St. Johns, NEWFOUNDLAND: Here We Come!

It is almost five o'clock in the morning. We are up and headed out the door because we wanna take you somewhere really cool. It better be cool, cause it's early. Yeah, and no coffee on board yet. And the sun is already coming up, so we gotta hit the road. ♪ It's a new day, it's a new day. ♪ We made it. Yes, we did. And it is a wonderful view. And we get to bring you and show you, check it out. Nice sunrise. And not only is it a sunrise, but it is the most easterly sunrise. We are on the most easterly point in North America. So we will be first to see the sunrise along with about 20 of our friends way over there. Yeah, the first. And now we got a whale right over here. If we can get it on film, we'll show that to you. It's even breached twice now. So we have a beautiful sunrise and a whale. It's gonna be a great day. We are watching the sunrise from Cape Spear, which is a National Historic Site and the oldest lighthouse in Newfoundland and Labrador. And it was built in 1836. And you can maybe see it behind us a little bit, but this is the most easterly point in North America. So we saw it here first. That's right. And I gotta tell you, it is a beautiful area. It was beautiful to sit here and watch the sun come up. And we actually got to see two whales going by. Or maybe it was the same whale twice. Who knows? No, it was not, because I tracked one going that way and the other one was further to the left. I know. They go pretty fast, so they could have been doing loops on you. Yeah, they could have been. So maybe that's good luck for us today. I mean, it is our anniversary and all, so. 32 years today. That's pretty crazy. It is. This battery acted as the first line of defense for St. John here in World War II. So the room we were just in is where the crew would sit and have a 24-hour watch, and they would hang out in there. There were a box and a stove and stuff. And then this area right here was the magazine where they held all the ammo. And then this little room served as a watch area. Check out how thick these walls are. It is crazy how thick they are. So they were not playing when they built this. I mean, it's wider than I am. It's pretty cool. What's pretty cool about this gun is that it was lowered behind the wall in front of it so they could load the shell and then they would raise it above the wall to fire over. And the wall gave them protection from anything that was coming inbound. ♪ Wait for better days to come and carry us like wind ♪ ♪ And smell the shore, it's right in front of us ♪ ♪ If we just hold on tight, this vision that I saw is... ♪ If you would like to tour the lighthouse and the battery, they do give tours. The lighthouse actually was built and lived in by one family the whole time until they shut it down. Father, son, father, son, brother, except for one lighthouse keeper. So that's pretty interesting that the whole time it was open, it was just passed down from generation to generation. Yeah, it was 1836 to 1997-ish. When they finally closed it. When you had the same name up there on the lighthouse keeper name board. This is an interesting area to come and visit for sure. And a couple of tips before you come. One, there is a coffee shop that opens at 6 a.m. So if you would like coffee and some sweet treats and also it is extremely windy, even though it is over 70 degrees, it's very windy. So make sure if you come for a sunrise, you bring a jacket, you bring a blanket and be prepared to be blown away, not only by the view, but also by the wind. You know, it's bad when I felt it moving my head. I think the lighthouse itself would be interesting. It's like seven o'clock and it doesn't open for three and a half hours. So we are gonna go find some breakfast. Yeah, gotta feed me. I've been up for three hours and haven't eaten yet. Today is absolutely the last day to get the 2023 limited edition, Today is Someday t-shirts. That's right. After today, you can't get them. They're gone. This is also our annual fundraiser to benefit Homes for our Troops. $2 from every shirt sold will go straight to the veterans. Right, and we're sitting at about $156,000 raised. Give or take a dollar or two. And you can help us reach our goal of $200,000. So don't wait, pop down and click that link to get your shirt today. ♪ New times keep on coming ♪ ♪ Hard from circling through this love we're having ♪ ♪ All the time we spend ♪ ♪ You make my eyes dancing on the wind ♪ ♪ I scream on Sunday morning ♪ ♪ Stay up all night and sleeping in ♪ ♪ You make my heart feel the wind ♪ Place of your favorite device, cell phones. That's right. The first wireless transmission was received here in 1901. Well, it wasn't the first wireless transmission. It was the first transatlantic wireless transmission. Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. And it was sent from here and it was the, actually Morse code, the letter S, and they were chatting between here and Cornwall, England. That's pretty far. Yeah, and the guy who did it, it was in 1901, he got a Nobel Prize in 1909. Marconi was his name, I believe. And we have a difference in pronunciation for his first name, so we'll just leave it at Marconi. I have no idea how to pronounce it. I just know I'm doing it wrong. Yeah, but this is one beautiful site up here. Oh my gosh, this is amazing. Yeah, the views from up here are, I mean, we were just across the bay over there at the other lighthouse, and this one is even more spectacular, I gotta tell you. ♪ Came on Sunday morning, stay up all night and sleeping in ♪ ♪ You make my heart feel the wind ♪ So we're gonna give you our top tips for Cabot Tower and Signal Hill. First up, you can tour Cabot Tower if you would like, but you will need to purchase a Canada National Parks either day pass or bring your annual pass. Another very popular thing to do at Signal Hill is to go on a hike. There's a 1.7 mile hike around Signal Hill that is very popular with the locals. Let me try that again. That is very popular with the locals. So I recommend coming early, wear your workout gear, take a trip around the hill and bring your pup too because they are allowed to join you as long as they're on a leash. Every day at noon, they fire off a