All the way east: Wot we does in Trinity, Newfoundland, Part 2

Buildings in Trinity, Newfoundland
Originally uploaded by theotherlondon

Coffee at the Mercantile

If you’re craving a coffee and some conversation Ian’s is the place to go. I would hazard that, on any given day, it’s safe to say every person in Trinity - locals, townies and people who ‘come from away’ alike - will stop by Ian’s at some point during the day. If the beverages, baked goods, sandwiches or cool coffee-culture inspired souvenirs aren’t enough to tempt you, the town’s only public access to the internet may seal the deal (I’ve also been told the library provides internet access, but with four visits to Trinity under my belt I have yet to see the library open).

Rising Tide Theatre

I like to take in at least one production put on by Rising Tide Theatre every time we visit Newfoundland. The company focuses on plays that are distinctly east coast and often by and about characters and people who have lived or are living in the area. It’s a great way to immerse yourself in the local history, culture and dialect. Some of the productions are held outdoors, including the company’s staple the, ‘Town Pageant’ that explains the history of Trinity (my guess is it won’t be your cup of tea, but there are plenty other offerings, and I think at least one or two that might perk your interest). There is a dinner theatre production offered each Saturday evening during the theatre season - also probably not your cup of tea (I’m guessing there won’t be much in the way of vegetarian options for diners, it being all about the seafood here), but I thought I’d mention it anyway.


Photo trekking around town

Trinity is arguably the most photogenic of the collection of small villages dotting the shores of Newfoundland’s Bonavista Peninsula. Just about every typical east coast image you can imagine can be found here in beautifully restored technicolor glory - with of course, a few weather worn examples preserved for the sake of authenticity. Brightly coloured clap-board homes, root-cellar doors peering out from grassy fields, freshly painted wooden fishing boats lined up in the harbour, an old lighthouse and fort on the other side of the bay, lines of crisp, clean laundry flapping in the wind. Get the picture? ;) It’s a photographer’s paradise I tell you! Oh, excuse me - it’s a photographer’s paradise, dat’s wot I says!


Jigging for cod

This summer we got to go cod jigging with 82 year old Boyd in the boat he built. It was made of wood and Boyd used a traditional hand line (I cheated a little and used a rod). We caught 10 cod between us which will be dried and salted to be consumed in the winter. How cool is that?

View my Newfoundland, Canada photo set on Flickr

All the way east: Wot we does in Trinity, Newfoundland, Part 1

Buildings in Trinity, Newfoundland
Originally uploaded by theotherlondon

Hiking up Gun Hill

For ‘people from away’ who are used to a regular exercise routine, the closest thing to a local gym in Trinity is a hike up Gun Hill. It’s a great way to work off all that hearty, though perhaps not ‘heart smart’, Newfoundland fare, pork scrunchions, fish and chips, fish and brewis, steamed pudding with brown sauce, and the town looks lovely from the summit. There are many interesting reminders of the town’s history to be discovered along the way. Not the least of which being the ‘guns’ - abandoned cannons left on the hillside after the war of 1812. Yes, I said the war of 1812. One of the town’s oldest cemeteries is located about half-way to the summit. Our friend, Eric’s, great-great-great-great-great grandfather - a Norwegian sailor who jumped ship off the shore of Trinity in the 1700’s, swam to shore and decided to stay - is buried there.

Beach combing

On a good day, within a few moment’s beach combing on any one of the town’s many beaches one can find a handful of clay pipe stems , pieces of pottery (one piece I found was date-stamped 1849!), black beach glass that I’ve been told is from seltzer bottles, mixed among more common beach finds like sun-bleached urchin shells and anemones.

Sea of Whales whale watching tour

Chris Prince owns and operates the Sea of Whales whale watching tour company based in Trinity, and his tours are fabulous. Why are they fabulous? Well, first off his boat rocks - it’s the most awesome zodiac I’ve ever seen. Secondly, along with the many species of whales, dolphins, puffins and eagles that can be viewed along the shores of Trinity Bay are some pretty impressive sea caves and waterfalls AND, if you go in the spring and early summer, you can view icebergs that have floated into the bay from the Arctic. Chris will even take you close enough to the icebergs to pick ‘popsicles’ out of the water so you can suck on the most pristine water on the planet. When there are icebergs to be seen, if you ask nicely, Chris will take you out in the early morning or at sunset when they glow an unreal turquoise blue in the slanted sunlight. Thirdly, Chris is super friendly and his wife packs great snacks and meals for Chris to share with his fellow sailors. The chicken salad sandwiches are particularly tasty and there are even vegetarian options.

