A Look In The Rearview Mirror

Women Who Wander NB

A look back

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The Women Who Wander NB are about to hit the 2021 road!

The Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) has been buffed, polished and fueled. The New Brunswick Atlas has been tucked securely into the back seat pocket in the event that Google Maps and/or Siri fail to do their jobs! Camera’s are ready and our spirits of adventure are on high alert!

Admittedly, our 2020 travels were greatly impacted by Covid19 restrictions. Our amazing road trips were, at least in part, a solution to that diminishing hold on sanity that we, and many other folks as well, experienced (and continue to experience) compliments of this pandemic. (While our grip on sanity is always in question, let’s face it, a day on the road with your BFF’s can make everything seem better)!

In our previous lives as New Brunswick civil servants working in the field of Tourism and Business Development, we had all been lost a few times on the back roads of New Brunswick – but never lost together during those years! After retirement, that all changed. We’ve had many adventures, discoveries, scrapes, scares and laughs together. So many, in fact, that we decided to document our adventures and Women Who Wander NB was born. Ever since, we’ve managed to get lost together MANY times and, better yet, we are about to do it again!

In an attempt to tempt you (or prepare you) for what is to come over the summer this year, here is a quick look at 2020 in Review!

Our first ever official Women Who Wander NB adventure (”Eating, Shopping, Laughing” ) took us to Boiestown, NB and a visit to Candle In The Window gift shop. This is an absolutely charming shop in a lovely old house just a short 45 minutes out of Fredericton.

Of course, we needed fuel for the trip and JPM Canteen on the Killarney Road provided that fuel with a lip-smacking lunch on the way to Boiestown and a supersized ice-cream cone on the way back!

A tour of Hosta Heaven, (rounded out our trip and filled our trunk as Hosta plants joined the giftware already in the boot of the Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) from our Candle In The Window finds earlier in the day.

Adventure Two, (“Ladies Who Lunch”) took us to Canada Green Nursery in Saint George, NB. EVERYONE should visit this nursery at least once – gardener or not! The grounds were beautifully landscaped and well worth a wander. We can’t wait to get back there!

That tour set the scene nicely for a lunch at Kingsbrae Café and a stroll around Kingsbrae Garden in Saint Andrews, NB. Such a peaceful and beautiful afternoon that was!

Adventure Three (“Let Them Eat Chocolate”) was a feast for the eyes and for the stomachs of the Women Who Wander NB as we found ourselves in the St. Stephen, NB area for a visit to Old Ridge Antiques and The Chocolate Museum at the Ganong Chocolate Factory.

Just a short skip and jump down the road, our tour continued with another gastronomic binge at the famous Comeau’s Seafood in Saint George, NB. and a discovery that just next door to Comeau’s is another lovely little nursery called A Change of Seasons!

What a day! Lobster rolls and the purchase of Morden rose bushes finished off that adventure!

Adventure Four (Old Familiar Places) causes us to wonder how we fit so much into one day as we did with that one! The day started with a visit to the wonderful MacPherson’s Bee Apiary where we purchased Baby Power fragranced lotion in quantities that, we’re pretty sure, will last a good year!

That purchase secured in the trunk, we headed over to The Currie House Museum, Hall’s Orchards (home of Rosie Posie Wigglebottom), over to Brown’s Flat and The Baleman’s Market, Beulah Camp and Conference Center, and finally, to Gagetown, NB for a much needed feast at Gulliver’s World Café.

Phew! Now THAT was a day!

Adventure Five (The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Women) REALLY took us off the beaten path (translation: we got lost). In so doing, however, it opened up a treasure trove of things to discover!

From the breathtaking entry into Fundy National Park to Kelly’s Bake Shop (home of the World Famous Sticky Bun), to Waterside Farms Cottage Winery and over to Cape Enrage (listed in Frommer's Travel Guide as the Best View in Canada) for another dose of scenic seascape views! From The Anderson Hollow Light House, to the HaHa Cemetery and The Pink Church Boutique in Hillsborough, the afternoon culminated with (what else), another feast, this time at Rocco’s Cucina to hold us until our next experience that even the wordy Women Who Wander NB find hard to describe!!!

