Having a Fundy Time

Sunday, July 11—Day 14

At breakfast we meet a nice Canadian family on their way to New Hampshire. The wife is from Nova Scotia and the husband is from Newfoundland. We have a good conversation about places to visits in Newfoundland. After breakfast we load the car and head to Fundy National Park. It is an overcast, misty morning and it doesn't look as though the sun is going to put in an appearance today. On the way out of St. John, we stop at the Royal Bank of Canada and I use my debit card to withdraw cash—success! We were a bit worried and frustrated yesterday, but now that we know my card will work at specific locations, we are relieved and happy.

The drive to Fundy National Park takes about 2 hours. We have Sirius satellite radio in the rental car and have found several stations that we like: NPR, financial news, bluegrass, soft rock, and a short story/novel station. This morning we listen to bluegrass as we drive along. We stop to eat lunch and get groceries at Sobey's just before reaching Fundy National Park.

In the park we drive leisurely through and eventually reach the interpretation center near Alma. It is still raining, so we go to Alma and check in to our cottage overlooking the Bay of Fundy. Once we've unloaded everything and the girls have checked out both floors of the cottage and decided which side of the loft each of them gets for the night we don rain gear and head back into the park to do the Dickson Falls hike.

Even though it is raining, the temperature is about 72ºF, so it isn't unpleasant. The Dickson Falls trail is a little over 2 kilometers and has some rather steep sections. As we hike we identify fir, spruce, birch and maple trees. As we descend toward the stream and falls the ferns and moss become thick and Old Man's Beard, a green-grey lichen, hangs in the tree branches.

We hear the stream and falls before we see them and when we get to the boardwalk path along the creek the view is lovely! The forest is deep green and the water tumbles over the rocks and the edge of the falls.

We hike back up the hillside and arrive at the car soaked in spite of the raingear. We get in the car and turn on the air conditioning to dry off as we drive to see the covered bridge and Point Wolfe before returning to the cabin for a warm shower and dinner.

Fundy National Park was established in 1948 and the geography is known as Maritime Acadian Highlands. It is a large rainforest and receives nearly 60 inches of rain each year. We can attest to the rain in the park—it doesn't stop raining the whole time we are here. The rain, however, does not detract from the beauty of our visit.

When we get back to the cabin the girls go to stables to pet the horses, Emma and Pepper. They spoil the horses with sweet treats and clover and fall in love with both of them! Hilary colors a picture of the horses and gives it to the owner. He hangs it up in the office and is pleased because no one else has drawn a picture for the horses before.

After we get the kids to bed we enjoy an evening in front of the fire reading and listening to the rain falling outside. When we arrived at the park in the afternoon it was low tide. High tide was right around midnight. I get up around midnight hoping to see the high tide at the wharf we can see from our cottage windows, but the clouds have settled low on the town of Alma and the view is nothing but grey mist swirling outside the cottage.