Up and slowly at it, we headed to ‘The Rooms’ which I will admit is an eyesore on the horizon to me. Apparently it was built to resemble the military stores of the old days. What a grand deal it turned out to be! Now to be honest, the guy who took our money was some grumpy, but it was a self guided tour so off we went. The first section was all about the First World War and the first 500 in their blue pattees who headed out.
The story of their training and the ship that transported them was interesting, although Instill don’t know what slob ice is. There were unique trees throughout the building
It amused me as the boats at home are called punts but they don’t resemble this at all
I have a very similar plant growing on my windowsill, must be of the same family
I will admit to being unnerved by what I called the ‘stuffie’ section as everything was creepy real
It was rather heartbreaking to read about the First Nations here as they were wiped out by the Europeans…
Ash warned me the next room was going to be sad as we watched a movie and read about a crew of seal hunters who were inadvertently abandoned on the ice for 54 hours in a wicked storm.
I am learning that there are many dark moments in history here. I did think the glasses were very steam punk cool though
And then we came round to something that completely freaks me out as a diver. I do not want to know I share the ocean with these large squid
Sad the Auks are gone, what an amazing bone structure for a bird
I apologize right now for all the harbour views but I was blessed with them
One section of the gallery just baffled us…. Someone got paid who knows how much for photos of potatoes on forks with names….. Please….
The show was a draw for us but as it happens… Not so much
I realized after that nothing drew me enough to even take a picture. The rest of the gallery was wonderful though, especially the digital display and the Modern Inuit ones
after that was a museum of beautiful history
I highly recommend a visit here. One of my favourite parts we weren’t allowed to take pictures but it’s about lineage, the twins pictures. There were several pairs showing for example a young girl in Ireland with a certain last name and then a mid aged woman in NL with the same last name and the similarities were startling.
From there we headed downtown to eat and ended up at Duke of Duckworth
for wicked good fish and chips and he let Ash bring home a glass with the bar logo on it. We promised to meet Nancy and company at Erin’s so off we went. They didn’t show for a while but the band Generations was playing and they were way better than New Years
although Ash was getting a little goofy with my phone
It was really quite amazing that a 19 year old plays so well with a band that all the others are between 65-71. Justin Martin has been playing squeezebox since he was 5 or so and can sing to beat all. Jeffery used to drum with them so he had fun coming out
My only problem with this bar is their prices…. Even the bar tender was embarrassed as I was drinking doubles and they just ring in two singles, never have I seen that done before….
After everyone left we wandered up George Street looking for live music and everyone pointed us to Shamrocks. Ash was very happy to hear The Navigators would be playing as she wanted me to hear them. Only problem, in NL style, they weren’t starting until 11! We decided to hang for a bit, have a snack and a drink and see how long we lasted as she has to work tomorrow. Suddenly I looked across the room and said, hey I know him. I guess I pointed too as ‘he’ came over. It was the bass player from Shanneyganock, Bob Pike. He sat and chatted with us for a great time, making the evening.
I am dead set on getting them to Vancouver Island MusicFest so we swapped info and have had fun texting since. The Navigators came on and they were well worth the wait. Freddie plays with his back pockets full of flutes and just reaches back and grabs one.
It had snowed a bunch but thankfully there was a cab waiting outside and it was only slightly unnerving that he spun and slid his way up the hills to home. All and all another fun and full day!
triumphgal 