Adventure 6 (Lavender Fields Forever) turned out to be another of those lonnnnngggggg days as every corner we rounded offered up a unique new experience. We set out bright and early for Lavender at Ocean Breeze Farm in St.-Edouard-de-Kent and by the time we had finished the day, nightfall had arrived! Chalets Cap Lumiere, Savonnerie Olivier Soapery, and the absolutely fascinating Wood Chips What Knots and Antiques were just a few of our stops that day!

Next up, Adventure Seven (Island Girls)! We started this adventure with a quick tour of St. George to check out the old dam and the new picnic ground area. From there, it was on to L’Etete. NB and the Deer Island Ferry. We barely got The Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) off that ferry and onto solid ground when we made our first stop at Spirit Of The Island, a well-worth-the-visit gift shop featuring the craftiness of Michelle Proulx and her husband, Michel!

Our trip around the Island was faster than we would have liked but we were bound and determined to get to Campobello Island and didn’t want to miss the ferry! This trip merely served to tell us that we need to go back and check out, in more detail, Janice’s Veggies, The 45th Parallel Restaurant, Roosevelt Park, Head Harbour Light Station, and we really need to eat at the Pier Waterfront Restaurant. We’re thinking that, perhaps, an overnight stay at The Deer Island Inn may be in our future!

Adventure Eight (Backroads and River Crossings) was a day to meet Sir Leonard Tilley and his dear Mother, Mrs. Thomas Tilley and to explore the Village of Gagetown! The Tilley House Museum, Bankside Cottage Gallery, The Steamer Stop Inn and The Creek View Restaurant are just a few places to check out in one of NB’s most charming villages.

We could have spent the day in Gagetown but we took ourselves on to Sussex, NB to have lunch at Taste and See Restaurant. The rest of the day evaporated exploring the Lower Saint John River Valley and criss-crossing the river on the plethora of ferries dotting the New Brunswick waterway!

Adventure Nine (Tide and Time Wait for No Woman), also known as Panoramas, Parkways and Painless Parker, was one of our favourite wanders!

This wander took us along Route 825 for the morning landing us in St. Martins at The Caves Restaurant where we fueled up on delicious fish and chips and lobster rolls then to the Octopus Ice Cream parlor for an ice cream par excellence. We have no idea how the Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) managed to huff and puff her way through the hills of the Fundy Parkway with our three overly stuffed piglets on board!!! But chug along she did and we are glad for it.

The views from the Fundy Parkway rival all others!

2020’s Adventures wound up with number Ten (Country Roads and Small Towns). Our final trip of the year, took us up the 105 starting in Douglas, NB. We were in the car a mere 5 minutes when we found The Douglas Country Market, a great place to shop local!

That finished, we were onward and upward for another 10 minutes when we found ourselves eating at Keswick Kitchen! That had to be a record! On the road again and heading to Florenceville, NB, touring the charming town of Nackawic on the way through, marveled at the size of Nackawick’s famous Big Axe and, of course, made a quick stop at The Big Axe Brewery!

Finally arriving Florenceville, we were blown away by the exhibits at The Andrew and Laura McCain Art Gallery, then scooted through the longest covered bridge in the world at Hartland, NB.

We did so much more before we reached home it’s exhausting remembering it all! We’re not going to tell you everything right now because we’re going back and you’ll hear all about it in one of our 2021 adventures!

That wraps up 2020 and brings us to 2021. A year full of promise of better times ahead and exciting adventures to be had. For an end of restrictions and masks and fear in exchange for a return to laughter with BFF's, crazy scrapes, awesome feasts and fun of every kind.

We’re excited and can’t wait to find out if our first 2021 adventure will take us north, south, east or west – or maybe a combination of them all!

Come along with us! Check out our blog at 3womenwhowander.wixsite.com/mysite-1 (then click “Blog” at the top of the page).

Just adveture!

Women Who Wander NB

Lynne, Barb & Gail