Blueberry picking

I wouldn’t really say I’m a fan of blueberry picking, but I am a huge fan of Newfoundland steamed blueberry pudding. Here’s a recipe:

Blueberry pudding

Cream together three tablespoons of sugar and three tablespoons of butter. Add on beaten egg. Add one and a half cups of flour, a dash of salt and two teaspoons of baking powder. Mix with one half cup of milk. Fold in blueberries. Place in steamer and boil for one and half hours. Serve with brown sugar sauce. (Recipe courtesy of Trinity resident, Rosalind Cooleridge taken from her self-published memoir, ‘Sufficiently Blessed’.)


Lunch or dinner at the Dock Marina

The best place to eat in town is, in fact, one of the only places to eat in town - did I mention that Trinity has a year round population of 28? Don’t let the lack of competition fool you, the quality of the food here would make it a standout in a place a hundred thousand times larger (which would put it in the range of a medium-large size Canadian city). Try the fishcakes, made fresh every morning or Trinity Bay scallops, or the fish and chips…in fact, anything on the menu is pretty delicious.

Drinks at Rocky’s

All parties in town wind up at Rocky’s, as did a wedding reception we attended last year. When I remarked at one o’clock in the morning - after the reception had gone on for an epic ten hours - that I was glad last call was coming up as I was about ready to call it a night, one of the locals laughed hysterically. “You guys are so cute (and by ‘guys’, she was grouping me into the category of ‘people from away)! You think last call is at two? Last call is when everyone goes home!” The proprietor, Rocky, is everyone’s friend and has a dandy mustache. ‘Quite the crowd’ at Rocky’s can mean the place is packed to capacity or there are five people hanging out around the bar, it really doesn’t matter. Get the picture?

View my Newfoundland, Canada photo set on Flickr

All the way east: Trinity, Newfoundland

Buildings in Trinity, Newfoundland
Originally uploaded by theotherlondon

I arrived in Newfoundland via the red-eye from Victoria yesterday afternoon. You know, I’m a big fan of traveling at night. Overnight flights, train rides, bus trips, even driving through the night. I find night travel quiet and dreamy in all the best ways.

I’ve been looking forward to this trip for weeks, even months, even perhaps fourteen months, starting when we left at the end of our last visit. Trinity is one of those places you miss as soon as you leave, you look forward to returning and then within a few seconds of being back, it’s like you never left. It’s like everything you did in between when you last left and the moment you return suddenly ceased to exist.

We woke up this morning and ate breakfast and left the house with a loose plan to go to stop by the Mercantile to meet up with Baasje’s mother and have coffee, then maybe go for a hike up Gun Hill. Our plans soon changed unexpectedly when we happened to walk by Boyd and Rosalind’s at Pie Corner in time to see Boyd and Tony starting to pull away from the dock in the little wooden fishing boat that 82 year old Boyd built last year.

Drying cod in by the bay in Trinity Newfoundland

A few minutes later, we were in the boat with Boyd and Tony heading out to the narrows beyond the lighthouse to jig for cod. We caught ten fish, mostly small ones and a couple of big whoppers. We’ll probably have one for dinner tomorrow night and Boyd will salt the rest. When we ran into Rosalind upon our return she mentioned the small ones are very tasty salted and that they particularly enjoy them in the winter. After chatting with Rosalind about salt cod and the book she just published - a memoire of her experiences growing up in nearby Trouty called, ‘Sufficiently Blessed’ - we headed up to the house for some supper (which means lunch here). Then we lit a fire and I made some pastry dough and it started to rain. I expect this afternoon we’ll walk to the store at the edge of town to buy bread and cream then Karen and Eric will come by for dinner, after all their guests have checked in at the B&B.

Maybe we’ll go up Gun Hill tomorrow, or the next day. Well, all in due time, dat’s wot I says.

