Last Port of Call in Eastern Canada

A short, 60 mile, drive brought us to our last campground for our Eastern Canadian tour. We are staying at the Kiwanis Oceanside Campground in St. Anthony, New Brunswick. The campground is right on the banks of the Passamaquoddy Bay. Being on the Bay of Fundy, it does have the high tides but the sloping bay floor is such that the water does not pile up and in other places we have visited.

The next morning we caravaned to Ministers Island. It is accesable during low tide by driving on a gravel road across the bay. We relied on our wagonmasters to check the tide charts to make sure it was open. And we were greeted by this beautiful old, interesting barn.

The island was the home to many local area families over the years with the Van Horne family being responsible for the barn and the large summer mansion. Sir William Van Horne started work as a telegraph operator for the Illinois Central Railway in 1857. He worked his way up until he was asked to develop the Canadian Pacific Railway, which he completed. He became the CEO of the railway in 1899 and resigned in 1910. To say he was flamboyant, outspoken and multi-talented is an understatement. He had a passion for art and dabbled in architecture. The barn was constucted to hold and care for his throughobred horses and his prized herd of Dutch Belted cattle, the "oreo cows."

Looking up in one of the two silos attached to the barn. They are about 82 feet high and 16 feet and are designed to be part of the building giving it a castle like appearance.

A view of the farm structures where the cattle and goats were milked, chickens roamed free and the farm workers boarding quarters. This structure still draws crowds today. The silo to the left would be filled with eight acres of corn, two acres of beans and one acre of peas, to create the feed for the livestock.

Further down the road from the barn and on a hill overlooking the bay is the summer home. The home was supplied with well water pumped via windmill and stored in a railway tanker car that was buried on the grounds! This Hobbitesque building is the water supply. At the time, it was state of the art and had never been done in the area.

The windmill pumped the water to a 10,000 gal storage tank that was a buried railway tanker car. A kerosene powered pump then transported the water to the house and all the outlets. At the time it was beyond state of the art for the area.

Since the Van Horns lived at Ministers Island before household electricity was available, a "gas house" that use carbide pellets to produce acetylene gas was used to light the house. This again was state of the art for the area at the time.

The gas house is the smaller of the two buildings and distributed gas to the house for lighting. It was a touchy system and any problems with it produced a sooty, black smoke that would cover everything and require a deep scrubbing to remove.

The house was only a summer home and the Van Horns would leave and spend the winter in Montreal. While on the island, it was the center of the wealthy and prominent businessman social gathering and Van Horn is credited with turning St. Andrew into a summer retreat for the East Coasts wealthiest families and in the process putting St. Andrew on the map.

The home itself is a 50 room mansion and was decorated in the most lavish way. It is built of red sandstone that was mined on the island and had everything that a well to do family in the late 1800's could want.

This is the dining room the china is the actual settings used by the Van Horns, it is antique Limoges china. Not bad for starting off as a telegraph clerk!

The tide starting to come in as we left the island, hopefully to return someday.

The next day, our final on the tour, we were given tickets for the Kingsbrae Gardens. On their website, this is how they describe the 27 acre garden: "Kingsbrae Garden includes some of the great traditions in gardening, including the White, Rose, Knot, Perennial and Cottage gardens. Kingsbrae Garden is a place where traditional and modern gardening styles and plant materials are employed to enrich, preserve, and promote gardening. These include the Rhododendron, Heath & Heather, Ornamental Shrub, Dwarf Container, Bird & Butterfly, Herb, Hydrangea, Scents & Sensitivity, Knot, Rose, Perennial and Gravel gardens." It is home to 50,000 perennials, a restaurant, classrooms and art gallery. It is right in the town of St. Andrew and was a great place to view.

As you would guess, the sculpture is in the apple orchard garden. It is carved from an apple tree.

The late summer and fall flowers are in full bloom.

A portion of the white on white garden, it was really pretty in the bright sun. New Brunswick has had a dry summer and a lot of the flowers that are planted, just really didn't take. The garden staff has worked tirelessly to get it into a very nice condition. This includes a 93 year old lady who volunteers her time as a gardener here and comes in 6 days a week to tend, weed, water and plant!

Tonight is our End of Tour dinner and get together at the Kennedy House, no relation to the US Kennedy family, a notable inn and restaurant in St. Andrews, NB. On the plate tonight will be my last whole Canadian lobster till we return! The Kennedy House is owned by a husband and wife team who immigrated to New Brunswick from Belgium. Their restaurant manager has been with them for 21 years.

The Kennedy House has 23 guest rooms. The house, when opened in 1881 had 52 guest rooms, and they all shared a central bath area. Many of the rooms were combined to provide a wonderful lodging experience on the Passamaquaddy Bay.

We had a choice of Seafood chowder or a salad and a an entree of grilled scallops on greens, a steak or a whole lobster. It was a no brainier for me!

Why have some scallops when you can have all of this! The sweet corn was grilled and the lobster was great!

After dinner, we were treated to a three song concert by three of our traveling companions.

Catherine, the lady in red, sang us "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" in French! she lived in France for awhile as a youth. They then sang "Tom Dooley" and then we all sang "Saltwater Joys" by Buddy Whatshisname and the other Fellers, a Newfoundland group that started the revival of Newfoundland music. It was a pleasant evening but also bitter sweet knowing that we may never see some of these folks again.

The next morning we arose and were treated to a going away continental breakfast with lots of goodbys and hugs. We hooked up and as we waved to those still in the park, headed for the Calais crossing to the United States! It has been a wonderful tour and filled some bucket list items for us. We know we will see a few of the people at the 2026 opening week of the Balloon Fiesta since we have signed up to go with Fantasy RV Tours. When you signup for a tour while you are on a tour you get some extra savings so we will be going to Alaska in 2027 on their 61 day Ultimate Alaska Tour. That gives me two years to get our rig Alaska "ready". For now it is off to see Bangor ME, then Newport RI for a trip down memory lane, then off to Gettysburg Battlefield and Hershey's Chocolate World. After which we will stop at Antietam Battlefield then on to Pigeon Forge and the Blue Ridge Mountains before we head west. Hope you all have had as good summer as we have had and look forward to seeing you "down the road."