Coming Home

We had a pretty uneventful trip home which was pretty much par for the whole trip.  Julia will do a final post with all the stats, but over all our flights, we never had a cancelled flight and never had any lost luggage.  And even though we had a few flights that were delayed, they were never significant enough to cause worry or frustration.   We did try to take single direct flights whenever possible which helped, but we feel blessed to have everything go so smoothly on the flight front.  A funny story on the way home is that the whole trip, we had to check at least my bag as it had all our extra liquids in it, and so everyone was used to waiting for luggage.  After awhile, Annika would wonder aloud whether our bag would ever come out first.  This happened a few times over the course of the trip and wouldn’t you know it, on our very last flight to home, my bag was the first out on the carousel!  It seemed a fitting close to our baggage endeavors.  

We arrived back with basically the same things on our backs.  A few of us are taller though!

We ended as we started, with prayers and hugs.

Two sets of friends had some basic grocery supplies waiting for us along with a dinner and cake, which was so lovely and thoughtful.

It didn’t take them long to find their happy spots reading paper books (yeah!) on the couch.

St. John's

Even though we are home now, it still feels a little bit weird to be doing the post for our last stop on the trip, St. John’s.  It is bittersweet that things are coming to a close but from our time in Wales, we all concluded that we were both excited and sad to be going home which is probably the right mix of emotions at this stage.  We are glad we could do our last hoorah here and enjoy this time with family.

Signal Hill

We arrived in St. John’s a little before our AirBnB check-in time so we decided to drive to Signal Hill, tour the grounds, and visit Cabot Tower.  In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic wireless message here from Cornwall, England using an antenna hanging from a kite close to the tower.

Over the years there have been various gun batteries setup to protect the harbour entrance.

Jellybean Row

Our AirBnB was in the Jellybean Row neighbourhood, which is more than just one street (row).  Pretty fun to walk up and down a few of the streets.

No matter how unique the AirBnB is, it is still a place to play games!

Cape Spear Sunrise

Since we had done the early morning hike to the top of Mount Sinai to see the sunrise, my family at least, thought it would be fun to see the sunrise from the most eastern point of Canada (and of North America if you exclude Greenland).  So we got up early and made the drive around to the south side of St. John’s harbour and headed out to the point of Cape Spear.

It was still pretty dark in the West but definitely dawning in the East.  Unfortunately there were clouds and this thin line of fog that grew as it travelled toward us.  So we didn’t see the sun breaking on the ocean, and instead had to wait until it got above the fog and cloud line to see it on the water. 

Still beautiful but not quite as dynamic as Mount Sinai with all the rocks slowly changing colours.

Looking back towards the entrance to St. John’s harbour and Signal Hill with Cabot Tower on the top.

Water Street

We were only a short walk from the main street through downtown St. John’s and enjoyed browsing through some of the shops.  It also happened to be the St. John’s Busker Festival so we got to take in a few shows.

Quidi Vidi Village and Brewery

The adults took the opportunity to have a night out and ended up going to what used to be the small little Quidi Vidi village but is now swallowed up by St. John’s.  We got to enjoy the brewery there and listen to some local Newfoundland music.

Cape Spear Lighthouses

We headed back to Cape Spear again, but this time with all of us and at a more reasonable time of day.  There were some old World War II bunkers and canons there along with two lighthouses.

Julia’s Lug bag has been everywhere on this trip and has reached legendary status in our family as it seems to hold everything we could ever possibly want or need during an outing.  It has held up amazingly, but is unfortunately on its last legs with zippers failing to clasp and other parts starting to fail.  It needs to last just one more day!

Petty Harbour

Just a few kilometers south of Cape Spear was the little village of Petty Harbour where a shop owner on Water Street had recommended a place to eat and a nice ice cream shop.  It was also a cute little town and nice place to spend our last afternoon.

We have seen many creative ideas and amazing artistry all around the world.  The last day was no exception with this very creative knitted hat that allowed for ponytails at any height you would like by adjusting what is buttoned.

Creative ice cream store as well with ice cream “nachos” where you get waffle cone “chips” to dip in your sundae.

Smiles all around!

From there we ended up heading towards the St. John’s airport.  Our flight was early the next morning so we had an airport hotel booked.  Julia’s sister and her family had a late flight that night.  So in the end, we checked into our hotel room and the kids swam in the pool which was a good way to end things.  It is was great to end the trip with family.