We had planned a westerly back track to St. Andrews because we wanted to be able to go to Ministers Island with a longer tidal window. For example, if we had been there on Monday, we would only have a 2-hour window to visit the island but by going on Friday we had a 5-hour window to visit the island. The back track was only about 30 minutes so not a big deal. Once we arrived in St. Andrews, we checked into the Kiwanis Oceanfront Campground where we had booked a site right on the water. Sharon did some research on the historic buildings in the downtown area, and we started a walking tour before going out for dinner. The town was founded in 1783 and has a British colonial settlement layout. We saw a Captain’s house from 1808, the customs building that was now a brewery (of course we had to stop to try one of their stouts), the All Saints Church from 1867, and a house from 1830 now for sale for $900K. Next was the County Gaol that operated from 1834 to 1979, the County Courthouse built in 1840 and with a carved coat of arms from 1858, and then we visited a few shops that were open along main street. Our last stop before dinner at the far end of downtown was the St. Andrews Blockhouse which was built during the War of 1812. It seemed fairly small but it was well constructed as a defensive tower to protect the town from any possible US attack since Maine was visible across the St. Croix River.

By this time, we were getting hungry, so we decided on a restaurant called William & Water for dinner. We didn’t have reservations, so we were lucky to get a table as it got very busy around 7 pm. This was a tapas style restaurant and the food was phenomenal! We had an excellent Cabernet Sauvignon from Argentina called The Icon Rock that we hadn’t tried before. Then we tried 4 different Tapas mains, Haddock Croquettes with Yellow Pepper Salsa, Mussels with Potato Chips (sounds odd but really good), Lobster Toast with Café de Paris Butter and Roasted Peppers, and we finished with the best dish Seared Scallops with Spicy Tomato Salsa and Pork Belly, OMG so good! For dessert Sharon had the Salted Carmel Chocolate Torte and I had the Homemade Cannoli with Pistachio and a finisher of a 12-year-old Laphroaig whiskey. If you are ever in St. Andrews and want to splurge on a fantastic meal, try out William & Water😉

The next day was our visit to Ministers Island by bike with our tidal crossing window being from 8:30 am to 2 pm. We got up early and put the bikes together so we could ride over to the crossing point. Riding there was very nice as they had a paved bike trail most of the way there. We got a discount on the entrance fee because we were staying at the Kiwanis Oceanfront Campground. We had used AI to build a biking tour document with all the history about the island and the Van Horne family so we could have it read to us as we biked along. At low tide the tidal bar to the island is revealed so you can cross by foot, by bike, or even by car. At high tide the tidal bar is covered by 16’ of water!

The perimeter trail around the island is for bikes or hiking and we got a laugh that they advertised it as a “Dust Free Trail”. If we had ridden the few gravel roads, they were extremely dusty. The trail started off on a gentle uphill climb along a row of old white spruce and cedar trees and then through a clearing until we reached the Covenhoven aka the “Summer Cottage”, hardly a cottage.

Now is a good time to give you a few key facts about William Cornelius Van Horne who was one of the most influential figures in Canadian railway history:

1. He oversaw the construction of Canada’s first transcontinental railway — As general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway starting in 1882, he drove the project to completion in 1885, finishing it in under half the originally projected time. 
2. He became president of the CPR — Van Horne rose quickly through the ranks, becoming vice‑president in 1884, president in 1888, and later chairman of the board in 1899.
3. He expanded the CPR into hotels and steamships — He launched the CPR’s sea transport division (Vancouver–Hong Kong service began in 1891) and initiated the company’s luxury hotel network in the 1890s.
4. He was knighted in 1894 — After declining the honour several times, he accepted and became an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG).
5. He spent his final 25 years on Minister’s Island near St. Andrews — Van Horne purchased the southern tip of the island and built his famous estate Covenhoven, where he lived until his death in 1915.

We toured around the outside of the buildings and then went inside Covenhoven where the docents gave us a brief introduction and then you could tour many of the rooms where more docents would explain the specifics of those rooms. The Van Horne family lived in Montreal but spent their summers at Covenhoven. A train station was built right across the water near the tidal bar so they could travel from Montreal to that train station to get to Ministers Island. They would send the staff 2 weeks ahead to get everything set up for their stay. The Van Hornes older daughter Adele took after her father and carried on his interests after he passed but their son Richard had no interest in the business affairs and preferred to gamble and drink a lot. In terms of quirky things, we learned about William Van Horne there are the following:

1. He sketched railway routes on the back of envelopes. Van Horne was famous for grabbing whatever scrap paper was nearby and drawing entire rail strategies on it — sometimes mid‑conversation, sometimes mid‑dinner. Executive meeting? Envelope. Train car? Envelope. Fancy hotel? Still an envelope.
2. He painted… a lot. When he wasn’t building a nation‑spanning railway, he was painting landscapes. Hundreds of them. His Minister’s Island studio was basically his “I need a break from being a titan of industry” room.
3. He collected everything. Art, fossils, Japanese ceramics, Cuban cigars, rare books — if it was interesting, he wanted it. His Minister’s Island home was part mansion, part museum, part “please don’t touch that, it’s from the Ming dynasty.”
4. He Doctor told him to cut his cigar smoking down to 3 cigars per day so he ordered 2’ long Cuban cigars😉
5. He raised prize-winning cattle on the island. His herd on Minister’s Island was so well‑bred that people came from across North America to see them. Imagine being a cow with a better pedigree than most aristocrats.
6. He slept very little (4 hours per night) and worked like a force of nature. Van Horne was known for his insane work ethic — he’d stay up all night reviewing plans, then hop on a train at dawn. People said he moved faster than the locomotives he built.

