Me Too You

Just a few days ago, we returned from a month long trip to visit my twin sister, Robin and her family in St. John’s, Newfoundland. As luck would have it, we managed to hit pretty much the entire summer season there in this eastern island off the mainland of Canada. “The Rock,” as Newfoundland is sometimes called, has some pretty unforgiving weather – rain, sleet and misery is how my brother-in-law terms the usual state of affairs. But…on sunny days, it is gorgeous, and everyone runs immediately outside to dance naked in the sunshine. Ok, not really naked. But Newfoundlanders definitely bare more skin that I would in 60 degree weather (what is that in Celsius again? 15 degrees? Help me out, Canadians?). I still found myself going around mostly in a sweater and jeans in the Newfoundland summer.

(By the way, I traveled to St. John’s with the 3 kids, while my hubby batched it for a couple weeks and joined us at the end for about 10 days. The kids traveled great – thanks Air Canada for the 7 hours of movies…though I saw Catherine/Her Bad Mother last night and she told me that Virgin America flies a Toronto to San Francisco route and I am in love with that airline, so next time, Virgin!  At least for part of the way.)

Newfoundland is a pretty cool place, despite the unforgiving weather. My sister has great friends, a culture that is centered around social events (drinking and eating, drinking and eating, drinking and eating), and a slower pace that we subject ourselves here to in Silicon Valley. There is a large Irish influence in Newfoundland – sort of like how Montreal has the French influences and Nova Scotia the Scottish. For instance, the drinking. There is a lot of drinking done in Newfoundland. Though the traditional Newfoundland drink is “screech” (an awful rum, maybe only found in Newfoundland) and not scotch. I was screeched in long ago, so am practically a Newfoundlander. Screeched in? You don’t know what that means? Oh. Well. Ok, I’ll tell you. CFAs (Come From Away’s – which is what Newfoundlanders call people who come to visit from other places) are pretty much obligated to be “screeched in,” a ceremony presided over by a natural-born Newfoundlander, involving standing in an ice-cold bucket of water, kissing a cod, reciting a poem (or something) and drinking a shot of screech. Really, it is fun. I think I was actually screeched in in Bermuda….by my brother-in-law when he and my sister lived there. I know….why did they ever move from Bermuda to Newfoundland??? Well, Newfoundland seems to be one of those magnetic places that people who are born and raised there want to leave for college or to travel, but then they always come back. It is a dream goal of mine and my Robin’s to live next door to each other someday, but for now we ride in a lot of airplanes.

Some fun local things people in St. John’s say:

• Costco is still referred to as “The Price Club” even though the name changed at least 10 years ago
• Every plastic bag is called a “Sobey’s bag,” Sobey’s being a grocery store chain
• The “Outer Rim Road” is on every map and people will tell you to “take the Outer Rim Road to….” BUT there is actually NO Outer Rim Road. It is the Trans Canada Highway and all the signs say that, not Outer Rim Road. Confusing much?

Walking down George Street, a street in downtown St. John’s lined with bars that is sometimes closed off to car traffic for festivals, you will likely see some jigs being danced and hear lots of fiddle and Celtic music. It is very FUN to go out there at night and it doesn’t take long for CFAs to learn the words to the classic Newfoundland songs. Rock/celtic Newfoundland music exists too – heard of the band Great Big Sea? Simply awesome. We saw them in concert about 7 years ago. Gossip (as heard on a plane from St. John’s to Halifax on my way to BlogHer’10 in NYC): the lead singer of the lead singer of Great Big Sea is good friends with Russel Crowe, who comes to visit St. John’s quite frequently. I’m sure I will be hanging out with them on my next trip.

What did we do there? With five kids aged 7 and younger, it was pretty lively. We broke up fights and made them clean up their messes. Oh! And we did some fun stuff too. We…

hiked around the beautiful ponds that are everywhere in Newfoundland

built houses out of “dinosaur eggs” in the forest where my parents are camped at the East end of their year long RV trip

swam at the Murray’s Pond clubhouse pool

played with new toys

had lovely grandparent time

celebrated Regata Day in St. John’s (which coincided with my dad’s 73rd birthday)

hiked Signal Hill

played at Salmon Cove beach

taught our daughters yoga

built sand castles

toured graveyards (6 year old Ben’s favorite activity….I know, a little morbid, but actually pretty interesting and Halloween will be FANTASTIC this year! We are planning on building an awesomely spooky graveyard in our front yard.)

climbed around in the fog at Cape Spear Lighthouse

gardened

went whale watching

climbed like monkeys

cooked and baked lots of healthy, organic (most vegetarian) food

and our most fantastic day had to be our last, when we went to the Ferryland Lighthouse. This is perfection, I tell you. Gourmet picnic lunches (SO delicious), gorgeous view (we did see some whales too), lovely hike to get there. Nice

We had a blast. The kids want to see Newfoundland in the snowy winter (which they actually have, when they were babies). We tend to have visitors to California from Newfoundland in the winter who like to get AWAY from the snow and come to the sun, but I’m sure we’ll get to St. John’s in the winter someday.

Thanks to our hosts, Robin and Mark. Until next time, we have gone to the Price Club for some last minute items, packed our stuff in Sobey’s bags and headed out to the airport via the Outer Rim Road.

Posted on August 22, 2010 at 11:50 pm in Family, Getaway, My Twin Sis, The Great Outdoors, yoga   |  RSS feed