Thursday 25 September 2025--Our drive today is again less than two hours. We take time before departure this morning to walk across the old railroad bridge over the Saint John River, to take in the view of Fredericton.

Approaching St Andrews, with time to kill, we stop at the peculiar Île St-Croix Historic Site. This is basically just a series of interpretive panels in a riverside park, with a view to Île St-Croix itself in the middle of the St Croix River. The island is not accessible, and is in fact now on the other side of the border, in Maine. It is nonetheless considered the birthplace of French Canada, the site of the first attempted colonization of the area by a party under the leadership Sieur de Mons and Samuel de Champlain in 1604. They spent a disastrous winter here before relocating to Port Royal, on the other side of the Bay of Fundy. [I wrote more about this on 24 August 2012 and 9 May 2022.]

It's still early when we arrive in town, so we kill more time at the St Andrews Blockhouse National Historic Site, where a blockhouse and battery were built by the townsfolk during the War of 1812, and Centennial Park. Then we check in at our lodgings, a cozy little apartment that is part of a waterfront complex a few blocks from the center of town. We have a lovely patio overlooking Passamaquoddy Bay. The sky clouds over as we stroll into town, and rain falls as we have a pint at the St Andrews Brewing Company, the first real rain we've had on the trip. Dinner is at Seasons By the Sea Bistro, which I think is new since last I was here, followed by another pint at the brewpub.