Maritime of My Life (Pt. 88) - Stroll through Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
July 13, 2017 - A quick peek at my room with a harbour view at the Rodd Grand Yarmouth, and then a pre-dinner stroll through this sleepy seaside Nova Scotian town.
It's Seafest Weekend! A storm just rolled through, though, so maybe it scared all the fun-seekers away?
Lobby Time Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Air Canada Jazz departure from Halifax Stanfield International to St. John's International airport
Air Canada Jazz departure from Halifax Stanfield International to St. John's International airport.
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 68) - Flight from Halifax, NS to St. John's, NL
July 10, 2017 - I've come this far east, but I have to keep going - I still have one more province to go, and I'll collect the whole set: all ten Canadian provinces!
My Westjet flight from Halifax, Nova Scotia to St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, is only two hours, but there was a lot to see! Thanks to the beautiful weather I was blessed with this day, I could see virtually all of Nova Scotia, clear over to the Bay of Fundy and Northumberland Strait, with both New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, just on the horizon.
We get a good view of Cape Breton Island, and even a little piece of France - the colony of Saint Pierre et Miquelon - before coming in over the Avalon Penninsula and southeast Newfoundland, to a grande circle around downtown St. John's and its harbour, before finally landing at St. John's International Airport, 15 minutes outside of downtown.
Other great sights I saw: Signal Hill, Cape Spear, Quidi Vidi Lake, and a whole lot of roads I claimed to be the famed Trans-Canada Highway (some of which were correct)!
Oh, and that iceberg out in the Atlantic. It was very rare to see one this far south this late in the year, but that's 100% Greenlandian Iceberg right there, b'y!
How she goin' my trout, Newfoundland?
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 85) - Porter Airlines Flight, St. John's, NL to Halifax, NS
July 13, 2017 - Goodbye, Newfoundland! I'm starting the long track back to the west coast today; the first step is taking this Porter Airlines flight from the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, to the capital of Nova Scotia, Halifax.
Along the way I see some regions of the Avalon Peninsula I didn't see on the way in, such as Portugal Cove, Roberts Bay, and the infamous town of Dildo, NL. Before leaving Newfoundland I spot the Trans-Canada Highway venturing ever westward to British Columbia; see you in 8,000 kilometres in a few days, TCH!
After another pass over St. Pierre and Miquelon (specifically Miquelon, the northern half of the twin communities) and Sydney on Cape Breton, I'm back at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 76) - The Sounds of St. John's
July 12, 2017 - Welcome to a compilation of random St. John's things I accomplished today!
First, a brief re-cap of my epic 9.1 km hike yesterday up to Signal Hill and beyond. Then a quick walk up to St. John's Basilica, followed by an intro to the noon news by Canada's Superstation, NTV (Newfoundland Television).
For the life of me, I couldn't find any CTV affiliate here; CBC yes, but no CTV or Global. I suppose this independent superstation is taking its place.
Then it's off to Newfound Cabs, a local cab company I'm using to get to the airport before sunrise tomorrow; turns out they were inspired by Mitch Hedberg with their jingle. Just dial 7, then dial 4 for a while...
Then it's back to the mean [Water] streets of St. John's to catch some cool accents, music, and parking violations!
Fun!
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 69) - Welcome to Newfoundland and Labrador - My 10th Canadian Province!
July 10, 2017 - This mainlander has come from away and made it to Newfoundland and Labrador - my 10th (and final) Canadian province to visit for the very first time! I still have one territory to go, but as far as the provinces are concerned, I have collected the whole set!
St. John's International Airport is located only 15 minutes outside of downtown St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador - herein abrreviated to NFLD cuz it's almost as long as this explanation explaining my choice.
Anyway, it's only 15 minutes away - by taxi, costing $25; I wish to take Metro transit, costing only $2.50 (score!), but it takes nearly an hour (including one exchange point) as it takes a very indirect route through the windy (and windy!) streets of town.
But I want to be one of the people...and I want to save money, as this trip is a little on the pricy side. Just getting to Newfoundland for a few days cost a return plane ticket, so hey - gotta scrape by and save some coin on the immaterial things. This is the reason why I chose a flight that landed at 1pm.
Why there isn't a direct transit link (aka, just ONE bus) from the airport to the downtown core, I have no idea...but I do come up with a few conspiracy theories...
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 71) - Walking tour of Downtown St. John's, Newfoundland
July 10, 2017 - OK, let's check out this town! I love staying at a hotel that is walking distance to most major sights in a city; at the Duckworth Inn I'm no more than a kilometre away from most of what I've come to see.
