Wednesday, June 28, 2017

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. 




No comments:

Post a Comment