Sept. 9th, 2024, Day 13 East Coast - Kejimkujik NP Seaside, Carter's Beach PP, Summerville Beach PP

I stood up early this morning and walked over to Scotch Point. I managed to see a nice sunrise. Everything was quiet and again low tide. I walked the whole beach forward backward. Enjoyable.

Kejimkujik Seaside National Park

After breakfast at the campground we drove to Kejimkujik National Park Seaside. Somehow in August when looking at possible destinations I had totally overlooked this portion of Kejimkujik. We noticed the existence of that national park adjunct when investigating in Halifax if we should visit Risser Beach (halfway between Halifax and Thomas Raddall) or Thomas Raddall next. After noticing this we opted to go to Thomas Raddall first. And now we were visiting Kejimkujik. The parking lot was only a few km away. Roughly across the water when looking from Scotch Point.

We arrived at the entrance area parking lot by about 10am or so. The weather was very good, sunny but not hot (we had a nice breeze). From there we hiked first the Harbor Rocks Trail to Harbor Rocks Beach. This is an easy trail (2.6km one way) through a shrubby area that allows a relatively wide view. Towards the end of the trail one arrives at Harbor Rock Beach. This is a rocky beach with a few islands and small peninsulas. There were also seals. This trail also featured a pair of the red Adirondack chairs that Parks Canada places at particular nice spots.

From Harbor Rocks Beach we continued to St. Catherine's River Beach. We walked about halfway or more along that beach. This is a gorgeous beach with white sand. We only met a handful people there. We walked about half or maybe 2/3 thirds along the beach (maybe 1.5 to 2km) before returning. The beach is closed from April to August to protect the piping clover bird, but was open when we walked it. The walk along the beach was simply gorgeous and enjoyable.

We enjoyed the park so far very much and decided to extent our stay there by also walking the Port Joli Head Trail from Harbor Rocks Beach and it was rejoining Harbor Rocks Trails and back to the parking lot. This trail was very different from Harbor Rocks Trail. It winds at times along a few small rocky coves and then crosses the shrubby inland and also a few boggy meadows. We saw a few pitcher plants (a plant that catches insects) and enjoyed the wide view across the water to Thomas Raddall when crossing the shrubby section and the boggy meadows.

All in all we walked about 13km in Kejimkujik Seaside and enjoyed an unexpected variety of landscapes, views and plants. St. Catherine's beach is a gem all of its own. I can only recommend a visit of Kejimkujik Seaside when in the area.

Carter's Beach Provincial Park

Our next destination was Carter's Beach. Again this destination was only a handful kilometers away. The beach has 2 access areas and the street signs guided us to a brand new parking lot that was about 500m away from the beach (the other access point (and older one) was much closer and while smaller was used by pretty much everyone else given it was off season now). Anyway, after a short walk we arrived at the beach. Again, it is a good one. Definitely more developed compared to Kejimkujik. Carter's Beach is divided into 1 beach and 2 additional beaches by a 10m wide river (up to 1m deep). Margaret and I walked the first beach and arrived at the river. I had my toe-hook sandals with me and it was no problem for me to cross the river. Margaret decided to wait for me and not cross the river. I walked all along the remaining 2 beach coves. They all have white sand. All 3 beaches offer views to small islands located in the wider bay. The water is clear. Very enjoyable. There were a lot less people crossing the river. On the first beach a few people even swum. We all walked at times knee-deep in the water. All in all I walked about 3 to 4 km or so on Carter's Beach and we spent about 60 to 90 minutes there in the late afternoon.

Crossing the river was interesting: The river drains a boggy inland etang. The flowing water contains a lot of reddish and brownish plant material that generated very interesting color effects against the white sand when I waded through it.

Summerville Beach Provincial Park

Our last destination of the day was Summerville Beach. Again, it was only a handful kilometers away from Carter's Beach. It is again one of the white sand beaches. Unlike the other beaches it is bordered by Summerville village at one end. The beach is about 1 to 1.5km long and we walked the whole beach forward and backward. It was early evening and low tide was approaching. Maybe 15 people aside from us were walking the beach as well (some with their dogs). Idling in the evening sun on this sandy beach was also very relaxing and the conclusion of a very enjoyable day.

Afterwards we returned to the campground for dinner.

Sept. 8th, 2024, Day 12 East Coast - Halifax to Thomas Radall Provincial Park

We took our time the next morning. The rain was now much less. We had a baguette breakfast in the hotel and Margaret made her own coffee. The hotel had a laundry machine room on our floor and we washed and dried all our clothes.

