St. John and Area continued

Hi there, First congratulations to Tyler and Caroline today, their wedding day.  We will toast you at dinner time

St. Andrews by the Sea from the pier

Yesterday we woke up to dense fog here in St. John, but decided to go to the town of St. Andrews by the Sea and go whale watching.  So we left not knowing what weather we would get there.  Well, it was 28 degrees and sunny!  Go figure.  It is about 1 hour south of St. John and very close to the border with Maine.  It is the first Resort town in Canada.  What a lovely spot!  A must see for anyone near the area.  There are lots of small inns and a lovely campsite right on the water.  We are still in St. John with our rig, so anyone traveling this way by RV, it would be a lovely little stop. 

 

Whale watching excusions were booked for the afternoon, so took the 5 pm boat.  We had a blast.  Saw Minke and Fin whales and many Porpoises. 

Our Boat, the Island Quest

Harbour Seals, sunning themselves on rocks, waiting for the tide.

It's a Whale!  We saw about 4 whales, but several sightings of each of them.  It isn't easy to catch them in a photo.  They just break the water and they are gone again. We had a lovely time just being on the water. 

Another shot of St. Andrews, note the breakwater.

This was the breakwater when we got in at 7 pm.  You have to be very careful maneuvering a boat here.  lol

 

There was no beach here at all a few hours ago.

The side of the dock at low tide.  The tide here is consistently 22 to 28 feet.

Today we visited St. John, a much nicer day.  Sunny, a little breezy, which kept the fog away.  They don't run any bus tours of the city except on days when the Cruise ships are in town, so we walked around with a pamphlet to see the old town.  It isn't as old as you would think because the town burnt down in 1877, so everything is from that date forward.  Chris and I decided it is a working man's town.  Downtown, they have a walk, but you are mostly back from the water, which is a harbour, or a cruise ship terminal etc.  The picture above is called Market Slip by Market square.  We had lunch there, at an outside cafe.  It is the area where many Loyalists arrived by boat.  Many immigrants to this country arrived to this spot at sometime or another.

This lamppost is a reproduction of one that was here for years, and was used as a marker for ships coming into harbour.  Towards the water, the light is red.  If the captain saw 3 red lights, he knew he was on course for the harbour.  If he only saw one, or two, he knew he needed to alter course.  The picture is not that clear, but you see a small Island in the distance.  That is Partridge Island, and it was a quarantine Island for new immigrants that arrived on our shores with small pox, or typhus, or Cholera.  A Celtic cross is standing just below this lamp, erected to commemorate 2000 Irish Immigrants that perished of Typhus, 600 were buried on that island.  The structure to the right in the picture is a cruise ship terminal.

They had some whimsical art work around the town, quite fun.  Can you find Chris?

 

They have a reversing Falls here.  The pictures here are an attempt to show you, not sure it's possible.  But the River flows left to right, but the water in these pictures is flowing right to left because it is high tide.  It is flowing fast as well.  I guess you had to be there.

So now I am putting away Canadian Tour Books and finding USA information as we cross the border tomorrow.  We have some food to eat up as well, could be a good evening.  We also have too much booze.  So much to do and so little time.  Tata.