Some Afterthoughts

We have some time to kill before leaving for the airport, so here are some afterthoughts.

I planned the itinerary to leave yesterday as an empty day so that we could slip the schedule if we had to. As it turned out, we kept the schedule by dropping some planned stops and ended up with a pretty empty day. It was relaxing, but it would have been nice to take something else in. We missed the stop at the Acadian Village at Caraquet, the Ross Farm at New Ross (near Halifax), the Orwell Historic Village on PEI, and the New Brunswick Museum in St. John. There were a few lesser misses also. Everywhere we went, we could have spent more time. I guess three weeks isn't long enough.

It was quite interesting to refresh our memories of that early Canadian history dimly remembered from 40 or so years ago. They were sure tough times with the major powers periodically at war and people being deported hither and yon.

In Nova Scotia and the Fundy Coast of New Brunswick, they have really romanticized their privateer history. A privateer is basically a pirate with a license from the government (the King) to harass someone else's shipping and steal their stuff. At the same time, our plains indians who were doing the same thing among themselves were considered to be primitive savages. About the only differences that made privateering civilized is that they used more advanced technology and paid tax!

Still Moncton

We went down to the river this morning to watch the tidal bore. I could say it was boring, but that would be too easy. It wasn't exactly exciting. Let's call it interesting. It starts with all these exposed mud flats. There are several herons and clouds of gulls all just hanging around waiting for the excitement to start. Finally, you can see a small wave working its way up the channel. This is the tide waters from the Bay of Fundy being forced up the channel. We were geared up for a wave about a foot high, but today's seemed less than that, maybe as little as six inches. I expect it varies from day to day depending on conditions. The birds became all excited and started fishing. We often saw one come up with a small fish. Usually, the others birds tried to steal the fish, the owner dropped it, and they all ended up with nothing, but often we saw a gull choke down a good sized meal. Over the course of about an hour, we watched the channel fill and the birds eat. Then we decided to walk and explore some more. We found a mall that makes Victoria Square look like a beehive of activity, with probably more vacant storefronts than leased.

After a couple of hours, we went back to the river to see how things had progressed. The vast majority of the birds were gone. I guess the feast was over. The channel was pretty full. And the flow had already reversed. It made a little wave as it flowed around one of the points and there was some rapids-like turbulence where the flow around the point was met by the stiff breeze blowing the other way. Here is the same view as above at a later time.

The morning was mild, about 15 degrees, but overcast and windy. It stayed dry for our entire morning of exploring, but a fine drizzle began to fall when we returned to the river. Soon after we returned to the car, a steady rain began to fall that persisted for the rest of the day.

We returned to the hotel, watched some TV and did some repacking of our bags to accommodate our souvenirs. In mid-afternoon we went out for a bite to eat. We had kind of forgotten about Magnetic Hill, just a mile or so from our hotel. It seemed a little bit lame and we hadn't made it a priority. But, since we were out, we decided to go. It was pretty simple, and you know it is an optical illusion, but, by golly, you really feel like you are rolling uphill! It was really pretty neat.

We returned to the hotel, had a swim, and that is about the end of this story. Our flight leaves at 12:45 tomorrow and we should be home at 6 pm Regina time.