Saint John's

On Tuesday we drove from Gander to St. John's, taking a couple of side trips along the way to explore. The island of Newfoundland is huge (takes about 8 or 9 hours to drive from the west coast to the east coast at 60 mph), and the whole thing is like a national park. Beautiful wilderness scenery everywhere, of lakes, streams, mountains, little fishing villages, rocky outcroppings and ocean and bay views. It finally stopped raining in the afternoon and the sun actually came out (for awhile), which made it even prettier!

Typical view along the Trans Canada Highway

Before we got to the city of St. John's, we went to Bay Bulls, just south of the city, to check out a boat ride to see puffins, our major birding goal for this trip. We were assured that we would see some if we took the boat tour, as about half a million puffins nest just offshore of this place. We plan to take this boat tour on Saturday, after our friends Marc and Lynne come here from California. (They're arriving at the airport tomorrow night.)

Puffins, here we come.

We are staying in a vacation rental townhouse in downtown St. John's for a few days. It's called the "Yellow Jelly Bean House" and it's off a tiny alley near the downtown waterfront. We found it without too much of a problem, but were nervous about actually driving into the tiny little alley. The lady renting the "Green Jelly Bean House" next door (from the same owner) let me use the phone to call the owner and discuss the parking situation. She said we could park in the lane (where the sign says "Do Not Park in Lane") rather than pull all the way into the front of the house--she assured me that no one was staying in the house beside where we'd be parking and it would be OK. OK....

Our Yellow Jelly Bean house.

The house is adorable. These brightly colored "jelly bean" houses were the idea of some government worker back in the 1960s or thereabouts to try to improve this area of downtown, as the older houses were very rundown and not well maintained. It caught on and revitalized the neighborhood. The streets are steep here and the older houses are tall and skinny. This one has 3 floors: you come into the kitchen and bathroom floor, go downstairs to the living room and laundry, and go upstairs to the two bedrooms. Very cutely decorated and comfy.

A row of Jelly Beans.

After unpacking and eating our supper of soup and salad, Jack and I went for a walk down to the harbor area. Some Canadian Coast Guard ships were tied up at the docks, along with a lot of others. A nice park has larger-than-life statues of the two breeds of Newfoundland area dogs, the Newfoundland, a huge shaggy dog bred for fishing and water rescues, and the Labrador retriever, a very popular, smaller version of the Newfoundland bred for smaller boats and hunting around the water (one of the world's most popular dog breeds!).

The waterfront. Canadian Icebreakers are in the background.

The two dogs named after this province. (Newfoundland and Labrador is the name of the province.)

We looked at and photographed a beautiful war memorial near the harbor, honoring those who fought in WWI and II, the Korean War, and Afghanistan. Walking back to our house, we passed a chocolate store and of course had to get a few chocolates for dessert!

A moving memorial to those Newfoundlanders who gave their lives to keep Canada and America free.

St. John's is one of the oldest settlements in North America, being permanently settled around 1630 with seasonal settlements way before that (John Cabot landed here in 1497). This place has a lot of history, which we'll be learning more about over the next few days...