View my Newfoundland, Canada photo set on Flickr

On ‘Billy Bishop Goes to War’ at the Belfry and the 'magic of theatre'

First a little back-story - being the minimalist that I am, you may be surprised to hear that, amongst the ten boxes of belongings we whittled all our worldly possessions down to when we made the move across the country to the west coast, is a box full of theatre programs. They are mostly from The Grand, of course, though a few are from Stratford, The Shaw Festival and a couple from that playhouse in Grand Bend - oh yes, Huron Country (not County) playhouse.

To get back to my story, or rather my back-story, though that box of theatre programs survived, ‘the big purge’, I’m afraid it didn’t make the journey with us to our new home. Instead, it was left behind in the cluttered abyss of my parent’s attic along with our jeweler’s anvil and that awesome set of golf irons I bought at a flea market for $40. Still and all, in that box of theatre programs are two that I, in this moment, wish I had. ‘Why is that?’ you might ask. Well, because tonight I’ll have the pleasure of taking in Billy Bishop Goes to War at Victoria’s Belfry Theatre. Need I say more?

Well, I suppose further details may be in order.

Had I had those programs I would now be placing them in an envelope along with the following note:

To Zachary Gray:

Enclosed are two programs that I would like you to have. They are from the two previous productions of ‘Billy Bishop Goes to War’, that I’ve attended, one in 1985 and one in 1999 both of which featured your father in the role that you performed tonight.

As I worked at the Grand in 1985, I had the pleasure of seeing that particular production numerous times. If my aged memory serves me correctly, on one of the evenings, the crew were unable to raise the curtain due to a technical malfunction. Your father and Eric Peterson were left to perform the entire play in the four feet of stage in front of the curtain. They did a excellent job dealing with the unexpected turn of events, and the audience that night, who were not informed of the circumstances, were left to believe that that was the way the show was always performed. It was the first time I fully understood the extremity of the expression, ‘the show must go on’ and the beginning of my love affair with live theatre.

Thank you so much for your performance this evening. I’m sure your father must be very proud (between you and me, I felt your interpretation of the role of ‘the musician' to be far more memorable*).

Yours truly,…

That’s where I would end my letter of course, but as this is a blog post I will partake in a little self-indulgent rambling (because it seems that’s what blog posts are for). You, in your more acutely tuned sense of theatre esthetic, may have always been aware of this, but it wasn’t until I saw that performance that I realized the significance of live theatre, where every show is different form the last (granted, not as obviously different as that particular performance, but I was a teenager at the time and responded best to exaggerated demonstrations along with excessiveness in general). That, to me, is one half the ‘magic of theatre’,

…the other half being no matter how long the line-up is outside the theatre door at five minutes to show time, the front of house staff always manage to get everyone inside and seated in time for the show to begin on schedule.

Magic, I tell you!

*As you will surmise I am writing this post in advance of my taking in the performance and this remark may not turn out to be factual. I’m going to assume it will be so as in my ‘aged memory’ I will most likely recall the minute details of this production more clearly, at least in the short term.

Sasquatch 2010

Crowd shot of the terrace at the Gorge during the National concert at Sasquatch 2010
Originally uploaded by theotherlondon

