CANADA, What I learned in 36 Hours. WOW!!
Written: Aug 29 '03 (Updated May 31 '05)
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Pros: A vast beautiful country where most people speak English and the US dollar goes far.
Cons: Vast distances between areas.
The Bottom Line: We enjoyed the people, the sites, and the American Dollar value. It's a good neighbor to the north that I want to visit again soon.
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| popsrocks's Full Review: Canada |
I have been to Canada a few times. Once as a teen just a couple of years out of high school a buddy and I did a weeks tour in my brand new 1970 Plymouth Duster starting in Montreal and going west to Toronto and the Niagara Falls.
Years later I had a family vacation in the Niagara Falls area and spent a week. Both were good experiences and I remember both times thinking of how clean the country was, even in the cities, and how far the American dollar went there.
Just last year I was up in Toronto for World Youth Day and really enjoyed that wonderful city.
I might add that my feeling is that Toronto got a bad wrap from the World Health Organization as far as the extent of possibility of getting SARS. Canada has also recently taken a hit in ref to mad cow disease. Caution should be taken but by all means visit this country!! I had a juicy swiss cheese burger in St Andrew. I'm still alive and fairly healthy.
In August of 2003 my wife and I were staying in Acadia National Park, Maine with four of our kids ages twenty two, twenty one, sixteen and fourteen. My wife and I decided to go off adventuring for a day. It wound up being overnight and it was full of interesting first time experiences.
I have always read stories about the Bay of Fundy, yet never researched it. My wife and I went to a local bookshop in Bar Harbor to try and find out some info about it in travel books. Actually we found very little. It would have been a wise decision to check out their library. We didn't.
Anyways we thought, "Let's go up to the border and pick up pamphlets and brochures and make our way up the coast of New Brunswick" and along the coast of the Bay of Fundy.
That's what we set out to do.
ROOSEVELT CAMPOBELLO INTERNATIONAL PARK
If you have been following my reviews you know I am one who always seeks out national parks, sites, and historic places to see. I did see on a map that we had to pass an international park to get to Canada.
The park is one that honors a past president of ours Franklin D Roosevelt. It is a home he summered in. It is also the place where he contracted polio that hampered his movement but not his drive to be a great president for his time.
The home is actually in Canada. This property, as an International Park, is maintained by both Canada and the United States.
To get to the home you must cross a bridge that takes you to the island where it is. This is Canada and you must go through customs. It was a pretty easy affair. They asked a couple of questions, didn't ask for ID, and sent us through.
Once on the island we went to the visitors center where a couple of woman dressed in ranger type attire answered all the questions we had for them. We had plenty. We also picked up an armful or two of those pamphlets and brochures we were seeking.
We then went to the Home of Roosevelt. It is called Campobello. This was a very pretty place. I do recommend stopping there if you have time driving up the Maine coast. There are people posted throughout the house that give a commentary on the rooms you are in and are quite knowledgable in answering questions about the Roosevelts.
There was a small visitors center and though this is not listed as a US National Park they did have a stamp there that I was able to add into my National Park Passport book.
The Passport is a way of "collecting" parks. It is an inked stamp that generally has the name of the park and the date you were there. This park didn't have the date on it, however, the stamp was well designed and I entered it into the extra pages in my passport. Getting my book canceled made me a happy man. I suppose it doesn't take too much.
OUR NEW JOURNEY BEGINS
Now after seeing the park we had planned to go back over the bridge into the US and follow the US1 up the coast to the ST Stephen, New Bruswick, Canada border. It would have been a couple of hour drive to that boarder from Acadia to cover the 100 mile or so distance. We were now a little less than an hour away.
The ladies in the visitors center came up with a different idea for us. They told us of a ferry that leaves Campobello Island and for $13.00 plus $1.00 each for us we could go to another island called Deer Island. This is also Canadian. Once on this island we would have to drive about seven miles across it and then take a free ferry to St. George, New Brunswick. Hey we wanted some adventure, so off to the ferry we went.
The first ferry was perfect, on time and plenty of room. This was not quite the same on the second one. We did drive across the island, losing time, taking a couple of wrong turns. When we arrived at the ferry area we found a long line and were shut out of the first crossing. Fortunately the trip is quick and we had the ferry back in just twenty minute. I calculated that we probably broke out even it time spent going to out next location of St Andrew, New Brunswick.
ST. ANDREW
Some friends of ours who stayed in a place on the coast just north of Acadia told us about this town. it's right on the water near the boarder of the US. It's a small town that is worth a few hours if not more.
We hopped onto RT1 and back tracked west to St Andrew from St George.
First we found the Fairmont Algonquin Hotel. It's known as "A Castle By-the-Sea". It is a 100 year old grand style hotel. It was quite beautiful, and worth a stop. To me, it had an old European feeling. The grounds were beautiful. We were about to have lunch there but the area they were serving was inside and the weather was perfect for anything out in the cool clean Canadian air.
We were steered into town to a great place on the water by a gal who worked at a small beach we stopped at. The beach was nothing to really talk about. It was shipped in sand and a rather small place.
