Plain Can Be Lovely

Since I recently posted about how we spent Labour Day weekend in 2012, I thought I’d write about how we spent Labour Day weekend in 2013 too (this will also help distract me from all of the snow we’ve been getting lately). Once again we found ourselves travelling. This time we were headed to St. John’s, Newfoundland for my good friend Katy’s wedding! Since this wasn’t our first time visiting (we also visited St. John’s in 2012) we didn’t have the added pressure of trying to see everything. You know how much I love to do touristy things. We also have good friends who live in the area so we decided to relax and take it easy.

I love this yellow house with the red chairs. It looks like it belongs in a magazine.

One of my highlights for the flight to St. John’s was that there’s now a David’s Tea at Pearson International Airport. I love David’s Tea so I had a Pistachio Cream tea and took it with me on the plane. The one problem with drinking such a big tea is that I had to use the washroom a lot. I was also sitting in the window seat so I had to climb over two people to get to the washroom. Lesson learned. I watched The Dark Knight Rises on the plane and then watched part of GI Joe: Retaliation. For some reason I really enjoy GI Joe: Retaliation because it’s the right type of bad movie (I first saw it during my flight to Ireland).

Drinking David’s Tea on the plane.

When we arrived in St. John’s it was dreary and cold. The weather was completely different from when we were there the year before. We rented a car and found that because we had been to St. John’s before it was much easier to navigate. The streets in St. John’s are confusing and complicated but we still managed to drive around incident free.

We stayed in the Murray Premises hotel for the second time ever. After we checked in we walked across the street to grab lunch at The Keg. I remembered from last year that Amy said that Keg has a really nice view. She wasn’t kidding.

Dan at The Keg.

Delicious French Onion Soup. Perfect for a cold rainy day.

We both got salads at The Keg. This is unusual for us.

It was raining a lot so we didn’t do much on our first day. We were both pretty tired so we just relaxed.

That evening we had dinner at the Gypsy Tearoom in Murray Premises.

Dinner at Gypsy Tearoom.

Dinner was delicious! Gypsy salad with beets and goat cheese, cheese plate, seared scallops with risotto, and caramel apple pudding for dessert. Yum yum!

After dinner we drove out to Aaron and Amy’s house and played boardgames. We played Manhattan and Dan finally didn’t get crushed. The drive home was dark and eerie, especially with all of the fog and wet conditions. I kept getting paranoid that we would hit a moose so I was on moose watch. Thankfully our drive back was moose-free.

The next day we started the morning with breakfast at The Murray Premises. Staying in this hotel includes a complimentary breakfast buffet. They had hard boiled eggs, bagels, peanut butter, jam etc., coffee, juice, fresh cut fruit, yogurt, bananas, apples etc. Complimentary breakfasts are the best!

Afterwards we wandered around St. John’s and Dan got a much needed haircut.

Dan gets his hair cut at Fogtown Barber and Shop. It was a cool barber shop that also sold vinyl,played cool music and sold concert tickets. One of the barber chairs was an original chair from a well known St. John’s barber who retired.

Last time we walked past The Newfoundland Chocolate Company but didn’t make it inside. So this time we decided to check it out.

Outside the Newfoundland Chocolate Company.

I told Dan to take a picture of me with this half naked chocolate mermaid. Later we shot video of Dan high fiving her.

I bought this small box of screech chocolates to test out. Not only are they beautiful but they were delicious! Next time I’ll buy some big boxes as gifts for family and friends.

We also admired the jellybean row houses.

No trip to St. John’s is complete without checking out the iconic jellybean row houses.

And we revisited the Newfoundland Dog statues by the water. I couldn’t remember if we got our pictures with them last time so we made sure to take some this time.

Aaron and Amy had mentioned that there was a new place in St. John’s called Relish that served gourmet burgers. We decided to check it out for lunch.

Lunch at relish. I had the L.A. Is my Lady (sliced avocado, roasted peppers, basil pesto, creamy goat cheese on turkey). Dan had The Great One (cheddar cheese, bacon, roasted garlic mayonnaise on angus beef).

After lunch we went back to the hotel and changed before heading to the church for the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony.

After the ceremony we had more time to kill so we changed out of our nice clothes and then wandered around St. John’s. I wanted coffee and snacks so we went to Rocket Bakery for Ginger Cookies and delicious coffee.

Ginger cookies and lattes at Rocket Bakery. Yum! (I have an affinity for ginger cookies)

Me outside the Freak Lunchbox. We didn’t go in this time since Dan bought a pound of candy the last time we went there.

Following a wardrobe change we were ready to go to the reception. It was at Yellowbelly Brewery, another place we saw from the outside last time but didn’t go into. It was beautiful inside and the beer was pretty good too!

The head table inside Yellowbelly Brewery. Beautiful!

Since the wedding was taking place in Newfoundland, Katy, who is originally from Nova Scotia, decided that all non-Newfoundland guests should get screeched in!

I sampled some Newfoundland steak (aka bologna).

Captain Jack ready with the Cod for the screeching in ceremony. We had to kiss it.

We finished it off with with a shot of screech and then we were given certificates. I’m officially a Newfoundlander!

I managed to get one picture with the bride. Unfortunately I only had my iPhone so we have demon eyes. lol

The food was delicious. Yellowbelly salad, woodfired chicken and mashed potatoes, and Chef’s selection for dessert.

We had a great time at the wedding but soon I was ready to turn into a pumpkin! When we went back to the hotel the front desk person saw my Screech certificate and said “Remember, you’re one of us now!”

It was a beautiful day the next day and I was really tempted to relax and enjoy the sunshine and blue sky. Instead, I went for a 29k run since I was marathon training. I knew I couldn’t miss out on the long runs. Dan came along and ran 20k of the 29k with me.

I took this picture during my 29k run in St. John’s. I love the lake and the houses and the blue sky. Just everything.

Me after my 29k run. I’m standing on the Quidi Vidi loop. I love this place.

The run sucked up most of the day (we had also slept in). We decided to go for a late lunch afterwards. The power went out all along water street but Bistro Sofia said they could still serve us sandwiches etc. as long as we could pay in cash (since none of the machines were working).

My lunch at Bistro Sofia in the semi darkness. I had the chicken salad sandwich and salad. One of my friends from grad school said that they also serve amazing mussels and soup. I’ll have to go back.

With lunch done we went up to Cape Spear to visit the most easterly point in Canada. Last year we had perfect weather when we visited. At this point we were losing our blue sky and it was getting misty and grey. It was still breathtaking and looked the way I had always imagined Newfoundland to look (before I had ever visited). See last year’s post to compare the weather conditions.

Me at Cape Spear. Very different weather conditions from last year.

Me at the most easterly point in Canada and North America.

Dan with one of Newfoundland’s oldest lighthouses.

Me with one of Newfoundland’s oldest lighthouses.

When we were done we drove out to Aaron and Amy’s house for dinner and to play with their daughter Sophie. We also played Ingenious (which I won! I loved saying “Ingenious!”) and Stone Age.

The next day we took a short walk in St. John’s before heading out again.

Jellybean row houses with a mural.

Last year I took some pictures of fun things at the airport gift shop. This year here’s what I found.

Wine to go glass. Just what you need to pick up at the airport gift shop!

The inspired by 50 shades of grey section in the airport giftshop.

I always have a wonderful time in St. John’s though I never feel like we’re there long enough. One day we’ll come back again and explore the rest of Newfoundland. It really is a beautiful place with friendly people and an amazing heritage.