Fantasy RV Caravan - Day 3

Sunday, 4 August - Day 3

Sometime in the early morning, we got a passing shower.  Despite the time change, we woke up about our “regular” time, only with the time change, it was in time to enjoy the sunrise.

A beautiful, cool morning.  The first event of the day was a guided bus tour.  We boarded the chartered bus at 8:45, which for us is a pretty normal start.  A few of our caravan mates don’t usually get started that early, so they considered 8:45 a very early start.

Our guide started off with some history.  She said that Kiwanis Passamaquoddy Park Campground is the oldest campground in Canada, having been used as a summer camp by the First Nation (Canadian for native Indians) over 2,500 years.  She said that First Nation people used this site until 1950s.

She then covered some of the history of St Andrews By The Sea.  It was settled by British loyalists when American Revolution treaty was signed in 1783 and established the U.S. and Canadian border as the St Croix River.  Many of these  British loyalists had previously settled on the north side of the Penobscot River in Maine at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1776, expecting it to be the northern boundary of the United States if the revolutionaries were successful. When the final treaty was signed, some of the British loyalists dismantled their houses and floated them by barge to St Andrews and reassembled them.  Our guide pointed out one of the homes that had been reassembled in St. Andrews that is still lived in today.

The city streets were named after eleven of Queen Charlotte’s children.  Apparently two of her children did not get streets named for them as the town was not laid out with enough streets.

As we passed by the High School, our guide (a science teacher) seemed right proud of the fact that they graduated 26 kids this year.  Last year the graduating class was only 12.

St Andrews was also home to many summer cottages of the wealthy in the 1800s.

The bus went by the Algonquin Resort, one of many resorts built by William Cornelius Van Horne as part of his railroad empire.  He built many resort hotels along the Trans-Canadian Railroad.  The tour stopped at the Greenock Presbyterian Church, built in 1824.  It is still used for worship services today on second and fourth Sundays.

The tour stopped at the old courthouse and old jail.  The jail was built in 1843 as the previous one was built along the waterfront and prisoners kept escaping.  The jail was constructed as a granite box - granite floors, granite walls and granite ceiling.  We were told it put an end to prisoner escapes.  The jail had 10 small cells downstairs (two were drunk tanks), 4 larger cells upstairs for debtors.  The prison log indicated most were imprisoned for drunkenness or debt.

We then went to Kingsbrae Garden for an included lunch.  Kris and I were fortunate that most of the seats were taken, so we had to sit at different tables, which enabled us to get to know some of our caravan mates better.

After lunch, we toured the gardens.  The estate and property which form the Garden were graciously donated by John and Lucinda Flemer.  This 27-acre site was created over two years, and open to visitors in 1998.  The garden features a cedar maze, two ponds, streams, a fully functional one-third scale Dutch windmill, a wide array of birds, butterflies and insects, a woodland trail through an Acadian forest, and more. The garden has more than 2,500 different varieties of trees, shrubs and plants, and many pathways to stroll along.  Our visit reminded us a lot of Gibbs Gardens in north Georgia.

After we toured the gardens, we jumped ship (elected not to ride the bus back to the campground - but we confessed early to the organizers so they would not file a missing persons report on us) and walked the five blocks into the town of St Andrews By the Sea.  Our plan had been to walk into town this afternoon, and by jumping ship, we only had to walk one way instead of both ways from the campground.  On the walk down King Street, we passed by the United Empire Loyalist Burial Site.

The town shops are clearly oriented to tourists, and with Monday being a Provincial holiday, the town was packed with people.  It was fun to wander the five or six blocks that constitute the main part of the city.  We also experienced tourist prices as we bought a Diet Coke and a frozen latte for over $10 Canadian.  We wandered down the pier and watched some of the goings on in the harbor, and locals fishing from the pier.  At least while we were there, they were casting lines in the water - we did not see a single fish caught.

We then walked the 1.4km back to the campground.

We relaxed for a few hours until we heard the horn blow a few rigs down.  Darrell joined the gathered group for awhile.  Like yesterday, the group was made up of first-timers.  First-time doing a Fantasy RV caravan, but many years of experience RVing.  

After dinner, we donned light jackets and joined another group socializing behind our rig until dark.