Nature Friday - Last of St. John''s

 Our third day in St. John's Newfoundland was the quietest one. 

We started with a boat tour. Unfortunately, we missed both the whales as close to the city and the icebergs. We did enjoy 2 hours on the Northern Atlantic. In my next life I will live on a boat. 

Can you spot the bald eagle? Mom and Dad were out of the nest which has young this year. 

After our ride, it was time to try fish and chips. The Man can't eat fish and I don't usually eat fish, but we found a place with gluten free fish and chips (batter was salt and vinegar chips) and was not bad. The cod was very moist. 

Then it was time for the Newfoundland tradition of getting screeched in.  This is a tradition where tourists pay a small fee to become honourary Newfoundlanders. First you have to talk like a Newfie (I know I did not say anything like what I was supposed to). Then you eat like a Newfie, having a piece of Newfie steak (aka a piece of baloney). Then you drink like a Newfie and take a shot of screech (the name given to the local rum because it use to be over 100 proof and when Americans were stationed in St. John's during WWII and tried it, they would screech). [They do offer a alcoholic alternative as well]. Then you have to kiss like a Newfie, which means kissing a frozen cod. 

After this fun, we went to the cat cafe and hung out with some kittens who were awaiting their forever homes. 

Dakota

Tommy

We ended our day with a nice dinner at our hotel.

Our last morning, as our flight was early afternoon, happened to be Regatta Day. Regatta Day is a flexible holiday in St. John's. If the weather cooperates it is the first Wednesday of August, if not it is the next week. All non-essential businesses must be closed. At Quidi Vidi Lake, amateur teams race up and down the lake, surrounded by food trucks and a carnival. 50 000 people visit the oldest consecutive sporting event in North America. 2026 was the 208th. 

I hope you enjoyed our visit to St. John's. I am excited to write that I will be going back for a few days at the end of September with some friends for a girls trip. Should be fun!

Nature Friday - St John's Newfoundland

 The cats have agreed to let me have Nature Friday for a few weeks to share our trip to St. John's, Newfoundland. This was my last province to visit, and I feel I may have saved the best for last. While we stayed just in St. John's, it is exactly the type of place I want to live, rocks and ocean, and few people. 

We landed at about 1 am Sunday morning, after a short, direct 2.5 hour flight. The fog was so thick, it is amazing the pilots and hotel shuttle driver could see! After a night at a hotel near the airport, we headed on to the adventure. 

Before we begin the tour, a little about this province. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador has a populations of about 550, 000 people. It was Vineland as discovered by the Vikings, and was the last province to join Canada (it only joined in 1949), It is distinct from other parts of Canada because it has it's own time zone and the people have kept Irish accents. Anyone who has seen Come From Away, will have heard one of the Newfoundland dialects. 

Here are some highlights from our first day. 

We began near the spot where Canadian icon Terry Fox dipped his foot in the Atlantic to start his Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980. Sadly, due to his cancer returning, he was forced to end his run in Thunder Bay, Ontario on September 1, 1980.  The Terry Fox Foundation holds annual runs in Terry's honour ever September, in over 30 countries and to date have raised over $1 billion for cancer research. 

The Man met him when he ran through the Ottawa area in August 1980.

In several places in the city were statues of the official dogs of Newfoundland, the Newfoundland dog (developed by European settlers and fishermen in the 17th and 18th century as working dogs), and the Labrador Retriever, (developed in the 18th century to retrieve for local fisherman). 

We went up to Signal Hill.  While made famous as the location of the world's first transatlantic wireless signal, it has also severed as a military fortification as well as a spot where locals would signal which ships were coming to port. 

Cabot Tower - built in 1900 

From Signal Hill we did the 3 km/1.98mile walk down. Here are some of the beautiful sights we saw. 

We ended our walk in the fishing village of Quidi Vidi. This fishing community was settled in the 1600s. 

Families of fisherman lived here for generations until the over fishing caused by the Canadian Government. The closing of the fisheries in 1992 left at least 60, 000 Newfoundlanders out of work overnight and is one of the biggest economic disasters in Canadian history. Slow the cod are returning.

In our wandering from Quidi Vidi to our hotel, we passed some of the Jellybean houses. These former fisherman family homes were originally painted with left over boat paint. Because you wanted to have a boat you could see in the fog, bright colours were used. If you had a yellow boat, you would also have a yellow house. Now, residents must keep them bright colours, any colour as long as it isn't he same as a house directly beside it.  

I hope you enjoyed some of the 17 000 steps we completed on day one. Next week, we will visit the most Eastern part of North America! 

Tuesdays with Tigris - End of the Vacation

This is the last week (for now), I have to share my day on the blog with the Lady. She has been home for 2 months, she should just move on. For those who don't care about islands and volcanoes, and are only here for the animals, we will start this off with purrfect me.

