Moncton

Moncton was our second base in our Maritimes tour. Moncton is the largest city in New Brunswick with a population of 71,800. Arriving in the city, my first thought was it has a "bigger" city feel to it than Fredericton. We stayed in the downtown area which is a short walk to the Petitcodiac river which has a great 5km riverside trail running along its banks. Having started our trip in Fredericton I was slightly disappointed in the feel of Moncton. We arrived mid evening and had a full day planned for the next day so we decided we would head over to one of the main natural attractions in the city called the Magnetic Hill  effort we settled in to our hotel. The Magnetic Hill is described as an example of a gravity hill; an optical illusion created by rising and descending terrain. It's a mind puzzler experience as you put your car in neutral at the designated spot, take your foot of the brake and the car begins to roll up the hill. 

We didn't end up spending much time in Moncton as it was really just our sleeping base, but Z did find a great chic and modern wine and martini bar called Third a Glass. This place feels like the place locals go to meet up with friends after a work day. Great ambience with old black and white movie playing silently on the two TV screens behind the bar and cool decor with an intricate ceiling design, elaborate chandeliers and a wine bottle wall with scattered frames encasing the bottles. 

In Moncton we also found the cheapest gas we've seen so far on the trip at $0.99. The highest price we've seen so far is $1.02. I guess the government here doesn't add a bunch of other taxes into the price of gas just to increase general revenues. What a concept! 

Rural New Brunswick

Our travels took us from Fredericton to Moncton but instead of taking the most direct route, we ended up taking a scenic route through rural New Brunswick. After a stop to grab some Tim's, we head out on our drive and got to see the beauty of the province. The countryside is very scenic lined with lush rolling pastures filled with cows, forested areas, and dotted with tiny quaint villages/towns along the way. Fifty kilometres southeast of Fredericton is the historic riverside Village of Gagetown. We stopped here to explore the village where a Sir Leonard Tilley was born. Who was Sir Leonard Tilley? He was one of the Fathers of Confederation. Gagetown is not a large village and its Main Street is only a few blocks long but here you'll find Queens County Heritage Tilley House Museum. The museum is located in the preserved house of the Tilley family. Our tour guide, David, was extremely informative providing a great account of life in the 1800's and that of the Tilley family who were considered well off for that time period. According to David, Gagetown was in the running for capital of New Brunswick but lost out to Fredericton. How different Gagetown would be today had it been the capital is anyone's guess. Last year the village lost the cable ferry which connected one side of Gagetown with the other situated across the river. This move by the government after apparently spending a lot of money to refurbish the cable ferry months prior has residents infuriated. It's had a huge negative impact on local farmers who own property on both sides of the river because they are no longer able to ferry their trackers over. Sad to hear about challenges with living in rural Canada. 

From Gagetown we drove to Evandale. The only two things of interest in Evandale are the Evandale resort and the Evandale cable ferry which takes passengers across the river and is in essence an extension of highway#124. We had a high recommendation from guide David to try the steak at the Evandale resort restaurant and seeing as we arrived there hungry, we stopped for lunch. And yes, the steak was really worth it; extremely tasty and very well seasoned. Z carried on with his daily seafood. 

The cable ferry just as the name indicates crosses the St. John river pullied by a cable. It's a basic service but a vital one to allow for crossing of the river without having to drive hundreds of kilometres out of the way to get across. On our journey to get to Moncton, we ended up on two cable ferries. The ferries run 24 hours and literally go back and forth. No worries if you just happen to miss it; the crosssings took no more than 5 minutes and then the ferry heads back to the other side. Really no long wait on either end likely ever but we still saw a few cars speeding towards the pick up points trying to catch the next ferry. 

On the other side we continued on our scenic drive through many historic and rural areas. Z discovered the Quilt Barn Tour which we thought would be fun to partake in. The Quilt Barn Tour is 19 "quilts" painted on barns, churches and other buildings scattered around the Kings County and are a tribute to the local heritage of craftsmanship in the area. We ended up seeing 4 of the 19 on our drive to Sussex. 

Sussex is known for their 26 one of a kind mural painted on buildings and forming an outdoor art galleryy. These murals were quite impressive and often depicted life in New Brunswick. Sussex is also known as the Covered Bridge Capital of New Brunswick. Covered bridges are just that, bridges that are covered with a wooden structure; likely to protect the bridge itself from the elements, or at least what we determined to be the most logical explanation. Our journey to Moncton through the rural countryside did take us all day, but it was so worth it as we got to experience things we would have otherwise skipped over. 

Side trip to St. Stephen and St. Andrews By-The-Sea

We recently saw an article by USA Today that named St. Andrews By-The-Sea as the number one place to visit in Canada. Well being close enough in the area we decided to check out what all the fuss was about. From Fredericton we drove roughly 1.5 hours to St. Stephen where the main attraction is the Ganong family chocolate museum. We noticed that most of the highways network is extremely well maintained making the drive very comfortable. 

Ganong Chocolates is the most famous chocolatier company in Atlantic Canada. The Ganong family have been making chocolate sine 1873 and the museum provides good insight to have they survived through the years, particularly through 2 World Wars, and the Great Depression. Very interesting history and great to see a family company passed down from generation to generation. From St. Stephen we drove another half hour to get to the now famous St. Andrews. 

