**Photos from this excursion can be found in my New Brunswick Album. As you can see in my blog posts I am currently on a Cross-Canada adventure, so my time is limited to add photos to this old-ish blog**
It’s really quite scary how fast time flies by. It felt like yesterday that I was patiently waiting for June 9th to come so that I could finally fly to Saint John and see my boyfriend.
This past weekend marked the last weekend my other half and I would be living in Saint John. After a year at UNBSJ taking his MBA, my boyfriend is done another degree! Congratulations!!!!
To try and wrap up our touring of New Brunswick, this weekend we thought we’d cap it off my hitting up TreeGO in Fredericton and going to Hopewell Rocks…one of the most visited natural tourist attractions in New Brunswick.
Friday night after work we took off for Canadian Tire and WalMart and Superstore so that we could pick up a few more supplies that would help with our packing..(Tupperware, tape, etc.)
Once we got home we rested a little and had supper before we headed out to the movies..We had seen advertisements for Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, so we thought why not head out to the opening night of it.
By the time we got home it was wayyy past bedtime- especially since we had to get up at 6:45am so that we could make it to TreeGo, in Mactaquac Provincial Park, just outside Fredericton, NB by 9am.
Early Saturday morning we were on our way…to Fredericton. Using google maps we made it ..almost…to where we needed to go…! You know that suspicion you get when you’re looking for somewhere you have never been before and google maps takes you to a dirt road that barely fits one car? That was us.
With a little back tracking…a stop at a random gas station…and a quick call to the place we needed to go we finally found where we were supposed to end up. I’m going to blame our being…somewhat lost on the fact that google maps is sometimes not accurate and on the fact that TreeGo had signage that was the perfect size for a mouse to read.
Anyhow…I keep mentioning TreeGo, but what the heck is it? It is an aerial obstacle course, where you test your balance, joy for heights, or lack there of, fitness level and trust in a safety harness for an entire 3 hours.
It was mega fun—the zip line by far the funnest. Despite my enjoyment of heights when I was little I’m beginning to think ..not so much…anymore.
It was a definitely a rush and I would totally do it again, but during some obstacles I was scared to death.
Once we were done there we were back on the road—to Saint John. With Alex driving I had the perfect opportunity to nap, and I woke up just before we made it to our next stop on the days events. “Carleton Martello Tower”—one of only a few forts to be built in North America. This one has a strange story because it was built during the civil war and was completed after the war was over. With that being said, it has never been used in battle but has since become a National Historic Site.
Back home, bite to eat…then back to Jerusalem for a 2+ hour drive to Hopewell Rocks.
Hooray! More driving…for…my boyfriend…!
Somedays in and around the Bay of Fundy are clear as can be…some days are foggy as heck. Saturday..it was crazy foggy.
It was a tiring ride to Hopewell Rocks having to be on our game so that we could stay in between the lines, but once we arrived we were able to rest a little.
We parked outside Hopewell Rocks gates as it was after park hours. They do allow patrons inside after hours, but the risk is all ours. It was no where near high tide..actually it was low tide, so we ventured out to the rocks to see them. The fog blocked our view to see the beauty of the Bay of Fundy during out drive, but once we were up close and personal with the flower pot rocks, the fog become and quite interesting backdrop for our eyes…and for photos.
We took photos and we roamed the beach….and my side-kick walked around in mud…(“just to see what it was like…”)..Time flew by and before we knew it the sun was down and it was almost dark.
That was our cue to get back to our car.
By the time we were on our way from Hopewell Rock’s the fog had somehow been able to get thicker and the visibility even less (we could only see maybe 20-30metres) in front of us. With that being said we decided we were in no rush, despite the time and took our time driving.
If you know me, I have the ability to fall asleep in moving vehicles quite easily, so I did…with a quite rude awakening…
We were sailing along at a reasonable speed considering the conditions and all of a sudden my sleeping body was awoken by the car’s brakes being slammed on…I opened my eyes to see out the window a GIANT moose directly in front of our moving car.