Tips for attending Sasquatch Music Festival

1. Showing up late Friday night is not as great an idea as you'd think.  Sure we avoided the Saturday Memorial Day weekend traffic, but the backlog of people arriving a day before the festival more than made up for any time we gained. We arrived at the highway exit just before midnight and it took 4 hours to go the last 5km to the campground entrance.  We were pitching our tent as the sun rose over the Columbia River at 5am.
2. Try to arrive at the gates to the concert grounds before 10am.  The entire campground seems to make a mass exodus to the gates between 10am and noon.  Arriving at the gate just before 10am can make the difference between waiting 10 minutes in line and waiting an hour in line.  If you think waiting an hour in line sounds bad now, wait until you're in the middle of it and you hear your favourite band launch into their set on the other side of the fence.
3. The showers are quietest in the evening.  If you can tear yourself away from the concert grounds before the shows wrap up, chances are you'll find the showers completely empty. Of course this means you're going to miss a headlining act, but these are the sacrifices we have to consider when going three days in a row without flush toilets and not many sinks and showers for thousands of people.
4. Concert goers are only allowed to bring one small sealed water bottle into the concert area. Once you've finished up that bottle you're left with the options of refilling it at one of the water stations, conveniently situated with the 'Honey Buckets', or purchasing water at $4 a bottle.  The smartest folks I saw brought water in collapsible water hydration packs, like the kind you bring along on a backpacking trip.
5. Judging by the conversations I overheard, it seems the benefits of reserving a 'premium' campsite are well worth the additional costs.  Upon our arrival I ignorantly lamented the conditions of our premium campsite until campers who had upgraded from the 'standard' sites began to pitch tents around us.  I can only image what they must have encountered to be so relieved to move camp in the middle of the night to an open field with a few scattered groupings of Honey Buckets and one communal sink at each 'rest area'.  [Shudder]
6. Next year I think we're going to consider giving the even-more-premium 'terrace' campground a try.  There were only a small number of sites in the terrace area, but I expect enough facilities for all AND campers were served free coffee and doughnuts in the morning.  That said, one does have to weigh the cost of spending twice as much for a better patch of grass to sleep on.
7. There's not a lot of running water around in the camping areas or the concert grounds.  For the sake of your health you might want to consider biting the environmental bullet and loading up on wet wipes.  Hand sanitizer is also a good idea.
8. Don't forget to arrive at the gate to the concert grounds prepared to spend the whole day and ready for any kind of weather.  You'll be asked to pay extra for 'in and out privileges' if you need to go back to your campsite and, personally, I think $10 is a lot of money to spend to grab a jacket. 
9. In 2010 there wasn't any wireless access at the Gorge (quelle horreur!), at least not that I encountered, and I did ask at the information booths.  A couple of the display booths had computers with internet access for concert goers to use.
10. Try the chicken chow mein.  As concert food goes, it's pretty okay.
    
    And above all... 
11. Have a fabulous time!  No matter what you have to put up with to be there, the musicians are going to make it well worth the experience.

View my Sasquatch photo set on flickr.

Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip, Day 5 - San Francisco, CA

Union Square, San Francisco
Originally uploaded by theotherlondon

Okay, I'll admit it.  I have perhaps, and just as of late, mind you, grossly underestimated the appeal of urban America.  I'm sure you will forgive me as I believe I am fair in professing that I am not alone in this mis-judgement. But still and all, I concede that I've had my share of recent love-affairs with the metropolises of the good ol' US of A (God bless her!) - Boston, Austin, San Francisco.  Fully aware of the unfashionable nature of such entanglements I tried to resist!  I truly did!

In my Canadian-esque interpretation of what makes a city fabulous I tend to measure the appeal of a city against the standard set by the most fabulous city on the planet, Montreal.  Specifically, Montreal during the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal.  I feel sorry for people who have never experienced the awesomeness of Montreal's Jazz Fest, but I digress.

Lack of jazz festivity aside, it's stellar details all the way for San Francisco. Firstly, 'if you're going to San Francisco' (sorry, I couldn't resist), be sure to stay at the Hotel Carlton on Sutter Street.  I'd guess it's not everyone's cup of tea, but you are going to love it, as we sure did.  It's reasonably priced, the staff are lovely, the location is excellent and the complimentary wine and cheese served in the lobby before dinner hour comes complete with entertainment featuring the musical stylings of the concierge.  How perfect is that?  Yes, look out, Montreal.

As we unfortunately, only had a day and a half to spend in San Francisco (but we will definitely be back), we barely had time to scratch the surface of the myriad of attractions and distractions the city has to offer.  With some effort, we managed to cram in most of the not-to-be-missed touristy engagements - a stroll on Golden Gate Bridge, a ride on a street car, a visit to Lombard Street, Alcatraz, dinner at Fisherman's Wharf (which we were warned by a local to by-pass), a walk through China Town, window shopping in Union Square, taking in a view of the city from Twin Peaks, and browsing the shelves at City Lights Bookshop.  We also ate a two spots featured on 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives', Grubsteak and the Golden Coffee Shop.  Whew!

View my West Coast Road Trip Flickr set.

Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip, Day 4 - Ukiah to San Francisco, CA

Wine Tasting at Chateau St Jean, Sonoma Valley, California
Originally uploaded by theotherlondon

We woke up on the fourth day of our road trip in Ukiah, California, in one of a string of equally forgettable hotels by the highway - the type of hotel that one ends up in when one is traveling with no specific itinerary save, 'let's wait 'til we're tired and then start looking for a place to stop'. This tactic, by the way worked fine for us in Ukiah but would later come back to bite us in the behind in a big way in beautiful, but outrageously overpriced, Gorda 'by the sea' (I'll get to that later).  

One other point I should mention about ending up in Ukiah for the night, if you ever take this trip you will encounter a fork in the road along Highway 101 in Leggett, California.  At this juncture (literally) you will be faced with making the difficult decision over whether to head west towards Fort Bragg and Highway 1 or continue on the 101 towards Ukiah and the Napa Valley.  As I believe you will agree, such decisions are best left to the mindless, random workings of chance or, as I prefer, the abstract pull of simple whim and fancy.  Thus, when the road divided before us, my mind ran to thoughts of Billy Bragg weighed against happy memories of drinking red wine out of the bottle around midnight bonfires on summer nights. What's a girl to do?  When I later learned from a 'friend' on Facebook that the stretch of highway from Fort Bragg to San Francisco is the money spot as far as coastal views go, the blow was comfortably softened by the glow of the wine tasting we'd enjoyed at the Chateau St. Jean Winery (and the realization that there were plenty more coastal views ahead of us).  That's all I have to say about it.

In my 'Sideways' tainted perception of California wine country, it turned out that wine tasting in Napa Valley was quite different than expected.  Chateau St. Jean was much more polished and orderly than the rustic winery environment suggested in the film.  Also, as we drove along the winding side roads leading off of the main highway, I half expected to pass Sandra Oh on a scooter (did she ride a scooter in that movie, or am I getting mixed up with some other movie?), but we, in fact, encountered very little evidence of scooters, philandering singles, or mid-life crisis burdened men acting younger than their age. But still and all, and  I say this comfortably knowing that you will forgive the perhaps inappropriately low-brow flavour of such a comment, the wine was pretty tasty. Yes, it was.  We purchased two bottles of 2006 Chateau St Jean Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County and a bottle of white truffle olive oil (that I believe was manufactured in France).

We arrived in San Francisco in the mid-to-late afternoon with plenty of time to snap some shots from the viewpoint at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, settle into our hotel, and take a short walking tour of the city that included Union Square and China Town.  I'm going to leave it there because San Francisco is too fabulous a city to tack on some comments at the end of this blog post ('Gobsmacked, I tell you!).  We'll save the details for next time.

View my West Coast Road Trip Flickr set.

Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip, Day 3 - Portland, OR to Ukiah, CA

Pacific Coast Highway
Originally uploaded by theotherlondon

Distance: 592mi
Driving time: 12 hours with frequent stops

We didn't actually see the coast until the third day of our trip. Isn't that strange? I mean, had you left London at the same time, you could've met up with us at that point.

There are, in all honest truth, no words to accurately describe the beauty of the Pacific Coast highway. In one day we saw beaches and caves carpeted with sea lions, trees larger than I'd ever imagined, herds of grazing, deceptively peaceful looking elk (apparently they can be extremely dangerous if approached on foot!), giant sand dunes, and all of it strung together with hundreds of miles of winding road skirting the edge of the pounding surf of the coast of the Pacific Ocean.


PCH haiku for D

Pacific coast road
technicolour dolby sound
and cheap gas to boot!

View my West Coast Road Trip Flickr set.

Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip, Day 2 - Portland, OR

Voodoo Doughnut
Originally uploaded by theotherlondon

I have been remiss!  Remiss to the Nth degree!  What kind of person am I that I would begin to recount a west coast road trip adventure only to leave you hanging after one measly day of travel, through rainy Washington and in the dark nonetheless!  I know it's no excuse, but, you must forgive my lollygagging, I've been recovering from our time spent in Los Angeles.  You know how it is.

But I get ahead of myself...

