Once a year my sister and I vacation together. We both go with the flow and have a good time doing even the stupidest things, however, neither of us can make decisions and are unwilling to put effort into planning. So, this year we decided to do a bus tour from Connecticut to Saint John, New Brunswick and let Friendship Tours make all the arrangements and we just had to show up.
On the way up we stopped in Portland, Maine for a couple hours for lunch and to spend some time around town. I got engaged near Portland and spent a weekend there previously, it’s a chill sea-side town with plenty of restaurants and ocean views. It’s great place for a pit stop or a long weekend.
When it came time to cross the border between the USA and Canada, I was concerned because of the animosity between our two countries right now. I’ve crossed the border in the past and it usually takes an hour or so to get through the lines, but this time it was like a ghost town. There were no cars crossing in either direction. We got a whole bus through in twenty minutes but it took longer with folks waiting in line to use the one restroom at customs. There was a building that had more restrooms across all the lanes of non-existent traffic, so a guard was nice enough to take some of us over. My sister and I may have knocked a few of the older and less able-bodied folks out of the way, in order to chase after the cute guard and his even cuter drug-sniffing dog.
Our first stop over the border was in St. Andrews which is another quaint sea-side town that had a walkable downtown, as well as the beautiful twenty-seven acre Kingsbrea Gardens. It was great to get out of the bus and walk around the gardens. Looking at flowers is nice and all, but give me a spacious sculpture garden any day.
When we got to Saint John, our hotel was right on the water which was great but the town was quietier than I expected, who knew places still closed on Sundays. Luckily we got in early enough for me to check out their Container Village which was on my must see list. It’s an outdoor mall made of rehabbed train cars spray painted in graffiti. There’s a stage in the middle but unfortunately no music was on the bill the days we were there.
Saint John is known for their Reversing Falls (which are just rapids) that flow in two different directions, its where The Bay Of Fundy and Saint John River collide. At low tide the river goes into the bay and at high tide they reverse. We were lucky enough to be staying in Saint John long enough to go at low tide with our bus and then walk back along The Harbour Passage Trail at high tide to see the shift. I’m not really a science gay, so the “phenomenon” was wasted on me, but I did get to see seals swimming.
Day four of seven, we got back on the bus for a two-and-a-half hour ride to The Bay Of Fundy. With our tour we got reservations to do The Walk At The Bottom Of The Sea at Hopewell Rocks. During a short window when the tide is out, you can walk out to these huge rocks that are usually under water. We had a guide explaining the particulars and scientific stuff but we blew him off to do our own thing. We wanted as much time as possible to explore. It was breathtaking and unlike anything I’ve experienced before. Afterwards, I had a bit of free time to hit the hiking trails but I wish I had more time because they seemed to have wide paths without bugs.
Heading back to Saint John, we stopped at the Albert County Museum for lunch and a tour. During our trip we had meals included and all the places accommodated my vegan diet by throwing together a stir fry or something, but at the museum, the lady in charge was vegetarian so I got soup and vegan lasagna that was to die for. Just like I’m not a science gay, I’m not a historical one either, so I just strolled around looking at random things…and this museum was random. Soldier medals, farm equipment, dinosaur bones, period piece outfits on creepy faceless dolls…I’m still having nightmares.
Our final stop was at Acadia National Park in Maine. We had a guided tour but unfortunately the fog was too thick to see much of anything. We made a few stops on our way up Cadillac Mountain which has like the highest peak on the east coast (or something like that, I’m not a geographical gay either). One stop was Thunder Hole (how’d they know my nickname in high school) which is a cave that makes a noise like thunder and sometimes erupts when the tides hit it. We heard some moaning (from the hole and fellow passengers) but the splashing wasn’t spectacular.
In the afternoon the bus took us to downtown Bay Harbor that has tons of shopping and restaurants. Included in our trip was a lobster fishing and seal watching boat tour, but I wasn’t getting on no boat in the fog to watch them pull up lobster traps, and my sister agreed. Instead we hiked the Ocean Path Trail along the bay back in Acadia, which was on her To-Do List. Luckily, Acadia has a free shuttle called The Island Explorer that you can hop on and off throughout the park, which we took a few times to explore and it dropped us at our hotel. In my gay opinion, that’s the best way to get around Acadia.
If you’re into hiking and getting out in nature for a vacation, both The Bay Of Fundy and Acadia National Park could be for you. We spent a day in each but there was more to see and do with more time. I love vacations where you can get a taste of different places instead of being stuck in just one place. So, if I never make it back, I still consider it a successful trip because I got to see and experience so much, just not everything.
