Day 6 (August 20, 2020): Good Bye, St. Andrew's! Hello, Saint John!

Vacations are supposed to be at least partially about sleeping in.  Well, there hasn't been much of that on this trip, unfortunately.  We were up before sunrise and out the door at 6:45AM in order to get to Minister's Island, the summer estate of Canadian Pacific Railway mogul, Sir William Van Horne.  To get to Minister's Island, you have to literally ride the low tide: you drive across a sandy roadway that is only accessible during low tide.  (The roadway is covered in 16 feet of water at high tide.)  We drove across just after 7AM and hiked almost four kilometres to see the buildings on the estate, which are quite amazing.

Back at The Algonquin, we had one last meal (breakfast) at the resort, followed by an hour poolside and another look at a few sights in St. Andrews, before heading out of town around 12:30PM.  We rolled into Saint John an hour later, and made our first stop Wolastoq Park, then explored Reversing Falls.  We then headed to the truly splendid and surprising Irving Nature Park, before starting an exploration of Uptown (downtown) Saint John.

Saint John has long suffered from a reputation as an industrial city with little to write home about.  However, we were very much taken by the sights - both natural and man-made - of this port city.  We present our highlights below and invite you to consider Saint John, as we did, in a new light.

We ate dinner in the Delta Brunswick restaurant, overlooking the harbour.  It will be another rise before the sun, in order to catch the ferry back to Nova Scotia, loaded with excellent memories of New Brunswick.

The sunrise above Minister's Island.

Preparing to drive across the ocean floor to Minister's Island, just after sunrise. 

(For comparison, here’s the same scene, 5.5 hours later at high tide!)


"You've got this, Qashqai!"

Minister’s Island is named for Parson Andrews, who started a ministry in the area in 1790. He bought the 490-acre island for 250 pounds. The Parson’s house is above. 

Sir William Van Horne bought them Island 100 years after Parson Andrews and developed an impressive summer estate. His home and the barn are the two most impressive structures on the island. The barn was constructed by unemployed shipwrights in 1898 and cost $20,000.

On the left is the gas house. Electricity didn’t arrive on the island until the 1960s, so carbide gas was pumped from here to the main house to provide lighting.

Covenhoven is the name of Van Horne’s residence on the island. It had 50 rooms and is where he pursued his varied interests, from zoology to art.

Minister’s Island. 

The Gardener's Cottage on Minister’s Island was built in 1893. There were acres of orchards, vegetables, and flowers. The lawns had to be mowed twice per week using a horse-drawn mower.  30 miles of walking was required for one complete mow!

LOTS of deer on Minister's Island!

The trail back to the car had sort of a 'haunted woods' feel!  Ahhh... light at the end of the tunnel!

After an Algonquin breakfast and an hour at the pool, it was time to close the books on our Algonquin stay.  We headed back to the town center to see how the rising tide compared to the low-tide scene yesterday.  The photo shows the before and after scene at the main pier.

Today's high tide (bottom) contrasted with yesterday's low tide (top)

The red rocks of St. Andrews' harbour.  Not long after we left these rocks, the rapidly-moving Fundy tides made them inaccessible.

The only remaining Blockhouse (of three) built in St. Andrew's in 1813 to protect against an American invasion.

Each of St. Andrews’ Blockhhouses was built to protect a battery of canons from being overtaken by the invading enemy.

On the way out of St. Andrews, we saw a terrifying sight:  the first red-hued tree of Autumn 2020!

Wolastoq Park in Saint John was our first stop upon arrival in the city.  Built in 2004 by J.D. Irving, Limited, the park overlooks the Reversing Falls Rapids and features a collection of statues of historical Saint John figures, from the legendary Koluscap of the Wolastoq people, all the way to K.C. Irving, founder of the Irving empire, whose statue figures prominently in the very center of the park.

A view of the Saint John River, with the city center in the background.

Reversing Falls is one of Saint John's most famous natural landmarks.  Like the city itself, which has long struggled from a reputation far from stellar, so Reversing Falls has also struggled with a reputation for being less-than-overwhelming.  We were actually very impressed by it all!

This monument at Reversing Falls commemorates those whose lives have been taken by suicide at the Falls.

Reversing Falls has two main components:  the falls portion under the bridge, and the rapids section just below the Irving tissue plant.

One of the most incredible things about Saint John, in our opinion, is the Irving Nature Park. Sandwiched between a salt marsh and the Bay of Fundy, the park is owned and operated by the Irving company.  It is a 600-acre reserve with a road encircling it and eight walking trails of different lengths and difficulty.  There are many viewpoints of amazing Fundy coastline and a huge marshland.  It is truly stunning, and it is a wonderful gift from the Irvings back to the community.

Saints Rest Beach in the Irving Nature Park. We didn't even know that Saint John had a beach!

A coastal view in the Irving Nature Park.

A coastal view in the Irving Nature Park.

A coastal view in the Irving Nature Park.

A coastal view in the Irving Nature Park.

A view of downtown Saint John.

The curatorial building of the New Brunswick Museum is housed in a fine-looking (but internally crumbling) 1934 facility on Douglas Avenue. The Museum’s public-interfacing facility is located downtown in Market Square.


The huge Marco Polo replica at the downtown site of the New Brunswick Museum.  The Marco Polo was built in Saint John in 1851 and sailed for 32 years.  It was a square rigger and was declared "the Fastest Ship in the World": on December 26th, 1852 she sailed into Liverpool after circumnavigating the globe by the Cape of Good Hope, to Australia and back to the UK, going around Cape Horn.  It took 5 months, 21 days.

In a town known for its beer-making by the Oland family (which produced Moosehead Beer), this moose statue is very à-propos.


Downtown Saint John has lots of neat and quirky surprises.

The Loyalist House:  home of the prosperous Merritt family, who occupied from its completion in 1817 until 1958.

St. John's Anglican Church -- nicknamed the Stone Church because its stones were brought from England as ballast on returning cargo ships.  The first service was held in 1825. 

Saint John was designed with two squares:  King Square is shown above.  At its center is a two-storey bandstand.  But there are no stairs to the second level, oddly enough!

The old Saint John Courthouse, next to king Square, was recently given to the Saint John Theatre Company which is renovating and expanding the historic structure to implement a theatre concept in the property.

The Loyalist Burying Ground adjacent to King Square contains the graves of the first settlers in Saint John.  (The city was founded in 1783.)  Almost all the gravestones were illegible, but we did see a couple dated around 1820.

The very grand Imperial Theatre across the street from King Square.

A hat store in 2020?  You bet!  Saint John has one, and it's quite large.  Pam was fascinated to see that it even carries fascinators!

Queen Square is much less busy and low-key than King Square.  At its center is a statue commemorating the 300th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain's arrival in these parts.

On Thursday nights, there is a night market outside the City Market.

And that's what a hotel stay looks like during Covid:  a sealed bag containing all guest amenities — everything from soap to water to a mount-your-own toilet roll.  Times are very different.