Newfoundland

I was in St. John's a couple of weeks ago for a conference. While I was there, we did a few touristy things:

We visited Conception Bay and ate fish and chips - not just any fish, mind you, cod:

With all due respect to my dear friends in Newfoundland, I think I still prefer haddock. I sincerely doubt the cod had anything to do with what happened later in the evening, but I won't be having cod any time soon. I don't know if it was the all the questionably-refrigerated tartar sauce or all the grease, but I ended up standing in a bathroom stall at the Geo Centre about an hour later with my hand clapped over my mouth staring at the toilet. I was waiting for my sense of dignity to over-ride my nausea. Let me tell you, it took a lot of convincing for my stomach to understand that I could not throw up into a dirty-looking toilet, but I won and held on to my supper.

We went to Signal Hill in the fog:

Which was, surprisingly, a new thing for me. I've been to St. John's about 7 times and have never seen fog there. Snow yes, fog no. We could still see quite a bit of the city and some of the distant coves.

Henry got this close to George Street:

...and then I grabbed him and pulled him back. Luckily, the Cotton Club was undergoing renovations. He was carrying a wallet full of Canadian dollar-bills - I don't know where he got them, but the thought of her Majesty's face folded over the edge of a g-string was enough to make me tackle him.

I did go to the yarn shop while I was in town. I even met a knitter at the conference (Hi Catherine!) who wanted to go with me. Catherine was working on a sock when I passed her booth - Knitters always find each other. We don't need a secret handshake! Anyhoo... I said, "Hi, is that Opal 6-ply?"* and she said, "Why yes it is." and the next thing I knew, I was telling her that I was heading to the shop and that she should come with me.

Catherine is from Vancouver and wanted to find herself some Fleece Artist... of her own... I showed her the project I was working on at the time (a Travelling Vines shawl made with a Silk/Camel blend - yes, camel) and I thought she was going to shove it into her bag and make a run for it. And I don't think I could have caught her. She had longer legs than me. Lucky for me they had some nice FA for her. Oh, and while I was there, I introduced her to Ilga Leja's patterns!

So, to sum up:

Tourist attractions, check

Seafood dinner, check

Visit to a yarn shop with a nice knitter, check

Kept Henry safe from George Street, check

No puking, chu-eck.

All in all, a great trip to Newfoundland.**


*Note: I did not say, " Hi, I'm Stephanie, I'm a knitter too. That's a lovely sockyou're working on." Just "Hey, I know that yarn!" Yeesh.

**Except that I intended to buy a really cool knitting poster at Nonia and I totally forgot to go back to the shop on my last day there!