Day 24- July 20 St. John's NFL

Day 24- July 20     St. John's NFLD

Up crazy early for anyone, 3:45 am, stayed in our PJ's and drove to Cape Spear National Park to watch the sunrise at 5:22.  This is the eastern most point in North America and we were the first to see Canada's sunrise this morning!  It was breathtaking, the sun took on some interesting shapes and shades of color, at one point looking like a mushroom and then a hot air balloon. 

Beautiful even before the sun came up

First glimpse




 

Interesting shapes

We saw some more humpback whales close to the cliffs.  We also saw the 1835 lighthouse, which is the oldest surviving lighthouse in NFLD. 

Watching the sunrise

Humpback whales

We walked through the WWII coastal battery and bunkers, as well as seeing the hidden cannons.

Walking along Cape Spear

Bunkers

Postcard perfect

Back to our trailer AND BED by 6:30 am.  I slept till 10 and everyone else slowly woke up between 11 and 12:00.  Pippy Park is a great treed campsite right in the city of St. John's.  Scott changed one of the trailer tires as it was getting worn on one side.
Back to Signal Hill in the beautiful 28 degree weather, this time to see it in the day light and look around the visitor center.  We watched a great 20 minute video about the constant battling between the French and the British.  Scott and Hailey watched the Tattoo performance which portrays the military experiences of soldiers from and in NFLD.  They saw drills, music, gun fire from muskets and cannons going off.

Exploring Signal Hill with the iconic colored homes in the background

Marching Tattoo

Marching with rifles

Startling boom

Re-enactment

Brody, Darby, Mickey and I walked to the battery barracks and looked at the 6 cannons set up to protect St. John's Harbour.  They also climbed to the top of Cabot Tower which was build in 1897, and looked around the 360 degree observation deck at St. John's and the Atlantic Ocean.  The second floor had the exhibit on Marconi's first transatlantic signal. 

Cabot Tower from below

Drove past the jellybean row houses, so very colorful on the steep streets! 

Steep narrow streets, but colorful homes

We picked up our trailer from our site and were leaving St. John's by 5:00 pm.  Drove for only 3.5 hours today and got to Gambo just outside Gander for the night.  Gambo is the birthplace of the last father of Canadian Confederation, Joseph R. Smallwood.  We stayed at David Smallwood Park in Gambo and Stacey Eddy came out for a visit from Gander, about 20 minutes away.  We had a nice visit with Stacey as we hadn't seen her since 2008 when she was living in Alberta.

 Large rocks in the river by Gambo

Stacey Eddy and I

Only drove 3.5 hours today, but a very full day from sun up to sun down.