A tour of the Saints and getting ready to travel

Tuesday - Friday, October 9 - 12
There are lots of towns around the Maritimes with St, Ste, or Saint in their name. Today we went to three. St Stephen, Saint Andrews, St George and Saint John.

We started out in St Stephen. Many parts of the town are very pretty and well maintained but there are areas that have been run down especially in the area of the old cotton mill.

The Milltown Workers Monument in St Stephen. There was a large cotton mill here.

All that remains of the cotton mill. It operated from the late 1800's up to 1957. The power plant building is the only building still standing. 

One industry that still flourishes is the Ganong Chocolate Company. This is the site of their original factory and today is a retail outlet store and chocolate museum. Now that sounds interesting!

The old Ganong chocolate factory.

Lots to choose from.

Very tasty too I'm told! :-)

We just had to take in the Museum. A docent led us through and she was very entertaining.

Hand dipped chocolates are still the premier offering. Only a select few employees have the knack to hand dip, then add a swirl on the top.

Some antique chocolate making machines.

A mockup of the candy pots. The display is set up in an old elevator that was run by steam.

Ganong is still a privately held and family operated business.

A display of unique candy boxes form years past.

Cocoa tree. A model of course.

After the museum we drove into downtown St Stephen. The river here is the international boundary. the State of Maine is on the shore behind the lighthouse.

Cute little lighthouse

Downtown St Stephen

We left St Stephen and headed along the coastal drives.

We stopped here at the St Croix Island historic site. You can't actually get on the island but interpretive panels give the story. This island was the first French settlement in the new land.

Isle St Croix in the middle of the river. Maine is on the far shore.

That first winter, 1604 was not kind to the settlers. Scurvy claimed many lives. nearly a third of the settlers died. The French moved on and settled in Annapolis Royal the following year.

Cannons stand ready as they did in 1812. This is the Saint Andrews Blockhouse Historic Site.

The Blockhouse. In the war of 1812-14 the Canadians defended the  harbour from the Americans that were across the river.

Downtown St George

St George was a very pretty town.

The shoreline in St George

St George had some huge homes.

Black Harbour

This little guy rides piggy-back!

Gloomy day over Saint John. It rained on and off. Just not a good site-seeing day here.

These are the Reversing Rapids. As the tide goes out, as it is here, the rapids flow toward the sea. When the tide comes in the rapids revers direction and head inland up the river.

Part of Saint John Harbour.

Saint John city park, called Kings Square

Old buildings in downtown Saint John.

Nice Main street. If the weather had cooperated we would have walked more of it.

So that was our tour of the 'saints'. All pretty towns.

Lots of rain and cool weather this week so we didn't move too far from the campground. We did head to Sussex on Friday to get some last minute groceries and do laundry. They have a pretty clean laundromat in town and we've used it twice now. We can get four loads of laundry washed and dried in about an hour and a half.

Sussex had some of the nicest wall murals we have seen. All were in pristine shape. Take a tour in the shots below. We really enjoyed our time in Sussex.

Sussex City Hall

City Hall

Smith's Creek Community Center.

Just one more fall colours shot!

Sunday, October 14
This is clean-up day. Last chance to get the trailer all ready to go. Everything gets packed up and put away. We also got our passports out and a list ready with any information the friendly Border Agents may have. Monday we head to the US. We will visit Boston and Washington then head further south. Should be fun!


.....and that was Our View From Here!