Saint John was a quieter place. It was not a small town like Gaspe, nor even a large town like Charlottetown or Sydney, but not quite a small city like Halifax. The population was listed at around 70,000. Something in between. It is also a city with a lot of industry immediately surrounding the main downtown area. It certainly looks like a working town.

Rehabbing downtown

There are lots of historic buildings in the town center, but the appearance is that it is still trying to build a tourist industry. Many buildings are being rehabilitated, but there is something of a lack of interesting things in the retail level of the buildings. We saw several grand old stone buildings being completely renovated and some with new condominiums and offices for sale, indicating better times to come. Our impression is of a city coming out of tough times.

Farmer’s market – ceiling said to resemble an inverted ships hull

Among some of the interesting things we did find were a very old Farmer’s Market, kind of like Pike Place Market, but smaller. We also stumbled across a wonderful relatively new woodworking shop. We liked the way one half of the space was their furniture showroom, and the other half was the shop, with only a half wall between the two. They are doing some very nice work, and Mike might have even picked up an idea or two. They also had a very friendly shop dog, Charlie. Tami happily received many licks.

Great bike – got to get me one of those!

We also loved the bicycle hanging from the ceiling. It was put together with various odd parts. The top tube was an old long handled shovel. The seat post is a baseball bat. The handlebars are from two hockey sticks. Not sure how well it would ride, but fun to look at!

Brew pub

See the blueberries?

We next found a nice little brewery/pub for lunch. Mike had a blueberry ale with real NE blueberries floating in it. We also decided to forego the lobster and both had fish and chips instead, and they DO know how to make good fish and chips out here. These were made with haddock and it was very, very fresh.

Notice the address – 1 Princess Street

Fellow Collaborators!

While walking around we also spotted a law office practicing Collaborative Law! We stopped in to say hello, but unfortunately the attorney was out. We did get to chat a bit with the receptionist about the state of Collaboration in these parts. It sounds like there is a thriving community. She also told us that up on Prince Edward Island there is also a strong community, and hardly any cases even go to court there anymore – a goal to strive for!

Mike in a few more years

Love this trash bin – “Ricky Receptacle says thank you”

Interesting media mogul meeting taking place in front of building

In the afternoon we attempted to take a walk out to the “reversing falls”. Saint John is on the Bay of Fundy, which is known for its strong tides. Just out of downtown is an area near the mouth of the inner bay where there are some rapids, and apparently the tide is strong enough that when it is rising it overwhelms the outflow and forces a reverse flow. We talked to our waitress in the pub and she let us know that there is no actual falls to see, just a lot of swirling water. Sounds a bit like Deception Pass.

Blockhead by the blockhouse, view of downtown

Our ship with a much smaller cruise ship parked behind it. The other one is a Silver Seas ship. We talked to a woman on our ship who had sailed with Silver Seas before. Much fancier (generally goes with having smaller ships) and more expensive. She said you have to dress up for dinner every night – NOT a plus as far as we are concerned – the couple dress up nights on our ship are more than enough.

Anyway, we started that way, but the walking path turned out to be blocked for construction, so we veered off in another direction. We ended up at the top of a nearby hill that was crowned by an old block house. The blockhouse was closed, but there was a nice view. We continued our walk back into town and had another day of over eight miles of walking. We are working off at least a small bit of our delicious meals.

We are now in our cabin and just got the very disappointing news that tomorrow’s stop in Bar Harbor has been cancelled. Apparently they are now predicting high winds and it would be too dangerous for us to go in. Therefore today was our last port of call and we will be spending the next two days at sea. They said they are working on a new schedule of on board events for tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll be able to find some things to do. If not, at least we have lots of books.

Tomorrow was going to be a big cycling day for us, so now we might just have to make a few turns on the promenade deck. On foot, that is. We don’t think they’d take kindly to us riding our bikes around. While we are disappointed in missing the Bar Harbor stop, it only reinforces what we had already decided, which is that we need to make another trip out this way and plan more time to that we can really explore this entire area.