After we finished in Covenhoven we went to see the Bathhouse and the tidal pool, then the Garage, and lastly the Carriage House.

As we left the Covenhoven grounds the perimeter trail started to get far more difficult to bike with lots of roots and lots of elevation changes. The trail was well marked, and we did about half of it before stopping for lunch. At the north end of the island there was a tidal pool but of course no water in it since we were still under low tide. There was also an old hunting lodge that had collapsed. As we started to make our way up to the Barn we say a deer in the woods.

Our next stop was the totally amazing Barn, it was absolutely massive. The docent told us it had 3 floors, was 150’ long, and housed the prized cattle, Clydesdales, pigs, sheep, and fowl that Van Horne bred on the island. There was also a creamery building behind the barn and one of the original cottages on the island.  In the day, the barn was kept extremely clean and Van Horne made all the workers wear white lab coats.

We reached the St. Andrews side of the tidal bar at exactly 2 pm and we watched the tide come in for awhile. On our bike ride back, we went to another lookout point, and we could see the tidal bar was covered and that was around 2:50 so it only took 50 minutes for the initial tidal waters to cover the bar.

Once we returned from our 22 km ride, we enjoyed a beverage and found out that the campground was doing their cooked lobster delivery to your RV, so we ordered 2 lobsters for 6:30 pm. What a fun way to get your dinner delivered hot by a golf cart, and they even cracked the claws for us since we didn’t have any crackers in the RV. We both hadn’t eaten lobsters in a while, so we did a bit of YouTube searches to figure out some of the steps😉

When travelling we like to take the back roads whenever possible, today was one of those driving days.  We stopped at McKay’s Wild blueberry farm, no fresh berries but delicious pies and muffins have been taste tested.

We stopped to see a very pretty small waterfall named Lepreau Falls and happened upon another covered bridge built in 1910. 

We continued driving through small fishing towns along the coast before arriving in St. John.  We attempted to go see the Carleton Martello Tower.  We knew it was being renovated, we just weren’t expecting what we saw (or didn’t see).

Next stop The Reversing Falls, a wild stretch of the Saint John River where the Bay of Fundy’s powerful tides actually force the river to flow backward. At low tide you see churning rapids and whirlpools; at high tide the whole flow flips direction, at the 20-minute slack tide, the water is calm.  We were there during low tide so didn’t see the reverse flow but the whirlpools were still amazing to see. We walked over the bridge to the far side and returned so we could see further upriver.

Before leaving town to head for St. Martins, we stocked up on supplies with a stop for food, liquor, and diesel. Once in St. Martins we checked into our Oceanfront primitive campsite and then walked over to see the Sea Caves we had heard about. Over thousands of years, powerful tidal action carved the red sandstone cliffs into a series of sea caves. At low tide, you can walk along the ocean floor to explore the caves up close.  The tide was coming in so we couldn’t get to the caves but we did see a tour of kayaks paddling into the caves. Several people told us about The Caves Restaurant for its seafood chowder, so we had to sample it, and the seafood casserole and some scallops 😀.  As usual, everything was good. 

The next morning we had a stroll along the beach before exploring the 1946 covered bridge and drove through the only two lane covered bridge in the province.  In 2022 the two-lane bridge replaced the original 1935 bridge. It was interesting to see the 2-lane bridge at both high tide the night before and heading towards low tide in the morning.

With the tide going out, we were finally able to get to some of the caves.  It did require a small stream crossing where Joel wisely took off his hiking boots and Sharon got a soaker.  The tide wasn’t completely out and Joel attempted to get around the corner to see the 3^rd cave, but the seaweed was too slippery causing Joel to do a bit of seaweed sliding.

When we left the caves area we headed towards the Fundy Trail Parkway. When we reached the west gate, we thought we were now entering the Fundy National Park but in fact it was Fundy Trail Provincial Park, so we paid for the day pass to drive through the park. The ranger said it was a 45-minute drive without stops but it took us 4.5 hours with all the stops😉 There are many lookouts over the Bay of Fundy and the rugged cliff edges, as well as a flowerpot formation, Fuller Falls (our first time on Cable Steps), the interpretive centre talking about the logging at Big Salmon River, crazy switch back roads with up to 15% grades, a 1 hour hike to a small waterfall that the ranger suggested, and lastly a hike to Walten Glen Gorge which reminded us a lot of Ouimet Canyon near Thunder Bay. They had told us the gates would be locked at 5 pm so we had some pressure to complete the road prior to that and left with about 30 minutes to spare.

We continued our drive to Fundy National Park where we got checked in for a 4-night stay, but I will leave that until the next blog.