Our Favourite Things

3womenwhowander
Aug 29, 2022
7 min read

Women Who Wander NB

2022 Adventure Two

Churches and graveyards, museums and history

Tea rooms and sweet things and even a mystery

Potters and cider and beautiful sights

This was a trip full of all these delights!

When the car stopped; when the tea boiled,

When the sun came out,

We simply enjoyed all these favourite things

And now hope that you will too!

It was such a marvelous day it deserved its own song!

Recently, a dear friend of the Women Who Wander NB, Carol Dixon, suggested some interesting places near her new home for us to visit. Never being the kind to pass up a chance to have someone else do the work for us, we suggested that she plan a Women Who Wander NB itinerary and come along on the trip.

Carol did our homework and came up with not one but two itineraries! This is the first. (Feel free to sing along as you read along)!

With a Tim Horton's coffee in hand we started in Fredericton and pointed the Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) down Highway 7 toward Saint John. In spite of how much we love Saint John, this time, we cruised right on by! We hopped off the highway at the Nauwigewauk exit and headed out the Hammond River Road.

From here, we took the Old Neck Road which looks down on the beautiful Kennebecasis River from lofty heights.

We only stopped to pick up Carol and with her in tow, we headed for the Gondola Point Ferry and the Kingston Peninsula!

Spectacular views!

Now, unless you want to pick Carol up at her place and take her along with you, the Gondola Point Ferry would be an excellent starting point for this adventure.

Carol had a reservation waiting for us at the 1810 Carter House Heritage Site and Tea Room.

The 1810 Carter House Tea Room, located at 874 Highway 845, Kingston, NB was built in 1841 by Loyalist, Francis Newman Perkins.

This quaint cottage passed to the Carter family in 1855 and in 1964 it was purchased by Peninsula Kingston Heritage which opens the tea room to the public during the summer months each year.

Renovations to the post and beam cape-design cottage were undertaken by the Peninsula Kingston Heritage folks who endeavoured to keep as much of the original cottage intact as possible.

The original wooden floorboards, the staircase, the corner posts and the hardware fittings all remain in place for visitors to admire.

In 1998, the 1810 Carter House Tea Room came into being. Staffed by local students, it continues to operate during the summer months each year.

Crisp cotton tablecloths, china teacups and individual vintage tea pots, are all a part of the décor and the experience.

Enjoying sandwiches, soup and homemade desserts, lingering over tea, and just soaking in the ambience of this charming cottage, was the perfect way to begin exploring “The Peninsula”.

We can think of no better way to while away an afternoon!

Take a minute and head over to the Women Who Wander NB website at 3womenwhowander.wixsite.com/mysite-1 , then click on the "Friends We Meet" tab and learn all about two lovely folks who kept us fed and entertained while we lingered at the 1810 Carter House Tea Room!

An added bonus of visiting the 1810 Carter House Tea Room is that you can learn all about a cold, dark, December evening many years ago when murder and mayhem converged on this peaceful Peninsula and not so very far from where you will be sipping your tea!

From lunch to lore of days gone by, our next stop was the John Fisher Memorial Museum located at 874 Route 845, Kingston, NB.

From the outside of this unassuming building whose previous life was a school, one would never imagine the treasures held within!

Tour guide extraordinaire Jack White told us all about life in the area in the 1800's and explained the purpose of some of the interesting items on display in the museum.

The John Fisher Memorial Museum’s current exhibition just happened to be all about cemeteries and, while we do so love our bakeries and tea rooms, we also find ourselves drawn to old graveyards, interesting epitaphs and curious folk tales.

If wandering graveyards is something you love to do, the Kingston Peninsula is the place for you! We only wish we could have met the optimist/pessimist – you decide - whose epitaph read "I expected this!”

The John Fisher Memorial Museum museum is a gem and you can’t go wrong checking it out! Before you leave the museum though, be sure to ask to tour the Trinity Anglican Church just across the road from the museum.

The Trinity Anglican Church, located at 3949 Route 845, Kingston, NB is thought to be the oldest Anglican church in Canada on its original foundation! It is also thought to house the oldest operating pipe organ in Canada!

The stained glass windows alone are worth a visit to this beautiful and historic place!

With luck, Jack White will be your tour guide and he will tell you the strange and sad tale of the Pickett brothers and the wall that separated them literally and figuratively!

