The Bore

Today we awoke to loud noises all around us at the exhibition grounds. There were people putting up tents, getting old fashioned wagons ready, and putting rides together. And on this fairgrounds there is a Tim Horton’s coffee shop. They are everywhere you go here, we saw some in Montreal too, and they seem to always be very busy.

When we were ready we headed for Moncton, going east on highway 2, it is the next big town, about two hours away.

The difference in the New Brunswick landscape is very noticeable. There are pine trees with branches that droop down. There are some with branches that go up. It also seems more rocky and sandy everywhere. There are not that many houses along the way. Even in towns it seems that where one house was built then a few more followed. The houses and buildings are few and far in between, after each small grouping, you can go for several more miles without seeing any. But in the actual cities, both in Moncton and Fredericton, the buildings downtown seem pretty new, not old fashioned at all. The homes themselves don’t seem much different at least from the outside. The colors are about the same palette as in New England. There is the cape cod style and the bungle and clap board. Many of the houses have the same type of front doors.

The people here are very friendly and love to talk. Strangers have given us advise on just about everything and always want to know where we are from. Last night we were waiting at a corner and an older man walked right up to Bella and asked where we were from, called his wife over, and they both just started talking to us, they were so nice. It was them who gave us directions to the fairgrounds.

In Moncton we drove around doing some exploring and made our first stop at The Bore. Bernie’s mom had said that we should take a look at it. The Bore is basically a dry river for 12 hours, it is a big void where there is no water until the tide comes back in. Then amazingly in about an hour it fills up again for another 12 hours. It used to be that it filled up to several feet high. But they built a causeway and now it only gets to a couple feet high and the wave is more of a ripple. This is salt water, it comes all the way from the Bay of Fundy, which is pretty amazing.

The place to watch The Bore is at this little cute park we found on Main Street, with bleachers facing the river for watching The Bore. The park has beautiful landscaping and lots of flowers. There is also a magnificent monument to the first mayor of Moncton, the monument is a fountain in the abstract shape of a ship (see pic).

We had some time before the next tide so we decided to do some more exploring. We went to The Crystal Palace, an indoor fair with lots of rides for children. It was cool. There is even a roller coaster inside.

Then we went to the Chapters Bookstore next door. We went to the travel section to look at books about Canada. We actually learned a lot and found some new things we’d like to go see.

We left the bookstore and went back to The Bore. It was cold and difficult to see in the dark, so we didn’t wait for the tide to fully come in. We then headed to Staples to use their wi-fi and stay the night in their parking lot. Tomorrow is a new day and there is so much to see and so many new places to explore.