A week in Newfoundland - Part 6 - St. John's and the Avalon Peninsula
The next day, we drove 700 km all the way back to St. John's. It was a long drive, and it took pretty much the entire day. A couple distractions to break up the long drive included, a short detour to King's Point Whale Pavilion to see the 50 ft humpback whale skeleton, trying out the Canadian fast food chain, Mary Brown's Chicken & Taters, in Grand Falls-Windsor, after not finding any other great lunch options, and when we were almost to St. John, we saw a moose running along the side of the highway.
We stayed at this hotel, because it was the only one I could find with three consecutive nights availability. The location was great, for access to downtown St. John's, but parking was a little awkward.
Finally out of the car, we walked into downtown and had dinner at Pi Gourmet Pizza. It turned out to be pretty good, although they had some of the oddest pizza combinations I've encountered.
The next morning, we headed south on the Avalon Peninsula. We stopped in Ferryland and walked out the peninsula to the Lighthouse. Here we found one of the most interesting lunch options, Lighthouse Picnics. We hadn't made a reservation and we needed to continue on to be in time for our tour, so we didn't end up giving them a try, but I heard that the food was excellent. The scenery was great too.
Our destination for the day was Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve near Portugal Cove South. Accessible by guided tour only, and recently named a UNESCO World Heritage, it has some of the oldest known fossils. The minute I read about it, I knew I wanted to go there. To see the fossil site, you have to call in advance for a tour.
Once checked in for the tour, we drove to the trailhead along a mostly good gravel road. It was pretty foggy, while we hiked the 2km trail to the fossil site. We stopped periodically and the guides gave us some interesting information about the landscape and plants as we walked.
Once we arrived at the site, the guides had us take off our shoes and put on booties, so we could walk over the surface of the rocks to see the fossils.
For dinner, we went back to St. John's to Mallard Cottage in Quidi Vidi. We were a little early, so we had some time to walk around Quidi Vidi and sat and watched the water for awhile. Parking is pretty limited, so make sure you have lots of time.
The food was really interesting and tasty. We had chicken rillette, salt cod kolache, caesar salad, deep fried cod nape, and halibut with garam masala and potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower. And for dessert, perhaps the best part, they only offer one option - the dessert sampler - which had toasted marshmallow ice cream, blueberry tart, rhubarb cake, a madeleine, a profiterole, and a chocolate chip cookie.
The next morning, we explored St. John's. First stopping at Fixed Coffee for coffee, chai, and pastries. We spent the morning walking around town. The downtown area is known for "jellybean" houses, which provide a colorful cityscape.
In the afternoon, we decided that we needed to try the "best" Fish & Chips, so we headed to Chafe's Landing in Petty Harbour. When we arrived, it was very busy, so we got some takeout and drove up the hill to eat. The cod was excellent as it had been the whole week. The breading was light and crispy. Afterward, we headed to Cape Spear to visit the easternmost point in North America.
And then we headed back to St. John's and went to Signal Hill National Historic Site and the Johnson GEO Center.
For dinner we went to Raymond's, perhaps the best restaurant in the province, and certainly the fanciest. Although, the diners near us, were an interesting group. There was a couple to my right who was eating a tasting menu and had never had most of the seafood and the couple to my left who drank bloody mary's all night and were on their phones the whole time.
We chose the five course tasting menu, and were very happy with the selections. The first course, was fun and tasty, with snacks: a New Brunswick oyster with pickled turmeric, sunchoke puree and chip, apple & thyme panna cotta with celery, radish with lemon butter, and zucchini flower with yogurt. The second course was a huge scallop with fennel and turnip. The third course was cod five ways, loin, nape, cheek, tongue and roe with carrot puree. The fourth course was PEI beef ribeye. And the fifth course was chocolate cream with ricotta, graham, and strawberries. It was very enjoyable.
The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and went to breakfast at Classic Cafe East, and then we headed to the airport.
