Chris and Leah's Blog!

I had originally intended to write daily updates, but as we did not have the advertised wireless internet access, no daily updates could be posted…

The rest of our pics are in the Photo Gallery – check ‘em out!

Sunday, July 22
We woke at 5am and sleptwalked our way through our getting ready routine. Ann from Black Tie Limosine picked us up and we were on our way. The airport was surprisingly busy for 5:30am on a Sunday, but we made it through in short order. We flew with West Jet – my first experience with them – and the flight was great – I really like the seatback TVs. I think that this should be standard on all flights. The flight attendant who did all of the in flight announcements was very funny, and really made the trip enjoyable. (“We are about to land, please return your seats to their full upright, and most uncomfortable position.” “The safety routine was so much fun the first time in English, let’s do it again in French!”)

We touched down in St. John’s exactly on time and hailed a cab. Ten minutes and $25 later we were into our B&B for a nap… which, coupled with the rainy weather, turned into a full day in bed!

Monday, July 23
Promptly at 9am we picked up our rental car and headed out to Cape Spear – the most easterly point in North America. The road to Cape Spear made me long for my road bike as it seemed to be transplanted from the Tour De France. After a couple of hours exploring the grounds and the lighthouse we headed out to Ferryland for a picnic. The drive to Ferryland is a lot of fun, and continued my thoughts of transplanted Tour De France routes. (After we completed the days adventures I learned that the Tour De Shore actually takes place on much of the route we drove!) Once in Ferryland we made our way out to the lighthouse, first by car, and then the final 20 minutes on foot.

At the lighthouse you choose your meal, they give you a picnic blanket and a flag. You take these items and head out onto the surrounding property to choose a location for your picnic. The staff prepare your meal and deliver it to you based on the colour scheme of your flag. We sat in the sun, listening to the waves and birds, watching the whales and enjoying our picnic lunch for a couple of hours.

After lunch we decided to continue down the coast to check out Cape Race and Mistaken Point. Cape Race is a lighthouse and radar station – made famous as the location to receive the mayday call from the Titanic. When you see the location on a map, they look like they are in the middle of nowhere. It’s only once you make the drive that you realize the really are in the middle of nowhere!! It’s a 20 kilometre drive down a single lane, really rough gravel road to get the Cape Race Lighthouse, and although it is a neat sight to see, there really isn’t anything there aside from the lighthouse and radar station.

At this point we reviewed the map and realized that we were half of the way around the Irish Loop so we figured that we might as well complete it. We did, and it was great to see some more of the Newfoundland countryside. In a move certain to disappoint some Newfies, we had dinner at East Side Mario’s – the only one in Newfoundland!

Tuesday, July 24
We decided to check out some of the northern Avalon communities and headed to the Admiral’s Coast. The drive along the shore is really beautiful with a number of awesome vistas. As we drove we saw street after street of new homes being constructed, but never saw any towns per se – no grocery stores, no shopping areas, etc. It was very strange!

After a slow lunch at the Beach Cottage Restaurant in Holyrood, we headed for home. Both of us were growing tired of the road, and the clouds were starting to win their battle with the sun.

A successful nap at the B&B, and then we were on our way to dinner. We opted for The Casbah – Renée was our waitress and ensured that we had a great time! It is a wonderful little restaurant with a great, great staff! The menu featured Cod tongue, and I asked Renée about it. She insited that we try it, but cautioned us that it is an acquired taste, and she is not a fan of the “gelatanous” bit. She called over Katie, another waitress, who corroborated Renée’s comments on the tongue. She had the chef prepare two of them for us, complete with scrunchions – fried pork back fat. I ate most of one tongue, and a bunch of scrunchions, but one was more than enough for me. Thanks Renée!

Wednesday, July 25
Checked out Newman’s Vaults and it was really neat. Our “guide” was great, and shared all kinds of awesome info about the vaults, and St. John’s. Had Tea in the Crypt at St. John The Baptist Cathedral. We chatted with one of the church lady’s and told her that we were in St. John’s for our honeymoon. A few minutes later we heard the lady’s start singing… and the sound got closer, and closer, and then they were surrounding our table and singing “Love And Marriage” to us! It was really sweet, and they brought over a couple of mini-cheescakes in place of a wedding cake.

They asked us to sign their guestbook and to my surprise, the previous two visitors both had the same last name as us!

Later that afternoon we visited The Rooms – a new archives and museum situated in an amazing location overlooking the city and harbour. After touring The Rooms, we headed back down the hill into town for dinner. We were in the mood for a pub, and the first one we saw was Nautical Nellies. As we walked in the door, we were greeted by a smile and wave from behind the bar. Katie, from The Casbah, also works at Nellies! She made it her mission for the evening to help us have a great time, and get us Screeched in!

Following dinner we headed back to the Cathedral to take par in the Haunted Hike – a guided tour to some of the haunted sites in St. John’s. It was a bit cheesy, but our guide is a great story teller, and really gets into character. A definite must for any traveller to St. John’s.

Thursday, July 26
Much of Thursday was spent lounging around our room – I think that we finally started to come down from the high of the wedding/honeymoon. We wandered along the waterfront for a little while, checked out the War Memorial, and Leah rode a Newfoundland dog. The evening saw the kick-off of the The George Street Festival kicked off with a concert by The Novaks and Sloan. The Novaks tried hard, but their music didn’t excite me. Sloan took the stage to the standard slooooowwwwwnnnnnnn chants and kicked into a raucous set of new and old songs. We left after about 45 minutes as it was just too damn loud! I knew the words to most of the songs they played, but had a hard time discerning them from the, at time, piercing sound coming from the speakers. Despite our early departure, I enjoyed their set, as always.

Friday, July 27
We went to Cora’s for a late breakfast – we saw it from the harbour and wanted to sit on their patio – sadly the patio was not open, but we were so hungry that we ate there anyway. Earlier in the morning I watched a large sailing ship come into port, and made a note to return on Saturday for the Open Ship event.

We spent much of the afternoon relaxing at the B&B before heading back to The Casbah for dinner.

Saturday, July 28
Lots of walking. Lots. Walked to the Marriot for breakfast, and then up to the Johnson Geo Centre – half way up signal hill. After exploring the Geo Centre we made our way to the harbour to visit the Gorch Fock. By this point, Leah and I are in full-on sweat mode – it is very hot out, and we need to find some shade, and a cool drink. So where else should we head but George Street! We had lunch at Green Sleeves, and then headed back into the hot afternoon sun in search of ice cream and some souvenirs.

Our ice cream fix was satisfied by Moo Moo’s Ice Cream – despite the neverending uphill walk to the place, it was worth it. We struck out on the souvenir hunt, but we were not disappointed. The ice cream was that good.

That evening we made reservations for dinner at Bianca’s – a final treat to ourselves on our honeymoon – and what a treat it was! Great food and good wine made for a memorable evening with my new wife as we said good night to St. John’s for the final time on this trip.