Now over to Lady.

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We had a full day back on Martinique before we flew home on the Monday, so we found a tour and headed north up the island, to one of the most famous parts.

Our day started with a walk through the streets to meet our tour.

From our meeting point, we headed off to Sanctuaire catholique du Sacre-Coeur de Balata, a replica of Paris' Sacre-Coeur.

Due to the island climate, it was in need of repairs, which were scheduled to begin soon. As it was Sunday, we listen to the service that was taking place outside the church. The singing had a Caribbean flare, and was lovely to listen to. 

After the church we made a stop at a small waterfall where we did not have time to hike. 

Then we were off to the reason for this tour, a visit to Saint-Pierre. We felt a connection to this place as our home is in a St. Pierre.  Martinique's Saint-Pierre is famous because on May 8, 1902, the city was buried with lava and ash when when the volcano Mount Peele erupted. Approximately 30 000 people were killed. It was the deadliest volcano of the 1900s. People did not leave the city because the politician's convinced them it was safe as they wanted the people to be available to vote in an upcoming election.  Even though there were minor eruptions and ask, people stayed.  (Not to get too political, but an example of a time we should not trust politicians). It should also be noted that far less was understood about volcanoes at that time. 

We were able to visit 2 remains of the city. The first was the prison. 

Above is the solitary confinement cell of the prison, which turned out to be the only safe place in the city. On May 2, 1902, Ludger Sylbaris was arrested for a drunken assault that occurred during a fight. On May 7th, after an attempted escape, he was moved to solitary. When the volcano erupted, Sylbaris urinated on his clothes and tried to stuff them under the door. While he did sustain substantial burns, he lived and was rescued 4 days later. He was one of only 3 residents to survive. A 10 year old boy, who was able to take a boat to sea and hide in a cave, and another man, whose story of survival is not clear were the remaining living. Sylbaris was pardoned for his crimes but left destitute. He ended up moving to the US and joining Barnum and Bailey's Circus, but was thrown out due to fighting. He later moved to Panama to work on the canal and died there for natural causes at the age of 55 (or so). 

Beside the prison was the theatre (which struck us as amusing) and parts of it have also survived. 

Looking at Mount Peele

Our last stop was the beach where some of the group enjoyed a swim, while others chatted in the shade drinking rum punch. 

The last evening away, was spent on the hotel balcony, watching the sun set.

Thank you for finding the sun with us this winter. We return to our regular programming next week.

Happy St. Patrick's Day And Travel Tuesday

 

Grateful for AI hats! Lady does not have St. Pat's Hats (yet)

Now on to some ship life.

On this trip, Man and I upgraded to the Yacht Club. This is a private part of the ship, where you have a Butler and private dining room, lounge, priority access to things. The services is fantastic and now I have done this, being in "Gen Pop" as we called those who were in regular rooms. I really value comfort when I travel (especially as I age) and would rather travel less and travel "better". Although I will admit to struggling some with the privilege, but if I am honest, everyone who is on the ship as a guest has a certain level of privilege. 

In our upgrade, we kept an inside room, which is honestly ok with us, as we don't spend a lot of extra time in the room. 

Our days looked like this.

Get up, get dressed, have breakfast, go on an adventure (even our sea day we did a behind the scenes tour), if we haven't eaten, lunch, then spa or pool, a nap, snacks and drinks before dinner, dinner, show, taking the evening air, bed. Repeat.

Afternoon tea with fancy potato chips

In the private lounge

More snack, you may be picking up on a theme.

The shows (minus one) were very good. No pictures as we respect the rules to not photograph. For a small fee, they had 2 40 minute cirque du soleil type shows we loved. 

We also took in a couple fun events.

We went to a silent disco, which was not that silent as everyone was sooooo loud lol. 

We went to a white party, where everyone was wearing white. 

We had a robot make us a drink (it needed human help and took over 3 minutes, so robots won't be replacing us for this kind of task for awhile).

And then there is the food. So much, really, really good food. So many pictures of food. Here is a tiny sample.

Every meal was presented like this. 

If I didn't like any of the er the appetizers, I would order the cheese plate (always on the dessert menu). This one, was made extra fancy when the manager realized I was taking pictures of it, he removed it and came back with it with more fruit. 

One of the speciality restaurants (you pay extra for), was Hola Tacos. As tacos are one of the Man's favourite foods, we went for all you can eat tacos. 

Man packed both his taco shirts, so I could wear one. 

Tacos, round one!

That is a tiny sample of ship life. Next week we will wrap the trip up with a tour we did in Martinique before heading home.

Styx asked me to remind everyone he has a contest, you can read about HERE.