A Mausey Day

 Newfoundlanders have a lot words and phrases to describe the weather, and today is definitely what they would refer to as a “mausey day;”  overcast, rainy, and foggy. It rained alllll day today with on and off low fog, but since we knew it was going to be a wash out day we tried to plan some indoor or at least minimally outdoor activities.

First up was breakfast at Rocket Bakery in downtown St. John where they are know for their raspberry flakie. It was really good!

Then we headed to the Johnson Geo Centre, an earth science museum that’s part of Memorial University. One very cool feature is that the building is cut into the rock of Signal Hill, so part of the interior foundation wall is exposed bedrock. Today with all the rain there were actually small rivulets of water running down the walls. We got to see displays about a lot of the geological wonders we’ve seen on our two trips to Newfoundland which was pretty cool. The place was crawling with kids today but the museum very smartly has dedicated kid activity areas which kept them corralled for the most part.

A Jenmac in her natural habitat 

The rain let up (a little) so we decided to take a drive around the coastal area just north of St. John’s. First was Middle Cove Beach, which we stopped at because it was supposed to be super active with capelin “rolling.” We saw scores of these little silver smelt-like fish (dead) on the beach in Ferryland, but hadn’t seen them spawning in the surf which they do once a year when they roll. It’s a big deal here and lots of people go to the beaches to catch them with nets then hand out and make bonfires on the beach. The capelin roll on different beaches at different times this time of year- and they’re also why the humpbacks are here- and we’d heard that Middle Cove Beach was a hotspot but there weren’t any there today. Maybe they didn’t want to deal with the weather, either 😊. We did pick up some really cool polished beach rocks and sea glass and got some now familiar foggy shoreline photos.

 

Then we drove to Portugal Cove hoping to see the sheer cliffs of Bell Island which sits just offshore. Denied! Fog and low clouds had rolled back in and you cold just make out the outline. A ferry runs out to the island from here and apparently people commute to and from St. John’s daily for work.

What I wanted to see but didn't 

All this looking at clouds on the ground made us thirsty, so we headed to Bannerman’s Brewery on the eastern end of St. John’s for a few pints, then walked down to the War Memorial that was the focus of all the activity yesterday, and then down to the waterfront.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to eastern Newfoundland and head back across the island to the west coast, where we’ll have two more days to explore before we take the ferry back to Nova Scotia. The weather is finally supposed to clear up and there is actually a chance I might be able to wear shorts and a t-shirt again. And no rain in the forecast for the first time in nearly a week!