We finally made it through quarantine! What a feeling to be free and get out to explore our new city for the first time!
We got up and out super early, all excited to see the world. Here we are leaving our driveway for the first time in two weeks! We took the dog out for a walk around the neighborhood and were delighted by the abundant lupine and mountain views. Right now we are staying in Portugal Cove, which is just 15 minutes outside of the city but feels sort of remote and wild!
We had a delicious breakfast of scones and hot chocolates at Toslow on Duckworth Street, enjoying their collection of cat knick-knacks and the view of the harbor from the upstairs window. The streets were very quiet but the harbor was already hard at work on a Sunday morning! Then we headed up Signal Hill to try and get a view of the city from above. It was only 5 minutes drive from the harbor, but felt like a whole other world! The fog started to roll in as we drove up towards the top, and it was windy/rainy/foggy by the time we got there, but we got an amazing view of fog swirling around the hills and across the harbor, and we also got some nice glimpses of the city through the fog and rain! Some of the path was a liiiittle scary and we really had to hold onto the kids’ hands but the views were thrilling.
After the fog got too thick to see anything, we back down to visit Quidi Vidi, which is a very pretty village that’s part of the city, but also kind of it’s own thing. Quidi Vidi Plantation is a beautiful golden yellow building right on the water, with artists studios inside and they had a nice pop-up artists market there, we got to see some beautiful handcrafts and meet some friendly artisans. There were some fishermen heading out from the boat ramp, and a mama duck with baby ducklings swimming around the lake in the rain. There was a lovely waterfall coming right down into the lake, and a bridge across it led us to a scrambly path up into the woods, which turned out to be a really beautiful hiking trail!
Wet and a bit muddy, we headed home to have some lunch and walk the dog. After a bit of a rest, we went back out again to meet our real estate agent and visit some houses in the city. They were all interesting and beautiful in different ways, the kids were so excited to explore different houses and backyards and run up many flights of stairs! I’m not sure whether anything was a totally perfect fit? We need a sizeable driveway to park Mike’s work truck, but we also want to be right in the city in a walkable neighborhood, so it’s kind of a tall order, but we definitely saw some amazing places today! This city is so full of interesting old houses.
Finally, we celebrated with a dinner out at Yellow Belly Brewery, and walked around by the harbor as the sun came out for the first time today! It was such a huge & busy & fun day. It’s pretty amazing how many fun places there are to explore, in such a small city.
