St. John's

St. John’s, Newfoundland, is Newfoundland's largest city and is perched right at the easternmost edge of North America. In fact, St. John's is widely acknowledged as being the easternmost city on the continent.

We spent a couple days here taking it all in and enjoying the spectacular maritime scenery, quaint coffee shops, and breweries.

The strategic harbor of St John's was once guarded by a network of coastal gun batteries, including Queen’s Battery atop Signal Hill and Fort Waldegrave. These fortifications played vital roles from the 18th century and through both World Wars. We took advantage of incredible weather to walk up Signal Hill to see Queens Battery, Cabot Tower, and walk the trail asking the harbor.

Along the way we stopped in the "Twine Store." A small fishing cabin owned by a couple brothers who have covered all the walls with memorabilia and who talked to us about the history of the place and anything else we wanted to know about Newfoundland. It was an awesome 40 minutes showcasing just how friendly and welcoming the people of Newfoundland are.

The downtown core of St John's hosts the iconic Jellybean Row house. These homes are vibrant, candy-colored row houses scattered across steep hillsides. Legend has it that the bright colors helped fog-weary sailors spot their homes from the sea.

As the easternmost town in Canada, this is also where Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope, a run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. There's a memorial park by the water marking the site where he dipped his prosthetic leg in the Atlantic before starting.

It's a great town and had a fun energy. Some of that is probably because we visited during ideal weather. But there's a rugged beauty wrapping this small town that has a certain magnetism.

It also marks the official turning point for our trip. From this point on we're heading back west!Read more