The next paragraph can be skipped...a grumbling park review.
As provincial parks go, this was our least favorite of the trip. All of the other ones we have stayed at have been impeccably clean and the staff very friendly. One would think that the park closest to St. John’s would be the jewel, but it was not so. Not only was the person at the gate unenthusiastic and poorly trained, the washrooms were less than clean and well-kept, but the park roads were filled with potholes. I don’think we’d return.
We had an early start and made our way to South Conception Bay and the town of Kelligrews. There is a relatively popular hotstop at its seaside pond. We found mostly Mallards and Black Ducks there, along with a single Lesser Yellowlegs. Along the shore we found gulls, terns and some Tree Swallows. There was also a walking path that paralleled the shore and we found a Yellow Warbler, goldfinches and juncos...and the inevitable robins. The goldfinches and warbler brightened a gray morning.
From there it was on to St. John’s, the capital and largest city in the province. We checked into the campground at Pippy Park, the city’s largest park before going off to see the sights. Our first stop was at Quidi Vidi village, which is a little picturesque fishing port with its own little protected harbor just horth of the main harbor at the outlet of Quidi Vidi Lake. The lake is one of the top birding hotspots in Newfoundland...but not in the summer. The village has some old small houses and the wharves, but looks like it is being gentrified with a couple of oversized houses being constructed. It is the first place that we’ve seen American-style supersizing.
From there we made our way to Signal Hill, the National Historic Site overlooking the entrance to the harbor. St. John’s is a naturally fortified harbor with two high rocky heads on both sides of the narrow harbor entrance. It was fought over many times by the English and French in the 18th century. The English prevailed. Signal Hill is the highest point and was a coastal watch and sigalling site until well into the 20th century. It is also the site where Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission in 1901.
We were unable to actually spend much time at the top of Signal Hill as its parking lot was completely filled, but we did stop at the visitor center a few hundred feet below the summit to look down over the harbor and city and to see the exhibits at the VC...and have coffee at the Chocolate Cafe.
From there we drove down into the city center and, amazingly, found an on-street parking space that fit Speedy right on its main street, Water Street. We walked around a bit in search of a lunch stop and finally ended up at the harborside Bier Markt, the restaurant part of the Mill St. microbrewery and brew pub. The dining room had large open windows right on harbor and a terrific view of Signal Hill, which was particularly nice as there was now some sun.
Lunch was quite good, but a bit pricey, but that’s the cost of location. Ellen had Cod fish tacos and a pint of Barking Squirrel Amber Lager. I had the Sunny Up BLT, which is a BLT on a bun with a sunny side up egg on top. Both were quite tasty. We split a pecan tart for dessert. It was a whole six inch tart, quite a generous dessert for two.
We got back to Speedy just in time. Speedy just fit into its parking space and had about six inches between it and the cars around it. Getting out looked like it was going to be a challenge, but the car behind us pulled out just as we arrived, giving us plenty of space...until the next car went to pull in. They saw us moving and kindly waited until we got out and off we went.
Our next stop was a visit to The Rooms, the provincial musuem. It is a combination of history museum, art gallery and provincial archives. It is all housed in a modern building that is soaring and open inside, but is more modest outside, fitting in with the conservative look of the city. It is high above the waterfront and the harborside views look over city and harbor.
We took a short guided tour of the current art exhibition which art about Newfoundland before 1949. Newfoundland was its own British Dominion before when it decided to join Canada. It is still a somewhat contentious subject in the province and some claim that the prime minister at the time, who was pro-confederation with Canada, burned ballots such that confederation won 51% to 49%. Had that not happened we could be visiting four counties this summer. The exhibit had art and artifacts from periods before confederation and more modern pieces about that time.
After the gallery visit, we moved on to the museum floors which had both natural history and human history. The human history included pieces from prehistoric peoples through to the European settlement and the progress towards the current modernization of the province. The current special exhibition in the museum had to do with Newfoundland’s involvement in World War I. By the time we got to it, it was closing time. It would take more than a few rainy days to fully appreciate all that The Rooms has to see.
It was time to roll back to Pippy Park for dinner, which we finished just as the evening rains started. No after dinner walk for us tonight.
Tomorrow we hope to do a bit of trail walking and birding right near the park, before going off to Cape Spear and then south along the east coast.
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