Fall Foliage Cruise: Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

13 October

Due to the tides in the Bay of Fundy we could not arrive until around 11. Since we were going to meet for our 12:00 tour at 11:30 I set the alarm for 10:30 after staying up until 2 am trying to get my blog to load properly. I had spent over two hours yet could not get the pictures to upload and then I couldn't get the blog to save properly.

I awoke a little after 10, watched the morning show as we sailed into St. John and worked on getting the entry posted. Finally got all the pictures and everything loaded properly by 11:25 and left to join the others.

We had to wait in the terminal for about a half hour but we got seats and the terminal had free wi-fi so the others could check e-mail (I don't carry my phone if I can't use it and I didn't buy a special package for Canada).

Unfortunately this was our first day with clouds and rain - at least the temperature was comfortable in the 60s.

Our tour was the top ten of St. John and we left shortly after noon. On leaving the dock area we passed the Three Sisters Lamp. The lamp, which was originally gas operated, was used as a navigational aid. If all three lamps were visible the ship was in the correct channel.

Our first stop was at the Carleton Martello Tower which was built for defense during the War of 1812. Martello towers are small circular forts used for defense purposes.

We drove through Wolastoq Park (Wolastoq means "the beautiful river" in the language of the native people) where there is a collection of statues of historic Saint John figures.

The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world. The power of the tides is shown at the "Reversing Rapids" where the Bay of Fundy and the St. John River merge. The force of the high tide in the bay makes the water in the river reverse course. At low tide the river empties forcefully into the bay. We visited shortly after high tide and then again right before low tide.

The City Market was our next stop. It was a traditonal market in that it had meat, seafood, fruits and vegetables but it also had some crafts. We urchased sandwiches and drinks because nobody had had lunch.

Next we visited O'Leary's Irish Pub for a sample of the local beer - Moosehead.

Then we took about an hour to drive out to St. Martins. St. Martins was settled by Loyalists (many people who were loyal to England left the colonies after the Revolutionary War and moved to Canada) and for many years was noted for its shipbuilding. Today, people visit to see the covered bridges, the lighthouse, the caves and beach along the Bay of Fundy. We had time to take pictures then the bus went through one of the covered bridges to take us to the Caves Restaurant. We tasted their seafood chowder (it had scallops, lobster and haddock in it) along with a biscuit, soda, and cookies for desert. There was time to go to the beach and throw your kissing stone in the water (but the tide was so low you would have had to have a good pitching arm) before heading back to Saint John.

Unfortunately, the rain started to come down heavily as we were boarding the bus. It poured the entire 40 km back to Saint John. After a quick stop to see the rapids after they had reversed from this morning, we arrived back to the ship around 6:45.

We were planning to go to the 8:15 show so we decided to eat in the Windjammer buffet. Nobody was extremely hungry because of the chowder but we all munched on something. We got to the theatre about 8:00 and it was already full. We decided to meet up again at 9:30 for TV Theme Song Trivia.

Carolyn and Gary were turning in but Tommy, Barbara, and I joined John and Maureen on the trivia. We had 19 out of 25 but the winning team had 24. Tommy, Barbara, and I went to see the 10:15 show which was Greg Bonham who sang and played the trumpet. Not the best show we've seen. After the show Tommy and Barbara headed up to deck 5 to find a snack and I went back to my cabin to unsuccessfully work on the blog.