Tag: Saint John

Walking tour of Saint John

Today, we headed back to Saint John to take a walking tour of Uptown.

We met our tour guide, Pete, at Area 506 Waterfront Container Village, which is an interesting collection of shipping containers on the waterfront turned into little shops, food vendors, and musical venues.

We learned that Saint John was established by a group of loyalists from Massachusetts afraid of retribution after the Revolutionary War, followed by Scottish immigrants and then the Irish.

We saw lots of beautiful old buildings built after a massive fire in 1877.

We walked through a large mall along the waterfront called Market Square. The public library is located there. I loved the books lining the tops of the window frames.

Market Square led right into City Market. We didn’t even have to go outside.

I wish we had had time to do a little shopping in City Market, which sells everything from fresh food to touristy items. It reminded me a bit of a much smaller Reading Terminal Market.

Then we walked up to King’s Square and learned about the band stand, which is two-tiered. Imagine trying to carry a piano up to the second floor!

You can’t see it in this photo, but the band stand is built over a  large fountain.

Finally, our tour guide told us about the Irving family, which built their wealth through oil and lumber. Pete was very complimentary about the Irving family because they donate millions of dollars to hospitals and schools in Canada and the US. Apparently, one in three gas stations in Massachusetts sells Irving gas.

Their headquarters is on King’s Square.

Greg and I learned some interesting things about Saint John and New Brunswick during this tour.

  • The proper way to spell Saint John is to write out the word “saint.” The St. John in Newfoundland is abbreviated.
  • The largest number of immigrants came from Ireland.
  • New Brunswick was originally going to be called New Ireland, but the king in England vetoed that because he wanted to name it after himself, and he was the Duke of Brunswick.
  • New Brunswick is the only official dual language province.

Cask and Barrel

After our walking tour, Greg and I stopped for an alcoholic beverage and appetizer at The Cask and Barrel, one of the small Irish gastro pubs in uptown.

Greg had a local beer, while I had white sangria. We shared a buffalo chicken dip.

Quaco Head Lighthouse

On our way back to the campground, we decided to try once again to find the lighthouse. It was not any easier to locate it this time as it was yesterday. None of the lighthouse signs along the road were accurate. Nevertheless, we eventually succeeded.

I can’t say it was the most beautiful lighthouse I’ve ever seen, but it was still fun to find it.

We have been amazed by the lack of traffic on the highways. Even the city streets are relatively free of cars. It has been delightful, especially after the craziness of Acadia.

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.