Within a split second my other half had managed to slow down and swerve so that the front passenger corner of our car missed the back side of the moose…though we figure we were within 1 metre of its back side.
We had never seen a moose while we were driving, though we had heard there were tons out here. While sitting the car, we could pretty much see directly underneath his belly—that’s how tall of an animal moose are. Being that close to one..while driving was a bit too close for comfort.
After our hearts started thumping back at normal speed we continued on our way… hoping desperately not to see another moose up-close and personal
40km from Saint John I looked over at the gas gage and it was almost empty…in my head I went “oh crap, please nothing else”. Alex promised we would make it home with enough gas…and he was right…but oh man did I have my doubts. I was really hoping we didn’t have another adventure.
By the time we got home we were wiped. We put some appetizer’s in the oven and then Alex had a few MBA friends stop over to say their goodbyes because within the next few days we will all be on our way.
It is hard to believe another chapter in our life’s story is almost over—we have been noting that we definitely have mixed feelings about leaving Saint John.
Thank you New Brunswicker’s for being so friendly and opening. I will always remember my time on the East Coast and will sing my praises to the people and places I met and saw.
We’re coming down to the end of our stay here in Saint John, NB. Our bags are slowly getting packed and odds and ends are trickling into cases and boxes that we need to take back.
We’ve done a tiny bit of planning—actually we’re booked up to Newfoundland. Hopefully everyone is okay and the province is able to clean-up after Hurricane Igor came through. We would like to see as much of the province as possible, but if roads are completely washed out and the power is still out we won’t push our luck.
We will be done our touring of New Brunswick Saturday, when we are off to Treego in Fredericton, so Monday evening we are going to be doing the bulk of the rest of our planning.
I work up until September 30th, then we will be on our way—planning to stay in Moncton the first night.
As of right now we are hoping to be in Thunder Bay, Ontario by October 14th…so look out Calgary! We are coming home!!
We’ve tried whale watching once before and we didn’t see any whales. So, we thought we had better try again since we are only on the east coast for a few more days. We had been told that Sea Watch Tours on Grand Manan Island, NB has one of the best whale watching tours around. Realizing that these are locals we are talking to, we figured we had better take their advice. With that being said, Saturday morning we drove to Blacks Harbour, the terminal for the ferry that runs between mainland NB and Grand Manan, NB. We got to the terminal early, because we had heard that it is usually busy and there are no reservations so its first come first served. We waited in line for over an hour and the ferry ride itself was an hour and half so by the time we got to Grand Manan Island, NB it was already 11am.
The ferry ride to the island was not the smoothest ride ever. We heard later that it was most likely caused by the ocean’s swells due in part to Hurricane Igor which was coming up the east coast.
Ferry
When we arrived on the island we still had some time before whale watching so we thought we would drive to the other end and look at the lighthouse which was pointed out on our “island map”. When we arrived there we found a small lighthouse right beside a new radio tower. With the radio tower directly beside the lighthouse it ruined the beauty of the lighthouse. Even though the lighthouse was a let down the edge of the cliffs by the ocean were warn away in a quite peculiar manner and we were able to get very close to the edge.
The sharp edge of the cliff...
By the time we were done investigating the edge of the cliff it was time to get to Seal Cove where we were embarking on a boat to go whale watching, The captain and his first mate had taken a crew out earlier in the morning and found whales so our hopes were looking up that they would find us some in the afternoon as well.
Birds fighting for food...
In the morning they went north, but this trip our captain wanted to head south first, to see if he could find us some humpback whales. He said if we couldn’t find any whales down there he would loop back up north to where they found whales feeding earlier in the morning. So off we went.
We had been advised to bring warm clothing, but we had forgotten one thing—sunscreen! Luckily the boat supplied us with some. Our captain said that you will got sunburnt if you don’t put any on. Knowing me, I would get sun burnt either way, but, I did put sun screen on. AND…my nose did get burnt!