Along my walk I check out Water Street, the oldest street in North America, some of the harbour, Harbourside Park, King's Beach, and its canine residents, the Newfoundland and Labrador (Retriever) breeds, the castle-like Supreme Court, and then up to City Hall and the Mile One Centre, before finishing at world-famous George Street, the largest conglomeration of bars and pubs (per capita) on a single street in all of North America.
St. John's is a city of extremes.
Fiddles McGinty and Fig Leaf Rag Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 75) - Water Street, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
July 11, 2017 - St. John's Water Street is the oldest street in North America, and it's still pretty lively to this day!
I also take a quick detour onto George Street in preparation of my Screech-In tomorrow.
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 84) - The First Sunrise in Canada
July 13, 2017 - Ohhhhhh, you think the darkness is your ally. I was wondering what would break first - your slumber, or the sun rising. I guess slumber first, with the sun close behind, set to rise at 5:17am.
Being the most easterly point in Canada, this is the first city in Canada to see the sun every morning - unless you take the whole Midnight Sun regions of the country.
And to think, when that sun rises here, it's only 12:17am back home in the Pacific Time Zone.
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 79) - History of St. John's and some Jellybean Houses
July 12, 2017 - The tour continues! Now back in the city of St. John's, Newfoundland, our tour guide provides some insight into the history of St. John's - the early explorers that have come through here on their way to the New World (aka, virtually all of them), where the name of the city came from, and then a tour of the city's famous Jellybean Houses.
History of Captain James Cook in Newfoundland
Many explorers would first stop in St. John's after crossing the Atlantic on their way to the New World
Pale Rider Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
St. John's International Airport (YYT)
I am visiting St. John's, Newfoundland to attend the special media event of the newest Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, located inside the St. John's International Airport (YYT). So, I got a chance to check out what this airport has to offer.
My 1st impression? This St. John's International Airport isn't super big, but it has an adequate size and does it job. Sometimes I like smaller airport like St. John's coz it's a pain to walk long distance from some other huge international airport and sometimes you get lost easily with so many entrances and exits. Not here at St. John's airport, there are plenty of signage to guide the passengers and it's easy to comprehend.
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 67) - This, That, and The Other Street
July 9, 2017 - Porters Lake is a small community about 30 minutes east of Halifax along Nova Scotia Trunk Highway 7. Years ago, thanks to Google Maps (or an online article that led me there), I discovered a small trailer park with some awesome street names:
This Street
That Street
and
The Other Street
Simple, and awesome.
Music::
Tuba Waddle by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (
Artist:
Dash 8 Q400 - Halifax to St. Johns, Newfoundland - Full Flight
Bombardier Dash 8
Aircraft line
The Bombardier Dash 8 or Q-Series, previously known as the de Havilland Canada Dash 8 or DHC-8, is a series of twin-engine, medium-range, turboprop airliners. Introduced by de Havilland Canada in 1984, they are now produced by Bombardier Aerospace. Wikipedia
Unit cost: Q400 US$32.2 million
First flight: June 20, 1983
Number built: 1,242 (as of December 31, 2017)
Manufacturer: de Havilland Canada; Bombardier Aerospace
Flight from Halifax to Saint John Low Cloud VFR Conditions
This flight took place the end of January 2013. The Cessna 172 was in Halifax for avionics maintenance work. I flew down to Halifax from Saint John via commercial carrier and brought the plane back.
The weather was clear in Saint John when I left around 3:45. Halifax was showing high broken cloud and forecasted with partly cloudy to high broken skies. As you can see from the flight to Halifax while over the Bay of Fundy, there was more of an overcast layer of cloud over Nova Scotia. Needless to say, that got my attention.
With about 30 mins of daylight left, and knowing the weather was clear north of Nova Scotia, I departed Halifax. At the time, Halifax was showing 3000 overcast and winds out of the nothwest at 15 gusting 20 knots.
This video is a demonstration of how the marginal weather can close in. Knowing the weather was fine north of Nova Scotia, combined with a familiar alternate in Debert, allowed for a cautious departure and flight enroute. The reward was a smooth night cruise home across the Bay of Fundy and along the New Brunswick southern coast. (Unfortunately, I didn't switch on the cabin speaker until later in the flight.)
TRIP REPORT - Air Canada (A320, 767-300), St. John's to Vancouver
Welcome to my first ever trip report, or at least the first in my new trip report format! This is inspired by The Elevator Channel's and Dieselducy's trip report videos.
