Kai-lights
– more stops means more fun
– I like the ocean
The sleeping arrangement worked out well last night. The hard part is trying not to wake up the puppy when you have to go to the bathroom. I got up at 6:30am and Kai decided that he wanted to get up as well. After everyone got up and had their breakfast, it was time to pack up the car and continue our travels in New Brunswick.
Our first stop was just thirty minutes away in Grand Falls. There is a gorge right in the middle of town. We parked at the Malabeam Tourist Information Center. It is next to the falls and they have a lovely area where you can walk your dog.
It was only a forty-five minute drive to Potato World which is located in The French Fry Capitol of the World of Florencville-Bristol. Potato World is a museum dedicated to all things regarding the potato industry in New Brunswick. We did not do the tour but instead decided to have lunch here. It was very tough deciding between all of the variations of french fries. I ended up going with the BLT Platter with the home-made curly fries. Karen went with the Herb & Parmesan crinkle fries. We are pretty sure that Karen’s fries came from the McCain’s factory which is next door.
Everyone finished up lunch and it was time to get back into the car. We were driving for about five minutes when we saw a sign for the Covered Bridge Chips factory tour and outlet. We thought about it for thirty seconds and decided to go. When we got there, there was this trailer that was a gift shop but nothing about a factory tour. We learned that where the gift shop is was the former home of the factory. There was a terrible fire back in March 2024 that destroyed the entire building. The chips are now manufactured at a temporary location and they hope to get a new factory built soon. Also on the property was the shortest covered bridge at 24 feet.
Now we had an over three hour drive to Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park. Kai was able to sleep the entire way while Karen and I did the driving. Last night we checked the tide table and low tide was going to be at 5:30pm today but the park closes at 5:00pm. We really wanted to be there for low tide since that allows you to walk the ocean floor amongst the “flowerpot” rock formations. When we got to the park just after 4:00pm, we were surprised that we were not the only ones coming this late in the day.
After paying our admission, we started walking the almost one kilometre trail. We originally were going to go to North Beach since it is a ramp down to the bottom instead of the stairs. Unfortunately we learned it was going to be another half a kilometre and we were running out of time. So we decided to do the stairs. Karen carried Kai down the 101 stairs to the bottom. He is one lucky boy.
Karen and I visited the park back in 2005 but this time it was much different with a puppy. It was really cool walking around the various rock formations. Kai really enjoyed picking up the small rocks. I think it is really neat that Kai was able to experience this since not many doggies get to do this. We got a few photos and then it was time to head back up. When we got to the top, we could see a line for the shuttle service back to the visitors centre. We stood in a line hoping that the service was still running since it was 5:00pm. Lucky for us, we got on the last ride of the day. That was the best two dollars we have ever spent.
It took us about forty-five minutes to get to our hotel, the Fairfield Inn & Suites Moncton. This is the biggest room we have had so far on this trip. We got everything upstairs and then had some Thai food before heading out. One of my work colleagues, Genevieve happens to live in Moncton and I thought it would be cool to see her in person versus the Microsoft Teams meetings that we have many times a day. We had a great visit with her and her fiancé Chris. Soon it was time to go back to the hotel and settle in for the night.
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