Over the weekend, we explored the St. John’s area with Luke’s parents and checked out a few places we’d never visited before including the Queen’s Battery, Fort Amherst, and the Ocean Sciences Centre!
Looking at icebergs from Fort Amherst
Luke’s parents were in town for the weekend and since they saw most of the main attractions during their visit last year, we had a chance to take them around and explore some different things. After dinner on Friday night with Elizabeth’s family, we ventured to Signal Hill to see the huge icebergs we’d been hearing about. However, on our drive up the hill we realized that the top of the hill was fairly blocked with traffic so we parked at the Interpretation Centre halfway up the hill. From there, we started following people up a trail, hoping that we’d be able to sneak a peek at the icebergs from wherever we ended up. It turned out that the trail lead us up to the Queen’s Battery, and we had quite the view:
Named after the wife of King George III, Queen Charlotte, the Queen’s Battery overlooks the entrance to St. John’s Harbour. The guns (aka cannons) of the Battery played a significant role in the defence of St. John’s during the 19th century.
After breakfast the next day, we decided to get even closer to the icebergs and look at them from a different angle, at Fort Amherst. Although Fort Amherst is just on the other side of St. John’s Harbour, even Elizabeth had never been there before. Fort Amherst once played a role in the defence of St. John’s Harbour, from the opposite side, and the original fortifications that were built in the 1770s are no longer visible. However, the remains of concrete structures built during World War II to defend against German U-boats can be seen, although they have fallen into disrepair.
In 1810, the first lighthouse in Newfoundland was built at Fort Amherst and the lighthouse that was built in its place in the 1950s is still operational. There is no parking by the lighthouse, so we parked as close as we could and then walked the rest of the way. The icebergs had shifted overnight so as we were walking along Southside Road on our way to Fort Amherst, we couldn’t see them at all. However, as we walked past the last house on Southside Road, the icebergs appeared before us. The two large icebergs were still intact, although we noticed pieces of ice in the water that had fallen off (and we were not-so-secretly hoping that we’d witness an iceberg collapse).
After breakfast the next day, we decided to get even closer to the icebergs and look at them from a different angle, at Fort Amherst. Although Fort Amherst is just on the other side of St. John’s Harbour, even Elizabeth had never been there before. Fort Amherst once played a role in the defence of St. John’s Harbour, from the opposite side, and the original fortifications that were built in the 1770s are no longer visible. However, the remains of concrete structures built during World War II to defend against German U-boats can be seen, although they have fallen into disrepair.
In 1810, the first lighthouse in Newfoundland was built at Fort Amherst and the lighthouse that was built in its place in the 1950s is still operational. There is no parking by the lighthouse, so we parked as close as we could and then walked the rest of the way. The icebergs had shifted overnight so as we were walking along Southside Road on our way to Fort Amherst, we couldn’t see them at all. However, as we walked past the last house on Southside Road, the icebergs appeared before us. The two large icebergs were still intact, although we noticed pieces of ice in the water that had fallen off (and we were not-so-secretly hoping that we’d witness an iceberg collapse).
After some iceberg watching and lots of picture taking, we picked up turkey sandwiches at Breen’s and made our way to the Ocean Sciences Centre. The Ocean Sciences Centre is part of the Department of Ocean Sciences at Memorial University and in the summertime they host an outdoor public education program. There were two knowledgeable interpreters there who answered questions about the creatures in the salt water touch tank and the resident harp seals.
During our time there we learned that:
- starfish have eyes at the end of each arm...
- and scallops have 60 eyes around the rim of their shell!
- 1 in 2 million lobsters has a genetic mutation that makes its outer shell blue
- seals have adapted so that they can get hydration from ice without getting hypothermia
- seals "bottle" when they sleep - they float in the water vertically with just their heads above water
During our time there we learned that:
- starfish have eyes at the end of each arm...
- and scallops have 60 eyes around the rim of their shell!
- 1 in 2 million lobsters has a genetic mutation that makes its outer shell blue
- seals have adapted so that they can get hydration from ice without getting hypothermia
- seals "bottle" when they sleep - they float in the water vertically with just their heads above water
Once we said goodbye to the seals, we decided to take advantage of the weather and go for a walk because the rain was holding off nicely. After some discussion, we decided to visit the MUN Botanical Gardens that we visited for a Something Saturday last year. The trails in the Botanical Gardens are extensive so we ended up taking a new trail on the way to our favourite lookout point. We also took some time to wander through the gardens at the end of our visit, which are late blooming because of our chilly spring.
We finished off our day out by going to The Grand Seduction, a film set in rural Newfoundland that is a remake of a French-Canadian film of the same title. We met up with Elizabeth’s family at the cinema and we all thoroughly enjoyed the charm of the movie.
On Sunday, we continued our nature-themed weekend and visited Salmonier Nature Park. Reviewing our blog post about our visit to Salmonier Nature Park last year, we realized that we unknowingly visited the Nature Park on the exact same weekend last year! Spooky. Luckily, it wasn't raining this time and a few different animals were out of hiding so we saw some new ones. This time we were extra lucky because we saw some animals that aren't part of the normal set; we saw a mink sneaking food from the great horned owl enclosure, a rabbit in the caribou area, and a squirrel ran right past Luke and his mom while they were standing on the boardwalk. Oh, and we saw a Snowy Owl in the process of eating a rat whole.
We finished off our day out by going to The Grand Seduction, a film set in rural Newfoundland that is a remake of a French-Canadian film of the same title. We met up with Elizabeth’s family at the cinema and we all thoroughly enjoyed the charm of the movie.
On Sunday, we continued our nature-themed weekend and visited Salmonier Nature Park. Reviewing our blog post about our visit to Salmonier Nature Park last year, we realized that we unknowingly visited the Nature Park on the exact same weekend last year! Spooky. Luckily, it wasn't raining this time and a few different animals were out of hiding so we saw some new ones. This time we were extra lucky because we saw some animals that aren't part of the normal set; we saw a mink sneaking food from the great horned owl enclosure, a rabbit in the caribou area, and a squirrel ran right past Luke and his mom while they were standing on the boardwalk. Oh, and we saw a Snowy Owl in the process of eating a rat whole.
This week, Luke’s parents will be visiting the west coast of Newfoundland before coming back and exploring some of the Avalon Peninsula with us next weekend!
Here are some more pictures from this past weekend:
Here are some more pictures from this past weekend:
