Day 72 - St. John, New Brunswick

I can't believe it, but today, Friday, August l0th, is the last day of touring and spending a day with our new friends that we made on our Caravan trip.  It is Day 55 of our trip.  We are all trying to spend as much time as we can with each other because it all ends tomorrow morning.

We were picked up at 9 a.m. and were driven by bus all around the city.  The driver was an awesome guide - very informative, helpful and would stop anywhere for us to hop out and take a quick picture.  St. John is a very old city so we saw a lot of old houses, buildings, churches, cemeteries and gardens.

One of the old buildings was this theater that has been renovated.  It is supported by the people of the city.  They use it as often as they can - not just by entertainer's - but for graduations, parties, etc.  It would be great to go to a concert or show there - us girls already picked out our seats.



We walked through their City Market.  To us, it wasn't that big, but here, it is considered one of the largest.  Dulse is sea weed and a big seller here.  We all tried a piece and trust me, it was awful, but suppose to be very healthy.  We got a charge out of "Holy Crap" which is a cereal.  This small bag cost $ll and again is suppose to be very good for you.  At that price, it should be.

Info regarding the Reversing Rapids: About 20,000 years ago, the last continental glaciation reached its maximum.  Glaciers covered all of the Maritimes.  As the glaciers retreated, they left a changed landscape.  Before the last glaciation, the St.John River flowed to the sea through South Bay.  Retreating glaciers left piles of sand and gravel called moraines that damned that river outlet.  When the river found its new route about l4,000 years ago, it flowed over the rock ridges at Reversing Rapids to create a gorge.

Thousands of years ago a waterfall existed here, but as sea level rose and the riverbed eroded, the waterfall was drowned.  The phenomenon of the Reversing Rapids is only about 3,000 years old.  A profile of the riverbed shows a series of waterfalls must have existed here.  Just past the islands the river bottom drops to about 25 meters below low water level.  It then drops two more times to more than 40 meters below low water level.

These are pictures of the reversing rapids.  The water is coming down to low tide and when it does, the rapids will be higher and stronger.  They have a boat ride that takes you through the rapids; however, when the rapids are really high, they don't even take the boat out - too dangerous.

Carleton Martello Tower:  Construction of this tower was begun by the British Army during the War of l8l2 as one of a projected series of fortifications intended to block the western land approach to Saint John.  Subsequent to its completion in l8l5 the tower was largely neglected, seeing only occasional use in times of emergency, including service as a fire control headquarters in the second world war.  The original structure typifies the English martello tower design, a popular form of coastal defence in the British Isle during the Napoleonic period.

After our morning tour was finished, Rod, Patty, Bruce and I went back into town for lunch and to walk around for a couple hours.  They had these funny looking wooden statues so we had to ham it up and take a photo.  The only moose we are seeing are in statues or road signs so had to take advantage of this bronze statue.  The bottom left picture is of a clock.  You are right, it looks a bit bazaar but somehow things turn and people can tell what time it is.  As in every city we've been in, there are flowers all over.  They even have children planting flowers along the roadways.  We had lunch outdoors where you see all the blue umbrellas.  The sun and fog fought all day.  We didn't know what was going to happen from one hour to the next.  Fortunately, the sun won out while we walked around.  As we drove into the campground, we recognized a lady walking across the lot and realized she was a friend that we know from Mesa.  Talk about a small world.



We had our farewell dinner tonight at Lilly's Cafe.  It was very warm and there were other patrons in the restaurant, so we walked back to the campground and had our celebration there.  We were all asked to comment on our trip and it was pretty unanimous that the trip was great because of the people.  Not just our new friends that took this adventure, but all the people we met along the way as well.  We shared a lot of laughs, teased each other but were very grateful that it was a safe trip for everyone.  We sure saw and did a lot these past 55 days - would have liked to have seen more moose and whales but have to be grateful for what we did see.  We all fell in love with this beautiful part of the country. 

Picture of the Day!!!

In honor of all the animals we saw along the way, I thought I would finish this part of

our trip with this little bird who sat by us while we had lunch.  She was as

friendly as all the Canadian's we met along the way.