Afterwards we drove to Thomas Raddall Provincial Park campground. We arrived there around noon and nobody was there. So we drove to the day-use parking ground. We walked the Sandy Bay Road and the Sandy Bay Trail. The trail goes along Sandy Cove and then meanders along the beach and the nearby forest. Then we returned to the campground and checked in. It was high tide when we visited Sandy Cove.

The campsites at Thomas Raddall are cut into forest. The sites are a bit bug infested, but we managed (the mosquito's weren't the most aggressive bunch).

After dinner we walked from our campsite to Scotch Point via the Scotch Point Trail and back. We visited Scotch Point at low tide and it has a nice sandy beach about 500 to 1km width. It was nice there and not too buggy (there was a bit of wind).

Sept. 7th, 2024, Day 11 East Coast - Bridgetown to Lunenburg and Halifax

It rained all night and most of this day. We managed to move our luggage into the car relatively dry during a 15 minute lull. We left the motel relatively late at around 10:30am or so after having our breakfast in the motel (nothing remarkable, but they did have cream cheese). Given the rain, we weren't really sure how what we wanted to do in Halifax.

We did start the day with a visit in Lunenburg. We walked the harbor front there and had a good look at the Bluenose II. It is a beautiful ship, no doubt. While we walked it started to rain harder again. We completed our harbor front walk by returning to the parked car one street further towards land parallel to the harbor front. Lunenburg has a very nice old downtown core. Clearly it is visited by a lot of tourists. The rain dampened our visit there a bit and we returned earlier then originally intended to Halifax.

We had lunch at the Halifax Seaport Farmer's Market. It opens Saturday's and Sundays in a big hall in the Halifax harbor. There is parking and the whole affair is protected from the weather. It is a good market. Probably it is a bit more geared towards tourists (especially the cruise folks) and less towards produce buyers. A decent chunks of the vendors offered prepared foods and non-food items that make decent presents or trip mementos. I ended up buying 2 decent pretzels from a German speaking bakery lady. While still expensive (by German standards), the pretzels were considerably cheaper compared to the going rate in Ottawa and better. We bought our main lunch meals at a Korean stall and an Indian food stall. 

Afterwards the question arose, what to do next. Margaret and I decided to get the check-in done for the Courtyard Marriott in Dartmouth. We had decided the night before that given the rain, camping was tonight not an option. Afterwards Margaret needed to be dropped somewhere to meet up with a friend from Ottawa who currently worked in Halifax. After dropping Margaret I met up with Gongyu and Daniella at the Halifax Maritime Museum. The two went in the meantime shopping a few presents for friends in a harbor front mall.

In the mean time it started to rain harder combined with a decent wind action: In short it was ugly to be outside. Gongyu, Daniella and I met up at the museum at around 3:30pm. It turned out that the museum entry was free from 4pm onwards. We decided to wait for the free entry (there were plenty of people doing the same thing). We entered the museum at 4pm. I found it interesting. A good chunk of the exhibition on the first floor is devoted to the explosion of gun powder that happened in the harbor sometime during WWI. It was interesting to read through the various descriptions and look at the pictures. The other thing I found interesting in the first floor were the various lighthouse lamps displayed. I did not make it to the 2nd floor.

After the museum's visited the question arose what to do next. We ended up in the MicMac shopping mall in Dartmouth. It is just a large Canadian shopping mall. We needed to stay dry (the rain outside was still ugly). and potentially have access to a food court. We killed a few hours there before I drove Gongyu and Daniella to the Halifax airport. Afterwards I returned to the Courtyard Hotel. I munched a half baguette and some cheese for dinner. Later Margaret also arrived there.

Gongyu and Daniella also arrived well in Toronto.

Sept. 6th, 2024, Day 10 East Coast - Graves Island to Peggy's Cove, Halifax, and Bridgetown

Today the weather was still reasonable. However substantial rain was forecasted starting sometime in the evening. We left at around 9:30am after having breakfast at the campground. Our first destination was Peggy's Cove. The town and the lighthouse still look like 30 years ago. However there were a lot more people compared to back then. I counted 13 tour buses or so (I guess, these folks were from the large cruise ship that anchored in Halifax Harbor). What else to say about Peggy's Cove: The house look quaint and neat. The granite stones surrounding the lighthouse are cool to step on. We spent about one hour in Peggy's Cove.

