11 September, Wednesday: We leave Terra Nova for St. John’s where late lunch is at the Rocket Bakery and home for the night is the Rendell-Shea Manor. We pay a mandatory visit to the Newfoundland Chocolate Company for our second dessert of extra dark hot chocolate. Our first dessert was a slice of OMG cake at the bakery. . .chocolate cheese cake on the bottom, chocolate mousse on top and toffee drizzle over all.
When we return to our inn I notice a photo of the Rendell-Shea Manor in the entrance hall with a caption detailing some of it’s history. The house was built by a merchant in the late 1870’s. The photo shows the house still standing amidst the devastation of the Great Fire of 1892. It was saved during the fire when the building next door, already burning, was ordered to be pulled down by the local Roman Catholic prelate, in fear that if the Rendell House burned, the government building opposite would also catch fire. His efforts saved both buildings.
12 September 2019, Thursday: Hmmmm. How to spend a rainy day in St. John’s, especially when we are to camp at Butter Pot Provincial Park. . .and camp is not set up. . . and the rain continues. No problem! First, following up on the advice of Kris, our friendly geologist guide at Gros Morne, O calls the Department of Earth Sciences at Memorial University of Newfoundland to see if they know where he can obtain a copy of Hank Williams’ map of the “Tectonic Lithofacies of the Appalachian Orogen.” The woman who answers the phone has no idea, but after some thought she connects O to the Geological Society of Canada. The woman who answers that phone says “Yes,” they do indeed have the map.
After breakfast we leave the Rendell-Shea Manor and drive to the campus. It is large and confusing, and there’s lots of construction and no parking available anywhere without a permit. We come up with the obvious solution. I drop O off at the proper building and circle round and round the block while he goes in search of the map. After four rounds, there’s O standing outside the building waving his precious cardboard tube and smiling. Mission accomplished!
I am now in the mood to find an indoor, non-rainy activity where there is lots of parking. What could be better for a geology enthusiast than to drive up Signal Hill to the Johnson Geo Centre? Only a small portion of this center is above ground. Most of it is underground, with one side of the building showcasing the hard, underground sandstone layers of Signal Hill. The displays in the centre are very informative and well thought out. Many different rock and mineral types are displayed, along with explanations and maps as to where they are found and why they happen to be there. We could spend all day here, but we are both getting hungry and we are hoping to get to Quidi Vidi Brewery as well. Besides, we are suffering from information overload.
Back in Vincent, we wind our way through the very narrow streets of the Quidi Vidi neighborhood. There’s no parking here either. We return up the hill a little ways and park at a trailhead. As we walk back towards the brewery I notice we are passing Mallard Cottage, well known for its excellent food.
As we stand there reading the sign a Newfoundlander stops to ask if we’ve eaten here. After telling us how good it is (in fact, he is on his way in to buy a gift certificate for his son and daughter-in-law) he tells us about a church up the road, now owned by a friend of his, which was in the penultimate scene of the first Canadian talkie movie (c. 1928) filmed entirely on location. The story of the film’s director, and the people involved, and the filming of a real ship in dangerous icy Newfoundland waters, and of the disaster that befell the crew during the re-filming of the ending is fascinating. O and I decide we should look for the movie. Apparently an old film version was miraculously found intact, and the Canadian National Archives were convinced to restore and digitize it. Although the original title was “White Thunder” it was re-released as “The Viking” after the filming disaster, to take advantage of the free publicity from the tragedy involving that ship.
In any event, O and I end up eating a late lunch accompanied by Quidi Vidi Iceberg beer at Mallard Cottage. We now have just enough time to photograph the church/now house, purchase some Thanksgiving beer-tasting brews at Quidi Vidi, and then get on the road to Butter Pot Provincial Park. We’ll sleep in Vincent tonight and set up camp in the (hopefully) dry morning.
