St Stephens, St Andrews-on-the-Sea and St Johns 22-24 August 2016

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St Stephens, St Andrews-on-the-Sea and St Johns 22-24 August 2016



We stayed on the Trans Canadian Freeway for some of our drive down to St Stephen. This province is full of forest and often as far as the eye could see. Logging is a major industry within the province, and softwood forests dominate the interior of the province. Outside of those forests are a number of areas of maple forests, resulting in the production of maple products such as maple syrup in the province.



I have to tell you that the Passamaquoddy people were the first to make their home along the St. Croix River which runs through St Stephen. Who is familiar with the term Passamaquoddy!!!???



There are 3 river crossings in the town all with border check sites as the roads all go to different parts of the USA.



In 1877, St. Stephen's business district was almost destroyed by fire when eighty buildings and 13 wharves burned.



Both the lumbering and shipping industry employed thousands of individuals, and by the early 1900s, 200 ships had been built in the St. Croix waters. However, by the end of World War II the town's main employers were the Ganong Brothers Ltd chocolate company (established 1873, Canada's oldest candy company), and—with 20,000 spindles—Canada's second largest textile mill, which opened its doors in June 1882 on the river where it operated with its own hydro-electric generating station, the Milltown Dam.



We visited the old Ganong Chocolate Factory which is now a museum. The deal is you pay $10 entry fee and you can eat as much chocolate as you can. I think I made it up to 7 pieces of chocolate and then was beaten….couldn’t eat anymore!!!! They had a great movie on the workings of the factory and interesting display of the past chocolate boxes. They were the ones who introduced the heart shaped boxes on Valentine’s Day to the world. The confectionery maker remains a key employer today but in a new factory. Members of the Ganong family still work in key roles in the company.



Electricity generated by the Milltown Dam is exported to the United States, connected to a 69kV transmission circuit owned by the Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative, an electric utility serving Calais. In 1957, the textile mill closed, and it was demolished in 1972. We saw the memorial to the Mill Industry.



New Brunswick is part of historic Acadia, an early 17th century French land claim in North America. Governed by the British in the 19th century, Acadia was forcibly depopulated by the British and its inhabitants dispersed.



As such, there is a noticeable divide within New Brunswick. If one splits the province diagonally from Moncton in the Southeast to Grand Falls in the Northwest, the Acadian (Northeast) and anglophone (Southwest) divide is almost exact. This divide does not result in significant ill will; however, the divide definitely exists within older generations of the province.



In coastal areas where we were heading, the scenery of New Brunswick comes to the fore, particularly the rugged southern coastline. New Brunswick is also home to large tidal forces, and as such has claim to the highest tides in the world.



After visiting the Chocolate Museum and seeing the rapids along the riger, we decided to drive to Saint-Andrews-on-the-Sea.



Saint Andrews is located at the southern tip of a triangular-shaped peninsula extending into Passamaquoddy Bay at the western edge of Charlette Country.



The town's street grid is oriented toward the waterfront, which faces St Andrews Harbour which is situated at the mouth of the St Croix River and the town sits on the river's east bank at its discharge point into the bay.



Despite its proximity to the Canada-USA border, the nearest border crossings are 30 km away at St Stephen.



Important attractions include Kingsbrae Horticultural Garden, whale watching, fine art and craft galleries, many shops, restaurants and small inns and the charming seaside setting. We visited the Gardens….wow!! What a special place.



Kingsbrae Garden has over 50,000 different plants on display and was created over 2 years and opened to visitors in 1998. There are edible gardens, a cedar maze, an ornamental grass garden, rose garden, gravel garden, a virgin Acadian forest trail, streams, a genuine Dutch windmill (1/3 scale), and even a garden called the "Scents and Sensitivity Garden"; built with advice from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and designed for the visually impaired, with all plants chosen because they have an interesting smell or texture, and all with names for the plants labelled in English, Latin, and Braille.



There is a Children's Fantasy Garden where there are free children's activities every day in July and August. It is also where old and new gardening techniques meet. Unfortunately, we were there 15 minutes before closing so we raced around photographing as much as we could. It was spectacular.



We had a lovely meal at the Lobster Pub which was packed with both locals and visitors. The staff were fun and the walk of the pub were plastered with memorabilia.



We then drove back to St Stephen for the night. The next morning after breakfast we drove to Saint Johns.

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