When last I wrote we were spending our first night (of two) in Portland at the Convention Center La Quinta. Unlike my perception of the bright and friendly Austin Airport La Quinta, where I happily sojourned during the SXSW conference in March, I'm afraid I don't have many good things to say about the Portland Convention Center La Quinta.  It is cheap - with the $50 cash back 'Portland Perks' deal offered on the Travel Portland website, it was actually cheaper than some hostels I've stayed in...which to be fair were a great deal more dingy and stinky.  Meh.  I still wouldn't stay there again.

But let's not doddle on the less than stellar details!  You and I prefer the amusing haberdashery of pleasant, loosely organized travel memories - e.g. 'Was that Bolivia or Switzerland?' - and the describing of aesthetically intriguing or culturally interesting finds that simply become more fabulous with the passing of time -  e.g. ' The colours in the marketplace were so vibrant I was gobsmacked' on second telling to become 'I was completely gobsmacked' later to be followed by an emphatic, 'Gobsmacked, I tell you!'

And I will tell you, there are many fine things to appreciate about Portland - unless you compare Portland to San Francisco, but we'll get to that post in a few days.  Anyway, taken on it's own, there are many fine things to appreciate about Portland and of all the fine things to appreciate - lovely architecture, interesting neighbourhoods, abundant evidence of the local population's regard of fine art, culture and all things environmentally friendly - what I appreciated most was the food.  In my admittedly limited experience, Portland is an exceptional city when it comes to culinary offerings. 

Our first real meal in Portland was at a comfy little diner in the city's trendy Pearl District called the Byways Cafe. At this point, I must make a confession that I fear may cast an unflattering light on our journey.  That is, that I planned the restaurants we would visit based on one of my favourite Food Network TV shows, 'Diners, Drive Ins and Dives'. In case you're not familiar with this show, which I would guess to be the case, it features a boisterous, bleached-blond, red convertible driving Californian, named Guy Fieri, who tours around the US visiting famed local greasy spoons recommended by viewers where he samples America's 'best' over-sized and deep-fried diner specialties.  You must forgive my shortcomings for referencing the 'p' word (plan) and the banality of scheduled television broadcasting, but time was short and a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do when she's traveling with a guy who's unfailing response to, 'What would you like to eat?' is, 'How 'bout A&W?'  As recommended by Guy, we ordered the blue corn pancakes, which were every bit as good as he said they would be, and the 'Lumberjack' hash which was okay.

After our meal at Byways, we took part in an informative and entertaining walking tour called 'Underground Portland' offered by a tour guide company aptly named Portland Walking Tours.  When the tour wrapped up, we decided to revisit one of the spots we passed during the tour, a little hole in the wall (literally) doughnut shop called Voodoo Doughnut.  This was, in fact, not the first time we had returned to Voodoo Doughnut during the day as we had passed the shop numerous times while exploring the core area, each time hoping the forty-five minute lineup would diminish on our next pass,  which never happened.  We finally acknowledged we would either have to wait or forgo the experience.  Well, the decision was obvious, of course.  When we were finally admitted to the closet sized interior space, packed with bodies, punk music blaring, anticipation was high. Gladly, we were not disappointed by the array of choices on the chalkboard menu, awash with tantalizing, exotic combinations including maple glaze with bacon - well, hello?! why hadn't anyone thought of that one before -  and our choice the 'Memphis Mafia', a banana fritter the size of a human head topped with peanut butter, chocolate sauce, chocolate chips, chopped peanuts and, for good measure, sugar glaze.  It took us three whole days to eat most of that doughnut and we ended up throwing some of it away.  My, it was good.

We had dinner at another 'Diners, Drive Ins and Dives' gem, Pok Pok, which unexpectedly features a menu of Thai street-food.  Unfortunately, I'm tired and ready to go to bed so at this point, I'm afraid we're going to have to make due with my insistence that a meal at Pokpok alone is worth the drive from Victoria to Portland.  Being the good, old friends that we are, I know you will know what I mean. Remember the fish and chips place at Tobermory I deemed good enough to warrant the drive from London?  Well this is twice the distance.  It's that good.

I know you're vegetarian, but I'm still going to recommend you try the chicken wings. Gobsmacked, I tell you!

View my West Coast Road Trip Flickr set.