You can meet Jack White, (one of the best tour guides East of the Mississippi) on the Women Who Wander NB's website, 3womenwhowander.wixsite.com/mysite-1 as one of our "Friends We Meet"!

You can get more information about the John Fisher Memorial Museum and the 1810 Carter House Tea Room by going to the Kingston Peninsula Heritage website at kingstonnb.ca/.

Find more information about the Kingston Trinity Anglican Church on the Anglican Diocese of Fredericton website at anglican.ca/kingston-and-the-kennebecasis/trinity-kingston.

In the span of a few minutes we went from poking around graveyards to poking around a pottery studio!

Not far from the John Fisher Memorial Museum and The Trinity Anglican Church you will find The Pottery Shop - Crimmins Pottery located at 1 Shampers Bluff Road, Kingston, NB. who are celebrating their 50th year in business this year!

Those of you who are as old (or young) as the Women Who Wander NB, will remember Alan Crimmins. Alan and his wife Sarah were mainstays of the very active 1970’s craft scene in New Brunswick.

Alan and Sarah Crimmins, Shampers Bluff, NB

Alan and Sarah were operating out of the now defunct Opus Craft Village located near Mactaquac, NB. until the Opus Craft Village closed. At that time, Alan and his family relocated to the Kingston Peninsula and founded Crimmins Pottery. Sadly, Alan and Sarah are no longer with us but The Pottery Shop - Crimmins Pottery is still very much thriving in the hands of their daughter, Elizabeth Harrison.

We needed no encouragement to pick up a few fine pieces!

We're pretty sure Elizabeth’s work will be treasured for years to come, just as her Father’s work was!

Sadly, Elizabeth wasn’t at the shop when we were there, but, we are told, all are welcome to watch her at the wheel when she’s in the shop! See more of Elizabeth's work at The Pottery Shop - Crimmins Pottery website at thepotteryshop.ca/.

Having worked up quite a thirst and feeling utterly famished as well, Yip Cider, located at 3015 Route 845, Long Reach, NB was our next stop!

Perched at the very top of the hill with a sweeping view down to the majestic St. John River, Yip Cider has been making and serving cider in this beautiful location since 2021.

However, the MacKay family have an apple growing, cider producing history that dates back to the early 1970’s when the family patriarch, Yip MacKay, moved home to New Brunswick from where he had been living in Toronto, Ontario.

An afternoon snack consisting of a flight of cider slushies in blueberry, kiwi, cherry and a non-alcoholic apple for the driver of the Incredible Wander Wheels (the car) along with some Kredl's Corner Market fresh made pita chips and to-die-for salsa perked us up nicely.

We don’t recommend that you order a flight of slushies to share as we did. We recommend that you order a flight just for you! So darned good and all served up with a smile by Madeline Harquail who recommended the perfect cider slushie flavours for us!

You can meet Madeline's great smile for yourself on the Women Who Wander NB's website, 3womenwhowander.wixsite.com/mysite-1 as another one of our "Friends We Meet"!

Learn more about Yip's Cider, their tap room, orchard and the Saint John born Yip on their website at yipcider.ca !

Finally, we hopped on the Millidgeville ferry back to Saint John for a very quick visit to the Area 506 Container Village, located near the Cruise Ship Terminal on the Saint John waterfront.

All we can say for now is WOW! What a way to welcome cruise passengers to The Port of Saint John and the Province of New Brunswick!

We'll tell you more about this leg of our adventure later on when we introduce you to Sweet 'Evans Cakes and Lisa and Anita, the bakery owners.

Sweet ‘Evans Cakes will be opening this Fall in Gagetown, NB but, in the meantime, should you wish to get an advance sample, Lisa and Anita will be offering some of their favourite temptations at the Gagetown Farmer’s Market located at 30 Front Street, Gagetown, NB, open every Sunday from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Well worth a Sunday drive to be there!

Stay tuned for the story of a San Francisco, California bakery owner and her former work colleague living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, how they wound up in Gagetown, New Brunswick and the role another NB company played in getting them here. A curious story indeed!

At last, we bid adieu to, Carol, knowing that we would see her soon for the second leg of our itinerary with our pal. We kissed the shores of the Kingston Peninsula goodbye, headed for home and hearth, stopping only once for our regulation ice cream cone - just to tide us over!

Just adventure!

Women Who Wander NB (and friends)