Reversing
FallsWe had breakfast in the hotel, supplementing the now-familiar spread with our peaches, blueberries, and a country-style pate from the Sobey’s. I mainly ate a big bowl of blueberries with creamy milk and sugar, which was quite satisfying. Robert insisted on a second breakfast stop at Robin’s Donuts a short ways down the main road on the way west; the plain cake donut was good, but the other donuts were not really light enough. In another foggy morning drive, we made it over the bridge and into New Brunswick.
Reversing
FallsThough we didn’t
have time to spend an extra day at the Bay of Fundy national park, we did stop
in Saint John (I found out, not firsthand, that locals get unhappy if you write
it “St. John”) to see the so-called Reversing Falls. Saint John
looks a lot like Providence, Rhode Island. We got to see a little bit of the
city because, again, we got extremely lost—this time not so much because
of the poorly marked streets, but more because the AAA book we were using for
a mini-map of the city actually had the dot for the falls in completely the
wrong place—actually on the wrong side of the mouth of the river—so
we were working with contradictory and inaccurate information. When we finally
got there and climbed up to the observation deck, we were able to look down
and see that the “falls” were indeed very turbulent and full of
whirlpools: though it doesn’t actually look like a waterfall, the movie
in the visitors’ center informed us that under the surface of the water,
there is, in fact, an actual waterfall, and we’re just seeing the rapids
on the top. Primarily the falls are interesting at high and low tides, when
the enormous tides from the Bay of Fundy push at the current of the river and
actually succeed in reversing the course of the river. We went inside and saw
the informative movie on the phenomenon, and when we came out, the waters 
were
much calmer—just half an hour made a dramatic change in the tide, and
we were glad we got to see the more exciting part as well as the calmer time.
It was getting a little late, so we kept driving and made a three-course stop for lunch—albeit not in the standard order. First we went to McKay’s Blueberries, which I had read about as “the little blue house on Route 1 when driving down from PEI” that supposedly had good blueberry sundaes and pies. Before we left, though, I hadn’t been able to find out any additional information on this place at all, and I’d actually given up and forgotten about it until suddenly there was indeed a little blue house. For the record, it was at mile (all right, kilometer!) marker 64 on Provincial Route 1, on the southbound side, and it was indeed fabulous. We had a big slice (almost a quarter of a pie) of blueberry pie with whipped cream, a blueberry ice cream sundae with whipped cream and blueberry sauce, and a jar of jam (to take home) for $10. Lovely lunch appetizer!
Next we went to Ossie’s Lunch near St. Andrews, which bills itself as “The Best Seafood in North America.” Now, that is indeed quite a large claim, but Robert and I were truly happy with everything we ate: the lobster rolls were of the very light mayo style, and were delicious, the poutine (made properly with curds this time) was very good, and the fisherman’s platter was great. “These are the way clams are supposed to be,” Robert said, sighing in bliss. Yes, there was a long wait for the food, but the shaded picnic tables are comfortable. Oh, for a place like this slightly closer to Boston!
Just down the side street at Ossie’s, we visited Oven Head Salmon Smokers, a family-run salmon smokery out of a home. They were friendly and gave us nice samples, and we bought a half pound of their salmon (cold-smoked farm-raised Atlantic) and a package of salmon jerky (alas, no truly Alaskan-style salmon candy).
Atlantic
Salmon FederationWith the smoked salmon in our cooler, we headed to the salmon exhibit run by the Atlantic Salmon Federation in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea; we had the good fortune to encounter a great, interested college-student tour guide on her last day before heading off to school. She gave us a special feeding of the fish and talked enthusiastically about protecting the wild salmon. We loved the beautiful new exhibits and clean and underused bathrooms, and I really liked expanding my salmon vocabulary in French (again, everything was bilingual here, which was lots of fun). From here we crossed into the US very quickly, without any wait at all, only to discover that Maine, up here, looks exactly like Canada: the same deserted forested highway, and the same proliferation of Irving’s gas (a chain we had initially scorned as a non-brand-name gas chain, but then grew to know and love).
We stopped for the night in Belfast, Maine, arriving around 6:15 (this time the time change worked in our favor, giving us an extra hour). We checked into the Belfast Harbor Inn, a very clean and nice, well-maintained hotel with a pretty view of the water and very large, spacious rooms.
Dinner was at Darby’s, a fabulous tin-ceilinged place in downtown Belfast, surrounded by cute and closed stores. Darby’s serves until 9:00, and repeatedly came up as one of the best restaurants in Belfast, so it wasn’t really much of a decision about where to go. Dinner was great, though: halibut with a pecan crust, a hot lobster roll with melted butter, pork chops with caramelized onions, crab cakes, a shrimp-avocado salad, and a cheese dip appetizer. Dessert—peanut butter pie and sticky toffee pudding sundae—was also very nice, and we were all happy with the meal. Though there was a movie theatre just next door, we were all too tired (you know, what with the time change and all), so we went back to the hotel and called it a night.
Go back to web essays or over to links.
robertandchristina.com was made with a Mac.
© 2007 C&R Enterprises
Email christina@robertandchristina.com or robert@robertandchristina.com
Created: 8/28/07. Last Modified: 8/28/07.