three pound Hotchkiss gun that was once used by the Newfoundland Royal Navy Reserves. Say that fast three times. But you can also fire it yourself. You have to be at least 17 years old and pay 77 Canadian bucks and you can fire it. The most popular thing to do on Signal Hill is to watch the sunrise or the sunset. Now there are two wonderful locations to watch this event in the morning and the evening. The first one is down by the Welcome Center. You're gonna wanna park at the Welcome Center, go to the right side, go down the hill and hang out and you can see the sunset or rise on St. John's. Yeah, it's a beautiful setting right on St. John's Harbor there. So you can watch some of the fishermen come in, some of the bigger tankers that came in while we were there. It was just really relaxing to sit and watch that. If you're there for sunset, now the first place you should go is by the Welcome Center and the sun is actually gonna fall down behind the hill. So if you walk up the trail to Cabot Tower, you can continue to see the sunset a little further out past the hill. Now be warned, sunset, the lines are long and parking is tough. So show up early and park at the Welcome Center. Most everyone is trying to fight for parking up at Cabot Hill. And Cabot Hill is just a short trail walk down from the Welcome Center. Yeah, while we were there, there was a long line of cars trying to get up to the top of Signal Hill. The Welcome Center was wide open. That's where we were parked. So that would be my bet. Now for all of our RVers who are planning to take their RV to Newfoundland, we saw some stealthy overnighters at the Welcome Center. The parking lot and the grounds are open 24 hours a day. You don't need a pass and you don't have to pay to use them. There was no parking signs in the parking lot. So there were a couple of stealthy parkers there. Now don't think you can come in a big rig like ours and take up three or four parking places. We're not so stealthy. No, it's just for RVs that are small enough to fit in a single parking spot. Yeah, we saw a lot of Class Bs, a lot of Overlanders that were there. And much like the theme throughout Newfoundland, there are a lot of overnight spots that you can find. But again, for the smaller RVs. Yeah, absolutely, not for us. We thought, because everyone said, there's so many places you can park and you can overnight and there's so many free spots. But once we got there, we realized they were right. There are a ton, but it's only for those smaller rigs that really can park in a parking spot. So for us, we found campgrounds and there's plenty of places to camp and park your RV that's not along the side of the road or hidden in a parking lot somewhere. Yeah, we were not the only big rig that we saw cruising around Newfoundland. There were some tag axles floating around. So if you have a bigger RV, don't fret. There are spots over there for you. If you're lucky enough to be in St. John's, check out Kitty Vitty, not Quitty Vitty. As some of us might've been saying. Yeah, and you know, we've been getting corrected a lot on some of our pronunciations through Newfoundland. So we're trying really hard to get this one right, but it's pronounced Kitty Vitty. This is a really quaint, cute area just outside of St. John's. And we highly recommend you take a trip over there. The harbor area is actually called the gut. So along the gut, you're gonna find some cool things like a really nice Kitty Vitty brewery with food and drink. And we did hop over there and we had a really nice lunch. You'll also find right outside the pier, a nice row of food trucks. So if you wanna hang out there, there's picnic tables. You can get something to eat there. And there's also a nice artisan store or area. They have multiple artisans in there. So you can get something that was made by hand and locally. So it's a really nice area to walk around. But beware that they do have tour buses that bring folks in and drop them off. So one minute you're sitting there by the gut all by yourself and you turn around and there's a tour bus dropping off 60, 70 people. So just know that they're gonna come throughout the day. So you might wanna go early or maybe later in the day. And early is the best time to show up for the sunrise. The sunrise is beautiful there. And also parking, because this area, the actual around the gut, there's not parking. It is a residential neighborhood. So you are gonna have to park in a few parking lots outside of Kitty Biddy in order to come and explore. It is tiny, is a tiny little area. What you see on the camera, that is it for this area. Yeah, blink and you might miss it. This area also had a casement during World War II. And it was another area where they had lookouts to help protect the harbor and this area. But unfortunately you cannot tour this one because of all the private property that surrounds it. So you can't actually get to it. We tried and we ended up in somebody's front lawn and figured, man, we better cut our losses. Now for everyone who's planning to visit Newfoundland who are not bringing their house with them and will need a place to stay, I have found a wonderful place for you guys right here in Kitty Biddy. The old historic church has been converted to an Airbnb and it's so cute inside. And you will literally be right on the edge of the gut. So if you're looking for a place to stay near St. John's, look up this Airbnb, you won't be disappointed. Now these are just a few of the many tips and tricks that we've learned along the way while visiting Newfoundland. So we are gonna package them all together and have a complete travel guide for you as soon as we can get it all on paper. And when she says we, she means her. So keep watching, join our newsletter so you are notified whenever we get it all put together. We wanna make your trip over to Newfoundland easy, simple. I don't want you to have to do all the hours of research that we did and I don't want you to mess out on some of the coolest places cause you didn't know it was there. Thanks for hanging out with us today and don't forget to support our veterans by picking up a couple of these cool t-shirts. Links are below. And hopefully one day we'll see you on the road.