break at Tim Horton's, we headed back towards the shoreline for Conception Bay South. We stopped in St. Philip where there is a ferry to the small Bell Island and drove through Paradise to Chamberlain's Head where Chamberlain's Pond was on the map. It looked interesting on the map, like a bay that had been closed off from the sea by a strip of land so we followed a few rough side roads and down an unpaved one, not much wider than the car. That bay, or "pond" was frozen and the strip of land looked as if a celestial dump truck had laid a strip of gravel along to make an embankment across the mouth of the bay. It must have been the tides and waves breaking up the rocks over a natural breakwater underneath that formed it.

Along we drove through the villages, enjoying the stark winter beauty. We had a little bit of sun and blue sky but it didn't last long and was gone by the time we reached the highway back to the city.

We drove through the downtown core along Water and Duckworth streets so we could pinpoint the pub where we are to meet Floyd and Lorraine tomorrow and headed back out to the outskirts with a stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things and have a gawp at some of the "alien species": on sale there. LOL Yes, Philip, there really is such a thing as "cod nuggets" and "cod loins"!

Back to the house for a sandwich and Gayle took Jocelyn to work and picked up Jon from school. The weather is supposed to get nasty later tonight, snow turning to freezing rain to rain by the morning. We did run over to the brand new Wal-Mart and the weather started by the time we left. However it stopped snowing a half hour after we got home. I rang Floyd to check in and got some computer email time in.
 

Saturday March 24

Had an easy morning, Gayle had to go to the office so i took my time getting ready. We went out about 1:30 and Jocelyn drove us downtown. We had a look in some of the tourist craft and food shops along one end of Water Street until it was time to meet Floyd and Lorraine. The pub is called the Duke of Duckworth and is located just off Duckworth Street in one of the little alleys connecting the two streets. The city has wrought iron signs displaying the name of the lanes and a few businesses have their entrances on the alleys as well so they are well maintained and traveled. The Duke is a small British style pub and wasn't, very comfortable, not crowded so we spotted them right away. Furiously enthusiastic hugs are exchanged and introductions made for Gayle and we settled in for a drink. We left there after an hour or so for the Westminster restaurant which was just at the Water Street entrance to the alley. It's a British theme restaurant with British names slapped on the menu items, some of which are traditional but some of which feature the wonderful fresh Newfoundland seafood. We ordered an assortment of appetizers before our meal. It was a lovely meal and we took our time and had a lovely visit, ensconced in a deep padded booth in the corner. Floyd and Lorraine are good friends of mine from the Coronation Street chat room and i've met them before, two years ago in Toronto. It was wonderful to catch up and see them again! Thanks again for dinner, mates!

Finally time to leave and say good bye. Jocelyn picked us up and we drove up Signal Hill to see the end of the sunset over the city. There were at least another dozen or more cars parked up there too even though the evening was cold and damp with a chilly but fresh and bracing wind up on the hill high above the city. On the east side of the hill you can look down to the steep cliffs and walking trails to the sea and the lighthouse at the impossibly narrow mouth of the harbour. The ice was broken up and floating back out to sea with the tide, where earlier, the harbour was tightly packed with it.

Back home we downloaded the photos of us at the restaurant from Gayle's digital camera and i sorted out a quick web page so the chat room people could see them. Gayle and i decided to go out to a late movie at the multiplex at the huge Avalon Mall. I picked up a couple of paperback books while there before the show, The Mexican, starring Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini. Pretty good movie overall.
 

Sunday March 25.

Had to watch Coronation Street of course this morning and we set out for another drive around noon. It was snowing when we left, big fat flakes that gently floated down. No wind. It's not supposed to amount to much. We headed for the trans Canada highway west out of the city with the requisite stop at Tim's for a takeaway coffee for the road. The turnoff we want is about 75 km. From St. John's. We are heading north to the village of Dildo. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, the infamous Dildo, Newfoundland. There's also a South Dildo. The mind boggles. It's a small fishing village and i have no idea how it got it's name. There is an interpretation center there (honest!) but it was closed for the winter season. There is also a bed and breakfast overlooking the bay so there must be some tourist traffic even though it's off the main road. There is a fish processing plant nearby too, providing much needed employment. It's on an inlet at the back end of Trinity Bay. Even on a gray overcast day, fog over the water and a bit of rain falling, it's still picturesque with it's square houses and buildings scattered along two or three winding roads and up into the surrounding hills. The fishing boats are tied up at the pier and there is one in the process of being built on the small beach. There are a couple of derelict dories alongside of the road near the beach head, paint peeling, wood rotting, abandoned.

