Our plan was to go to Camponella which is FDR's childhood summer home. It is also the only International Park in the world. The home is located on an island in New Brunswick. This island is tied closely with the United States so having a co-operative park makes sense. There are more Americans visiting the site than visitors from any other country. Going through customs was a piece of cake.
I must admit that we were jaded having already seen that summer cabin in Vermont. The Roosevelt cottage wasn't' as opulent as the Vanderbilt cabin, but beautiful nonetheless. Once again the rain prevented us from enjoying what the main attraction would have been--wonderful paths and trails all across the island. The paths were planned when the developers were marketing this island to the wealthy as summer retreats. The young FDR made full use of hiking paths and all kinds of water sports. It is a swell place. (Swell is a word used when FDR was young.)
Neither could we fully enjoy the wonders of the Bay of Fundy. This bay has the lowest low tides of anywhere in the world. When the tide is out...you know it. The bottom of the bay is exposed to all the beach combers (birds, animals and people). It seems like the tide was a -23 or -24 feet the day we were there. Very interesting to see. While we enjoyed our ice cream watching the tide turn, the proprietor told us that whales actually swim by the deck occasionally.
We bravely faced the rain and traveled to the north side of the island and thought to hike out to the lighthouse. What we couldn't see when we started this 15 minute walk (on a clear day) was the steps that had to be descended, mud and rock flat traversed and more steps ascended. The lighthouse can only be accessed by land when the tide is out. The steps looked steep but possible. That was when we lost the first in our party (Jerry returned to keep the truck warm). Chris, Rose and I held tight to the railing and descended. When we reached the rocks at the bottom we realized that they were more treacherous than the steps. Wet slimy rocks try to pitch you right over. Carefully we made our way to the other set of steps without incident. Ok, there were the stops to check on all the cool things caught in the tide-pools. At the top of the steps the trail wound through a small woodlot and then shazaam!! Another set of steps with the bottom of the bay between. At first I figured we did it once, we could do it again. But, there was a huge difference between these steps and the first ones: no barriers under the hand rails AND they were considerably steeper. The rain was really pouring by this time (see picture), Rose was without her sweatshirt and it just didn't seem prudent to jeopardize our well-being for this adventure. I was actually proud of myself that I did the common-sense thing and took their picture and went back to the truck. If it hadn't been for the rain it would have been less dangerous and a definite "do". Maybe next time?
I guess we can't do everything.
Chris got to choose what he wanted for dinner since it was his birthday and we were a long way from home. His choice was "Spaghetti or anything healthy." We hunted for an Italian restaurant for 70 miles, finally settling for a pizza place that advertised pasta. Guess what he ordered? Pizza. So much for healthy. The staff were great though and hunted up some candles to put on his piece of cake. They don't sing for people in restaurants here...so we didn't either. We sang in the truck.
Til next time
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