In Halifax we parked our car in the Park Lane Mall. Then we walked everything else we did that day in Halifax. We started with lunch at Beyond Pho. We all were served a good meal (3 soups and one vermicelli meal). Afterwards we walked into the Halifax Public Garden. This is a very nice garden. It is reasonably sized and offers a variety of plants and flowers. Definitely one of the nicer city gardens I have seen/visited (and more interesting compared to the King's or Queen's gardens in St. John).

Afterwards we walked up to the Citadel. Entry was free for us since we had bought the Parks Canada 1-year pass. We spent about an hour in the Citadel. I very much liked the walk on top of the walls with great views across town. We also visited a few of the rooms build into the Citadel walls. They had a low ceiling and I had to make sure I wasn't banging my head when entering them.

From the Citadel we proceeded down to the harbor front. We walked about one half of the entire harbor front. It reminded me a bit of the Toronto Harbor Front: A decent amount of modern buildings bordering it. Cow's Creamery from PEI had a shop there. We all had an ice cream!

We finished the day in Halifax with dinner at aFrite. This is a good fusion food restaurant. We had a common Fattoush Salad. Our main courses were a chicken katsu, fish & chips, fish taco trio, and a Donair meatloaf (I believe). My fish and chips was up there with the one from Saint John and Rusty Anchor, but also a bit more expensive and its coleslaw, while small, tweaked in an interesting way.

The drive from Halifax to the motel in Bridgewater was uneventful. We made it to the motel (Travelodge just before the rain started.

Sept. 5th, 2024, Day 9 East Coast - Ingonish-Beach to Graves Island

Today we had nice weather again. We packed up our tent at Ingonish-Beach Campground and left after making breakfast. We stopped on a lookout when coming down on the other side of Cape Smokey. Again we looked with binoculars for whales, but without luck. But we did see a bald eagle flying about 50m above us. Very nice. The view from this street lookout was equal to the view from the Skyline trail.

Our next stop was the Bell-Museum in Baddeck. We spent about 1 hour there. The museum is totally worthwhile. Interestingly I did not properly remember the building there. We visited the same museum 30 years ago and the museum site back then was the same as is now. My memory leaks a bit. I did enjoy the same black and white video clips with the hydro-foil boat being tested (and I watched the same clips 30 years ago and still remembered and liked them back then).

The route then continued along the Bras d'Or Lake and is scenic. But in the much better condition compared to 30 years ago. We stopped for a late lunch at the Irving Big Truck Stop and the Canso Causeway. Our meals there we good and affordable. I had again Fish and Chips. The others were also happy with their meals.

Afterwards it was a long and uneventful drive to Halifax. The roads from the Canso Causeway to Truro is relatively new. The landscape it runs through is the quintessential uneventful TCH territory. From Truro to Halifax the highway is in less good condition but has lots of traffic. Again we made it at about 5 or 6pm to the Halifax Costco. We stocked up on various items there for the next days. Then we continued to Graves Island.

Graves Island Provincial Park is a an Island with a very nice campground. We ended up with a good site there, put up our tent, made and had dinner. Some of use had a shower there in the evening, some of us had a shower the next morning.

Daniella and I had an evening walk around one quarter of the Island. The campground is relatively open and we had again a beautiful starry night. That was it for the day.

Sept. 4th, 2024, Day 8 East Coast - Cabot Trail

Today we had again very nice weather. We drove from the Ingonish-Beach campground to the parking lot of the Skyline trail on the other side of Cape Breton Highlands. The trail there is the most popular trail of the national park and well advertised, meaning a lot of people park there and do the 8km or so long trail. Compared to 30 years ago people are ask to stay on the trail (and in some sections on the board walks). We had binoculars with us, but we could not detect any whales from the main lookout. But it is a wonderful and easy trail, aside from the amount of people that hiked around the same time as us. There is also a significant effort made to reforest the area by using fences to exclude the local moose population from eating small trees. At the end of the trail, significant amounts of board-walks have been put in place with benches to avoid people walking around the meadows. All of this is fine, but does indicate that the trail is heavily visited. The view from above towards the ocean is regardless very nice. It took us around 2 to 3 hours to complete the trail.

