A day in the sun

St John’s, NL – When we quickly ga-thered clothes from the RV to bring to the hotel, my blue jeans were the only pants I brought, so today, for the first time ever, I wore blue jeans to church. I chuckled at the irony when I joined in singing “Just as I am”!

For the first time in weeks, the day dawned sunny and clear. Everyone we encountered today had to say some-thing about this unusual weather! It sure was uplifting to feel the sun’s warmth on our shoulders, and to dispense with sweaters and jackets.

There were a few tourist attractions we hadn’t seen this time around, so we set out first to climb Signal Hill, visible this morning from our hotel room window where before it had been hidden by fog. Lots of other people had the same idea; the parking lot at the top of the steep incline was full, but we found a spot not far from the top by the roadside.

The view was terrific. The city was spread out below, circling the sparkling blue waters of the harbour, with every landmark clearly visible. A bit lower on the hill, on a flat sec-tion, we could make out a troop of drum-mers practising a tattoo and marching about. On the ocean side there was a dif-ferent sight: a band of blue reaching out se-veral kilometers, and then white cloud wrapped along the horizon like a woolly muffler!

It was interesting for us to read about Guglielmo Marconi’s historic telegraph exchange from this spot with Cornwall in December of 1901, just a day after we learned about the first transatlantic cable message in 1858. I wonder how many of the tourists today, idly glancing at their mobile devices, had an appreciation for the magic they were witnessing and the years of effort and experimentation that preceded this banal activity.

Our next re-quest to our GPS was to bring us to the House of Assembly for the province. Down the hill we went, and into the confusing angles of cross streets, on hills and diagonals, trying to follow the GPS instructions, which included “kweedie veedee” for Quidi Vidi! In the end, as our device announced our arrival at our destination, we were actually in front of the YMCA. No problem, with a bit of unaided sleuthing, we found the spot, which was nearby. It was locked up like a drum, but we had a look at the statue of John Cabot and the impressive coat of arms laid out in polished stone in front of a lookout over the city.

We also had a look at the Lieu-tenant Governor’s residence, an impressive stone building com-plete with a moat and lovely lawns and flowerbeds. Nearby was a waterpark jammed with sun-deprived kiddies and parents, re-veling in the heat and sunshine. There were hundreds of them!

Back at the hotel, we prepare to leave Newfoundland tomorrow, hopeful that the RV repairs will be completed at the promised time so we can get to our ferry for the five o’clock departure. We will spend the night on the bounding main (well, not too much bounding please!) and wake up Tuesday in North Sydney. Hard to believe our sojourn here is winding down; it has been terrific.