Tag: lighthouse

Saint Andrews

Today, Greg and I drove nearly 2 hours to take a whale watching cruise from Saint Andrews by the Sea, New Brunswick.

Saint Andrews was nothing like what I expected. Again, I was thinking we’d be visiting a quaint fishing village like the one in the television program, The Republic of Doyle.

Instead, Saint Andrews was more like an upscale seaside resort town, complete with trendy shops, inns, and restaurants. Since I’m not a shopper, we didn’t spend a lot of time wandering the streets.

Our first stop was a restaurant called The Salty Bight to get some lunch before our cruise. Once again, seafood was on the menu. We both had the chowder.

As you can tell from the photo, it was low tide.

The waitress told us that the strip of land in the distance was Maine.

On our way to the wharf, we saw this artist painting a mural.

Whale watching cruise

Holy cow. The difference between the temperature in town vs. the temperature on the water was dramatic. Before we left, I asked one of the company employees whether I needed to take my jacket, since it was sweltering in town. She recommended that I take it.

Boy, was I glad I did! By the end of the cruise, I was wearing my winter hat, my long-sleeved hiking shirt, my sweatshirt, my down jacket, and my wind breaker.

We had a prime seat inside next to the open windows. Those little boys in the background were a godsend. They had eagle eyes and were able to spot wildlife before our captain and the two marine biologists did. There were five kids in that family. They were from the Netherlands.

We saw lots of wildlife on our cruise, although we almost missed our opportunity to see a whale.

Harbor seals. We also saw some gray seals.
A porbeagle shark. He disappeared before the captain was able to turn the boat around so those of us on the other side could get a good picture of him.

We also saw a good number of porpoises, but they were too quick to photograph. It was only thanks to the little boys from the Netherlands that I got to see them at all.

A bald eagle
A herring weir for catching herring.
A salmon farm. Every few seconds a salmon would leap out of the water.

After three hours, our time on the water had expired, and we had yet to see a whale. Then a report came in from a captain on another boat that a finback whale had been spotted. We headed that way.

The whale was almost impossible to photograph. He only broke the surface of the water every few minutes for about a second and a half, and we never knew exactly where he would surface. Maybe if I had had Neal’s camera, I would have been able to get a decent photo of him. But if you look very carefully, in the center of this photo near the horizon line, is the back of the whale.
This is what the whale looked like when he surfaced. (I didn’t take this photo. Greg found it on the internet.) Finback whales are the second-longest whales after the blue whale.

On the way back to the wharf, the captain let the children on board have a turn at the wheel.

This little girl was the oldest of the five children from the Netherlands.

We arrived at the dock and hour and a half late, but at least we got to see our whale!

The tides in the Bay of Fundy are fascinating. Because of the tidal bore, some areas of the water were as smooth as glass while others rippled with white caps. Our captain even pointed out a number of whirlpools. At one point, he let go of the wheel, and the boat went around in circles.

The boat we sailed on.
This photo gives some idea of how smooth the water was in some areas and how high the tide rises.
East Quoddy Head Lighthouse on Campobello Island

Saint John, New Brunswick

Today, we drove into Saint John to take a look around and find out where we needed to go tomorrow for our historic walking tour. We quickly realized that this is not the Saint John from the television program The Republic of Doyle. That St. John must be the one in Newfoundland.

This Saint John is a busy port city located on the Bay of Fundy.

According to Wikipedia, it is Canada’s oldest incorporated city, established on May 18, 1785. It has a population of about 80,000. The port is Canada’s third-largest by tonnage, and the city has a strong industrial base. This is no quaint fishing village, despite the constant cries of seagulls.

I didn’t take any photos while we were walking around. Although there were lots of beautiful old buildings, I didn’t see anything that would make a pretty picture.

After our brief walk around Saint John, we headed to Rockwood Park, a large park located within the city. Our destination was Lily’s Restaurant, where we enjoyed a seafood lunch.

We ate on the terrace overlooking the lake. It was lovely.
I had the seafood casserole. Greg had sautéed scallops. I finished the meal with coconut custard pie (which wasn’t as good as the one I make 😆).

At the table next to us, there were two ladies speaking in French. I was startled when they gave their order to the waitress in perfectly unaccented English. I expect French-speaking people to have French accents. LOL

Interestingly, our waiter told us that there were a lot of people visiting from the states back in the early spring. They were all looking to buy property in Canada. Gee, I wonder why?

Our original plan had been to take a hike along one of the trails within the park after lunch, but we were so full and sleepy that we headed back to the camper for a nap and a quiet evening.

It’s too bad, because according to the park’s website, Rockwood Park offers 2,200 acres of unspoiled natural beauty, with ten lakes and 55 trails and footpaths for walking or biking. Its billion years of history can be seen in unique rock formations, caves, and waterfalls. I’m sorry we missed it.

Along the way home, we decided to make a stop at the local lighthouse. The signs led us off the main road and down a gravel road that was under construction for about 10 miles before dumping us back onto the main road again. The lighthouse signs continued, so we know that we didn’t miss it by mistake. Why we had to drive 10 miles along a dirt road for no reason we will never know.

Anyway, at that point, I looked up the lighthouse on Google Maps and discovered that it was in the opposite direction from our campground. Ugh.