Afterwards we drove backwards (we did not drive all the way to Cheticamp). We stopped ad-hoc at various lookouts and has a late lunch at the Rusty Anchor, a restaurant located in Pleasant Bay. The meal there was very good and affordable. Margaret and Gongyu had a lobster roll, (todo: ask Daniella what she had), and I had a grilled haddock with fries and a coleslaw. This was the best restaurant so far together with the Saint John fish restaurant in the market hall. Everyone was happy. We sat outside in the garden and the view from there towards the sea was also super nice. The Rusty Anchor can be recommended.

Afterwards we continued driving back towards the Ingonish-Beach campground. We stopped at the Beulach Ban Waterfall. This turned out to be a 100 to 200m long easy trail ending at a 50 to 100m high rock wall with a small water fall, lots of moss. We spend about 20 minutes for this trail and the time to admire the waterfall and rocks.

We gained a bit of time because the visited to the waterfall was shorter than expected. That time was invested in a visit to the lighthouse in Neil's Harbor. The ground level of the lighthouse is now an ice-cream shop. I skipped the ice-cream, but from what I licked from Gongyu's portion and from the comments of everyone else this was the best and most affordable ice-cream we had so far on the trip. Definitely Gongyu's walnut ice-cream tasted super duper. And the scoops were big and affordable. The ice-cream shop in the Neil's Harbor lighthouse was a winner again and was worth the few km of detour. Also the views from the lighthouse and Neil's Harbor itself was worth a visit.

Our last hike of the day was from Black Rock Cove Beach. We walked a portion of the Jack Pine Trail. It was getting late, but the area turned out to be nice, so we tried to do at least a few lookouts of this trail. Gongyu stayed back at the car and Daniella, Margaret and I embarked on the walk. The first lookout had even 2 of the red Adirondack chairs from Parks Canada. We enjoyed the views from there towards the Black Rock Cove Beach. Afterwards we hiked a few km more to 2 additional lookouts. Everything was rocks, blue water and blueberry to small pines type country. Very nice. But we had to return. It was getting late and we did not want to let Gongyu wait too long for us. So we returned maybe at 30% of the trail in. The whole Jack Pine Trail all the way to Neil's Harbor has to wait for another time. Not many people were on this trail. But it is a very nice one. Definitely on the list for next time :-)

We concluded the day with making the usual tortellini tomato sauce dinner. It was a very nice day. Totally enjoyable.

Sept. 3rd, 2024, Day 7 East Coast - Ingonish Beach

We experienced 2 quick showers in the morning, interrupted by blue sky and sunshine. And then we had a nice day weatherwise. After breakfast we hiked straight from the Ingonish-Beach campground to the start of the Middle-Head trail. Middle-Head is a long stretched peninsula. The first portion of the walk from the campground to the begin of the trail runs along a golf course (with luxury lodge and all the usual facilities). Once we walked through all of this we reached the parking lot that is the actual start of the trail. The trail goes through forestry areas with some cliffs being passed as well in a figure-eight fashion. Some of this has some similarities to the West-Coast Trail: deep blue sky, crystal clear water with waves crashing against some cliffs, trees (deciduous and pines) with lots of lichen. and in the figure-eight a meadow were one can see the sea on both sides and finally a very nice tip with a meadow again and the iconic red Adirondack chair. We looked out for whales on both sides/coves of the peninsula, but without luck. The whole trail  from the campground all the way to the tip of the peninsula and back was about 9km or so.

Please note that the map above is not accurate in terms of the hiking path. I added the map more for reference where the Ingonish-Beach campground is related to the Middle-Head peninsula.

After we returned to the campground, we organised a campsite move. The existing site turned out to be very uneven making sleeping a bit difficult. Also it was judged to far away from the hut with the electricity. Ingonish-Beach campground was probably max 50% occupied. So organizing a move was easy.

Once that was accomplished we headed for the "Main Street Restaurant". The place was very popular. However after all was eaten we concluded that it was a bit overpriced or in other words the food was not as good as we hoped for. My special of the day halibut with fries and vegetables was not bad, but totally overpriced with 40$. Margarets and Gongyu's fish and chips had a too thick batter and the slaw was ordinary. And Daniella was also not entirely happy. However the place  was crowded and had a long waiting queue. There is a German saying: You have to earn your money from the living ...

