Last day in Canada

After Hopewell Cape we drove down the coast through the Fundy National Park to St John. Funny the Fundy Park was a nice drive but the road was inland and we never saw the coast. At St. John we stopped at Reverse Falls and either we were 6 hours too early or 6 hours too late. The tide, unfortunately, was going out and all we saw was rapids. On an incoming tide the amount of water coming in is so strong it makes the rapid like a "reverse falls" or something like that. Anyway, we wound up , that evening, at one of our favorite Canadian places - St Andrews - and back at the Kiwanis Oceanfront Campground.

Sunday in St Andrews was their Art-rageous Festival, one of their biggest events of the year. The site was the Kingsbrae Gardens and the even included their highly acclaimed annual sculpture competition. There was a farmer's market and some craft and food vendors as well as art workshops for children from the area schools. Included in gardens is a beautiful Gardens Cafe in the turn of the century Edward Maxwell manor home original to the estate that makes up the bulk of the garden's 27 acres.

The feature event of the Festival was a concert by the Sistema Childrens Orchestra from St John. Sistema, originated in Venezuela and now adopted by New Bruswick is a program which provides instruments and after school music lessons for underprivileged children starting in the first grade.

St Andrews has always been a resort town and here's one of their grand structures. The Algonquin Hotel opened in June 1889. The Loyalist residents of St. Andrews helped to develop the summer tourism that the hotel was creating among residents of humid inland cities of North America.

One of The Algonquin's best known attractions was its saltwater baths. Saltwater was pumped from Passamaquoddy Bay to the hotel atop the hill overlooking St. Andrews and held in water tanks in the hotel attic. Guests used bathtubs designed with four taps, two for fresh water and two for saltwater.

After the concert we packed up and crossed the border back to Calais, ME.