Back on the road cross country to the Conception Bay side of the peninsula, and a stop in Bay Roberts at Tim's for a loo break and a lunch of coffee and bagels. We then followed a narrow winding secondary road. There is a mention of a Hawthorne's Cottage, a national historic site on the road map. We were pretty sure it would be closed for the season but thought there might be a photo in it at least. It's in a village called Brigus and the village is very pretty in a touristy "quaint" way. Gayle thinks they do get a bit of tourist traffic in summer because of it's beauty. Seems like it because there are a few little tea rooms and craft shops (closed) there as well. The house belonged to a sea captain, Bob Hawthorne.

Back to the main road and along the shore until we come to the turnoff back to the Trans Canada and back home. It's been a gray foggy day but not windy for a change and not very cold. One thing i noticed along the roads were these small painted structures about the size of an outhouse. But they were frequent and alongside the road, an odd place for one. And also, they had no doors so i knew the weren't what they looked like. Were they perhaps there for storage? But nothing seemed to be in any of them. I asked Gayle and what d'you know? Shelters for the children waiting for the school bus! I'd never seen that before on my travels on country roads. What a great idea!

We're having Chessy's fish and chips for supper and tonight CBC is airing the Coronation Street 40th anniversary special. We watched it with permanent grins on our faces, thoroughly enjoyable.

I was looking at the road map of the province. 95% of the settlements on the map are on the coast and some still quite obviously are only accessible by water as there are no roads on the map.  The whole of the province is a spider web of lakes and rivers and most of the places in off the shore are on a lake or river with very few others scattered through the interior. Most of the interior settlements are based around the logging and pulp and paper industries or the city of Gander where the town depends on the airport for it's survival. The rest of Newfoundland looks empty thought there are lots of provincial parklands and ecological reserves, the two largest being Gros Morne and Terra Nova national Parks. There are two wilderness reserves marked on the map, Avalon which takes up a good chunk of the southeast of the Avalon peninsula and Bay du Nord just west of the same peninsula along with a handful of smaller coastal reserves.

A look around the map is a delight of place names too, giving loads of speculation as to how the names might have originated. In addition to Dildo, some of the more fanciful ones include: Witless Bay, Tickle Cove, Plate Cove (East and West), Gooseberry Cove, Heart's Delight, Little Heart's Ease, Heart's Desire and Heart's Content. Goblin, Tea Cove, Fogo, Twillingate, Seldom, Little Seldom, Farewell, Virgin Arm (coincidentally near Dildo Run Provincial Park but nowhere near Dildo and South Dildo). Luke's Arm, Comfort Cove, Leading Tickles, Lushes Bight, Sop's Arm. There are lots of duplicate names and four "Little Bays" and three more with Little Bay in the name. Oddly, not many names that seem to be based on Native/First Nation names and only a small percentage of French origin names which is uncommon to find in Canada.

Geography lesson over :)

Monday March 26

Gayle has to work today so Jocelyn and i are going to drive around the city a little bit. Gayle had a bit of trouble with the car today so she took the company car to work and the man that lives in the basement flat gave the other car a jump start. Jocelyn and i decided to drive to the old village of Quidi Vidi which is within the city boundaries, on the other side of Signal Hill on an inlet. There's a few old buildings and houses, a very old pub, again closed and a brewery at the mouth of the inlet. There's also a very old heritage house that now houses a craft shop. We took a few photos around the harbour but avoided capturing the brewery, a new building that sort of took away from the atmosphere.

We were hungry by this time, late in the morning and drove around looking for a cafe or something. We spotted a bakery called Bread Pig, which is at Rawlin's Cross and Queen Street. It's just a working bakery selling a small rack of goods with coffee and sweets available, mostly for take out thought there is a little counter and three stools in front of the window where there were vases of bulrushes decorating the sills. We each had a big fat cinnamon bun filled with cinnamon cream cheese icing! Divine!

Properly sustained, we decided to have a bit of a browse in a couple of clothing shops and later drove to Bowring Park, a large natural park in the city. There are lots of water fowl and little streams with gurgling falls flowing past the gentle inclining paths we took. A couple of times we gingerly made our way down the bank over packed but somewhat soft snow, still a good three or more feet deep if the half buried trash cans were anything to judge by and down to a bridge or clearing by the water to take pictures. Today is the first day it stayed sunny most of the day and though the wind could be a little chilly the sun felt warm and energizing.

We had to leave and do some grocery shopping as Jocelyn had to go to work for 3. I was planning to make a big pot of spaghetti sauce for everyone for supper tonight so i bought the fixings with fresh bread from the bakery we stopped at earlier.

So the trip was over, with a family night in. Jocelyn drove me to the small airport in the morning and i arrived home on time, refreshed and ready to face the rest of the winter and early Nova Scotia spring (which isn't often a whole lot better weather wise LOL)

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