After coming back from dinner we walked from the campground down to the beach of Ingonish-Beach. The beach is a nice sand beach and about 1.5km long. Gongyu meditated at the beach entrance. Margaret, Daniella and I walked the whole beach from the entrance to the far end and back. At low tide and into a nice late evening this was very nice. After we were back at the campground it was getting dark. The night sky in Ingonish-Beach is very nice. I went out of the tent very late for a washroom visit. I have to say the night-sky looked as good as in the dark cove at the Fundy astronomy event. Looks of stars. Super duper.

The Ingonish-Beach campground has a very good ratio of facilities to campsites. Everything is clean and feels very good.

Our new tent also turned out to be so far, so good. It offers more depth and width compared to our existing tent. Enough space for 4 people to sleep. However its height is more limited compared to our old tent. This makes changing clothes and getting in and out a bit more difficult. The new tent feels a lot more airy and is probably not as heat-preserving efficient compared to our old tent. We have yet to test it during a cold night. Also there appears to be condensed water accumulation on the inside of the outer  tent. Initially we also missed pockets inside the tent. But after a few nights we discovered that the pockets were placed in the top part of the tent and not in the bottom part like in our existing tent. All in all we are adjusting to the new tent.

Sept. 2nd, 2024, Day 6 East Coast - Alma to Ingonish Beach

In the early morning a shower went through, but not a lot. We broke up the tent and packed the car. Our bench was still wet. So we decided to have our breakfast at the Alma parking lot at the entrance of the park. I had noticed that there were a few benches earlier. The parking lot was fully exposed to the sun and the benches were dry. Having breakfast while looking at the beach and river delta was nice.

Afterwards a decision was made to visit Hopewell Rocks again. Our entrance ticket from the evening before was still valid (24h ticket). A chunk of us wanted to see the scenery again (at high tide) from the lookouts on top. What was planned to be a 20 minute stop was probably more of a 1-hour stop: We visited multiple lookouts.

Afterwards we continued driving to Moncton. The area closer to Moncton has now much more housing along the river there. 30 years ago this was marshland with huge swarms of migrating birds. This time we did not see lots of birds. Maybe they moved already south or the main migration has yet to happen.

At Moncton we rejoined the TCH and the driving was uneventful again. We had a stop at Masstown. The intent was to stock up on produce and have a lunch. It turned out that the various shops there were super popular (lots of lengthy line-ups), a good number of items relatively expensive. Maybe this was because they were open at Labour-Day and the people had to stock up on food before returning home from their vacation. I could not really figure out why the grocery shop was so popular. There was also a butchery that was selling steaks and ground beef galore with a lineup of people. The steaks looked good, but their pricing felt more or less the same as in Ottawa. We stocked up on some bacon strips and a cabanossi. We also bought a tomato sauce that was probably double the price of an equally good one at Costco. The Masstown Dairy was interesting to visit. They are a cheddar shop, which is not so much my thing. We bought a smaller chunk at the usual "artisan cheese" prices. No wonder the line-ups in the dairy was less. I could never figure out why the grocery/produce store was so popular (it was the most popular shop). The produce on offer was ok, but nothing I would rave about in Ottawa and not cheap either. There was also a seafood shop which we ultimately skipped, because the line-up for a meal in that shop was 30 minutes. Supposedly people order their food via phone and have it when they arrive 30 minutes later. We ended up going for some sandwiches in the butchery/dairy complex: The waiting line there was something we could stomach.

The drive via Antigonish to Cape Bretton was uneventful. The usual TCH 4-lane stuff. All these multi-lane highways look recently build. From Cape Bretton onwards the road changed to 3 lanes. The scenery along Lake D'Or was nice. We did not make it to the Bell Museum in Baddeck (it was about 5:30pm at that time). The scenery improved even further when we took the turn towards Ingonish (smaller road and more ocean views). We arrived at about 7:30pm or so at the Ingonish-Beach campground. By the time we had put up the tent and had made dinner it was dark.

As we progressed north-east, the weather became more cloudy but it did not rain.

Sept. 1st, 2024, Day 5 East Coast - Hopewell Rocks and Fundy National Park

TODO: Add all the pictures 

It started to rain early in the morning. And it rained consistently until about 5pm. Sometimes a misty rain, sometimes something more substantial.

We started the day with breakfast in the hut of the campground. Afterwards we headed for the visitor center. We did end up buying a few items (I got a new T-shirt). Then we headed for Alma to visit the various shops there (general store, bakery, another souvenir store) and we also had lunch. At the Kelly's Bakeshop we bought 6 muffins (good) and a blue-berry pie (super duper  good. Probably the best blueberry pie I had in Canada). New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are definitely  blueberry country. The lunch was reasonable. The fish portion of my fish and chips was good, the fries portion and the slaw was not so impressive. The seafood chowder ordered by Gongyu and Margaret was good. It was still raining.

