Visiting the City of Saint John, New Brunswick

Going from a stay at a small town like Saint Andrews to the city of Saint John is a different experience, and a wonderful way to explore the Fundy coastline. We loved our stay at Hilton Saint John located by the wharf. We enjoyed the excitement of the city during the day and night. 

We had a beautiful view, and a comfortable stay at the Saint John Hilton. The hot and cold breakfast buffet, and the waffle bar are delicious, and a good start to the day before going to explore the attractions in Saint John. 

I liked that we were able to explore attractions like the museum and market easily by walking from the hotel and going through the walkway, which is perfect if it is cooler or raining outside.

We really enjoyed exploring the Irving Nature Park that has lots of trails and observation points that allow us to check out the Bay of Fundy in different perspectives. 

We loved exploring the different coloured rocks and taking a closer look at colourful rocks that were visible, as we went when the tide was low. 

We can either drive, walk, or bike the trails so depending on how much time you have you can either spend an hour or a day at this beautiful park.

There are lots of friendly squirrels at the park, as well as other animals like deer we can spot. We also spotted seals in the distance..

My family and I love museums because we can learn so much from visiting a museum about the past, present, and how we can be responsible citizens in the future. The friendly tour guides at the museum were able to answer all our curious questions. When you do visit this provincial New Brunswick Museum feel free to ask questions and enjoy a fun, educational visit.

It is neat to see how the tides are synchronized to the museum display so we can really understand how the tides work.

Learning about the ships and lumber industry of New Brunswick was fun. Since we love woodworking, it was really exciting to learn how the industry started.

We learned about the Marco Polo ship, which was the largest vessel that was built in New Brunswick in 1851. This ship measuring 57 metres from stem to stern, and weighing 1625 tons was designed as a cargo carrier and timber transport. In 1852 the ship was known to be the fastest ship in the world because of the quickest trip from Liverpool, England to Melbourne, Australia and was used for emigrant trade for more than 15 years. Due to a leak, in 1883 the ship was run ashore at Cape Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.

We also saw a preserved leatherback turtle that we learned about during our visit to a Turtle Hatchery in Sri Lanka.

After gaining knowledge about whales at the Ontario Science Centre we were excited to see and learn about whales. It was sad to see how much humans have impacted the lives of these gracious mammals, as we heard Delilah's story and death from a collision with a vessel. We can see how massive right whales are and learn about them closely by looking at Delilah's skeleton that is assembled and kept in the Mammal Gallery. This is the only full right whale skeleton on display in all of Canada.  

Conveyor belt of shark teeth

My children enjoyed playing in the children’s area and doing some crafts before we explored the different galleries in the museum. 

Taking the time to visit the New Brunswick’s Provincial Museum in Saint John is well worth, as it is educational and fun.

We enjoyed the small Saint John City Market that has lots of fresh produce, baked goods, and fish. We enjoyed a delicious take-out lunch at the market before heading to Saint Martins to check out the scenic Fundy Trail Parkway and the Scenic Caves.

Going to a new city and exploring new towns was easy for us because we drove the 2015 Toyota Sienna that has a built in GPS to navigate. We liked that when going in the highway, we were able to see upcoming points of interest, rest areas, and exits by their distance. This allowed us to plan ahead and decide where we wanted to stop. We found the wide angle back-up camera and the blind spot monitor system sensors during our travels very convenient, and having these made us feel safer. 

Everyone in the family enjoyed the variety of media options for music. Being able to see what songs were playing was fun as we sang along. Some of our time during the road trip, my children and I enjoyed sitting in the back to relax with a book, and also to watch movies on the wide angle screen. Road trips are fun when going in a comfy ride!

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