“Life’s a climb but the view is great.” – Miley Cyrus
Another one of our adventures on Thursday was to drive the Fundy Trail Parkway. It’s a 6,323 acre park featuring a 19 mile paved road that hugs the southern coast of New Brunswick. It has stunning views of the world-renowned Bay of Fundy, the park has been carved out of the Fundy escarpment, one of the last remaining coastal wilderness areas between Florida and Labrador.
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“I believe in the ocean…curing all bad moods. I believe in the waves…wiping away worries. I believe in the seashells…bringing good luck. I believe in toes in the sand…grounding my soul.” —Unknown
Our Nova Scotia adventure has turned into a New Brunswick adventure. Hurricane Dorian has Halifax in her sights…high winds and rain are predicted for this weekend, so we’re going up the Acadian Coastal. This path will take us inland and up towards the Gulf of St. Lawerence. It’s a road trip and we have no set plans, so anywhere new is exciting to us.
One of the places we explored yesterday was the St. Martins Sea Caves. They’re natural caves carved into 250 million year old rocks by the powerful Fundy tide. The sea caves can be accessed for eight hours each day, two hours before and two hours after each low tide. We spent the morning wandering along the cliffs and walking on the ocean floor that is under 35+ feet of water at high tide.
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“As steady as the tides, Life constantly uncovers the treasures hidden within us.” –Unknown
Today we did a lot of exploring…too much to do one blog. So I’ll share what we did and what we saw in parts…first pictures of St. Martins. It’s a picturesque village rich in seafaring history. It was once one of the richest shipbuilding cities in the British Empire. More than 500 sailing ships were constructed here in the 1800s. Today the village is best known for its sandstone sea caves – submerged during high tide, and accessible to explorers during low tide. There are also miles of unspoiled beaches, two lighthouses and an active harbor with two covered bridges.
This community’s daily rhythms are guided by the rising and falling of the World’s Highest Tides. At high tide, the colorful fishing boats bob almost level with the top of the pier. At low tide, the same boats sit in the red mud on the ocean floor.
Quaco Head Lighthouse – the original lighthouse was built in 1856 and sat off shore on a small island. This new one was built in 1985…the base is new, but the light is from the original lighthouse.
Views around the lighthouse
One of the covered bridges in St. Martins
There are cute little shops around the harbor. We had a spectacular day to explore St. Martins and the sea caves.
Here are pictures taken at low tide and the same pictures taken about two hours before high tide. What a difference.
Low tide pictures are first…then high tide.
Looking towards town
Looking towards the second covered bridge in St. Martins.
Aerial view of St. Martins harbor at high tide.
St. Martins Wishing Rocks – Local legend has it the Mi’kmaq believed that a stone with a band of white completely around it was a sing of good fortune from Mother Nature. I was told if you find one of these stones you should make a wish. Once the wish comes true, you’re supposed to pass the stone on to someone else.
“Life is just a journey” – Princess Diana
This trip is about the journey…not the destination. Today we took the roads less traveled, back roads that took us through A LOT of small, beautiful towns. We traveled through new places we haven’t seen in New York, then across Vermont, New Hampshire and and up the Maine coast to Freeport.
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“What we find in a soulmate is not something wild to tame, but something wild to run with.” – Robert Brault
Our newest little grandwonder arrived last week and we spent three wonderful days getting to know her and playing with her older brother and sister, but now we’re off on our next adventure.
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“The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.” —Arnold Palmer
“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” -John Muir
On Saturday we finally got a nice day to explore and hike at Chimney Bluffs State Park. High water in Lake Ontario this past spring made hiking along the beach impossible, but today we were able to hike the beach and the Bluff Trail. We started with the beach and I was less than impressed…I guess my expectations were set too high. It was nice and I was glad we had come, but it just seemed like a rocky beach with cliffs that that weren’t too impressive…at least from the water. Well, all that changed as soon as we hiked to the top of the cliffs…the cliff definitely seemed higher and VERY impressive from the rim where we could have easily fallen off. The Bluff Trail gave us a wonderful view of the lake and an amazing look at the power of nature.
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“The big lesson in life is never be scared of anyone or anything.” ―Frank Sinatra
The Pearl is a Monk 36, hull #21, built in 1983…she’s old, 36 years old. We’ve done a lot of work on her, but this summer we’re giving her a facelift on the inside. Since the boat was built in the early 80s, it was built with ugly gold formica and gold vinyl in the shower. We painted the shower when we first bought the boat and it has held up very well. Our formica was so worn out the color was completely gone in some areas. We had several options for improving it…we could have new countertops installed, new formica laid or paint what we have. The easiest and cheapest way to go was paint.
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“Learn to depend upon yourself by doing things in accordance with your own way of thinking.” -Grenville Kleiser
Last year I did a post that took readers on a tour of The Pearl…today’s post is an update to that tour. This summer we’ve been doing upgrades to the boat to refresh its look and make it feel a little more like home. When we bought the boat 9 1/2 years ago the saloon cushions were in good shape, so even though they weren’t the color I would have chosen, we left them alone and decorated the boat to match. After spending over 1500 days on the boat the cushions have gotten pretty worn out and needed to replaced, so now it was our chance to choose exactly what we wanted. It’s amazing how wonderful the new cushions feel and look…we love them.
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