Upper Pond

Day nine. We awoke early, not hard when your bed decides to eat you and your wife by sucking you down into the middle of it. We all gathered in the kitchen to pound some coffee before our whale watching adventure began. We drove about 20 minutes out of town to a little harbor with a well reviewed whale watching boat floating in the bay. We were welcomed aboard and all sat on the top observation deck; cold but excited. The outfit was named O’Brian’s and they promised fun, puffins, and whales...what more could you ask for?
The weather was foggy and cold, the captain forewarned that the low level fog could make spotting the whales difficult but tried to sell us on the puffin thing to make up for it... So we slowly cruised by “Bird Island” and saw thousands upon thousands of birds, puffins, gulls, and a few other species of sea fowl all making a symphony of squawks and defacing the rock cliffs they were perched on. It was a very impressive site, and it was pretty cool to see hundreds of puffins all sitting outside of their little borrows on the side of the cliff. Watching them fly would be like watching a penguin successfully fly I think, it’s awkward and amusing all at the same time.
We left the bird paradise and went further out to sea, still somewhat enclosed in the large bay in search of water spouts as whales resurface to breath. Soon the captain spotted a few spouts close together not far off of our port side...(that’s left in captain speak). He ran on top to the bridge to control the boat better while maintaining a higher vantage point. He was getting excited you could tell as he called out the locations of the whales for all the passengers to find. Soon we easily saw three different spouts appear, all moving closer to us. The Captain informed us that we were watching three Fin whales approach; the second largest marine mammal in the sea with the Blue whale taking first. The Fins came closer, no doubt curious about the noisy humans and smelly boat that constantly roams the water. They spouted a few times and said goodbye, letting us all marvel at their size, mysticism, and our good fortune.
On the way back to the harbor I was screeched in along with Heather and Heleen. We became honorary Newfoundlanders by wearing a stupid hat, repeating something stupid, and drinking a shot of “screech” that is supposed to resemble some sort of rum. I think the whole initiation is just so Newfoundlanders can make stupid Americans look stupider. But I got a hat out of it.
On to Petty Harbor for a seafood lunch where we ate Moose. Some of us ate Moose anyway, Moose is good...sorta like venison but a lot bigger. I personally ate moose stew with a big heaping bowl of lobster mac and cheese; comfort food for sure on these chilly July afternoons... I wonder what they eat in January, seal fat and whale blubber perhaps.
On the way home Forest and Heleen felt like they needed to hike off the 200 calories they ate during lunch so we dropped them off at a trail head nearby that apparently led them along some really breathtaking views. We have to take their word for it because they don’t take pictures of anything. We were tasked with kid wrangling for the evening as it was Barb and Kevin’s turn to experience Raymonds.
We took the kids to the park, that’s just what you do when you don’t know what else to do, but they don’t seem to mind. Addie swam in the pool, naturally, and James and Mies ran around like insane small people. All had fun...all the kids had fun.
Addie and I had a date; so we all headed home after prying little fingers away from slides to get ready.
Addie and I had dinner alone this time at a nice downtown restaurant called Travola. It was a tapas bar and slightly out of Addie’s norm for dinner fare, which was the point of taking her here. Addie is a amazing big sister, she’s a natural at appeasing James when he’s being hard to deal with, and because of this we, her parents, often call on her to help when nothing else is working. The toddler often rules the roust, so tonight was just me and her. Addie surprised me by ordering without any prompting from me a summer salad to start, followed by pan seared Cod with vegetables, a side of Gnocchi, and a side of truffle oil fries. We shared. Before we ordered dessert I talked her into trying a raw oyster for the first time...she did too, she ate one oyster prepared with a little lemon and some sea salt. She only had one, but she said it was “unusual” and “interesting”. Not bad considering I fully expected her to tell me it tasted like a huge snot ball going down her throat. That girl always surprises me.
After dinner Addie and I walked around the harbor for a bit wasting time before our haunted hike. St. Johns is a very old city, the oldest in fact in all of North America. So with all of that history there are some ghost stories to be sure. Awhile back some local history buffs started taking people on a “haunted hike” at night, walking around the downtown area to different sites where murders and revenge crimes were thought to occur. The guide is dressed all in black and has a wooden staff adorned with a skull. This has become a popular thing with tourists and locals alike; tonight was proof as there were roughly 80 people in attendance. It was a fun hour and a half, being led around the town by this person in black; making traffic come to a halt while 80 people suddenly streamed by coming out of some dark alleyway. Addie really enjoyed it and loved retelling the stories to everyone back home. It was a fun ending to a great stay in St. Johns. I hope to return to this little seaside city in the future; I could see spending a lot of time here.Read more