Anyhow, we boated around and around and around some more and we searched and we searched and we searched. Grumps was still allusive to us. A few saw a young humpback, but I did not. They saw him once and waited for over 12 minutes to see him again, but he never appeared. Either he slowed down his heart rate to take a nap….or…we missed him coming up for air. The latter is highly unluckily because when whales come up for air they blow out of their hole and the water blows straight up in the air, making an incredible noise and it can be seen from about a mile away.
By that time we had given up on looking for whales in the south. Our captain and his first mate decided it was best to loop back north to find us some whales. The tide was in our favour and it got us to where we wanted to go much faster than if we were boating into it. Yay! For quite a while we had not seen any whales and then all of a sudden we came across a HUGE feeding area where probably a dozen or more whales were eating.
It was an incredible sight to see…my eyes didn’t know where to look as there were whales coming up for air and feeding on fish from every direction.
The whales would eat and then the harbour porpoise (type of dolphin) would eat on the bits of fish that Mr. or Mrs. Whales did not want. Whatever the porpoise didn’t pick up a flock of sea gulls of ocean birds of the sort would dive in on the action.
WHALES, WHALES, WHALES!!
By the time we got into the good stuff of whale watching it was about time for our tour to be over, as we had to catch the last ferry off the island at 7pm.
MORE WHALES
Because we were having so much time, and our tour guides were happy to let us see more whales we didn’t want to be the party poopers and decided that we didn’t want to catch that last ferry out. After all, we had put our camping gear in Jerusalem just incase we had to stay overnight.
Missing our ferry was the best idea. We got to see more whales than we could imagine and it was incredible. If anyone who is reading this has never been whale watching it is a must. Make sure you go with a credible company who knows what they’re doing because otherwise it is a waste of your time and money.
Every whale we saw was not the kind that flip up and show you their tail…there were some around, but none that we could find.
We searched some more but finally hit that point where it was getting late and we couldn’t be out much longer. I said to Alex “it would make my day if I could see a whales tail”…
We were gazing off the back of the boat and Alex pointed out a whale…he said look that one is saying bye.
Before we knew it he was waving goodbye and his tail was in the air for us. The group of us whale watchers who were gazing off the back all ooo’d in amazement. I couldn’t stop smiling after…I was sooo happy that I got to see a whales tail.
The whale was too far away to get a picture, and the brilliant moment happened too fast, but I will continue to whale watch and continue to search for that perfect shot of a whales tail.
Some of our whale watching comrades were staying at Anchorage Provincial Park and so we decided we would follow them and camp there as well. By the time we had made it to the campground it was about 7:30pm—we had definitely missed our ferry. Our campground attendant had told us her favorite sites and explained to us where the closest convenience store was…so off we went.
We bought some hot dogs and caramilk bars for smores and then we went back to our campsite to set up our tent and start a fire. We enjoyed our smokies and smores and went to sleep in the dead quite, hearing only the wildlife that lived close by and the ocean water lapping against the cliff.
When we were on the whale watching tour our captain called in to the ferry to cancel our 7pm reservation- but he had reserved us for 11:30am. Perfect!
We woke up around 8:30am…and decided we wanted to tour around the campground. We walked a short trail and admired the ocean and before we knew it we had to be on our way back to the ferry terminal.
We still had a little time, so we decided to stop in at the little café and have a bite to eat. It was a B&B which also offered outside customers a bite to eat.
We saw our ferry come in from where we sat so we gobbled down our food and were on our way back to mainland NB.
I am soo happy I got to see whales and I will do it again whenever I can!!
Sunday night was our "date night"! I know, I know...I rarely talk about any dates, but this one was very enjoyable and the beginning to the rest of my story...
...we got out of the shower..with nothing more than our towels around us to realize our bedroom door was closed...and locked! Ohhhhhh crap!