I don't remember the name of the place we ate but as stated it was on the water and the prices were terrific. I enjoyed figuring out what the lunch would have cost in US dollars.
Basically speaking three of our dollars could purchase what four Canadian dollars could. Knowing this, and seeing posted signs for goods and services pretty much at US prices or a bit lower, I knew we were getting excellent value on what we ate, purchased, and where we stayed.
Another thing that struck me about the town as in previous visits to Canada was how clean it was. The people who served us in the restaurant, the gal who steered us there and the people we met later at some gardens were all very helpful, friendly, and eager to please.
My memory fails me once again but just ask about the gardens in town. Everyone can tell you how to get there. It's just four minutes from town. We visited them and did them in record time of about forty five minutes. It had perennial gardens, a pond with water fowl that was beautifully landscaped and a great picture opp. We went through the maze of well trimmed bushes and did a quick view of the rest of the grounds. Two hours would have been nice but we were off to other destinations.
From St Andrew you can see another international park. It is Saint Croix International Historic site. We didn't see it from that shore but we did do a stop on the way home on the American side. More on that later.
SAINT JOHN
Remember at the beginning of this review I said we wanted to learn more about the Bay of Fundy. We were told to go to see the phenomenon of Reversing Falls right in the middle of town. It's viewable from an overlook with a restaurant and a short film. The film is a couple of bucks the view is free. We went, we saw, we said "huh"?
The fact is, we read about what we were about to see in a brochure on the way up. It was hyped a bit and the name of the place is "reversing Falls". That sounded pretty exciting to me. Well this wasn't to be the case and even the gal behind the counter stated to us, "This will be as interesting as watching paint dry".
We were warned! Actually you have to follow the tide tables to witness the changing of the flow. Going into low tide and waiting for the tide to come back in is considered the best time to go. At least we hit that part correctly..
When we arrived we looked down at the water beneath the bridge. It was still going out to sea. It was almost low tide. There are little and sometimes large water disturbances. One guy explained them to us as the "Pig and piglets
Whatever they are called, these are interesting spots to check out. The water sets into whirlpools at different places. Then the tide stopped going out, slack tide. Just minutes later the water was flowing upstream. We watch for about fifteen minutes from a new deck and viewing area that is still under construction. The uphill river picked up the pace and was obviously moving much faster.
My wife and I laughed at our unfounded expectations and moved on. St. John has a building and expanding downtown area on the river. I suppose my expectations were a bit too high for this to. It did seem like a nice place to shop, have a meal, and check out the tall ship that was there.
RT 1
We had continued up RT1. This road seems to have been very recently widened and resurfaced. Actually some parts seemed to be brand new. Traveling this rout was wonderful. It's a great safe road, moves very well, and we didn't encounter traffic. This was unlike RT1 in the Northern Maine, where the roads were just two lanes, curving and going through many towns. Maine's RT1 has charm and traffic. New Brunswick's Rt1 gets you far distances quickly and safely. It was perfect for a 36 hour outing.
FUNDY NATIONAL PARK
Next on this days part of the trip was to check out Fundy National Park. Yes, I did get myself another stamp in my passport book.
Actually I got it the next day. The evening of the first day out is when we reached the park. This was about 150 miles of mostly excellent roads.
After turning south off RT1 onto RT 114 we arrived an hour or so before sunset. I never mentioned earlier that the first reason we were even thinking of taking a side trip from Acadia was to got into the interior of Maine and look for moose. They have some tours boats on the lakes there that have good records of spotting them. At least that's what they say in brochures. We opted instead to do the Bay of Fundy.
By this time we have been reading all sorts of info in the car. It stated that moose could be found in Fundy National Park!! We found some directions that took us over five or six miles of dirt road to a semi-secluded spot on the edge of a lake. There was another couple there already. We quietly set up our beach chairs, put on insect repellent, and sat down with binoculars and camera ready for the hunt.
In the next hour two other couples came down to the lake side. We all, very, very silently, took watch. It was so peaceful. There we no sounds except for the wings of the dragon flies over the water. This was a special moment. A bull frog did come hopping into the water about an hour later oblivious to our presence.
The sun continued its track down into the distant shore. Light was fading. After another fifteen minutes or so it happened. We all got up and left. Ha, we never saw any moose. One of the couples did see one earlier that evening on another lake in the park. My wife and I agreed that our hour sitting on the lake was a very peaceful and wonderful experience that was the highlight of our day. I say that in all sincerity. It was heavenly.
ALMA
OK we finally did get to a town in Canada without a saints name. Hey maybe Alma is a saint too. Anyways, just outside of Fundy NP is the old seaside town of Alma. It was at this point that my wife and I decided to check up on the kids and if all was well we would stay up in Canada this night and travel to the Hopewell Rocks the next morning. That was super but I'll tell you more a little later.
After a phone call we found all was well with the kids. We purchased a calling card to do it as my AT&T cellular service that did very well by me throughout most of the trip was not getting service in the park areas. I wonder how the moose stay in contact?
We asked about lodging in a convenience store and we were directed to a B&B next store or one of the motels down the road just a very little bit. I walked over to the B&B just around the corner. It was a lovely little house with an upstairs room available with a queen bed and a fine breakfast in the morning. The price was $79.00 for the night. That was reasonable to us. Remember that's Canadian dollars.
SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS FOR A REFUND
Just a side note here. There is a tax that is put on purchases and places you stay while in Canada. I won't get into too much detail because there are just too many and it would be too time consuming to write about and probably wouldn't do you justice trying to explain it. Simply put. If you are staying in Canada a few days be sure to keep your receipts. You can get a refund on some of those taxes. Brochures explaining the ins and out can be found at the boarder and in most motels and B$Bs.
WE stopped by a small take out place to have a quick dinner. It's right on the river, last turn on your right before entering the park from the west. I tell you that because we returned to this place the next day traveling back home. On recommendation we were told that they made a really good lobster roll. It was awesome!
The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast and enjoyed talking with some Canadians at the table.
HOPEWELL ROCKS
Maybe you knew of this place. My wife and I didn't have a clue. We read about it on the car ride up. This place was pictured and featured on the front cover of a give away New Brunswick travel magazine. It was gorgeous and extremely interesting.
In short, the Bay of Fundy has one of the highest tides in all the world. In this particular area there are sandstone formations that have been carved by wind, rain, and mostly by the rushing waters of the Bay of Fundy tides.
Some of these odd looking formations tower to sixty feet in the air and are crowned with fir trees. The really cool part is that because of the extreme tides you can witness them completely surrounded by water or when the tide goes out you can walk beneath these odd looking behemoths.
At high tide there are kyaking trips that take you in and out of them. In a way they reminded me of the Baths in the British Virgin Islands yet very different. They were magnificent looking.
We timed our visit with the tide to see it all surrounded by water and then waited a short time for the tides to drain out and we did walk among them. There is one particular carved out area that is called the "Lover's Arch". Be sure to get your picture taken there with your own camera. We did.
The Hopewell Rocks to my surprise are privately run. It is run and maintained much like our US National Parks. It is clean, well maintained, informative with a really fine visitors and interpretive center with a gift shop and fast food dining.
They have a small tram that, for a one dollar charge can take you to and from the formations. We walked down and took the ride up.
This is an area I recommend trying to visit. It really was a winner! I hope to review this site soon. Look for it.
HEADING BACK TO THE GOOD OL' USA
After spending time at the Hopewell rocks we started backtracking on our way to the boarder. We stopped again in Alma, picked up the lobster rolls and headed into Fundy National park again. With lobster rolls eaten, my passport book stamped, and a last look at one of the beautiful lakes we headed back up RT114 to RT1. Now just before you get to RT1 there is an ice cream store on the left. YOU MUST STOP!! This place made the best handmade and flavored ice cream we have ever had!
We again stayed on RT1 but this time we took it directly to the town of St Stephen on the Canadian side of the border so as to enter the US from there. AAAGHH!! There was a two hour wait to get through US customs. We had no idea this was coming. They do have a radio station that they tell you to tune into for constant updates.
Well I snailed along in the car, in line, making our way to the border through the streets of ST Stephen. My wife on the other hand walked and went into all the shops along the way. Not only did the wait cost me time it cost money too. Actually she didn't spend much. Hey by this part of the summer we were broke anyway.
After going through customs which was a very quick process for us we headed south on US RT! on the Maine Coast. There was one more stop I wanted to make.
ST CROIX ISLAND INTERNATIONAL PARK
On the coast heading south and back toward Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park we looked for this park. It was just a half hour or so back down to it if I recall. The entrance is right off Maine's RT1. You make the left, look for the American and Canadian flags flying together and take a peek.
You are actually overlooking the ST Croix Island. It is the site where in 1603 a Frenchman by the name of Pierre Sieur de Mons first went to try and establish a permanent year round settlement. It was not suitable but is honored as the place where this was attempted.
We stayed on the shore and looked at the island. There were some US National Park issued brochures on a rack, rest rooms, a few picnic tables and little else. We stayed ten minutes and moved on, back to our wonderful Acadia National park.
We enjoyed our trek into Canada's New Brunswick and we are happy we did it.
The Bay of Fundy is one of the places listed in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. This book is fabulous and a must for anyone who travels or dreams of doing so.
other reviews in Maine by popsrocks
Bar Harbor What a great seaside town!!
Acadia National Park My favorite place in the world!
Carriage Rides in Acadia National Park
Whale Watching from Bar Harbor
Ocean Drive Motor Court A great place to stay just out sde Bar Harbor
The Jordan Pond House A wonderful restaurant right in Acadia Park
MAINE, great coastal towns and so much more.
A Canadian great side trip from Maine's Acadia National Park
Hopewell Rocks a geological Phenomenon
Roosevelt Campobello International Park
other places of interest by popsrocks
NEW YORK CITY
US VIRGIN ISLANDS
National Parks Passports
http://www.epinions.com/content_76095131268
National Parks System
http://www.epinions.com/content_2708004484
Everglades National Parks http://www.epinions.com/content_75027549828
Grand Canyon National Park http://www.epinions.com/content_77646302852
Bryce Canyon National Parks http://www.epinions.com/content_77562220164
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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