And so wanes the best summer ever. Record number of sunny days in July 2014 and too busy to mind the rain in August. The life of a teacher who has no money sense and lots of places to see.

Our last hurrah was actually the only thing that was booked before school closed in the spring. I booked tickets to see Tim McGraw perform at Mile One Centre in St. John’s. We booked his first concert, August 22. Number one of three shows he would do.

After all of our great adventures, this was almost a bit like something we’d committed to and couldn’t get out of.

We went in a night early, picking up Breen’s famous cold plates in Goobies as hostess gifts. We made the mistake of having a club sandwich each, splitting the fries for lunch so shared one cold plate supper late that night.  Breen’s specializes in homemade bread and turkey. Hot turkey, cold turkey, turkey pie, turkey wraps, etc. It’s the best place to stop in Goobies and when we are in a rush, we just pick up sandwiches from their deli case.

Some catching up and visiting eventually lead to a crib tournament as a great way to spend the evening. It’s nice to just sit and be social and play for fun. Thanks Lisa and John. ox

On Friday we checked out a great exhibit at the Peter Lewis Art Gallery on Church Hill, just off Duckworth Street. The exhibit was by two artists and was off various communities on Fogo Island.

The works were out of my price range but truly beautiful. Each community, Tilting, Joe Batts Arm, and the abandoned Little Fogo Islands was readily identified rather than a ‘typcial’ outport scene that could be more commercially marketed to anyone. While some may go to people looking for a nice painting, I suspect many of these will go to people personally connected to the communities portrayed.

While doing a reconnaissance run for grocery shopping the next day, we ran into the lovely Michelle LeBlanc, chef at Chinched Bistro. When we said we were going to the concert she reminded us that Chinched opens early on event nights and offers their tapa menu in the bar. We sometimes make last minute trips to St. John’s so don’t often catch a break when trying to get reservations at the better restaurants. At Michelle’s suggestion we called and booked a 5:30 table, minutes away from Mile One Centre. A fun night was shaping up.

I’m sure we were the first table seated at Chinched and after some discussion we decided to try 6 tapas. I’ll do a Food app post and share them that way here.

Tapas at Chinched

Michelle was gracious enough to also send us an additional pair of orders of succotash. As I was explaining the name and dish to Leo, I got interrupted by a guttural MMMMMMM as he tasted it.

It was really delicious and balanced perfectly the many protein choices we’d made.

Thank you Michelle and all of the great staff at Chinched Bistro.

After dessert, we crossed the street to see our buddy Tim.

Often I get tuned up for concerts by playing cds of the artists we are soon to see but we went into this one cold. We’d been so busy all summer, it just came up on us pretty quickly. I didn’t need to worry though because he did a get show and included those wonderful hits that made me jump at tickets when they went on sale in the spring.

Mile One is a small venue for performers of this caliber but it was easy to see he enjoyed the show as much as we did. Within a couple of songs, he knew for sure the audience was playing along. He said they could sing, were good looking and rowdy. Just the way he likes us! He did a great show and apparently was seen jogging around town during the weekend.

We “people watched” after the concert and strolled George Street where most clubs had line ups  and cover charges for admission. Some clubs were paying hommage to the country star.

Taxis were all gone with concert goers so we wandered down to Erin’s Pub… to pass some time. Good call.

Erin’s is owned by Shanneyganock front man Chris Andrews. He was on hand this night and the place was filling quickly with Vincent Griffin and Bob O’Donovan playing.

 

Two thirds of the band Fire in the Kichen, O’Donovan and Griffin are working their way through the local Irish pubs. A combination of traditional and other musical styles was blended with a good dose of comedy and tomfoolery. Great musicians and singers, these guys are doing it for a bit of fun, at least on this night. Roy Orbison and Elvis impressions are interspersed with instrumentals and parodies. The crowd, containing many musicians was thoroughly enjoying the antics and the musical talents.

Due to the large crowd and amazing, but limited ability of my Samsung Galaxy Tablet (first edition) my video quality is lacking. The energy and fun is evident, even if the sound is impacted by the crowd who was singing with, and against the boys.

We took refuge for a couple of hours at Erin’s….just to give the taxis time to get back, of course.
So much fun to be had in St. John’s.

A great way to wind up Leo’s holidays and be home on Saturday for a day of recovery before back to work.
Chinched, Erin’s, St. John’s. To quote Tim McGraw, “I want some more of it”.