Since I was in the middle of rebuilding my website, I didn’t have a chance to blog anything from summer but this past July, we took a family road trip over to Maine and up to New Brunswick, Canada. Our daughter has been interested in studying marine biology and, in looking for summer programs for young marine biology enthusiasts, I happened upon Whale Camp on Grand Manan Island, NB, CA. It looked perfect for her so I helped her with some fundraising efforts for her camp tuition and started saving for our next big family trip. The plan was to drop her off at Whale Camp and do our own family version of whale camp with the four-year-old while big sister lived her best life at actual Whale Camp. Both of them still talk about whale camp all of the time so I think it was a big hit for everyone even though we were in different places doing different things. I’ll share everything about Whale Camp, Grand Manan Island and other parts of our trip, including Acadia National Park and Hopewell Rocks, in future blog posts but I wanted to begin with one of the most charming towns I’ve ever been to, St. Andrews, NB.
Passamaquoddy Bay has a large tidal range. We got to experience the shifting of the tides during our time in St. Andrews and even more so as we headed further north deeper into the Bay of Fundy.
There are some places you travel through that fade from memory almost as quickly as they arrive. And then there are places that leave a lasting impact. St. Andrews, also referred to as St. Andrews by-the-Sea, is one of the latter. We came here for a whale cruise but we got so much more. During the planning of our trip, I pulled up a map of whale tours located along the length of our road trip and clicked on each and every one of them to look at schedules, details, photographs and reviews. I kept coming back to the Jolly Breeze located in St. Andrews because it looked more like a full experience than just an outing and it was! More on that in my next post. Since we were only going to be spending one night in town and spending much of the next day out on the boat and then heading north up the coast of the Bay of Fundy, I didn’t look at anything else that St. Andrews had to offer. We were going to be there for less than 24 hours after all. Little did I know, it would be a highlight of our trip.
After a long line at the border and a couple of scenic hours on the road, we arrived at St. Andrews late in the day and checked in to our very cozy room at the Europa Inn which was perfectly situated in the historic downtown area of St. Andrews.
St. Andrews is very walkable, so we headed out on foot to look for a good family friendly spot for dinner, somewhere we could try some locally caught seafood. We were delighted to find Char and Chowder just a few steps from the inn. The open, airy atmosphere and farm/boat to table menu drew us right in. I noticed right away, there were cozy blankets on hand for the evening chill which I thought was a brilliant idea and made it feel even more welcoming. The lobster roll and house greens sounded like an excellent way to try lobster for the first time and it was. The house greens might have actually stolen the show though. So good.
After we all enjoyed our meal, we wanted to stretch our legs, check out the wharf and see if we could catch a glimpse of any little sea creatures. By this time, the wharf was becoming cloaked in evening fog giving it the exact ambiance you’d expect for a northeastern seaside town. The photographer in me was beyond delighted to have such a moody evening to walk around and photograph the shops and buoys, boats and sea creatures. A damp chill in the air, earthy seashore smell of the receding tide, the fog slowly blanketing the town, a kind local on an evening stroll with her dog giving us tips on seeing moon jellies. A perfectly quiet evening with a sleepy seaside town vibe. We really couldn’t have asked for a more delightful experience of St. Andrews by-the-Sea.
The Jolly Breeze, which we would be going out on the next day, looked absolutely stunning at rest on the still, foggy waters of the harbor.
We were so excited to see jellyfish and starfish all around the wharf. We would all excitedly point them out even if it was the sixth moon jelly we had seen. Each sighting was just as exciting as the first. It was such a great experience for Callen.
I always buy a book for my children as a family vacation keepsake so I was a little bit heartbroken to see we arrived after opening hours for this adorable, alluring bookshop, Bucca dell’Acqua. My husband joked, “Well, I guess we’ll have to come back.” Yes, obviously yes. It’s only a two-day drive from home.
When it was time to head north to the next stop on our road trip, we found ourselves wishing we had a bit more time to explore the shops during open hours, walk through the gardens and discover more of the town’s history. We absolutely agreed that had we known St. Andrews would be such a charming little town, we would have planned a bit more time there.
In my next post, I’ll be sharing about our wonderful experience the following morning aboard the Jolly Breeze and how the town of St. Andrews becomes a vibrant, bustling place in the light of day. Thanks for coming along on this journey with me.
