Dave and Lindsay in Canada: New Brunswick

Hello! So last post we were in Fredericton.... I'll bring you up to date.

We ended up staying those two nights there. We stayed in a motel for two nights though because all camping around Fredericton was closed! So we stayed in two different motels (we found a cheaper one the next night). On Sunday we went to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton. Dave said he had a surprise for me and didn't tell me where we were going until we arrived.

The art museum was amazing. It was a very, very impressive museum. There were many exhibits. We started off looking at their Salvador Dali paintings, which were incredible. There were two portraits he had done of James Dunn and Lady Dunn, and then the Santiago El Grande painting was there. It was really neat to be able to see those up close. The art museum has so many great paintings, some reaching back to the 1400s. They had a stone carving of Jesus on the cross and the Virgin Mary from 1320. Dave and I spent a good three hours in there. A must see if you come to Fredericton.

On Monday we drove to Saint John, New Brunswick. We ended up staying there for one night. It is a great little town. We spent some time looking around the small downtown area. The next morning we drove back into downtown and went to the City Market, which is an indoor farmers market that they have 6 days a week there. They claim to be the oldest farmers market in Canada....don't know though. Anyways, after that we found a used book store that was also a coin collectors hub. It was a great book store and the books were very cheap. We each got a couple of books, we wanted to get more but we have to be space-conscious.

From there we headed to Moncton, New Brunswick. We decided to take the scenic route through St. Martins. We drove through the little town and passed some caves on a cliff that we half full of water because of the high tide. It was really neat. Then we took a dirt road, which was quite an adventure. The road was very, very rocky and luckily Dave has a 4x4 because we wouldn't have made it. We kept trucking along thinking we'd get to paved road at some point. We drove on this road for about 20 minutes and we ended up at a dead end. When we were heading back down the road, I glanced at something quickly out of the side of the car and it had been something Dave and I both (somehow) didn't notice on the way there. There was a ripped/torn open deer body at the side of the road. The only hair left was on its legs. It was disgusting. I didn't get out of the car but Dave (of course) did and snapped a few pictures. I won't put them up because they are pretty gross. All the insides and skin were eaten, just bones and some nasty stuff left.

Anyways, we decided just to get to the highway to get to our Moncton campsite before dark. When we passed St. Martins again the tide was lower and we were able to walk up to the caves and see all the neat rocks that were on the beach. We snapped some pictures, that I will put up.

We arrived in Moncton just after 5:00 and set up camp. We are currently staying at Camper's City campsite in Moncton. The lady we checked in with, Alice, was very helpful and told us some great things to do while we are in Moncton. That night we drove a bit around Moncton but ended up just making some dinner at the campsite with our stove and read before we went to sleep.

Yesterday we had an awesome day. New Brunswick is such a beautiful province. I had no idea. We got up and had some pancakes for breakfast, cleaned up, did the dishes and set off to see the high tide at Hopewell Rocks. We went there (and it was free admission because it was ‘off season’) and it was great. The tide was high so we snapped pictures from the cliffs and walked along the trails.

When we had first arrived at our campsite the woman who was working the desk, like I said, gave us some great ideas of where to go in Moncton and what to do. She told us that if we went to Hopewell Falls then we should go during high tide (12:30 pm) then while we wait for the tide to go down we should go out to Alma, which is a small village where Fundy National Park is. Oh, and she also said that if we go there than we have to stop at Kelly’s Bake Shop and get there “world famous” sticky buns. We did exactly this after we left the rocks.

Alma was a very cute little village. It seemed like a fishing village, and the Fundy National Park was there also. We ventured into the park and found out that until Saturday we could hike on the premises for free. We took the opportunity and did an hour hike. It was a very, very beautiful park. Along the trail we passed a few waterfalls and a lot of piles of moose droppings.

We then drove back to Hopewell Falls and made it there right at 7:45, perfect time to see the low tide. We were able to walk around the rocks, where only 7 hours before the water would’ve been 3-5 ft above our head’s.

We had such a great day! We drove back into Moncton while the sun set. We rolled into Skipper Jack’s and had a local seafood dinner around 9:00 (Alice also told us to eat there). We had such a great day yesterday.

So tomorrow we head to PEI. Today we got up and lazed around the campsite, showering, doing laundry, organizing the car, and then we drove out to Magnetic Hill. This too was free because it was off season. It was interesting, but I have never been there before and envisioned a much bigger ‘hill’ …. It was kind of lacklustre.

We’ve had a great stay in Moncton! The weather is getting better, the sun was out shining today. We both got sun burns.

Now …. Pictures!

Saint John: