Signal Hill, Jelly Beans, Torbay

It rained last night which makes the morning a little more difficult. It was too difficult to undo the tarp over the stove and table to make a cup of coffee. There was a Starbucks 5 minutes away in the Avalon Mall with a very large public seating area. I spent time here trying to catchup with my blogs. This is an upscale mall for the region and attracts many students and professionals as well as the mall wonderers.

I lie going to towns and getting lost. I’m not really ever lost with google maps, but randomly driving around a city or town is a good way to explore and learn about the area. I found and old section of town where the homes are well maintained and being updated. The streets are hilly and meander . St John’s city planning history must be very interesting.

Signal Hill

Signal Hill is one of the top five things to see in St. John’s. It is the location of the final battle of the Seven Years War in 1762. Below the top ridge is a battery that protected the city and port from enemy ships.

The Cabot tower that stands on the hill top was constructed in 1897 to to commemorate John Cabot’s landfall 400 years before and the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

I thought the first transatlantic wireless transmission ocured on Cape Cod. Actually, it happened in the Cabot tower on December 12, 1901. A transmission was received by Guglielmo Marconi in the tower. There’s a small museum in the tower.

Port Walk

After touring Signal Hill, I drove to be closer to the water, at the port entrance. I was going to hike down to get better photos, but thought that driving down would get me even closer. There’s a trail that actually goes down in front of the and goes around and down to the port. I parked the car on a very narrow street and walked along the port towards the ocean. It’s not a difficult walk, but in one place you have to hold on to a chain to make sure you don’t slip off.

Coming back I met a couple, Ron and Marion from Toronto. We walked a little ways just chatting about St. John’s, the hike and things we’d seen. They had hiked from the Signal Tower down around and had to get back to their car. I gave them the route I took to get down and parted to get my car.

Coming back down the road, they hadn’t made much progress. I stopped to see how they were doing and they were trying to get a taxi. They had a pretty steep climb back to the tower. I offered them a ride and told them they would have to climb in the trunk. They didn’t want to climb the steep hill and were up for a ride in the trunk of the Subaru. There was just barely room in the back for two people, so they had to cuddle up. We got to the top and we were all grinning. Yet another adventure.

St. John’s Downtown

After my port walk, I headed into the main part of St. John’s just to walk around. I parked the car one street above water street and headed down Water St. I came to the Courthouse a few blocks away. I was about to take a phot of the building when I woman asked me if I was just visiting. I was I told her. She wanted to know what type of camera I was using. I told her it was a Nikon Z7 II, a mirrorless camera. She told me she worked in the court house, and she was also a photographer.

She gave me a few tips on where to shoot the courthouse.

She also gave me many tips and things to photograph in St. John’s and outside the town, The Jelly Bean Houses, Torbay, Baybulls for the Puffins. I had a walk planned in Baybulls. She suggested looking on the StaycationNL Facebook page to ask questions about St. Johns. She told me to go to Torbay which I would never have visited without her suggestion. I gave her this website and she said she would check it out. So, a very big thank you for all the feedback. It was all right on.

867-5309 / Jenny

Walking around, I was looking at the graffiti on the walls and noticed some numbers in the lower left corner of a loading dock, “86753 9”, I thought "0” was missing. It clearly was a reference to the 1981 Tommy Tutone song with the Title 867-5309/Jenny. I wondered why the “0” was missing.

Why was this even here? It seemed so random. I couldn’t find any reference to the song and Newfoundland with google.

Jelly Bean Houses

I had read that there was a street named Jelly Bean. There is not. The Jelly Bean houses get their name from their bright vibrant colors. I’m not sure how they decide what color a house should have but I didn’t see any two building with the same color side-by-side. It brought me back to the home I grew up in. My mother had the house painted Benjamin Moore “Bumblebee Yellow”, a very bright yellow that would certainly fit in in this neighborhood. I roamed the streets for a few hours looking for the right angle and waiting for clouds to periodically disperse.

I knew to get to the area of St. John’s where the Jelly Bean houses are located before sunset. A film crew was setup at the corner of this street. They were speaking French and I tried to ask what they were filming. None of them spoke English. It seemed like they were doing a documentary on the houses.

This was my favorite corner. I’d seen it in some shop windows. The cars were all missing in those photos.

I also had to include this art piece on an entry way. Some Picasso style cubism, fantasy, dystopian, voodoo art. The title of the work, “AFTER THEWAR” suggests a lot.

Jelly Bean House Door: AFTER THEWAR on an entry door

Torbay

Torbay is a small town on the outskirts of St. John’s. There doesn’t seem to be much here except a very well hidden cove and trail. The views at sunset were awesome.

Torbay: Bench with crochet work around a rock (I’ve seen this in other areas)

Torbay: From trail overlooking the waterfalls

I had dinner at Freshii, a health food type restaurant chain. I had a Buddah’s Satay and a tropical mango super smoothy. The food was fresh and tasty.