Tuesday, we went south of St. John's on the Avalon Peninsula. We went whale and bird watching on the Molly Bawn, the fine boat you see pictured. At first I wasn't so sure that I wanted to go out in the ocean in that thing, but it was fine. The sea was fairly rough, but nobody got sick except for the fellow from China. We didn't see any whales, but saw lots of birds as you can see. We saw puffins, the common murres, kittiwakes, razor bills, a bald eagle, and gulls.
On the way back, we passed a small pond with many miniature boats (about 3 feet long) and a miniature of a fishing village. Whoever did it paid a lot of attention to detail. Connie wanted one for our pond at home.
On Wednesday, Canada Day, we went to Signal Hill National Historic Site. The Canada Day celebration in St. John's started here at 6:00 A.M. with a round of cannon fire. The Visitor Center was very well done and they had a nice film of the history of Signal Hill. It was first controlled by the French and then lost to the British. The building on the hill is called the Cabot Tower and was used by the British to signal what ships were coming into the harbor. It was also used by Marconi to send wireless messages to England.
Here is a panel about icebergs. You can double click the picture to enlarge it. Only about 370 of up to 40,000 glaciers that are produced in Greenland make it as far down as St. John's.
Here's a look at the St. John's harbor from on top of Signal Hill. From the sea, it would be hard to tell that there is a big harbor. It is well protected from the ocean. The harbor is huge. During WWI and WWII this harbor played a big part in shipping supplies to Britain.
Oh, lunch downtown at a micro brewery. Lunch seems to agree with Connie. It makes her happier.
We also had an opportunity to visit the oldest Anglican parish in North America. The parish started in 1699. It is now the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. The stained glass pictured is the only glass that survived a fire. The piece of furniture I found interesting was the Bishop's chair you see pictured.
A beautiful church with a lot of history. We were given a tour by one of two ladies that volunteer their time to add some history for each visitor.
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