Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada, eh?

Hello from New Brunswick, Canada. 

It only took us two days of travel to get to get here from New Hampshire.  Though we stopped at one campsite near Bangor, Maine for three nights.

The day we arrived by Bangor was July 4th.  On July 5th we went for a kayak ride.

Steve found a place for us to kayak on Hammond Pond.  We met a man who was fishing there and when we told him where we were from he said, "You came here all the way from Florida to float on Hammond Pond?"

We got to see a Loon nesting right next to the water.  And later, an eagle flew over us.

I found a rocket launcher floating among the lily pads.  It was really a nice piece of equipment. We threw in the trash when we landed.

Saturday evening the campground had live music for free!  We took our chairs down and enjoyed the music and enjoyed watching the children play.  I took a video to share with you. Wow, to be able to run around like that again...  Instead, Steve and I played our first ever game of Bocce Ball.  We didn't know the rules, we made them up.  It was a close game, I think he won.

On Sunday morning the campground had a free pancake breakfast.  It was fantastic!  They had blueberry pancakes, plain, and chocolate chip.  They had real maple syrup, potatoes, sausage and eggs.  Wow!  I ate a lot!

We left for Canada on Monday.  We saw a sign for a chocolate museum and we had to turn in.

The tour was kind of wimpy, but we got several samples of their chocolates.

I was disappointed.  The chocolate was way way too sweet to enjoy any chocolate flavor.  It was fun to see videos of the women workers coating the candies by hand.  It was quite an art and took weeks of training to become one of the people who coated the chocolates and added the swirl.  There were 150 different candies, each requiring their own swirl pattern on top.

The person who interviewed us for our crossing into Canada had LOTs of questions for us.   More than we have had the past few times.

We are camped in St. Martin's which is on the coast of the Bay of Fundy.  The Bay of Fundy has the biggest tidal changes in the world.  At the northern tip it can change 40 feet!

The first morning on Fundy Bay, it was foggy.  This video shows where we are camped relative to the water.

We started to drive to the Fundy Trail where we would have lots of opportunities to get next to the bay and watch the tide.  Before we even left town we stopped for coffee at a little shop across from the harbor.  The tide was going out and boats were setting on rests to keep them from falling over at low tide.

We went on little walks down to the water and to some water falls during our drive up Fundy Trail Provincial Park.  Fog must be common, the forests reminded us of the rain forests in Oregon, USA.

Listen for the sound of the rocks tumbling with the waves in this video. 

The rocks are beautiful and it seems there is a bigger variety of colors than on Lake Superior.

A set of stairs on one of the trails to view a waterfall was called "cable stairs".  They could wobble a bit when stepped on.

We stopped at an interpretive center that was located where a lumber town used to be.  They would cut the timber in Winter and transport it on ships in the warmer months.

The railings in the area were covered in fuzzy lichen?

The wild roses love the climate here and grow quite large.

A wooden sea wall that was the edge of the dock in the lumber days.  There are remnants of it still.  The camp was dismantled in about 1939.

More boats at lower tide.

In Alma we stopped for lunch and to call Steve's Mom.  We looked at the wetness on the boat ramp as tide went down.

After lunch it was down even further.

The capsule below is the lifeboat they use now.  This one holds seven people.  I can't imagine being stuck in that with other people as it got tossed around in a stormy sea, can you?

Steve has been hungering for a lobster roll.  I ate some yummy fish tacos right next to this huge whale bone.

There was a monument on the wharf in Alma to the second female captain in the world.

We were full after lunch, or we would have stopped at the Holy Whale Brewing Company.

Since we were all the way in Alma, we thought, why not proceed on to a place where the tide rises 37 feet.  The mud flats must have been several miles long and a mile deep.  

At one of the overlooks I watched little birds feeding on a fir tree just below the railing where I stood.

We were able to walk on the sea floor where it was less muddy.  This is by cliffs and "flower pots".  The water reaches as high as the undercut on the rocks in front of Steve in the picture below.

The bottoms of the flower pots are covered with sea weed.

I walked out to get a picture of my feet in the Bay of Fundy.  It was pretty muddy here.

Steve didn't join me in the mud.

This picture was in the visitors center showing the height of the kayakers at high tide and the people walking on the floor of the bay at low tide.

It was after six o'clock when we climbed out of the bay and arrived back at Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park visitor center.  We grabbed to-go sandwiches at the park restaurant and ate them at a picnic table while watching families still arriving at the park.  

I volunteered to drive us back to camp.  Steve had a call scheduled with his kids about the family camp.  We were into the drive back when the phone rang.  Since we were in the mountains/hills, the connection  kept cutting out.  So I pulled over and stopped on the side of the road where the connection was good.  The light of the day began to dim as the call went on a while.

After the call, we drove and drove to get back to camp.  I didn't realize we had gone so far!  We arrived back at the northern end of The Fundy Trail Provincial Park at 8:30 pm.  St. Martins in at the Southern end of the trail.

The gate into the park was closed!  A ranger was there and told us we couldn't go that way, the park closes at 8 pm.  

I must have looked terrified as I thought of the long way back to Hwy 114.  And then we we would need to take on a big wide arch to get back to St Martins and our trailer.  Maybe he had a route I didn't see on the map.  

"How do we get back to St Martin?" I asked.

"You have to go back to 114," he said.  Then seeing me slump, he slumped a bit himself and said, "OK, you can go through, but don't stop at any overlooks."  

He then stood explaining he has to keep track and only campers are allowed in after eight. As he talked the black flies swarmed around him.  I was anxious to close my window and get going!  

Finally he stopped enough in his chatter we were able to thank him and took off before he changed his mind.

I thought that driving at twilight we might see a moose or other animals.  But we didn't see any.  On the way north earlier in the day we watched a porcupine with a limp cross the road in front of us.

Today we are staying close to camp.  We just ate brunch and will walk over to the Quaco museum and the general store.

Oh!  I didn't tell you about the general store!  It is across the street from the campground.  It has been in business since the 1800's.  Every nook and cranny is filled with a variety of groceries.   I even found pesto and salad greens.  

Life is good.