Newfoundland - Settling in at St. John's

St. John's is the largest city in the province of Newfoundland-Labrador, and that will be our home base for the rest of our visit here. We have been driving over the entire island for the last week, and now it's time to settle in with our niece and nephew and their family and explore this beautiful city situated on the North Atlantic. So on this beautiful blue-sky day, Alexia is taking us on a hike up to Signal Hill.

As we headed up the trail along the coast, we got a birds-eye view of the city of St. John's. This is the capitol of the province, and the largest city as well. The latest census shows a population of 108,000 in St. John's, with over 200,000 people in the metropolitan area surrounding the city proper. That means that 40 percent of the entire province's population is right here in this southeast corner. As we start our hike, we can see the city's harbor. That orange ship at the dock is one that is used to shuttle supplies to the off-shore drilling rig that Brian administers.

Our hike starts in the city, right in front of those colorful row houses and their pretty window boxes.

We think this is the first time that a hike actually took us up and over a private house's porch.

Just as we are getting a close-up view of the homes next to the trail, we also got close views of the ships going out to sea in this neck known as "the narrows."

It's a lovely view of the coastline this morning.

We've found that Newfoundland has quite a large number of well-maintained wooden walkways that give us safe footing as we wander more of God's wonders.

We are also getting used to the lovely views from another set of red adirondack chairs that Canada has placed in strategically beautiful places.

We are hiking up to Signal Hill, so most of those wooden walkways are heading straight up. Alexia pointed out that they are numbered to let you know how far it is to the top. We've been climbing for a while, but we still have 14 more staircases to go.

We knew we were getting closer when we got our first glimpse of Cabot Tower at the top.

Another pair of red chairs give a nice place for a rest with views. We are so blessed with this gorgeous weather! After living here a year and a half, Alexia knows it isn't always this beautiful. She thinks that Newfoundland is just showing off for us.

We noticed that a bald eagle is enjoying the same blue-sky view with us, as he clings to a notch on that rock cliff.

We can see the stairs and boardwalk as it snakes to the top of Signal Hill. We are passed by locals that run this trail for exercise, just taking these views for granted.

We were glad when we saw that we are only one more section away from the top.

That brought us to the top of Signal Hill for its signature views. This is where lookouts watched for incoming ships, and then signaled whether they were friendly or enemy ships with different flags flown from Signal Hill. It's also the location of the 1762 Battle of Signal Hill where the final land battle made England victorious over France. While Denisa and Alexia are content with this view . . .

Mark thought the view was better from the top of the ledge.

Also at the top, we found this group of rock cairns, something that we are familiar with using as hiking guides. But here in Newfoundland, this manmade stone landmark is called an inuksuk. We added a new word to our hiking vocabulary today.

This is a loop hike, so now we are heading back down Signal Hill through the inland shrubbery instead of the rocky coastal views.

We have more viewpoints on the way down, and we can see how far the city of St. John's stretches inland from Gibbett Hill.

After making our way back to the car, it's time to start picking up our great nephews and niece from school. It was picture day at Cole's school, so we took a picture on the front porch this morning. They are in their school uniforms, and even three-year-olds wear slacks and vests to school. Cooper will change out of those rain boots into black shoes when he gets to school.

Katrina got up even earlier than usual this morning to bake a special birthday dessert for Denisa. Knowing that Tres Leches Cake needs to soak up all that three milk goodness, Katrina made it this morning so it would be ready for dinner tonight. She topped it with a meringue, and it was delicious! Thanks Katrina!

Happy Birthday again to Denisa, as we are having a great time settling in at St. John's, Newfoundland!