We stopped in Fredericton, New Brunswick, to break up the long drive from Prince Edward Island to Quebec, and it turned out to be a great stop! Fredericton is the capital of the province of New Brunswick, something that we didn't know until we got there- this trip is really revealing the atrocity of my geography skills. We stayed one night with a nursing student who was studying for her finals (brought me back to Kate's finals cramming!), and she thoughtfully keeps brochures of things to do in Fredericton at her apartment. Per her suggestion, we went to the Fredericton "Under the Stars" classic film series, where they project classic movies onto a screen in a plaza downtown! The movie showing that night was a Hitchcock spy thriller, not really my type of movie, but it had Cary Grant, so how bad could it be? Well, as it turns out, really bad. Fortunately, the DVD glitched halfway through, so Adam and I were able to make a quick exit and not suffer through the rest of the movie. Even though the movie wasn't great, the event was still fun!
During our sightseeing day in Fredericton, we started off by going to the ceremonial changing of the guard in what is aptly named "Officer's Square". The guard consisted of several soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets, a bagpiper, a drummer, and one soldier armed with a battleaxe (that's right, a battleaxe!). What struck us most about the guard, however, was that they were all so YOUNG! Some of them looked about twelve. They weren't fantastically in sync, but considering their age, they did pretty darn well. After the changing of the guard, they continued to patrol the city in pairs or trios, still with their rifles!
We continued to walk around the city, going to the military museum where guides in period dress were dying for us to ask them questions (they must have been quite bored), walking by city hall and the old military bunkers, and getting a better view of the river and the bike path from atop a pedestrian bridge. Downtown Fredericton is a very cute city, with a lot of interesting buildings and tiny stores. Adam also sampled the beers at Picaroon's Brewery, where "one was really good and the others were... odd".
Our next stop was the Fredericton Botanical Garden, since I love flowers. When we got there, we had a bit of trouble figuring out which path to take, and when we did get to some flowers, they were less impressive than most people's front yards. We assumed the gardens would get better as we moved on, but alas- every sign we saw after that first garden proclaimed the "Future Home of" some very impressive garden. Once again, we were duped, later confirmed by our second Fredericton host who didn't even know there WERE botanical gardens... because there aren't yet. At least the garden had some pretty views...
At this point, we gave up on sightseeing and went to the Mactaquac Provincial Park on the Saint John River (pronounced MACK-ta-quack- it's ok, you can laugh!). It was a pretty little park with some lovely views from the river, and being such a hot day, Adam and I were glad to get the chance to go swimming. We spent a pleasant afternoon here before going to stay with an accountant (Pam- she loves it!) who had Zeus- the goofiest Bernese Mountain Dog- he was adorable! But for all his goofy looks, he wins the prize so far of best-behaved dog we have encountered on our trip.
The rest of the Fredericton pictures will be put up in an album on the Pictures page shortly- please excuse the change in format, we already ran out of space on our Picasa account and had to switch to Photobucket, which neither of us are particularly familiar with. If you encounter issues viewing it, let us know!
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