In these videos, I show all of my endeavors and experiences while I travel somewhere. This includes airport views, some airport plane spotting if I can, boarding, takeoff, the trip onboard highlighting anything that is interesting, landing, taxiing, deplaning, and so on.
Flights:
Air Canada AC157
YYT-YYZ (St. John's to Toronto)
Airbus A320-211 (C-FDCA)
Seat 26B (Middle)
July 5th, 2017
Air Canada AC129
YYZ-YVR (Toronto to Vancouver)
Boeing 767-375ER (C-GLCA)
Seat 25A (Window)
July 5th, 2017
Interesting Note: Both of the aircraft taken on this trip were built in 1991 and both were former Canadian Airlines aircraft! The 767 was leased to Qantas for a short while in 2001. The A320 was an Air Canada Jetz plane as well.
Hope you enjoyed my first official trip report video! Stay tuned for the trip back from Vancouver!
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 7) - Happy 150th Canada Day!
July 1, 2017 - It's Canada's 150th birthday, and what better place to celebrate it than a historic city that, if not for its place in history, Canada may very well not exist the same way it does today, if not at all!
The beautiful Canadian flag is raised on the Terrasse Dufferin, besides the Chateau Frontenac, overlooking the mighty St. Lawrence River.
Overseeing the ceremony is the 2nd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment, which is headquartered out of La Citadelle de Québec, located just beyond the forested hillside to the southwest (where the other Canadian flag is flying at the end of the Terrasse).
Also joining the party was the mayor of Quebec City, as well as the Lieutenant-Governor of the province of Quebec, J. Michel Doyon.
And once the ceremony concluded, madness ensued, all on account of the free cake provided!
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 66) - Sidney Crosby's Hometown- Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia
July 9, 2017 - I do NOT cheer for the Pittsburgh Penguins. I don't have anything against them, but they're not MY team. That said, I still respect greatness when it exists, so when I was this close to Sidney Crosby's childhood home, I had to come check it out.
Well...I found his childhood home (not pictured for obvious privacy reasons), and I did find this sign at the grand entrance to town (beside the Wal-Mart), so that was good enough for me!
It's a shame I didn't time my visit better; apparently Crosby is coming home to parade the Stanley Cup around a third time on his 30th birthday (born: 08/07/1987, hence his jersey number); I was off by less than a month!
On a more personal level though, thank you for your part in 2010 and 2014, Sid!
St. John's George Street
Shot on a Google Pixel XL on Sept. 2, 2017, in St. John's, N.L.
Maritime of My Life (Pt. 96) - West Island of Montreal: An Anglo Family History
July 15, 2017 - I'm a third generation Canadian but amongst the first generation of my family to be born and raised in British Columbia. In this video I check out where my parents grew up, as well as my grandparents lived and worked into their golden years: the west island suburbs of Montreal - aka, the part of the Isle of Montreal with a heavy anglo influence.
I also relive the infamous incident of March 21, 2004, when our rental car became involved in a multi-vehicle fender-bender on the on-ramp to the Trans-Canada Highway/Autoroute 40 at Boulevard des Anciens-Combattants (Veterans Boulevard) in Saint-Anne-de-Bellevue.
It was a gorgeous samedi soir in Montreal and I wished I could stay longer; I will be back! I must be back! In either June or July preferrably, I will be back! Stay tuned!
Fretless Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
MY TRIP TO CANADA - HALIFAX + SAINT JOHN'S
I went to the east coast of Canada in June this year. I spent 10 days around Halifax (Nova Scotia) and had a 10-hour layover in Saint John's (Newfoundland). I really enjoyed every minute there and espeacially seeing my friends and family again, since I left as a exchange student in 2015.
Here are some impressions of my trip...
Ich bin an die Ostküste Kanadas im Juni dieses Jahres gegangen. Ich verbrachte 10 Tage um Halifax (Nova Scotia) und hatte einen 10-stündigen Zwischenstopp in Saint John's (Neufundland). Ich habe jede Minute dort genossen und mich gefreut meine Freunde und Familie dort wiedergesehen zu haben, denn 2015 war ich bereits Austauschschüler in diesem schönen Land.
Hier sind ein paar Eindrücke von meinem Trip...
Music:
The Moose - Roecken – We are one feat James Smart – Provided by Jamendo
Safe and sound – Different Heaven – Nocopyrightsounds
So happy – Raven & Kreyn – Nocopyrightsounds