St Andrews NB Day 1

 We are off for a quick 2 day visit to St Andrews NB with the 2 oldest grandkids, Riley & Tyler.  Lima and Freddy are joining us with their 2 grandkids as well, Marlee & Caleb.  Marlee has softball during the day and will only join us at supper time.

It is a 3 hour drive from home.  The grandkids found a new purpose for the covid-19 mask along the way.  

Our first stop is for lunch at Jonesies take out and diner in Pennfield for lunch.  We stopped there a few weeks ago and the food was great. Wendy and I had burgers and they were great again. They serve them on pretzels buns.  One of the grandchildren had spicy chicken poutine and it was too hot for him but he eat most of it.  Their milkshakes look great as well but we were full and press for time, maybe some other times as they look to be a meal by themselves. 

The boys chatting up a storm, Caleb mostly

Caleb

What Jonesies used to be called

A short 30 minutes drive to St Andrews. First stop is the liquor store in town to pick up a couple of drinks for tonight. We then go check in at Picket Fence Motel. The room not fancy but very clean and the bed were very comfortable.

We then proceed to go downtown for a bit of shopping and sightseeing.  The store were limiting how many people could be inside at one time.  The boys were looking for hoodies, Tyler found one, but not Riley.

Saw a few deer in town

Water street which is the main street, one way traffic with no parking.

Saw a few old cars travelling together go down the main street. Riley loved them.

The downtown square on the water and one of the main restaurant.

Did not have much time to spend downtown as we had to meet at 3:30 to get ready for the whale watching tour.  We suited up at the company office and walked the pier to the zodiac where we got the security/rules speech from our captain.

Fundy Tide Runner office on the second floor

Our survival suit, hope we don't need it

Our captain giving us the drill

The 2 youngest, Tyler & Caleb, got to sit up front

Riley

Hope this blue mask matches my nice orange survival suit

A very quick ride to where the whales were. Twin 150 HP drives to boat to 60KM per hours.  No much wind today and that makes for a smooth ride. It took us around 30 minutes or so to ride 35 KM to where there was a humpback whale. It has been around for a couple of days.  Very easy for the captain to find the spot as there was 1 other tour boat already watching it.  A fishing boat was there as well cheering the whale "Chevron" to show its tail.  For the first 30 minutes it was kinda just sleep mode, and was not doing any major diving, just swimming around and once in a while would do a small dive and not showing its tail.

After waking up, Chevron showed up its tail 3 times, once it was just barely out of the water.

Good thing I comb my hair this morning

Just like when I was young and I rode a motorcycle

Grand Manan ferry going towards Blacks Harbour

The other tour boat watching the whale. our zodiac was a similar size

Fisherman and friends/family whale watching

Chevron

Yuppie

Caleb hoping to get to drive the boat, it did not happen

Another fishing boat came to watch the whale as welll

Swallowtail lighthouse on Grand Manan

There she blows

This was a great dive 

On the way back to the dock, we did a quick stop to see seals and a bald eagle as we were behind schedule as we spent more time than normal following the humpback whale. This was only the 8 or 9 times they have seen humpback whales this summer as they are gathering more on the south side of Grand Manan this year as that is where most of the feed is this year.  Usually they see minke whales that does not show its tail when diving.  We were lucky.

Might be Green Point lighthouse near where you catch the Deer Island Ferry

A 2 minute stop to see the seals and get a tiny bit of info

Deer Island ferries that we were on a few weeks ago

Deer Island Ferry terminal with Stuart Cove wharf in the back

Another 2 minutes stop

Pendebury lighthouse near St Andrews

happy Campers

Gift shop at the whale watching company

We ordered pizza to take back to the motel at a joint that was next to the whale watching tour office.  We sat outside on patio furniture as it was a nice evening.

Great mural

mural of the previous street picture on another building

Even the pirates are wearing masks

After supper, Wendy, Lima and the grandkids walked to a small park at the edge of town to try to get the kids to burn up some energy.

Tyler with his new St Andrews hoodie

Marlee checking to see if it is loaded

Beautiful Beach & Sunset

The motel owner lit up a fire in the firepit for us.  After the first load of wood was burned, we headed to bed and called it a night as we were all tired and we have a fun day planned for tomorrow..