GunShows?
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I'm just finishing a month long vacation starting in Ottawa and ending in St. John's via plane, train, boat, car and bus and must admit that I didn't visit either a gunshow or a gunshop en route
. I did take in just about every military museum and quilt shop
along the way though.
. I did take in just about every military museum and quilt shop along the way though.Purple, if you're in St. John's, you MUST check out the Queen's Battery on Signal Hill, also the early-16th-Century Portuguese rapid-fire breechloader swivel piece in the Cabot Tower. Last time I was there they also had a 32-pdr Carronade outside.
Newfoundland Museum has some nice stuff and there is also a small museum in the House of Assembly.
Flying Pig at Twillingate.
Anchor from HMS Calypso at Lewisporte Town Hall, wreck of the ship 4 miles north at Job's Cv, Embree.
Have fun!
.
Newfoundland Museum has some nice stuff and there is also a small museum in the House of Assembly.
Flying Pig at Twillingate.
Anchor from HMS Calypso at Lewisporte Town Hall, wreck of the ship 4 miles north at Job's Cv, Embree.
Have fun!
.
We did go up to Signal Hill in the teeth of a North Atlantic gale yesterday. I was last there 36 yrs ago. Since then they have built a nice Parks Canada interpretative center on the way up the hill which gives an excellent historical overview. Saw the Queen's battery again as well. We aren't into pub crawling too much any more, but did pick up a mickey of Screech to "Screech In" Mrs. Purple who had never been to Nfld previously. She also fulfilled her big ambition to see whales, Puffins and an iceberg- a big blue bugger sitting off Ferryland, NL.
We also went over to Cape Spear on the opposite side of the entrance to St John's harbour. Cape Spear is the most easterly spot in Canada and is also an active lighthouse location as well as a Parks Canada site. We saw the remnants of the WW2 coast defences there consisting of 2 x 10 inch rifles furnished by the US. The barrels are both there as are the bunkers, etc, but the original diappearing carriages for the guns are long gone. As a bonus, we also saw the most easterly cow moose in Canada thru the rain and mist. Visiting that location in the crappy June weather made me think of the miserable times that the coast artillerymen must have spent there thru the wartime winters. My dad was on the 9.2 in coastal guns at Albert Head and at Ft Rodd Hill defending the approaches to Esquimalt in WW2. I visited Ft Rodd Hill last spring and will make arrangements with the Navy to see Albert Head, which is still an active DND site, on my next visit to Victoria.
My wife is a bit of a history buff, so she has been very indulgent with visiting various military and historical sites during our trip, incl the Cdn War Museum and Rideau Canal locks in Ottawa, Isle St Helene at Montreal, La Citadelle and Plains of Abraham in Quebec City, Base Gagetown, Saint John and Fredericton N.B., Confederation House in Charlottetown as well as Louisbourg and the Halifax Citadel in Nova Scotia. We spent 5 days in Lunenburg, N.S. and visited the Bluenose II which is about to be re-launched after a lengthy restoration. I hadn't seen the ship since 1967 when I spent many hours aboard her at the Expo 67 site visiting a friend on the crew and drinking beer complements of Olands Breweries. There is an excellent fisheries museum at Lunenberg which gives a real appreciation of the perils that the early fishermen faced. There are a few very prominent family names where the menfolk did a lot of dying at sea and the women did a lot of grieving. It was touching to see photos of men who had survived the trenches of WW1 only to succumb to the sea.
I also had an opportunity to visit with the troops at my old unit in Gagetown which I left 30 yrs ago. Also got to see the big military logistics facilities in both Montreal and the Halifax Dockyard which I had planned and gotten approved 20 yrs ago, but had never seen after construction. We also visited Pier 21 in Halifax and got copies of the ship's manifests for 1907, 1912, 1914, and 1918 showing our grandparents names when they originally came to Canada from England. It is good for a westerner to see these places to keep an appreciation for the early history of our nation. Our history is everywhere hidden in plain sight for those who care to look a bit beyond the Tim Hortens, Wal-marts, Midas Muffler shops etc. It is certainly worth defending.
We also went over to Cape Spear on the opposite side of the entrance to St John's harbour. Cape Spear is the most easterly spot in Canada and is also an active lighthouse location as well as a Parks Canada site. We saw the remnants of the WW2 coast defences there consisting of 2 x 10 inch rifles furnished by the US. The barrels are both there as are the bunkers, etc, but the original diappearing carriages for the guns are long gone. As a bonus, we also saw the most easterly cow moose in Canada thru the rain and mist. Visiting that location in the crappy June weather made me think of the miserable times that the coast artillerymen must have spent there thru the wartime winters. My dad was on the 9.2 in coastal guns at Albert Head and at Ft Rodd Hill defending the approaches to Esquimalt in WW2. I visited Ft Rodd Hill last spring and will make arrangements with the Navy to see Albert Head, which is still an active DND site, on my next visit to Victoria.
My wife is a bit of a history buff, so she has been very indulgent with visiting various military and historical sites during our trip, incl the Cdn War Museum and Rideau Canal locks in Ottawa, Isle St Helene at Montreal, La Citadelle and Plains of Abraham in Quebec City, Base Gagetown, Saint John and Fredericton N.B., Confederation House in Charlottetown as well as Louisbourg and the Halifax Citadel in Nova Scotia. We spent 5 days in Lunenburg, N.S. and visited the Bluenose II which is about to be re-launched after a lengthy restoration. I hadn't seen the ship since 1967 when I spent many hours aboard her at the Expo 67 site visiting a friend on the crew and drinking beer complements of Olands Breweries. There is an excellent fisheries museum at Lunenberg which gives a real appreciation of the perils that the early fishermen faced. There are a few very prominent family names where the menfolk did a lot of dying at sea and the women did a lot of grieving. It was touching to see photos of men who had survived the trenches of WW1 only to succumb to the sea.
I also had an opportunity to visit with the troops at my old unit in Gagetown which I left 30 yrs ago. Also got to see the big military logistics facilities in both Montreal and the Halifax Dockyard which I had planned and gotten approved 20 yrs ago, but had never seen after construction. We also visited Pier 21 in Halifax and got copies of the ship's manifests for 1907, 1912, 1914, and 1918 showing our grandparents names when they originally came to Canada from England. It is good for a westerner to see these places to keep an appreciation for the early history of our nation. Our history is everywhere hidden in plain sight for those who care to look a bit beyond the Tim Hortens, Wal-marts, Midas Muffler shops etc. It is certainly worth defending.
