2010 Family Reunion – Proposed Program of Activities

2010 Family Reunion – Proposed Program of Activities

Most activities are scheduled to start at the Royal Canadian Legion Carbonear, Newfoundland & Labrador

Friday, August 6, 2010

10:00 am Registration opens

• Committee organizing venue, setting up posters, decorations
• Walking tours available for first arrivals

12:00 noon Registration continues

• Lunch meeting for the organizing committee

2:00 pm Activities begin

• Workshops, short bus tours, boat rides, walking tour of Carbonear

5:00 pm Supper break (on your own for meals on Friday)

7:00 pm to 11:00 pm

• Reception at Legion – guests include public officials
• Grand Opening
  
• The Bemister Travelling Museum
• Old Time Kitchen Party

Saturday, August 7, 2010

7:30 am Breakfast served at legion (~ $7.50 pp, young children free)
until 8:30 am, coffee available throughout day

9:00 am

• Registration continues
• Activities continue
• Longer bus tours, boat rides to Carbonear Island, walking tour including cemetery
• Workshops: Bemisters and the Carbonear Fishery, The West Country migration, Family History, Traditional Newfoundland Music

12:00 noon Lunch provided at Legion or box lunch/picnic for tours

2:00 pm More activities as per morning

5:00 pm End of activities – relaxation time

6:00 pm Official pictures of group taken at Legion – a record of history

6:30 pm Cocktails

7:00 pm

• Traditional Newfoundland feast

• Toasts, Newfoundland Songs and Stories, Guest Speakers, Bemister talent providing music and live entertainment, Celebration of 263^rd Birthday of John Bemister

11:00 pm End of evening

Sunday, August 8, 2010

9:00 am Boat ride to Carbonear Island

11:00 am Church Service at Bethany United Church. (Services will be posted for other denominations.) All are invited to the luncheon at the Bethany UC.

12:00 pm Lunch in Church Hall ($10 pp) - Official Closing

2:00 pm “The Quick and the Dead” – Tour of Bethany cemetery with stories both true and slightly exaggerated – pictures at graves of the ancestors.

4:00 pm End of formal activities

Possible Pre-Reunion and Post Reunion Activities in St. John’s

Wed. Aug 4 , 2010

• Regatta day at Quidi Vidi followed by evening dinner at Battery Hotel with the best view in the city;
• Cabot Tower at night

Thur. Aug 5, 2010

• Walking tour of St John’s East including the Colonial Building where Hon. John Bemister served as a Member of the House of Assembly from 1850 - 1870,
• Other Bemister related sites,
• The Rooms containing the Provincial Archives, Museum and Art Gallery,
• Lunch at Ches’s Famous Fish & Chips

Thur. Aug 5 - 2010

• Afternoon tea and Garden Party at Henry JB Woods’ Home (Everton House, see web site) and evening dinner at a fine local restaurant with traditional fare.

Mon. Aug 9

• Morning tour of General Protestant Cemetery in St. John’s where there are more than 120 Bemister graves and
  
• Other sites in St. John’s West including Capt. Edward and Emma (Bemister) White’s house,
  
• VOWR – first radio station in St. John’s – with a memorial to its founder Rev. Joe Joyce (grandson of Juliana B).

• Bus tour of Signal Hill, Old St John’s, Cape Spear – the most easterly point of North America – as well as picturesque nearby outports and lunch at a popular restaurant serving traditional fare pan fried cod, poached salmon, cod tongues, toutons and molasses, and figgy duff)

Mon. Aug 9
Afternoon whale watching cruise out of Bay Bulls followed by dinner at the Captain’s Table (a great sea food restaurant near Witless Bay). We could include the Ferryland archaeological site (1620–1700) – the site of Lord Baltimore’s Colony and a great beauty spot. These towns are about 45 min south of St John’s by car.