Days 52 and 53 Discovering St John, New Brunswick

Friday August 2^nd 2013

It was once again a rainy day, and here we are in one of the biggest cities in New Brunswick. I wanted to take the opportunity to try to find a dress for my daughter’s wedding.  Unless Walmart or Sears are your favorite stores, there is very little to choose from.  

We went to Bridal Shops and every mall in the city.  Nothing!  So I gave up and decided to wear the dress I already own thankful to have that option.

St John City Market, Canada's oldest continuing Farmers Market

One of the stops we made was to St John City Market which is another National and Provincial Historic Site.  It is Canada’s oldest continuing farmers’ market in operation since 1876. 

 The roof was built like a ship’s inverted hull, reflecting their city’s shipbuilding past. 

There were displays of local produce, meats, seafood and New Brunswick’s arts and other crafted items.  It was interesting to walk through, but other than lunch we found nothing worthy of purchasing.

Dozens of tasting stations for fresh olive oils and
vinegar

 Another stop we made was to the Liquid Gold Olive Oils and Vinegar shop.  This was one of the sister shops to the one we saw in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia but this one was 10 times bigger!

 We spent about an hour taste testing all the different types of balsamic vinegar, and actually purchased eight little bottles of various flavors such as Dark Chocolate, Espresso ( Norm’s favorite ), Maple, Cinnamon Pear ( which was mine ) and other exotic flavors. We paired these with a Blood Orange olive oil from Tunisia as well as one infused with Persian Lime ( which Norm wants to use to marinate fish ). We will have fun drizzling these over all sorts of meats and desserts!

Just one of the many flavored types of Balsamic Vingar
we purchased

Saturday August 3^rd 2013

We needed to go to the Bell Aliant internet provider store to find out why we received a message that we had grossly gone over our allotted data allowance!  Panic!  They were able to call the company so I could speak with the representative.  Well to make a long story short, we don’t  know how we possibly used that much data, so we are relegated to the free wifi’s in public places. 

The other really important errand for my psyche is to get the car washed.  

Alison stealing a kiss from this quiet gentleman

It is just amazing how a clean car can give you a new lease on life!  It’s a wonder how dirt can get up inside the door jams( and everywhere else)!

Here in St John, the Reversing Rapids is a very unique phenomenon caused by the tremendous tides in the Bay of Fundy.

At low tide, the St. John River, which runs through New Brunswick, empties into the bay through a narrow rocky gorge.  An underwater ledge causes the water to “boil” with a series of rapids and whirlpools.  The rising tide slows the river current to a stop, and for 20 minutes it actually “rests” to allow boats to navigate the rapids.  Once the tide is higher than the river, the reversal of the current happens until high tide.  I read ( but did not see ) that the water rises up an amazing 14.5 feet above sea level in the gorge! 

Then the tide slowly descends, but still flowing inland ( in reverse ) until it is at river level again. After a 20 minute rest, it resumes its natural flow making the whirlpools and rapids.

This was much more interesting than Norm and I thought it would be.  And to be honest, now that I just did the research to tell you about it, wish we paid more attention to when the best time to be there was!

 

The Reversing Rapids on the St. John River
Jet Boat ride

Of course someone has to make money from everything of any interest, and this place is no 

exception. One attraction is the popular Zip Line, as well as many jet boats racing up and down the boiling water, spinning around in the whirlpools, jumping the rapids, and I am sure scaring the dickens out of all the participants! ( I thought it looked like fun, but since it started raining Norm got out of it ). And, truth be told, I would probably be too cheap to pay for a ride that could possibly re-arrange all my vertebrae! 

That night we decided to have dinner at another restaurant ranked #1 in Trip Adviser   This time it as at East Coast Bistro, whose location happened to be two doors down from the Liquid Gold store, which happened to be where we were walking earlier in the day!  In this great big city, we were on the same block on three different occasions!  

Well, Norm was in luck!  This restaurant served the beer he loved so much last year when he was in Prince Edward Island, and has been looking everywhere for it since.  What is that evasive but delicious beer?  Gahan 1772 IPA!  The dinner was very good, and the service VERY slow. But since we had no place to go, it was a nice way to spend a rainy evening.