Hopewell Rocks

A number of days have passed since the last time I posted. That’s not because we haven’t been doing anything. Our Wi-Fi has been really bad.

On Wednesday, we did a kayak tour of the flowerpots during high tide at Hopewell Rocks near Moncton, New Brunswick.

I realized two things on the kayak trip. First, Greg and I are old. We were the oldest participants by far. It felt very strange. I didn’t realize it until I had trouble getting out of my kayak at the end of the tour, while everyone else hopped out of their kayaks like it was no big deal. Then I looked around and didn’t see a single person over the age of 50.

The second thing I realized is that I am becoming physically weak in my old age. If I want to keep doing stuff with the 50-year-olds, I’d better take strength training more seriously!

Kayaking at high tide

I was in the front of the kayak and was the designated photographer for the trip.

Greg and I quickly learned that when navigating tricky spots, it was better if I put my paddle on the kayak and let him handle the steering. Our communication skills have not improved in 38 years, which means that he was often trying to go left while I was trying to go right. The result was that we crashed into the rocks.

Look how brown the water is. That is due to the 45-foot range between high/low tide and the narrowing of the waterway, forcing the tide up the Bay of Fundy at speed.

Walking the beach at mid tide

We finished our kayak tour around 3:00 p.m. Low tide was scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Our plan was to hang around the park until then so that we could get a picture of low tide.

After changing our wet clothes, we went to the cantina and enjoyed an ice cream. Then we wandered over to the nearby overlook to check out the rocks from above that we had earlier kayaked around.

I was absolutely astonished to see this scene.

In about an hour and a half, the tide had fallen far enough that you could walk among the flowerpots.

We had just kayaked around those stones!

After getting our 12,000 steps in by walking up and down the shoreline, we took the shuttle back to the visitor center.

As we were waiting in line for the shuttle, everyone started talking about the World Cup game. The match between Argentina and England was playing at the time. Not being a sports fan myself, I found it interesting the way that sports can almost instantly create a sense of camaraderie among total strangers.

Once back at the visitor center, we headed to the restaurant for dinner.

One thing I’ve noticed about Canadians is that they tend to be very overweight, particularly the women. In fact, I think they may have an edge over Americans in terms of obesity. From what I have noticed when we eat out, vegetables do not seem to be an essential part of meals here, which may explain things.

As we were coming out of the restaurant, we could see down the hill to the bay. Once again, the scene had completely changed.

Hopewell Rocks mud flats at low tide

The tide had fallen far enough that the mud flats of Fundy Bay were exposed.

Yes, that’s mud…almost as far as the eye can see.

To the left is the water of the bay. To the right are the mud flats.

Shediac Lobster Boat Tour

On Thursday, we headed to Shediac to take a boat tour and enjoy a lesson in lobster fishing.

The tour company was called Shediac Bay Cruises, and the tour was called Lobster Tales.

Chris, our tour guide, is encouraging the kids to pet the lobster.

Since New Brunswick is a bilingual province, most of the tours are conducted in French and English. Our tour guide would speak a sentence in English and immediately repeat it in French. The constant back and forth meant that I really had to pay close attention to catch the English portion of his lecture. Thankfully, he had a microphone that worked very well at projecting his voice, so at least I didn’t have to worry about hearing him too.

Greg, getting his own private lesson in lobster physiology.

Here, Chris is showing the kids how to put the rubber bands on the lobster’s claws.

After everyone got a turn putting bands on the claws, Chris had the kids kiss the lobster.

Chris is explaining the difference between a female and male lobster.

Chris is explaining how the lobsters are caught and how to measure them to determine whether they can be kept.

The best part of the whole lecture! How to eat a lobster.

Dinner is served. We shared a table with a lovely couple from Ontario named Damion and Shenique.

Along with our lobsters, we had rolls, potato salad, and coleslaw. We had our choice of water or soda, but there were also alcoholic beverages for sale.

And for dessert, we had maple cookies. Shenique told us that we could buy them at the local grocery store, which we did the next day. They were so yummy!

Since I have been hearing a lot of people speaking French since we arrived here, I asked Shenique about the Canadians who speak French. She said that most of the French speakers are in Quebec, Montreal, and New Brunswick. Some of them speak only French. Some can speak both French and English. Most of the English speakers seemed to speak only English. In other words, a lot like things are in the US between Spanish and English speakers.

Tidal bore, Bore Park, Moncton, NB

On Friday, we headed into Moncton to view the tidal bore at Bore Park. There is a viewing stand there, and about half an hour before the tidal bore occurs, a guide comes out to talk about it. Unfortunately, we missed his talk because we were running late.