Last week, I told you about the drive along the Bay of Islands on Newfoundland’s west coast, and what it taught me about slowing down. But that was only half the trip. The other half happened first — in St. John’s, before we ever made our way west — and it deserves its own telling.
Signal Hill: When a School Lesson Becomes Real
There’s something special about finally standing in a place you first learned about in a classroom. My daughters grew up hearing about Marconi and the first transatlantic wireless signal. On this trip, they finally stood on Signal Hill and experienced it for themselves.
We arrived wrapped in the famous Newfoundland fog. Then, almost on cue, it lifted — and there was St. John’s Harbour, the Narrows, and the whole city spread out below us. I lived in St. John’s during university, and the memories came flooding back with the view.
This is what travel does at its best. It takes history out of the textbook and makes it real. Watching my daughters make that connection, in my own home province, made the moment even more meaningful.
Cape Spear: Standing at the Edge of Canada
What does it feel like to stand at the most easterly point in Canada? At Cape Spear, fog enveloped us as we walked toward the lighthouse. The wind was strong. The North Atlantic slammed against the dark rocks below. The horizon simply disappeared into the mist.
We explored the headland and the old coastal gun battery, a reminder of Cape Spear’s role protecting the approaches to St. John’s during the Second World War. There were no sweeping blue-sky views that day — and somehow that made it more memorable, not less. Fog, wind, crashing Atlantic waves, wartime history, and a lighthouse standing watch at the edge of the country. This is Newfoundland in one of its most authentic moods.
Sometimes you travel for the view. Sometimes the weather becomes part of the story.
Terry Fox Mile 0: An Enormous Story With a Quiet Beginning
Some places in Canada carry stories that feel like part of our collective memory. We brought the girls and Bill to the Terry Fox Mile 0 Memorial on Water Street, where the Marathon of Hope began on April 12, 1980 — more than 46 years ago now.
My daughter Ceili taught me something that day. I could have sworn I remembered footage of Terry dipping his artificial leg into the Atlantic at Cape Spear. My own small Mandela Effect, apparently — because that isn’t what happened. Terry began here, at St. John’s Harbour. He dipped his leg into the Atlantic and filled a bottle with ocean water, intending to pour it into the Pacific once he reached the other side of the country. Then he started running.
What strikes me now is how quietly the story began. Terry didn’t start with a country watching. He earned that attention, kilometre by kilometre, across Newfoundland’s long and demanding stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway. I remember when that started to change for our family. I hadn’t heard much about Terry until he was getting closer to Corner Brook. My father and his coworkers at the cement plant heard about a young man with one leg, running across the province to raise money for cancer research — and they donated. A group of hardworking Newfoundland plant workers stopped and paid attention.
Then other people did. Then communities. Then a country.
Standing at Mile 0 with Bill and the girls, I was reminded that enormous things can have very quiet beginnings. One young man. One extraordinary idea. One step at a time. A legacy that is still running.
Chafe’s Landing: Fish, Family, and a Proper Screech-In
There’s nothing quite like fresh Newfoundland fish by the water. We made our way to Chafe’s Landing in Petty Harbour for a meal that was everything a Newfoundland meal should be — good food, great company, a setting that feels like home.
Dinner wasn’t the only Newfoundland tradition on the menu that night. The cousins had arranged a proper Screech-In for Nick, courtesy of Ciara. And since they’re all at least half Newfoundlander — some entirely — they decided they’d better do the Screech-In right alongside him, for good measure. Why should Nick have all the fun?
A little Screech, a lot of laughs, family together, and one more Newfoundland memory made in Petty Harbour.
What It All Adds Up To
Between the fog lifting over Signal Hill, the wind at Cape Spear, standing at the place where Terry Fox took his first steps, and a Screech-In at Chafe’s Landing, this leg of the trip reminded me of something I tell clients often: the richest travel experiences aren’t always the ones with a perfect view. Sometimes they’re the ones layered with history, family, and a little weather that makes you remember exactly where you were standing.
That’s Return on Life — east coast style. And it’s the same lens I bring to every itinerary I design, whether the destination is my own home province or the far side of the world.
If a trip home to Newfoundland & Labrador — or somewhere entirely new — is calling you, book a consultation and let’s design something worth the story.
#AskSheila #ReturnOnLife