St. Andrews is a small quaint town of less than 3000 habitants sits right on the Bay of Fundy. Our first stop Kingsbrae Horticultural Gardens. The gardens are situated on 27 acres and boast nearly 2500 different varieties of trees, shrubs, and plants. The garden is arranged in numerous themed garden areas including a tasting garden where we saw on of the cafe chefs picking herbs likely for the evening sitting. Before exploring this lovely garden, we enjoyed a lovely lunch at the garden cafe. While waiting for out meal, we spotted the garden's peacock wonder out from hiding. What a magnificent bird. I can't imagine what this garden looks like in summer when the flowers and plants are in full bloom. From here we literally drove a few blocks down the road and were at the Bay of Fundy and Front Street. On a Front Street, you can find many restaurants and shops. The town is also known for its many whale watching tours. Since we already had lunch at the gardens we didn't stop in at one of the many delightfully smelling restaurants, though Z was very tempted to have more seafood. Definitely a great day side trip. St. Andrews is also home of one of the best preserved Blockhouses. This one was erected at the outbreak of the 1812-14 war in the anticipation of an attack from the US. 

And of special note, so far in every town we've either driven through or stopped in we've found a Tim Horton's. 

Fredericton, New Brunswick

New Brunswick is the only official bilingual province in Canada. We started our journey in Fredericton, the capital city of New Brunswick and third largest city in the province. Situated on the St. John River which bisects the city, Fredericton was established in 1785 and is in present day an important cultural and educational centre for the province. 

We rented a vehicle for this trip and were elated to get a fully loaded 2017 Dodge Journey. This vehicle comes equipped with an easy to use touchscreen navigation system, TV for rear passengers (not that we had any), backup camera, the most comfortable seats and many other cools features. This will make some of the long drives we're going to embark on that much more comfortable. 

Our hotel was a 5 minute drive outside of downtown Fredericton situated on the river.  We ended up with a river view room. The hotel was recently renovated and was fully equipped with a gym, two pools, restaurants, and easy access to a waterfront trail leading back into downtown. The hotel staff was quite pleasant and Z was even recognized as the guest of the day on our arrival day. For the most part the hotel was quiet except for our second night when a party was taking place on the floor above us. 

It was a hot day when we arrived, and despite our exhaustion from the day before and trip over we decided we'd make the most of the rest of the day and go explore downtown. After a tasty lunch at the poolside restaurant, Z starting his daily seafood intake, we went for a walk over to Government House, a 500m walk along the waterfront trail from our hotel. This is the official residence and office of the lieutenant governor of New Brunswick. The mansion was built in 1828 and renovated to modernize in 1996. We had wanted to join a tour but when we arrived the ever friendly elderly visitor centre host informed us there were no tours that days because the guide had the day off after working 6 days straight. Unfortunate, but we decided no problem we'd come back the next day. The next day the same gentleman informed us there would be no morning tours as the lieutenant governor was hosting a foreign diplomat shortly. We thought it strange he didn't know that the afternoon prior but he then said that the schedules are not always made in advance. He did allow us up to the second floor gallery where we could view an artist's rendering of our 23 Prime Ministers. There was a short write up accompanying each portrait that outlined the PM's greatest accomplishment(s) or in some cases their greatest downfall. It was quite fascinating to read.

In downtown we walked around the historic Garrison district. This district houses former soldiers' barracks, a guardhouse and a cell block; buildings which have all been restored and are now home to local artisans studios and galleries. Officers' Square is a park where the city holds outdoor concerts in the summer. We enjoyed a fabulous string trio concert one evening. The city has Canada 150 flags and signs all over; it appears very patriotic here. Everyone we have encountered is very friendly...people actually greeted us as we were walking along the waterfront trail. 

The city has a lot of green space and parks. It's quite serene and peaceful here. The houses we've seen so far are like I had envisioned...I'd sum them up as colonial architecture but recognize there are many different styles within. Real estate prices are mind blowingly cheap compared to back home. You can get a really nice 3-4 bedroom home for under $300k. The pace of life appears more relaxed here as well. Fredericton, despite being the province's capital, has a bit of a small town feel to it. We found later in our journey that the city has a height restriction bylaw that does not allow building to be taller than 10 storeys. With a population of only 58,000 that bylaw doesn't seem like it would restrict growth anytime soon. 

Canada, eh?

Canada, the true north strong and free, is celebrating her 150th anniversary of Confederation on July 1st. Having travelled to many parts of the world, but never explored much of Canada, we decided this would be the year. We've wanted to visit Atlantic Canada and tour around the Maritimes for some time. And with all the craziness going on in the world we figured this would be a great time to make this happen. 

Our travel day started with a 5:45am wake up call, but not because of our flight. It so happened that the Scotia half marathon race was the morning of our flight. So that beautiful, warm Sunday morning I ran the extremely scenic race. After the race we head home and finished the last bit of prep before heading off to the airport to catch our flight. 

Seems as those every time we fly Air Canada something annoying happens. First a good moment...the agent at he check in contermwas super friendly, helpful and efficient. Yes I used efficient to describe something about Air Canada. Everything was fine until we were about to takeoff. Just after we pushed back from the gate one of the flight attendants comes on the microphone and asks if there is any medical personnel on the flight because there was a medical situation on board. It was all happening behind us and we couldn't really see what was going on and also didn't want to stare, but after a couple minutes it was decided that we should carry on with the flight. Not more than 20 minutes in the air we see a flight attendant run down the aisle to the front to get the head flight attendant. It seemed as though whatever the medical situation was with the passenger was not better and the decision was made to turn the flight around and head back to Vancouver. While it's good that we didn't continue the flight because someone was obviously not able to fly the 4.5 hour flight, what really got me was how that decision couldn't have been made while we were still on the ground. I can't imagine what that decision to carry on cost the airline. All in all the flight was delayed 2.5 hours which brought us into Montreal just after 3am leaving us little time to sleep before we had to catch our morning flight to Fredericton. Probably wouldn't have been so bad if the day had not started with an early wake up and 21.1km run. 

After a couple hours of shut eye we boarded our flight to Fredericton to start our great Canadian adventure.