After some procrastination we decided to brave the weather and went for the Caribou-Loop. It was a nice 1.5km or so loop leading through board walks crossing bogs and marsh land, through pine and moss areas and some leafy sections that had their own charm. We were in good spirits despite the rain.

Afterwards we decided to do the 40 minute drive to Hopewell Rocks and see them at low tide. It still rained when we arrived. But as luck had it, the rain little by little stopped as we walked among the rocks. The area has very much changed compared to 30 years ago. There is now a huge visitor center with integrated restaurant. Huge parking lots and a shuttle operation to and from the rocks. We bought non-shuttle cheaper tickets and walked all of this. There were several lookouts high above. But finally we reached a stair construction that led down to the beach. At low tide the rocks were much accessible compared to 30 years ago. We basically walked the whole way back on the beach and had a good look at the various "Flower Pot" rocks. Very nice. And then it was back all the way to the stair. In the meantime even the sun made a short appearance. The whole walk is about 4km (1km to get to the stair, 1km on the beach one way, 1km back to the stair, and the final 1km back to the parking lot).

The most impressive thing for me at Hopewell Rocks was visiting the 2 lookouts that had very good visibility of "Daniel's Flats". This was a huge tidal area (maybe 2km wide and 10 to 15km long). that was sand during low tide. Super interesting to see this amount of sand and the water streams  draining it. This area is not accessible. But from the lookout it is super interesting.

We made dinner at the campground when we returned. As usual, tortellini with tomato sauce :-)

Aug. 31st, 2024, Day 4 East Coast - Fundy National Park

TODO: Add all the pictures.

The breakfast at the Pinecone motel in Sussex was good. It had a personal note, while serving the usual items (the lady served us fresh fried eggs and the scones and similar were good). The motel, while a bit aged, is well maintained by a couple. The lawn is spotless. It is a reasonable place to stay.

The weather was again very good today.

We continued via a short drive to Fundy National Park. We bought a 1-year Parks Canada pass. Post buying the pass, I was told by my daughter that if I bought the pass a day later, it would have been valid for all of Sept. 2025 (which might have been interesting for me/us). Anyway, this is water under the bridge. We checked in at the Headquarter campground near Alma and set up the tents.

Afterwards we did the Dickson Falls loop. This loop did not exist 30 years ago and it is very very beautiful. Some sort of natural Japanese garden. The walk is mostly a boardwalk that runs along a brook in a deep ravine. The sides of the ravine are covered by moss, stones, and a few young trees. The higher up canopy is formed by pine trees. The water of the brook and the waterfalls were crystal clear. The walk is a little gem and about 1 to 1.5km long.

Afterwards we drove to Herring's cove and had our breakfast/lunch there. We walked down to the beach and from there quite a bit up and down to the Matthew's Head lookout. I believe Gongyu and I did the same walk with Gongyu 30 plus years ago. This time the walk remainded me at the forest portion of the West Coast Trail. Steep sections up and then down. Lots of tree roots in the way (but everything was dry here). I managed to hook my shoes twice into tree roots and have a slow-motion fall to my hands and knees (nothing serious, I did not have a 20kg plus backpack pushing me down). The views from the 2 lookout were nice. We returned the same way to the parking lot.

Our last trip of the day was at the Alma beach. The tide was approaching its low at about 6pm.We (my daughters and me) walked about 400m out on wet sand and enjoyed the scenery. There is plenty of beach and despite lots of people doing the same thing, the beach did not feel overcrowded at all.

We had dinner back at the campground (tortellini with tomato sauce).

And then we headed out for a star-gazing event at Herring's Cove organized by a local astronomy club. The event started at about 8:30pm with a slide presentation explaining what we were about to see. And then it was time to visit the various telescope observation stations. It was a gorgeous dark night. Even with plain eye-sight ton's of stars were visible. I saw the ring of Saturn through one telescope. And a few star clusters through some others. The astronomy folks also had a few strong "light sabers" to point out various and star constellations and give a general idea of which area of the sky we were looking too via the instruments. It was a cool ending to the nice day.

Aug. 30th, 2024, Day 3 East Coast - Saint John

Lots of pictures still to be added.

Our breakfast served in the Econo Motel in Saint John was simple and did offer cream cheese. My toasts and bagels tasted much better! The weather today was gorgeous. Blue sky and sun! We drove again into uptown Saint John and parked again in the Peel parking lot. Today we walked all in all about 13km plus (several repetitive forward-backward walks are not in the Google maps).

We started again with the market hall. This morning the hall was full of people from the huge Princess Emerald cruise ship that docked in town sometime during the night. We bought 2 loaves of bread (which tasted very good when we ate the loaves a few days later) and Margaret ran back to store them in the car. In the meantime I waited in the local King's Square garden close to an iron contraption that was likely a music shell with the band playing in The upper floor. The thing was dedicated to Edward VII, "King-Emperor". I did not know, that the British monarchs carried the title "King-Emperor" in Canada. I am learning. This park was also full of visitor from the cruise ship.

Afterwards we headed to the nearby Catapult coffee place. We esteemed daughter was not revved up sufficiently by the coffee served in the Econo motel ... The barista lady produced nice leaves both of our beverages.

Then we walked down to the 506 area, a container village which happened to be conveniently placed right beside the berth of the cruise ship. Container villages were a new thing for me, but according to Margaret they are a "thing" in Toronto and NYC. We did not buy anything. We continued to walk along the harbor-front all the way to tin can beach (close to I think a garrison). From there we took in the vista of the harbor. Tin can beach is not a must see, but once there, it is not a bad view. Then we walked all the way back to City Hall via Queens Square and Prince Williams Street (which  parallels the harbor front one or two streets up). We also took a quick detour to the 3-Sisters harbor lamp. The city hall had as part of its front-building design the real piece from the artist (Claude Roussel, who I liked in the Beaverbrook gallery, where the model for the city hall design was shown. Afterwards we walked across the street to local city library which is located in a new fashionable building. It turned out that the Thai restaurant that Margaret had in mind for lunch was also located in the same building in the ground floor. Our meals in the Lemongrass restaurant was very good. We sat outside on a roofed terrace and enjoyed our meals. For Zandra: The lunch prices did not cause us a sticker shock, but their dinner prices were a decent amount higher compared to what I am used to from Toronto or Ottawa.

Afterwards we walked along the harbor front in the direction of Reverse Falls. The harbor basin was approaching low tide in the next 2 hours or so. The walk along this harbor front is partially nice, partially neighboring huge empty storing spaces (or parking lots?), a newly build "French" style fort which we did not walking into (there was an entrance fee), and a few steel related companies. Finally we made it to the Reverse Fall bridge. We did not get close to the falls. Just had a look at the fall from about 300m away. The fall is located beside the Irvine paper and tissue mill. At this time, at low tide, it had a huge, long and smooth V-flow. Maybe some brave souls could run a canoe down :-) Afterward, it was a the same long way back to the city hall. From there we walked a few more streets (Garman street). And then we headed back to the market hall to pick up dinner. We bought take-out meals from the Kim's Korean located in the market hall. Afterwards we returned back to the car.

On our way out of town towards Sussex, we stopped at the local Costco, Canadian Tire, and Walmart to stock up on a few more food items for the next few days. The big-box shops were all bunched up in the same area (there is obviously no space in uptown Saint John for them). The Costco looked like a "fort" when approached. It is located about 30 to 50m above a valley on a flat table-top. On the approach from below one only sees the "grey walls" with a Costco writing on the wall and it looks very ominous.

On our way back from the shopping malls to the highway someone nearly crashed me at a T-junction. My traffic light switched to green, and I thought, hmmh, I am a bit slow to get moving. But I did look to my left, and immediately switched back into brake mode. A lady simply crashed at full redlight  through the T-junction. The person behind me must have also been alert, because nobody bunched into us from behind. Margaret said that the lady that drove through at red light had a cell phone on her ear ... All I did, was moving my foot back on the brake again after just releasing it.

The 40 minute drive to the Pinecone motel in Sussex was uneventful. These new 4 lane highways are all relatively boring. Closer to midnight we drove back 40 minutes to Saint John airport to pick up Gongyu and Daniella. The "International" Saint John airport appears to be relatively small. 2 flights per day to Toronto and 1 flight to Montreal. The remainder are local flights with small machines.

All in all I like Saint John. We only saw a fraction of the old uptown. While some places/houses are ramshackle, others look super trendy and upscale. It is an interesting mix. And the same applies to the businesses there.