Site-seeing and Sightseeing with Family

My Uncle Gary and Aunt Marlene are visiting St. John's this week from Regina, Saskatchewan. Marlene is here for the Catholic Women's League National Convention and Gary came along to make a little vacation out of it. They are hoping to spend a few days travelling around the Avalon Peninsula later this week, but the car rental situation in Newfoundland is pretty dire. There aren't enough cars to go around and so far they only have a car booked for a little more than half the time they want to spend on the road.

On Friday we all popped up to the Signal Hill archaeology dig. It was their backfilling day, but Danielle gave us a behind the scenes peek of the artifacts in the lab. They've found a tonne of stuff. Lots and lots of food bones, ceramics, coins, copper ornaments from uniforms, marbles, and buttons. Amanda and her team have a lot of work ahead of them cataloguing the artifacts and preparing the report on the summer. With the close of the excavation for the season, the work is really just beginning.

Marlene is at the Convention for the next few days and Gary is enjoying strolling around the city. Gary and I drove out to Cape Spear last night and watched the whales for a while. The conditions were perfect for whale spotting.

I have my artifact visit scheduled for this afternoon at The Rooms. I'll need to pick up some more odds and ends at the hardware store afterwards. My first attempt at steam bending wasn't successful - among other things, I need more clamps. More on that in future posts.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top, Gary and Marlene in the Archaeology Lab at Signal Hill
Middle, Artifacts drying after cleaning in the lab
Bottom, Gary at the Eastern Most point in North America - Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador