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Experts at NY Travel Show Offer Tips for Satisfying, Meaningful, Purposeful Travel

January 30, 2024 krubin723

A wedding couple in Hangzhou, China. Travel is how ideas, innovations and progress, improved living standards and quality of life are spread among peoples, as Marco Polo proved. Travel is humanity’s best hope for peace and cooperation as people from different places see and appreciate that we are more alike than different, and appreciate the differences. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

It’s like this: travel is humanity’s best invention to promote the advancement of civilization. Travel is how ideas, innovations and progress, improved living standards and quality of life are spread among peoples, as Marco Polo proved. Travel is humanity’s best hope for peace and cooperation instead of zero-sum annihilation, as people from different places see and appreciate that we are more alike than different, and appreciate the differences. Travel is a community’s best hope for providing the economic underpinnings that provide jobs, upward mobility and enable people to stay on ancestral lands, have the funds to preserve and protect the environment, culture and heritage, and yes, make the adaptations and mitigations to prevent the ravages of climate change. Indeed, just as the travel industry has led the way with e-commerce, yield management, and loyalty programs, the industry – the third largest in the world – is leading the way on climate solutions,

Tourism is what provides the economic underpinnings to support jobs and upkeep of such treasures as the Treasury at Petra, Jordan. To avoid crowds, stay overnight and enter the ancient city in the early morning © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Travel also is life-enhancing, enriching, potentially life-changing and among the best therapies against despair – providing a conduit for forging social connections, self-improvement, overcoming fear, anxiety and apprehension by fostering understanding and empathy, broadening perspectives. The experience of travel fosters resilience, self-confidence, self-reliance, adaptability, forges lasting bonds of family and friendship and broadens perspective and outlook.

That’s not just me saying it. It’s what travel experts with collective experience of decades (including myself), have seen and experienced firsthand.

“When we travel, experience the world, it changes us in a deep and profound way,” Pauline Frommer of frommer.com, told a standing room only audience at the most recent New York Travel & Adventure Show at Javits Center. “Right now we live in such a divided word – different facts inform our view but when we travel, we see the truth on the ground, that other countries have something to teach us, we can bring that back, and present an impression of America that is positive in places that may not have positive impression of America. Even with climate change, travel is one of the best tools in our ongoing search for creating world peace. So have wonderful, relaxing vacations, but your trips also can be meaningful and you can make a difference when you travel.”

“Consume news, but don’t let that make you a frightened person,” advises Rick Steves of ricksteves.com. “Be outward looking. If we want world to be peaceful, we have to build bridges. We can be challenged and stimulated by smart people who do things in smart ways. We can celebrate the Moroccan dream, the Bulgarian dream, just like the American dream – there is room for lots of dreams, As a traveler, we get to enjoy them all….[If we want a world of] peace and stability, the most powerful thing we can do as individual Americans is to travel and get to know people.”

Machu Picchu, Peru: travel has the potential to be life-enhancing, life-changing. But don’t put off your “bucket-list” experiences because you never know if there will be a pandemic, a political issue, a climate disaster. “Carpe diem,” says Patricia Schultz, author of “1000 Places to See Before You Die”

The COVID pandemic reinforced the value of travel – the three years of lockdowns and constrained travel upended local economies, while shutdowns that kept people from traveling underscored the human need for connection, for renewal, for new horizons to broaden perspectives.

“A life lesson we took away from COVID and postponed pleasure is that there is never a guarantee that we will be able to travel tomorrow or next year- our health, our need to care for people, political situation, climate disasters. Carpe diem,” says “1000 Places to See Before You Die” author Patricia Schultz. She reflects on the places that she had included but have had to drop off her list recently – Ukraine, Syria, Iran even Jerusalem. “The lesson from this image [of people at the Western Wall] is carpe diem – if some place is on your bucket list and you think, well, the Pyramids will always be there, guess what? Don’t take anything for granted.”

And so with the pandemic in the rearview mirror (at least for now), people are traveling with furor and we are back to worrying about being crowded out and the potential impacts – and actions to prevent – overtourism. COVID-generated technologies and policies for advance purchase, capacity control are here to stay.

The excitement for traveling to the four corners of the globe and in every style, from decompressing on a beach, to joining an expedition to see gorillas in Uganda, to standing up for Ukraine by showing up in Ukraine, was evident at the New York Travel & Adventure Show, where booths were crammed and talks by experts including Rick Steves, Peter Greenberg, Pauline Frommer, on traveling smart, well and meaningfully were standing room only.

But because there is a whole world out there, you can make choices of where and when to travel. Don’t like crowds? Try to visit a destination when less crowded (though there is less of an “off-season” or “shoulder” season these days); find the “hidden gems” that offer as much atmosphere, experience and character; visit attractions either very early or later in the day (to avoid the hoards of cruise passengers and daytrippers); overnight in those charming, historic cities and villages (preferably in or within walking distance of the historic district) so you are there in the early morning and the evenings to enjoy the stillness and light without the hoards of cruisers and daytrippers; and pre-purchase tickets, city/museum/attractions passes so you don’t waste valuable time and money standing in line to purchase tickets. Climate and weather also have become major issues that should factor into where and when you travel.

Their message: By all means, experience the highlights of a place, but go further afield to seek out local experiences, opportunities to visit or stay in neighborhoods. Be a mindful traveler, a purposeful traveler: enhance the experience by learning the background, the stories and back-stories, hire a local guide, take a “free” walking tour (you basically tip the guide), sign up for some volunteer opportunity to give back to the community; seek out those tour programs that provide immersive opportunities to engage with locals.

The Pont du Gard aqueduct, for example, is the most-visited ancient monument in France. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is one of the best-preserved Roman sites in the world. Most people see it as a pretty photo op and do not understand how innovative the engineering was – how the Romans brought water from 30 miles away – and what a difference it made in the lives of people who didn’t have to spend hours of their day in pursuit of water.

*Meet the people who live on Inle Lake, Myanmar © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

“For a lot of tour groups, it is just a pretty bridge, a potty break, a souvenir stand. [But learning the backstory], humanizes this site,” says Rick Steves says. “How to carbonate the travel experience is about how to connect with people..Too many tourists sit on folding chairs watching yodeling on stage, but not connecting, and back in the hotel, only interact with other Americans. It’s a vacation, to be sure, but what is missing is what it means to travel.

Steves urges travelers to “get out of their comfort zone, to see culture shock not as something to avoid, but as the growing pains of a broadening perspective.”

“Become a cultural chameleon – physically change from culture to culture because it’s different.” That means going to where the locals hang out in the evening, drinking Ouzo in Greece, whisky in Scotland, tea in England, red wine in Tuscany, beer in the Czech Republic.” Go three blocks off the main drag to find the restaurants popular with locals; for some meals (breakfast, lunch) go to local groceries and markets and picnic. Seek out the family owned two-star hotel, inn, lodge, hostel or AirBnB – that not only saves money but adds enrichment because of a more “authentic” experience.

Pre-planning is the way to mitigate wasting time and money in line or with crowds.

“There are two types of travelers: those who wait in lines and those who don’t. Think carefully of minimizing lines,” Steves notes.

Crowds in front of the “Mona Lisa” in Le Louvre in Paris. Travel experts at the New York Travel & Adventure Show offered tips on how to avoid crowds and the lines, especially in places like Paris, where advance purchase of tickets to major museums and attractions is essential. In Paris, purchase the “Museum Pass.” © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Before you go: get an idea of the attractions and sites you want to visit (I query “Three days in….” at TripAdvisor and other travel writers to get some idea). Then, go to the attractions’ websites to get all the visitor FAQs (can I take a water bottle into the Vatican; a backpack into Le Louvre – not likely after the latest incident of vandalism against the “Mona Lisa”). As soon as you have your travel dates (that is, your air fare), immediately reserve the tickets– if the attraction is a highlight for you it is a highlight for most others. Your priority places will set the framework for your itinerary, and the time saved by not waiting on line can go to those serendipitous experiences and discoveries. The same with restaurants you have your heart set on frequenting – book a reservation as soon as you settle your dates.

Take advantage of city passes, museum passes (a must for Paris) and attractions passes from companies like GoCity.com and CityPass.com, as well as the passes offered by the cities themselves, like the PragueCoolPass.com. They not only let you breeze through, but give extremely helpful information about current exhibitions, hours, directions, visitor information.

*The PragueCoolPass maximizes your enjoyment of this historic city, like visiting its famous Castle © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.*

Try to book the earliest opening hour of the day in order to minimize the crowds, but in any case, book the earliest time available in order to have the most amount of time.

If you are visiting an outdoor site like the Acropolis in Athens, avoid mid-day when it is not only hot as blazes, but overrun with thousands of visitors who have come off cruise ships or day trippers. Come either as soon as the Acropolis opens in the morning, when it is cool and uncrowded, or at the end of the day (as I did), when the light is a gorgeous golden, the views of the city are amazing, it is cooler and the biggest crowds have left.

*Visit attractions like the Acropolis at the beginning or at the end of the day to avoid the crowds and the heat and enjoy the golden light © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.*

This is also the advantage of overnighting in the most charming cities like Bruges, Strasbourg, Seville, Venice, Prague, Amsterdam, Fez and important sites like Petra – choose a hotel in the historic district that is walking distance to everything but you get to enjoy in the early morning and evening when the lights/lighting/colors are so amazing, the canals like mirrors, the city streets are quiet and empty, before the onslaught of cruisers and daytrippers.

Overnighting in the boutique Flanders Hotel in Bruges’ historic district means you get to have this impossibly picturesque city to yourself at night and in the quiet of the morning before the daytrippers overrun it © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com.

Take advantage of “free” walking tours in cities – local guides work for tips. These are great way to get an orientation. Search “free walking tours” and read the reviews.

Also, in major cities like Paris and London, you can buy mutli-day transit tickets for the train/bus (you can also do bikeshare), so that instead of paying the price of a taxi or Uber from airport into downtown, you can purchase the pass that includes the train or tram from the airport, and not have to wait on lines to purchase individual tickets from machines and deal with the confusion of zones and station names.

Searching muiti-day tour finders is a great way to get an idea of how to organize your time, what to see, what you should pay, and find tour programs that might best meet your needs. Frommer recommends Travelstride.com and Tourradar.com. These marketplace sites, she notes, can introduce you to local companies instead of the big-name tour operators.

Considerations for choosing the right tour company: price (per diem) is only one consideration, also consider what is inclusions (all meals aren’t necessarily a good thing, you might prefer to be able to go off and find those local favorites instead of a restaurant that caters to foreign groups); traveling companions (it is fun to travel with people from other countries, not just Americans); expertise of the guide; demographics of the tour company (often there are family itineraries; women-only; solo travelers; small groups (EF Tours, Audley Travel); price (luxury versus mass market) and age such as younger travelers (Contiki) versus older (Road Scholar) (visit www.frommers.com: How to pick the right tour company for you”).

Discovery Bicycle Tours stops at a winery at the end of the day’s ride in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Bicycle tours are ideal for women and solo travelers © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

To find day tours, attractions, guides: Getyourguide.com; airbnb.com/experiences; tripadvisor.com. Foodies could look to TravelingSpoon and Eatwith. I like contexttravel.com.

Also be sure to pre-book rail (for example, raileurope.com) and bus transportation (flixbus.com is terrific) between cities. Find schedules at Rome2Rio.com.

*Taking the train from Paris to Strasbourg, France. Be sure to book your ticket in advance © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

To find the best airfares (always tricky), Frommer recommends searching Momondo.com/Kayak.com, Skyscanner.com, and CheapoAir.com. Momondo (and Kayak, which are owned by the same entity) tended to consistently find the lowest fares, and have filters that let’s you select for everything from the type of plane (if you wanted to avoid a Boeing 737 Max 9, or if you wanted to find the airlines with the cheapest fares with a checked bag.

But the experts also recommend that after searching for the best fares, you book directly with the airline, ”because if you book through a third party, you can’t rebook as easily as directly through the airlines” if there is some delay, cancellation or need to change. “Search but don’t book,” Frommer says.

Frommer also railed against “drip pricing” – the extra fees that airlines attach (even though Biden has waged a campaign against junk fees.) US airlines average $78 in added fees; European airlines average $58. So for United, the average is 122% of the base fare; for jetblue it’s 147%; but for Sun Country its 201% and for Frontier, its 376%, so the added fees can be higher than the fare.

When you search for an airline, Frommer consistently recommends you “Hide your identity” “Use a privacy setting on the browser, or use a different browser and different computer if you return to search fares” because the airline will track you, gauge your interest and post higher fares.

Also, there are optimum times to search and book:

Purchase airfare on Sundays (6% cheaper domestic travel, 13% cheaper international)
Book 28 days out (“the sweet spot”) for domestic travel (24% savings), 2-4 months out for international (10% savings)
Start your trip on a Thursday (16% savings over flying on a Sunday)
Fly before 3 pm (to avoid the 50% increased risk of being cancelled or delayed)

For best hotel rates, book 3-plus months in advance for resorts like Hawaii, Mexico, Caribbean, Florida but just one week before in business cities (New York, London, Paris, Denver). “It takes courage to wait to book one week before travel, so book a refundable room in advance, then search a week ahead of travel.”

“For first time in 20 years, I am having to research New Jersey hotels for people coming to New York City, because on September 18, the city got rid Airbnb, and all the cheap hotels are filled with migrants. Hotels were charging $900 in December compared to $129 in January for the same room.”

Welcome to Riad el Yacout, built in 1347 for Professor Laharchi, philosophy who taught at the famous Al Qaraouvine university, which stayed in the family until 2000, when it was converted to a 33-room guesthouse, Fez, Morocco, booked on hotels.com © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

To find “secret hotel discounts, Frommer is recommending seeking out travel clubs like RoomSteals, the new Travel & Leisure Club, professional associations’ travel clubs – some which have fees to join – and @Hotel on Instagram (no fee to belong).

How do clubs have “secret: rates? “Hotel companies have contracts with Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity etc. and are not allowed to offer publicly deeper discounts (more than 5-10%) than they give to expedia, orbitz). But if they can’t fill their rooms, they turn to the clubs.” On the other hand, the clubs often do not show as much information as you need about services and the like.

Also, Frommer notes, Airbnb isn’t necessarily a bargain over hotel rates. “Now because so many extra fees, a recent study showed in 48 of 50 states you pay more at Airbnb than hotel (two exceptions are Nevada and Louisiana). But AirBnB is great for groups, families, if you need a kitchen (and want to save money cooking), but on average, you no longer save money on a rental vs. hotel.”

On the other hand, Frommer has always been a big booster for home exchanges – where you actually trade the use of your home for someone else’s – a way to save money but also really live like a local.

“You can go anywhere in the world – a Paris apartment, a houseboat in Sausalito.” Among the exchanges are HomeExchange.com.

Pauline Frommer cautions about getting too cautious – fearful – of traveling abroad,

Pointing to the recent US State Department’s worldwide travel advisory in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, she notes that Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela all have travel advisories against coming to the US because of the gun violence epidemic. “Venezuela thinks it is too dangerous to come here.” The State Department’s worldwide caution for Americans, is as if to say, “’Don’t travel anywhere, the world is too dangerous. That’s mind boggling. Yes, listen to the US State Department, read the cautions, but understand the rest of the world is terrified to come here.” There is a lot to listen to, though – such as where women of child-bearing age should be mindful of Zika, or where there is political instability or widespread crime, and urges travelers to enroll in the State Department’s “Smart Traveler” program.

The experts advise purchasing travel insurance and soon after you purchase your flights, so that you are covered if for some reason you have to cancel.

Pauline Frommer suggests looking for travel insurance that covers “Cancel for any Reason” (CFAR), includes medical evacuation and covers pandemics (policies do not necessarily cover “fear of travel” if there is a pandemic but a destination isn’t closed by authorities).

“Say the destination has a new strand of COVID but didn’t shut down, and you decide not to go – if you cancel with regular insurance, it won’t be covered – because ‘fear of travel’ is not included. A CFAR policy allows you to cancel for any reason – it’s more expensive, but will repay 75% of costs.

All the experts discourage purchasing travel insurance from the travel provider (tour operator, cruiseline), but to use apps that give you different policy recommendations based on your needs (date of travel, who traveling, age, destinations) such as Squaremouth.com, Insuremytrip.com and Travelinsurance.com.

“Inevitably the most expensive policy covers the least, but the best is usually in the middle,” Frommer advises. “Never ever buy from the travel company you are going with – if they go belly up, you’ve lost insurance too.”

Angel Castellanos (www.angelestravellounge.com) offered more tips on traveling smart with technology, like Google Fi (which makes its own SIM cards and has free international data roaming in most countries) and T-Mobile (which do not charge roaming fees for international calls; calls are 25c/minute; unfortunately, it is rare to get internet service with T-mobile abroad; you use the available WiFi) instead of having to pay for an international phone/data plan. Also, consider purchasing an international SIM card for $2.

For digital safety, he recommends installing a VPN (a virtual private network) on to mask your identity when you are on a public network, with digital thieves trying to steal passwords. He recommends ExpressVPN which works all over the world.

Flying, definitely register for TSA Precheck (costs $75, good for 5 years, and some credit cards rebate the charge), and CLEAR, which uses biometric data to verify your identify, and let’s you go directly from the kiosk to the front of the line “like a VIP. In certain airports that can make the difference in making the flight.” And several business credit cards like American Express Platinum rebate the cost of Clear.

*Denver International Airport. Use TSA PreCheck, CLEAR, MyTSA, to breeze through the airport © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

You can also install the MyTSA app on your device, a free app that gives real time information for what is happening at airport – how long the security line is taking, if one area of the airport is closed and you need to go through TSA in a different location.

Now, the Homeland Security department offers mobile passport control, even if you are not registered for Global Entry (which is similar). You can enroll by submitting passport information and responses to CBP (Customs & Border Patrol) – the free version requires you to enter passport information each time – answer the questions, then you get to whisk through a third line (the regular line, the Global Entry kiosk, and now the Mobile Passport control).

“Google is one of biggest game changers for international travel,” he notes. You can download maps in advance so they are available when you do not have access to WiFi.

The same is true for languages. “Language is no longer a barrier. You can program a phrase like ‘I’m allergic to peanuts,’ and it will show it written as well as speak. You can download the language in advance so it can translate even when offline. You can use the camera function to translate foreign languages into English.”

Of course this eliminates the delight and satisfaction of finding a local person who can either speak English or mime an answer to “I’m lost, Can you tell me how do I get to….?”

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© 2024 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures

Arts, Arts & Entertainment, Attractions, Cultural travel, Culture, Long Island travel, Museums and Exhibits

Beyond Van Gogh, Beyond Monet Immersive Experiences Offer New Way to Appreciate Masters and Their Masterpieces

December 9, 2023 krubin723

*Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is a multi-media, performance art showpiece that inspires new ways to appreciate Vincent Van Gogh’s genius © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, www.goingplacesfarandnear.com

What the leading edge technology of Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience does is to turn a static, albeit emotional, experience of appreciating a painting, into an active, dynamic, cinematic one.

On view at Samanea New York Mall, Westbury, Long Island only until January 2, in the course of 40-minutes, you see some 300 of Van Gogh’s paintings surrounding you, projected on all four walls and the floor in a 30,000 sq. ft. space the size of a basketball court. The paintings fill the entire wall, large enough to walk into, become animated, turning stills into images that grow, change, emerge, ripple, wave, flow and blossom over you – in essence, animating the movement that Van Gogh so powerfully created with his paint strokes.

It is as if you see the painting develop from Van Gogh’s perspective, his mind’s eye and hand.

And I have to say, it is more stirring to see his works this way, than when I have seen “Starry Night Over the Rhone” which attracted the biggest crowds in a room in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, or “Sunflowers” at the Museum of Modern Art, or his famous self-portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Is it blasphemous to say that these manifestations are more emotionally captivating than the original? Or is it enough to say, the paintings presented this way are as emotionally captivating but in a different way that adds cinematic drama.

The other benefit is that you see in this incredible 40-minute presentation some 300 of Van Gogh’s paintings – and not just zipping in front of your eyes, but well paced, magnificently and respectfully presented, each scene staying long enough to absorb what you are seeing all around you, to music perfectly curated to convey mood and emotion, before changing again.

It begs for active engagement in the sense of walking around, changing your visual perspective, even as the scene changes. There is a sense of immediacy as well as immersion.

Timed tickets, the vast openness of the space and enormous scale of the paintings almost insure you will have enough space to feel yourself a part of the paintings, large enough as if you could walk into any scene.

The music that provides the backdrop for the different scenes and themes of the works presented are equally well curated.

You are in tune with Vincent, as well, because the paintings seem to originate as if from his own hand – the basis are these sensitive quotes that mostly come from the letters between Vincent and his loving brother Theo, which document how he came to his artistic expression.

“the heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths, it has its pearls too,” he wrote Theo from Isleworth in 1876.

“…in all of nature, in trees for instance, I see expression and a soul, as it were,” Vincent writes Theo in 1882.

“I don’t know if you’ll understand that one can speak poetry just by arranging colours well, just as one can say comforting things in music,” he writes his sister Willemien from Arles, in 1888.

Van Gogh’s biography is very much abbreviated – the focus is on his art and creativity. But there are these important nuggets that provide a context for better appreciating the paintings, that come from revealing quotes from the letters between Vincent and his loving, supportive brother Theo, which document how he came to his artistic expression and what art, color, light, nature meant to him. I had no idea he came so late to being an artist, beginning when he was 27, in fact, the vast majority of his 1000 canvases, painted in only a decade, were painted in the last three years of his life, or that he became an art dealer like his brother, Theo, then, briefly studied to become a preacher, before devoting himself to his art.

But it is intensely personal – throughout the exhibit, you see and hear snippets of Van Gogh’s letters to his brother, Theo, that provide such insights into Van Gogh’s essence, and burst the monotone myth of a man in a constant state of anguish: “the heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths, it has its pearls too,” he wrote Theo from Isleworth in 1876.

“In life and in painting too,” he writes Theo in 1888 from Arles, “I can easily do without the dear Lord, but I can’t, suffering as I do, do without something greater than myself, which is my life, the power to create.”

Paintings emerge like brush strokes, or like ripples of hot air, or like waves that wash over the canvas, splashing across the floor.

Sometimes the paintings themselves are made to animate, like the smoke that rises from the pipe he smokes in a self-portrait; and a windmill’s fans actually turn (a game for the viewer, a device to engage).

The scenes unfold, linger long enough to be appreciated, then another scene emerges.

It is stunning to see his famous “Starry Night Over the Rhone” (1888) take over the walls and splash over the floor, the reflections of light in the water not at all static but shimmering, glittering and rippling.

“..the sight of the stars always makes me dream…” Vincent writes Theo from Arles in 1888.

In another scene, trees grow up with springtime blossoms multiply, blow in the wind, gathering more and more, becoming a storm of petals. You hear the wind.

Another display imagines a score of canvases stacked up against the wall – then transmute to stilllifes.

A roomful of the portraits he painted is profound – going beyond their surface image to create these characters.

When a whole roomful of his self-portraits unfold, you are struck by the honesty. “It is difficult to know oneself, but it isn’t easy to paint oneself either,” he writes from Saint-Remy in 1889

Van Gogh didn’t sell any of his art during his lifetime. He suffered from clinical depression that in those days, had no medical treatment. But he seemed to have a desperate desire and even an inclination that his works would survive him, as when he refers to his subjects as becoming “ghosts” visiting future viewers.

An artist who today is considered one of the greatest of all time was considered a failure (as an artist). In this, Van Gogh gives hope and inspiration to every other failed, un- and under-appreciated artist.

The show, brilliantly, sensitively, imaginatively done, is itself a work of art – multi-media, performance art – because it takes all of these works and creates something new, a new way to experience the paintings, that will engage young people being introduced to art as well as devotees, artists and academics.

“I came to recognize and appreciate that the world was witnessing the cusp of a new art form- a reinterpretation of the fascinating narrative between master and masterpiece,” writes Gilles Paquin, Founder, Chairman, Executive Producer of Paquin Entertainment Group, Inc., in the forward to the show’s publication. “Combining fine art and artifacts with music and cinema, curated, staged and presented in a way that can be enjoyed by an audience so diverse it transcends the confines of age, gender and cultural demographics.”

“At the start of this creation, we searched for a refreshing perspective of Van Gogh’s vision of the world,” writes Mathieu St-Arnaud, Creative Director & Art Direction, Normal Studio. “What we found was unexpected and captivating: we were met with Vincent, a human being like all of us, an artist devoted to his craft, yearning for beauty and moved by purpose. It became a personal journey for us, one that we wanted to extend to audience members around the world: to go beyond the myth that is Van Gogh and instead meet Vincent, the man behind the vision. Wielding colour and light, Vincent transformed hardship and darkness into light and joy, infusing his work with a contagious sense of hope that it still exudes today. Amidst the challenges of today, there’s something truly inspiring in Vincent’s will to focus on the wonders of the world and his determination to both capture and share them with all of us. In more ways than one. Vincent is the artist we need right now.”

The end of the loop is a series of Vincent’s famous signature that emerge from scores of his paintings – we learn that he only signed “Vincent” because he feared his surname would be too difficult to pronounce. “yours very truly, Vincent.”

This scene is like Van Gogh’s final word as if to say, “This is me. This is what I created. This is what I have left to the world.”

Vincent Van Gogh left this world in 1890, 37 years old, just as his work was gaining critical recognition. “to succeed, to have lasting prosperity, one must have temperament different from mine,” he writes Theo in 1889. “I make a point of telling myself, yes I am something, I can do something.”

Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience

Long Islanders are lucky because Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience which was brought back after a hugely successful run through the holidays, alternates days with Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience.

Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience gives guests a glimpse into the emotions and perspectives of the leading figure of Impressionism: Claude Monet, with some 400 of his works. Taking inspiration from Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, the designated home of Monet’s masterpieces, guests can freely roam the Infinity Room to absorb the artist’s bright and colorful paintings. Monet’s stunning imagery encompasses every surface of the room, transporting guests inside the paintings themselves. It is a haven for awakening the senses as the ebb and flow of the artwork is accompanied by the rhythm of an original score.

“When you stand inside Beyond Monet, you truly feel like you are part of Monet’s passionate quest for the effervescent beauty of the world,” Beyond Monet Art Historian Fanny Curtat said. “Experiences like these create fresh and original perspectives, allowing us to form new relationships with notable masterpieces in dynamic and fascinating ways.”

*Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

“Through cutting edge technology, Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience is redefining what art means to people,” stated Paquin Entertainment Group’s President of Exhibitions and Theatrical, Justin Paquin “It has elevated artwork to the next level, allowing us to form new relationships with notable masterpieces that were just not possible in previous years.”

Ideal for enjoying through the holidays (both Beyond Van Gogh and Beyond Monet end the Long Island presentation on January 3), but there are other cities where the exhibitions are on view or will be).

Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience has sold over 6 million tickets worldwide and may be seen in San Diego and Tulsa and will be coming to Baltimore, Dayton, Grand Forks, Tallahassee, Tucson, Ventura, Washington DC, West Palm Beach.

See schedule and purchase timed tickets to Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience in advance at www.vangoghlongisland.com (on Wednesdays and Fridays) alternating with alternating with Beyond Monet The Immersive Experience at www.monetlongisland.com (on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays), at Samanea New York, 1500 Old Country Road, Westbury, NY.

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© 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/KarenBRubin

Attractions, Biking Tours, Cultural travel, Culture, Heritage Travel, Historic Places, Places of History, Road Trip

New Brunswick Roadtrip: Exploring French Acadia’s Culture, Heritage by Bike!

October 11, 2023 krubin723

*Biking the beautiful boardwalk in Shippagan, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

By Karen Rubin, with Dave E. Leiberman & Laini Miranda

Travel Features Syndicate, www.goingplacesfarandnear.com

Our New Brunswick roadtrip that has so enthralled us with the natural wonders of the Bay of Fundy, now takes us to the Acadien Peninsula, where its French heritage is most pronounced and you really feel you are in another country. We are also excited to explore a portion of a marvelous new cycling trail, the Veloroute Peninsule Acadeienne, which opened in 2019, consisting of 14 cycling circuits, totaling 379 miles, that go through 14 coastal French fishing villages and communities.

Because the Veloroute is so new, it seems, it is not well set up for a supported, self-guided multi-day trip, so we stitch together our own, with the help of Neil Hodge at New Brunswick Tourism. Neil arranges a multi-day bike rental for us from the Villegiature Deux Rivieres Resort (more geared for day rental), and an itinerary that follows the C15 circuit. Fortunately, Laini prefers to spend the day painting, so volunteers to drive the car to the next stop and then take my bike for a shorter ride with Dave at the end of the day. And we have to ferry the bike back to the rental shop (not really difficult, it is less than one hour’s drive back to Tracadie, and we’ve prepared by taking our bike rack). It is exciting to feel like we are pioneering a new biking destination.

This is an opportunity to take advantage of what is best about cycling (and clearly, this is an extremely popular activity throughout New Brunswick and Quebec): you ride at a perfect pace through local communities, small villages, see where and how people live. And there is such freedom during the day, to stop and explore, and really be immersed in a place.

*Biking the New Brunswick’s new cycling trail, the Veloroute Peninsule Acadeienne, from Tracadie to Shippagan © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

This first day, we bike on the trail 22 miles from Tracadie at one end of the circuit, to Shippagan, riding mainly through woods and then along marshes, arriving at Shippagan at about 2:30. We have a delightful late-lunch in a Mediterranean-style restaurant, Chez Aicha (197 Bd J. D. Gauthier, +1 506-336-8989), then Dave and I continue exploring Shippagan, picturesquely set between Saint-Simon Bay and the Chaleur Bay inlet that goes into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, stopping at its most popular beach, Le Goulet.

*Shippagan, New Brunswick’s beautiful boardwalk © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We discover the boardwalk along Shippagan’s waterfront, and that we can bike all the way to Point Brule, the road that leads us to the cottage Laini has booked for two nights on Airbnb. We calculate we cycled 40 miles for the day.

*Our charming Airbnb cottage on Point Brule, Shippagan © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Dave and I are giddy with delight when we see the sweet, cozy aquamarine-colored cottage and how it is poised on the tip of Point Brule, perched on a ridge with our own ladder to the beach into the bay.

Who can resist? We quickly change and play in the water (surprisingly not too cold), then set out to watch the sunset on Miscou Island, which sits between the Bay of Chaleur and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, at its magnificent historic lighthouse.

*The picturesque Miscou Lighthouse © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We reach the Miscou Island Lighthouse on the northeastern tip of the island, just before sunset. The lighthouse was built in 1856 and designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1974.

It is surprising how long (how far) Miscou Island actually is (24 km long by 16 km wide – small for an island but a good distance by bike), because this is the route we are supposed to bike tomorrow. Even on our itinerary, the route is 26 miles each way, hilly, on a two-lane, windy road. But Miscou is fabulous to explore – for birds and wildlife (we see a family of foxes), peat bogs, and not to be missed.

*Steve of the popular Terasse a Steve restaurant on Miscou Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Our plan is to have dinner at Terasse à Steve a fun, rustic place so beautifully set overlooking the Miscou wharf that is legendary in the community, but when we pull up, we discover Steve has closed early (for mosquitoes!).

That means we have to race back to Shippagan before the restaurants close (at 8:30 pm). We’ve called ahead to Pinokkio’s who tell us to just get there by 9 pm. We race back, arriving at 9 pm on the dot, and sure enough, they seat us. The wood-fired pizzas (fungi pizza, margarita), with the freshest, most flavorful ingredients, are fantastic. ((Pinokkio Pizzeria Resto-Bar, 121 16e rue, Shippagan, 506-336-0051, www.pinokkio.ca).

*Sunset from our cottage on Point Brule, Shippagan © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Instead of biking back to Miscou Island (Veloroute map shows the Miscou route as 41 km just on the island), Dave and I decide to explore Lameque Island, which is in between Shippagan and Miscou (so glad we toured by car).

We set out again from the cottage on the road that leads to the entrance to the beautiful wooden boardwalk and connects to our biking routes, winding passed the colorful marina, then over the bridge to Lameque.

*Biking around Lameque, on the Acadian Peninsula, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We first find a lovely bike trail in the woods that parallels the busy Route 113, cross another small bridge, and then find a beautiful, if short, trail along the water. But when that ends, we ride on the shoulder of Route 113, which serves as a bike path. We come upon an eco-park on Lameque, and explore that before continuing our cycling,

*Enjoying a meal at Steve’s Terrasse on Miscou © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We are determined to dine at Steve’s Terrasse on Miscou, which is just on the other side of the (high) bridge from Lameque. Laini pulls away from her painting and meets us there for a late lunch – a sensational meal of lobster with spaghetti, pesto and parmesan; steamed clams; and a whole lobster (9650 route 113, Miscou, +1 506-344-7000)

Biking back to Lameque (back again over the steep bridge!), we follow a route that takes us along the eastern side of the island along the road (with ups and downs, unlike the bikeway) – it is marked in purple on the map – that give us some lovely views of the water as we ride through neighborhoods. (Amazingly, we don’t find actual stores or restaurants, absolutely nothing for the people to do except for some churches).

Each day, our ride begins and ends on the Shippagan boardwalk, my favorite part of the ride.

*Enjoying a second dinner in a row at Pinokkio, Shippagan © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

By the time Dave and I get back to our cottage in Shippagan, we calculate we’ve biked 45 miles. But now we have to race back into town to find a restaurant. The recommended places we call are all booked solid (it’s graduation day), so we (happily) call again to Pinokkio, and sure enough, they are booked too, but make room for us. The mushroom risotto is sensational. (Pinokkio Pizzeria Resto-Bar, serving up wood-fired pizzeria, appetizers, salads, pasta, seafood, steak, international cuisine, wine list, selection of domestic and imported beers, and decadent desserts, 121 16e rue, Shippagan, 506-336-0051, www.pinokkio.ca).

*Biking Shippagan, New Brunswick’s beautiful boardwalk © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We really have to pull ourselves away from Shippagan (regrettably we don’t have time to visit the Aquarium which we keep passing on the boardwalk, 100 Aquarium St., Shippagan, 506-336-3013, [email protected], aquariumnb.ca).

(Shippagan, https://tourismepeninsuleacadienne.ca/en/region-shippagan/, 506.336.3900).

Caraquet

*Biking the new cycling trail, the Veloroute Peninsule Acadeienne, along New Brunswick, Canada’’s Acadian Peninsula, from Shippagan © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Today’s ride takes us back onto the delightful Veloroute to Caraquet, 20 miles on the trail. Basically we back track from Shippagan 10 miles to a fork in the trail and then back up 10 miles to Caraquet, most of it in the trees (so refreshing).

We find our way to a charming waterfront village of cute shops, a small artist’s collective, eateries and a picturesque wharf and marina, where we have lunch.

*An artisan village within Caraquet © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We consider biking back the 20 miles from Caraquet to Tracadie to return the bikes, but realize we would be doubling back 20 miles on the trail we had already taken, and prefer instead to spend the afternoon exploring the rest of the trail, 7 miles further along Caraquet Bay to where it ends at Bertrand.

*Biking along the shore from Caraquet* *© Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

It is the best choice! This part of the trail is particularly scenic, hugging the coast along Caraquet Bay (an inlet of Chaleur Bay), passing some gorgeous houses and views of the water, adding about 14 miles to our total for the day. We then drive the bikes back Tracadie, racing to get to the rental shop by closing time.

(Veloroute de la Peninsule acadienne, 506-336-4116, [email protected], www.veloroutepa.ca)

Caraquet is an extremely nice place to live, and clearly, very popular for tourists, judging by the string of hotels along the main street.

My hotel is the Super 8 By Wyndham (9 Avenue du Carrefour, 506-727-0888), is ideally located right in the waterfront village, alongside the coastal trail.

Returning the bikes the afternoon before works out superbly for me, because it gives me time to visit Caraquet’s major, not-to-be missed attraction, the Historic Acadian Village, which proves such a highlight of our New Brunswick roadtrip.

“Leave the 21^st Century behind at Historic Acadien Village”

Historic Acadien Village is an open air living history museum with costumed (fully bilingual) interpreters who recreate the roles of real people. What makes this place so extraordinary, though, is that you walk a 2.2 km circuit through 200 years of history – the 40 buildings represent a different time, the oldest from 1773 up to 1895, then, you walk through a covered bridge built in 1900 into the 20^th century village where the buildings date from 1905 to 1949.

As you walk about, you literally feel yourself stepping across the threshold back in time.

Walking through this idyllic village, looking at the goats, the sheep, the cows which supply the milk, meat, fiber for clothes, the fields and streams for fish, you would imagine they had everything they needed, life was tranquil, sustainable. But I soon learn from my conversation with the interpreter in the 1852 Cyr house that it was a daily struggle for survival.

*An idyllic Acadien village masks how hard life would have been like for the Acadiens Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

This arises when I watch her sewing and she says she baked 25 loaves yesterday, enough that would have lasted her family of 8 including grandparent and a farmhand, a week (but actually supplies the village restaurants which serve menus appropriate to the time). I suggest that must be a lot of work. She tells me that her children help. Don’t they go to school? “The children don’t go to school, they are needed at home. It’s a question of surviving. We would have been too isolated to go to school in winter, and they are needed in summer.” Homeschool? “We cannot read; we depend on the priest to read any letter that might come.”

On the stove, she is preparing a pie with pork, onion, turnip, potato. “The pot is on legs so it doesn’t burn; we put wood chips on top so the food cooks from the top and bottom.”

This house came from Saint-Basile, New Brunswick, near the St. John River near Maine/Quebec. I observe that it seems quite large. “We’re not rich, but there was enough wood to build.”

What she tells me next seems to explain why the French Acadiens are so fiercely French (and why, as we travel, we see many flags of French Acadia but few of New Brunswick or Canada):

It was during the French and Indian War, when Britain battled France for control of the New World colonies. “In 1755, the British took the French men in one boat and women and children in another – they didn’t want families together. They felt there were too many Acadiens in same place and would be able to fight British. They made the Acadiens sign a contract to be British, not French, and those who refused were sent away. The boat took them far away – they didn’t know where they were going- some were sent to Charleston, South Carolina, to Louisiana.”

*Seeing how life would have been like over 200 years at the living history museum, Village Historique Acadien, Bertrand, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

The war ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, with France giving Great Britain its colonial possessions in North America, except the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, off the coast of Newfoundland (which remain French colonies even today). In 1764, the British allowed Acadians to return in small isolated groups, but by then as many as 18,000 had been forcibly removed and thousands more killed. (See: https://www.cbc.ca/acadian/timeline.html)

She says that when the French colonists were kicked out of Nova Scotia, they would send word to each other to come “a Cadia” (“to Cadia”), a name derived from an Indian word meaning “the place.”

Indeed, all these buildings were collected from other places in New Brunswick during the mid-1970s, creating a what appears to me to be an idyllic “Pleasantville” community.

I continue my walk through these fascinating homesteads. You also get to visit the chapel (1831), post office, general store (1889), tavern (1880), blacksmith’s shop and forge (1874), all with interpreters demonstrating their crafts.

*The 1867 printing office at the living history museum, Village Historique Acadien, Bertrand, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

My personal favorite: the newspaper/printing office (1867), which had been owned by Israel Londry who had five employees putting out 2000 copies of a four-page weekly paper (delivered to the post office), that would cost $1 for a six-month subscription. There are copies you can read.

There is also a one-room schoolhouse (1869), where the teacher tells me that on any day, she might have 20 students or 2, depending upon whether they were needed at home. “Before 1941, there were no mandates to attend school – children stayed home as free labor. It was a matter of survival.”

*The one-room schoolhouse where the teacher could have 2 or 20 children a day depending if they were needed on the farm © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

I love seeing the machinery of the 1895 grist mill. Originally it would have milled flour, sawed wood, made cedar shingles, serving a 50-mile radius. The miller would keep 10% of the flour, which he would trade for something else. “There was not much currency,” the miller tells me.. But in 1918, the miller closed the flour mill over a dispute of $125 from a bill for repair parts that went back to 1890, when new repairs were needed in 1914, and the $125 was again added to the bill, he shut it down, but kept the saw mill, carting machine and cedar shingles.

Cross the Kissing Bridge into the 20^th century to visit the Irving Gas Station at the living history museum, Village Historique Acadien, Bertrand, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Then you walk across the covered bridge (1900), called “the Kissing Bridge,” and you are in a 20^th century town. There is an Irving Gas Station with antique cars; a saw mill (1949), general store (1924), tinsmith’s shop (1905) where you can buy a stove, cobbler’s shop (1945), a railroad station (1930). The Thomas Cooperage that dated from 1937 actually made barrels until 1980, employing 60 people who made 200 a day, until plastic barrels made the wood ones obsolete.

*The Irving Gas Station at the living history museum, Village Historique Acadien, Bertrand, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

You not only visit but can actually book a room to stay at the Hotel Chateau Albert (1910). Albert opened hotel in 1870 but had financial problems from the beginning and was put out of business by Canadian Pacific railroad.. The building was destroyed in a fire in 1955, and restored using the original plans. It now offers 14 rooms (with bathrooms) that you actually can book to stay overnight. (hotelchateaualbert.com, 506-726-2600).

*You can stay over in the Village Historique Acadien, at the Hotel Chateau Albert © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

There is a really nice café in the (modern) visitor center before you go back in time, plus a restaurant in the historic village serving a menu appropriate to the period.

Plan on staying at least three hours. Open June through mid-September.

Historique Acadien Village, 5 rue du Pont, Bertrand, NB, 1-0877-721-2200, [email protected], villagehistoriqueacadien.com

Travel planning assistance from Tourism New Brunswick, 800-561-0123, www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca.

NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA ROADTRIP: SAINT JOHN, CITY OF FIRSTS, OLDESTS, AMAZEMENTS

NEW BRUNSWICK ROADTRIP: DISCOVERING FUNDY TRAIL PARKWAY, FUNDY NATIONAL PARK, CAPE ENRAGE

NEW BRUNSWICK ROADTRIP: MESMERIZING HOPEWELL ROCKS

NEW BRUNSWICK ROADTRIP: METEPENAGIAG HERITAGE CENTER HIGHLIGHTS MIRAMICHI VISIT

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Attractions, Cultural travel, Heritage Travel, Historic Places, International Travel, Museums and Exhibits, Road Trip

New Brunswick Roadtrip: Metepenagiag Heritage Center Highlights Miramichi Visit

October 2, 2023 krubin723

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

*Metepenagiag Heritage Center has artifacts that show 3,000 years of habitation of the Mi’kmaq people in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

So often the best travel experiences happen by serendipity. I had left the Bay of Fundy coastal trail behind in Moncton this morning to continue our New Brunswick roadtrip, driving 90 minutes to Miramichi, a small city that’s the gateway to northern New Brunswick, Canada, renowned for hunting and fishing. I meet up with Amanda Craig, from Miramichi’s tourism office who was taking me to hike a mile-long trail to Fall Brook Falls (at 108 feet high is the highest in New Brunswick). It’s located in Irving Woodlands private preserve, but alas, the access road is closed. I had spotted a sign along the highway to the Metepenagiag Heritage Park and was really excited to learn more about New Brunswick’s First Nations history and so we head there.

Metepenagiag is so much more than a museum exhibition – it preserves, documents, honors and resurrects the Mi’kmaq heritage and culture.

Metepenagiag is an active archaeological site and research center where artifacts unearthed have provided proof the Mi’kmaq have been occupying this land for at least 3,000 years. When you first walk into the exhibition building, you can look into the lab where researchers examine artifacts. Some of the items, like a 1200-year old Earthenware pot, arrowheads and other items are on display.

*Earthenware 1200 years old is on display at Metepenagiag Heritage Center, Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

The significance of this place is clear when you learn that it was after decades and generations of a national policy to eradicate First Nations’ cultural heritage, when even speaking the language, so critical to passing along its oral history and tradition, was banned and children were forced from their community into residential schools to strip away their native identity, that in the 1970s, a Mi’kmaq member, Joe Augustine, discovered the Augustine Mound and Oxbow.

“When a company was planning to expand its gravel pit in our community, our beloved and respected Elder Joe Augustine remembered being told from his Elders before him of an old burial ground in the area,” state the notes accompanying a photo of Joe Augustine and Yvonne (Paul) Meunier digging at the pit state. “He went to the site they described and found what was to become the Augustine Mound – a cemetery dating back to over 600 BC.

Mi’kmaq Elder Joe Augustine discovered the Augustine Mound and Oxbow archaeological sites in the 1970s which provide evidence of 3,000 years of habitation in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The concept of preserving, protecting and presenting the rich Mi’kmaq culture is expressed by our Elder and lives on in our community.”

In 1977, archaeological work began on another site Elder Joe Augustine uncovered: the Oxbow, a village site situated at the head tide, showing Metepenagiag has had over 3,000 years of continuous settlements right to the present day.

Artifacts uncovered at the Augustine Mound and Oxbow show that for the past three millennia, aboriginal people have repeatedly come to this oxbow in the Miramichi River to fish, hunt and gather plants © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Constructed about 2500 years ago, the circular Augustine Mound is a rare example in the Maratimes of the elaborate burial tradition associated with the Adena culture, which originated in the Ohio River Valley and then spread throughout eastern North America. The rich archaeological record found at the site includes well-preserved textiles and basketry, ornaments of Lake Superior native copper, Ohio fireclay pipes, and distinctive Adena-type stone tools dating back 7000 years.

The types of objects retrieved from the Augustine Mound are exceptional for this area of Canada – copper beads on leather, small pieces of baskets, textiles, animal hides, moose-hair work, porcupine quills, feathers and wooden-handled tools. The salts from thousands of copper beads helped save the raw natural fibers from decomposing.

The earth mound, the types of burials and the artifacts suggest that the Mi’kmaq of Metepenagiag probably carried on complex trading and cultural relations with other Aboriginal societies as distant as central Ohio.

Oxbow is one of the largest pre-contact archeological sites in the Maritimes and remarkable for its rich and deeply stratified record of almost continuous human occupation. The artifacts uncovered show that for the past three millennia, aboriginal people have repeatedly come to this oxbow in the Miramichi River to fish, hunt and gather plants. Seasonal flooding covered their camps with silt, preserving evidence of their everyday life, including stone tools, ceramics, and fire pits.

*Archaeological research is actively underway at Metepenagiag Heritage Center, Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Known today as the Mi’kmaq (from the word nikmaq, meaning my kin-friend), in ancient times they called themselves Lnu’k, The People. The Mi’kmaq are an Eastern Algonkian-speaking people closely related to the Wolastoqiyik, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and the Eastern and Western Abenaki. Together, these nations formed the Wabanaki Confederacy.

“The findings of these two archeological sites scientifically prove the ancient oral history we have always known, passed down through many generations. This is our legacy and how two national historic sites came to be.”

“Elder Joseph (Joe Mike) Michael Augustine (1911-1995) left an important legacy: the rediscovery of the Mi’kmaq identity and culture as a people and as a nation.” Joe Mike served two terms each as Chief and as a Band Councillor.

*Metepenagiag Heritage Center* *guide Marcus Alexander LaViolette poses with a photo of his great grandfather,* *Mi’kmaq Elder Joe Augustine discovered the Augustine Mound and Oxbow archaeological sites that proved Mi’kmaq habitation for 3,000 years © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

“This is archaeological proof of living here 3000 years,” says our guide, Marcus Alexander LaViolette, heritage interpreter, a 20-something fellow who turns out to be the great grandson of Joe Augustine, making his remarks all the more poignant.

One room displays how the Mi’kmaq would have lived, season by season (they lived along the river in warm seasons, and moved to the forest in cold).

Mi’kmaq ancestors lived in wikuoms (wigwams), not tipis. Some cone- shaped wigwams could hold up to 30 people; A or V-type usually held large groups, which typically would have been built by women.

Marcus shows us a re-created canoe and the skin of an Atlantic sturgeon, which grew to a size “as long as a canoe.” A main food source for generations, the sturgeon, which could grow over 3 meters long and weigh 400 kilos, are now exceptionally rare – the last one was caught 30 years ago. “Sturgeon are an ancient fish in an ancient river; they haven’t evolved,” Marcus tells us.

*Metepenagiag Heritage Center* *guide Marcus Alexander LaViolette with a canoe and skin of a sturgeon that once provided sustenance to Mi’kmaq, but now is virtually extinct © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

The birchbark canoe “was likely the most remarkable Mi’kmaq construction.” It ranged from 3 to 8 meters long; with high ends and raised sides, a uniquely Mi’kmaq design, that kept the canoe from taking on water. Using this type of canoe, the Mi’kmaq ancestors traveled out to sea, up streams and down rapids. The canoe could transport large loads but was light enough so one or two people could easily carry it.

“We lost the tradition of canoe making,” Marcus tells us, “so this is a generic style for birch bark canoe.”

The exhibit hall is a portal to ancient history, he tells us, stressing that it is a point of pride that all the notes are equally translated in English, French, and Mi’kmaq, especially since only 5% of Mi’kmaq people can understand their native language. There are about 200,000 Mi’kmaq in Canada and in Maine.

Marcus notes that there the pots do not have a flat bottom but would be designed to wedge into the ground. They would boil or cook using superheated sand – which would form a crust around bread and not get into the bread. When it was done, they would pat it like a drum so the sand comes off, leaving the bread. “That they can recreate the process shows proof of concept – shows can do it, re-creatable.” (In the “Taste of Metepenagiag” package, guests learn how to make traditional bread.)

*Metepenagiag Heritage Center displays how the Mi’kmaq would have lived, season by season © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

The ancient Oxbow village was next to one of the best salmon fishing pools. For centuries the Miramichi River was a river of fish – so many salmon swam up the river that they would keep villagers awake at night as they fell on the water after leaping into the air. The ancestors smoke-dried a lot of the salmon catch for winter or to use in trade.

The Mi’kmaq ancesters knew the names and uses of trees, plants, flowers and herbs. Foods included fiddleheads, cat-tail roots, raspberries and blueberries. The bloodroot plant provided dye. Balsam fir helped to cure wounds. Canoes and containers were made from birchbark, wood and root, and mats from reeds and rushes. Sweetgrass and tobacco are still used in ceremonies.

“We slowed down First Contact,” Marcus says, then adds, “The Mi’kmaq way of life did not last. With the first Europeans came dramatic changes. The ancestors began to spend more time gathering furs to trade for the prized European goods. They became dependent on Europeans for food. European diseases killed whole Mi’kmaq villages. With few people left to pass on tradition, much knowledge and history was lost.” In fact, the British barred them from hunting or fishing.

This place had always been important for trade – there is even evidence of the Vikings having come. European merchant traders set up a commercial fishery on the Miramichi River in the 1760s that destroyed much of the traditional salmon fishery. “The few Mi’kmaq living at Metepenagiag struggled to survive.”

Local women made this re-creation of the magnificent embroidered, beaded coat made in 1841 for British sea captain Henry O’Halloran who was made an honorary chief of the Mi’kmaq, on view at the Metepenagiag Heritage Center © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

This is what made a magnificent embroidered, beaded coat that is on exhibit all the more significant, and treasured by the community: it is a re-creation of a fabulous coat, meticulously crafted by local women for a British sea captain, Henry O’Halloran. At a time when the Mi’kmaq were forced onto a reserve and weren’t allowed to hunt or fish, Captain O’Halloran traded with the indigenous people, provided food and formed a close relationship. The coat was made in 1841on the occasion of making him an honorary chief. This one is an exact replica, made by the local women, which if sold, would be valued at $300,000. (Marcus proudly says he got to model it.)

Marcus points to the Treaties of Peace and Friendship, saying, “When our ancestors signed treaties with the British Crown, such as in 1779, they did not give up ownership of our traditional lands. They also kept our rights to fish, hunt, gather and trade.” But these rights were not honored.

In 1994 Metepenagiag signed a historic “loss of land-use” agreement with the government of Canada. But it did not include all of the lands and access to resources that have been taken from our community. Negotiations are continuing in an effort to obtain a fair settlement.” Only recently, each tribal member received $20,000 from the Canadian government as compensation for land.

It is important to note that First Nations people – there are about 2 million in Canada – only received the right to vote without losing their native Indian status in 1960; the last residential school closed as recently as 1995. In 2014, Canada passed the Truth & Reconciliation Act, apologizing for the harm in trying to eradicate indigenous heritage, prompting a policy toward promoting indigenous rights and heritage. Indigenous tourism, a key tool for both economic development and preservation of indigenous heritage and culture, is now Canada’s the fastest growing industry, Amanda says.

At the end of our visit, Marcus says, “First Nations people don’t believe in goodbye – everything is a circle, comes back – even if in next life.”

Metepenagiag Heritage Park has 1800 meters of groomed trails (30 minutes walking time) that let you “walk in the footsteps of our ancestors” to the water.

*You can overnight at the Metepenagiag Heritage Center in a tipi, lodge or cabin and be immersed in Mi’kmaq experience © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

What is more, you can overnight in a tipi (glamping), cabin or lodge, have a First Nations dining experience, storytelling and be immersed in the 3,000-year heritage around a campfire. Or take part in “A Taste of Metepenagiag” and learn about foods and cooking techniques. New experiences are also being developed.

The Mi’kmaq operate SP First Nations Outdoor Tours, authentic indigenous experiences that begin with a traditional welcome, a river tour by canoe or kayak, storytelling; and authentic First Nations dining and accommodations (56 Shore Road, Red Bank NB, Metepenagiag, 506-626-2718).

Metepenagiag Heritage Park, 2156 Micmac Road, Red Bank NB, 506-836-6118, [email protected] 1-888-380-3555, metpark.ca.

To get to the Metepenagiag Heritage Center, you go through a Mi’kmaq residential community of about 600 people, where you have to be a community member to own the home (but do not own the land). It looks like a typical suburban neighborhood. with its own school (the federal government subsidizes the public school but teachers are paid less than regular school teachers) and shopping center. After the museum was built, the community opened a woman’s shelter, health center. The community also owns Riverside Entertainment (gaming room, restaurant), downtown.

Sportsman’s Paradise

Miramichi is world renowned as a sportsman’s paradise for fishing, hunting, hiking, kayaking, tubing down the rivers, and the longest zipline in New Brunswick (1200 feet). Indeed, the rivers, filled with salmon, and lush wilderness that provided the food and shelter to sustain the Mi’kmaq even 3,000 years ago, continues to sustain Miramichi today.

Miramichi is so prominent for salmon fishing (baseball star Ted Williams used to invite major celebrities including Marilyn Monroe to his family cottage in Blackville), that there is actually an Atlantic Salmon Museum, founded by the local historical society in 1982, that displays 5,000 artifacts “celebrating the artistry of fly tying, the beauty of a well-crafted rod and, above all, the nobility of that ‘king of fish’ the Atlantic salmon.”

*One of John William Keith-King collection of 150 plates on view at the Atlantic Salmon Museum in Doaktown, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Most notably, the museum is the repository for the internationally revered John William Keith-King collection of 150 plates that feature exquisite flies combined with stunning artwork and historic photos, plus artwork, reels, fishing rods, fishing tackle, fish replicas and antique outboard motors. The collection is valued at $500,000 (the plates alone valued at $5,000 each), Believe me, I never thought such a museum could be so fascinating even to someone who has never fished for salmon. This place is pure bliss for fishing enthusiasts. (Admission is free. Check hours. 263 Main St, Doaktown NB, 506-365-7787, www.atlanticsalmonmuseum.com

*The Ledges Inn, a sportsman’s retreat, Doaktown, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

People come from all over for the opportunity to fish and hunt, staying in upscale places like The Ledges Inn, a 4.5-star outfitter with 10-room lodge, picturesquely set on the bank of the Miramichi River, where you can enjoy salmon fishing, upland bird-hunting, four-wheeling, snowmobiling (30 Ledges Inn lane, Doaktown NB, 1-506-365-1820, Ledgesinn.com); and the historic Wilson’s Sporting Camps, family-owned hunting lodge, offering sportsmen retreats since 1855(23 Big Murphy Lane, McNamee NB, 1-877-365-7962, Wilsoncamps.nb.ca).

Another local attraction is the Priceville Footbridge, which, local lore has it, was built in 1938 to unite two lovers who lived in villages separated by the river. At 656 feet, it’s the longest suspension bridge in New Brunswick, was damaged and rebuilt in 1939, then replaced in 1988 (McNamee Road. https://tourismnewbrunswick.ca/listing/priceville-suspension-footbridge).

*Enjoying a plate of mussels at Vera’s at Richie Wharf, Miramichi, as the sun sets © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Back in Miramichi, I spend a pleasant evening at Richie Wharf, a charming waterfront park and historic site, where on Friday nights locals come out for music and dancing, After enjoying this scene, I have a delightful dinner (mussels!) at Vera’s patio with a gorgeous view of the sunset on the river. (84 Norton’s Lane, Miramichi, 506-625-2300)

Other Miramichi highlights: There are loads of historic sites we didn’t have time to visit but sound so interesting: Doak House commemorates Scottish entrepreneur Robert Doak who settled here in the early 1820s (386 Main St. Doaktown, 506-365-2026); Wilson’s Point Historic Site, a provincial historic site, contains the Scottish ancestry of Miramichi, but has archaeological significance for the Mi’kmaq people as well as the French Acadians and Loyalists (8 Enclosure Rd., Derby Junction, www.wilsonspoint.com, 506-627-0162); Miramichi History Museum (182 Wellington St., 506-778-4050); Tabusintac Library & Museum (4490 Rte 11, Tabusintac); and W.S. Loggie House & Cultural Centre, a Victorian home with artifacts from 1850 to 2000 (222 Wellington St., Miramichi, 506-775-4996).

Also: Miramichi River Interpretive Trail (1.4 km long, 158 main Street, Blackville; 90-min, Miramichi River Boat Tours out of Richie Wharf; Gallan’s Miramichi River Tubing (Doyles Brook, miramichirivertubing.com); Escuminac Beach (escuminacbeach.com); Historical Beaverbrook House Haunted Tour.

*Rodd Miramichi River Hotel © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

I overnight at the Rodd Miramichi River Hotel, picturesquely set in the waterfront village (1809 Water Street, 506-773-3111).

The next morning, I meet up with David and Laini at the Calico Café; they have been exploring Prince Edward Island and Shediac, where they had a fabulous dinner at Le Mogue Tortue, a restaurant with an Alice-in-Wonderland like setting (tea cups,clocks!), and we continue on our roadtrip to French Acadia, where we will bike on the new Veloroute (bikeway) along the coast, through French fishing villages.

Miramichi Tourism, 800-459-3131, discovermiramichi.com.

Travel planning assistance from Tourism New Brunswick, 800-561-0123, www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca.

NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA ROADTRIP: SAINT JOHN, CITY OF FIRSTS, OLDESTS, AMAZEMENTS

NEW BRUNSWICK ROADTRIP: DISCOVERING FUNDY TRAIL PARKWAY, FUNDY NATIONAL PARK, CAPE ENRAGE

NEW BRUNSWICK ROADTRIP: MESMERIZING HOPEWELL ROCKS

Next: Exploring French Acadia’s culture and heritage by bike!

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Cultural travel, Ecotourism, Historic Places, Outdoors Adventures, Places of History

New Brunswick, Canada Roadtrip: Saint John, City of Firsts, Oldests, Amazements

September 11, 2023 krubin723

Reversing Falls Rapids, one of only two reversing falls in the world, is where the Saint John River runs through a narrow gorge before emptying into the Bay of Fundy. The force of the tide of Fundy Bay – 160 million tons of seawater at high tide – overpowers the river, pushing it backwards. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, with Dave E. Leiberman, Laini Miranda & Eric Leiberman

Travel Features Syndicate, www.goingplacesfarandnear.com

Our roadtrip through New Brunswick, one of Canada’s Maritime Provinces, continues in Saint John, a city of firsts, of oldest, of amazements worthy of Ripley’s or Guinness, like the wondrous Reversing Falls (one of only two in the world), and Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark, where we will actually see remnants of Pangea – primordial earth before the continents split apart.

A City of Oldests, Firsts

Saint John is only about an hour’s drive from St. Andrews where we meet Doug Scott, who is taking us on a walking tour to best appreciate the history and heritage of Canada’s oldest incorporated city, the province’s second biggest city with a population of 135,000, the only city on the Bay of Fundy, and a major cruise ship port, which served as an major immigration center for 200 years.

It was into this port that explorer Samuel de Champlain sailed in 1604 –claiming it for France.

*Fort La Tour National Historic Site, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We follow a beautiful waterfront walkway that is taking shape around to Fort La Tour National Historic Site, built in 1631 by Charles La Tour to trade with First Nations people. This has been an archeological site, but more recently, they have reconstructed the fort, “the site of treachery, intrigue and a memorable battle in early Acadian times,” the literature reads. It is also “commemorates 5,700 years of changing ceremonial, commercial and industrial uses.” (Harbour Passage, 506,607-7171, www.placefortlatour.com)

The “treachery” and “intrigue” comes from the fact that during her husband’s absence in 1645, Françoise-Marie Jacquelin, Madame de La Tour, unsuccessfully defended the fort against their chief rival, Charles de Menou d’Aulnay, who promised that if she surrendered, he would spare the lives of her people; she surrendered and he killed them anyway.

Though claimed for France, the British had different ideas, seeing Saint John as an important defensive port, and, when the British and French were embroiled in the French & Indian War (1754-1763) over control of the colonies, in 1755, expelled the French Acadians who did not swear an oath to Britain.

Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution founded Saint John in 1783, incorporating the city in 1785 (Canada’s first).

From Fort La Tour we can see out to the 24 acres of Partridge Island in the harbor, “the most historic chunk of rock in Canada,” Scott says.

Partridge Island had New Brunswick’s first gas-powered lighthouse (1791), North America’s first quarantine station (1785) and the world’s first steam-operated fog alarm (1859).

Much like Ellis Island in New York harbor, 3 million immigrants passed through here to make Canada their home. A flood of Europeans came through in 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars; and from 1812-1850, 70 percent of immigrants were Irish, peaking in 1845-47, because of the Irish Potato Famine. There was tension between the British (Protestants) and the Irish (Catholics), that climaxed in an 1849 riot which led to the formation of Canada’s first police force. (You can visit the Saint John Police Museum, 56 Prince William St., 506-674-4137, www.saintjohnpolicemuseum.ca)

Saint John’s role as the gateway for immigrants is notable. There is the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum (91 Leinstar St., 506-633-1833, http://jewishmuseumsj.com/), focusing on the development and engagement of Saint John’s Jewish community since its founding in 1858, through its “Golden Years” (1919-1960s), when there 1400 Jews and 85 businesses.

From 1858 through 1947, Partridge Island was used for defense and still is a Canadian Coast Guard base. People used to be able to go to the island for concerts but today, the island is closed to visits.

*Much of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada’s oldest incorporated city,had to be rebuilt (in brick) after the Great Fire of 1877 Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*A white cross indicated a building that had been rebuilt after the 1877 fire © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

1877 was a pivotal year for Saint John: a Great Fire destroyed everything from the waterfront to King Street (you can even see the difference in architecture). 19 died and 7 newspapers, 16 churches and 2600 buildings were destroyed. The city brought in architects from New York and within one year, rebuilt 1,300 buildings using brick. Today, you see many buildings with dates from 1877, 1878, 1879; many also have white crosses to show that were rebuilt to a new fire standard.

Loyalist Cemetery, in King’s Square, Saint John, New Brunswick. Canada’s oldest incorporated city, it was founded by Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution in 1783 and incorporated in 1785 fire © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Scott takes us to a street which is pretty much the dividing line where the fire stopped. On one side are all the brick buildings. But just nearby, you can still visit Loyalist House (120 Union Street, 506-652-3590, www.LoyalistHouse.com), built by local merchant David Daniel Merritt around 1810, which is the city center’s oldest standing wooden structure. We also visit Loyalist Cemetery, in King’s Square, just behind the City Market, which is a beautiful park.

Another interesting place to visit is the New Brunswick Museum which houses historic and geologic exhibits (Market Square, 1-888-268-9595, 506-643-2390, www.nbm-mnh.ca) and its Archives & Research Library (277 Douglas Avenue), housing death and marriage records that draws people from all over to research. (While the museum itself is in the process of undergoing an extensive renovation and the collections are currently inaccessible, you can still access the Archives & Research Library by appointment.)

*City Market, Saint John, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We have lunch at the Saint John City Market. At one of the entrances, a sign lists St. John’s City of Firsts: oldest continuing operating farmers market in Canada; first police force; first public high school, first museum, library, paved street, banking district in Canada. The market is itself housed in a historic building, dating from 1876, its ceiling is in the shape of an upside down ship’s hull (a shipbuilder built it).

Stonehammer Geopark’s Amazements

Saint John is not only Canada’s oldest incorporated city, it is built on some of the oldest geology on the planet. For the geology part of our Saint John exploration, we meet up with Wanda Hughes who runs the Inside Out Nature Centre inside Rockwood Park (55 Lake Drive), and has been involved with the Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark since its founding in 2010, the first geopark in North America.

Stonehammer UNESCO Geopark, the first in North America, contains some 60 sites of geologic significance, including some of the oldest geology on the planet and evidence of Pangea, as well as some of the oldest fossils © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

There are now 177 UNESCO Global Geoparks in 46 countries around the world (the first opened in China in 1980s; Canada has five). But Stonehammer is distinguished because while most geoparks are a single site (like a cave or volcano), because of the extraordinary diversity and scale of geology here, Stonehammer contains 60 different sites, spanning 965 sq. miles up the coast to St. Martins, each site with a different geological story. During our visit, we get just a taste.

In Stonehammer Geopark in Saint John, you can see evidence of Pangea, primordial Earth before the continents split, and rocks that come from present-day Africa and South America in one place © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

350 million years ago, the earth was one super continent, Pangea, that through ice ages and other geologic forces, separated into 7 continents. But when the world was Pangea, New Brunswick was located where Africa is today, a tropical paradise south of the equator.

“Our geology is unique,” Hughes tells us. “As the continents drifted apart, a new Atlantic Ocean was created here.” You can see rocks facing each other, one that would have been in Africa (today), and the other that would have been South America today – two different continents.

Our Stonehammer Geopark experience starts in Rockwood Park, one of the Stonehammer Geopark sites. Spanning 2,200 acres with 10 lakes and 55 trails, it is one of the largest urban parks in Canada and was designed by Frederick Olmstead in the 1800s (who also designed NYC’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate). Before heading out, we actually get to try out hydrocycles! You can also do geo-caching, rockclimbing, kayaking, and mountain biking from the Nature Center.

*Trying out hydrocycles in Rockwood Park, one of the Stonehammer Geopark sites in Saint John, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Enroute to one of the major Stonehammer sites, Reversing Falls, Hughes takes us through a wealthy neighborhood of Captain’s Houses and notes that Abraham Pineo Gesner (1797-1864), a Canadian physician and geologist who lived much of his life in Saint John, invented kerosene, saving whales from extinction and basically founding the petroleum industry.

Reversing Falls, one of only two reversing falls in the world (the other is in Norway), is a series of rapids (not really waterfalls) where the Saint John River runs through a narrow gorge before emptying into the Bay of Fundy. The force of the tide of Fundy Bay – 160 million tons of seawater at high tide – overpowers the river, pushing it backwards.

The tide can rise as much as 26 ft – how high depends on moon cycle, season (higher in spring), and the gravitational pull. But for about 20 minutes at a time, there is a “slack tide” when the river and bay meet, “when the ocean stops the river,” Wanda tells us. It is only then that you can safely bring in a boat. “American sailors who didn’t realize they had to change their clock [Atlantic time is one hour earlier than Eastern time] would get stuck.”

*Reversing Falls, one of the Stonehammer Geopark sites, Saint John, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

It is hard to make out (you would really need to know where and what to look for), but there is evidence of an ancient ocean and the formation of the supercontinent Pangea under the Reversing Falls bridge: billion-year-old light gray marble from South America on one side and 500-million-year-old dark gray shale and sandstone from northern Africa on the other. They came together 480-430 million years ago. (See: Southern New Brunswick rocks tell a billion years worth of stories, says geologist.)

Not surprisingly, considering the power of these falls, there is a local legend from the Mi’kmaq people who lived here well before the Europeans that tells of Glooscap (the Creator), who was angered that a giant beaver was damming up the river, harming fishing, and refused to stop. Glooscap used a giant club to smash the dam, which created the small islands we see, and then shrank the beaver to the size it is now. (I gather this is the source of the name, Stonehammer.)

“At low tide, you can see Glooscap’s club and face in rock. And then they found fossil of giant beaver,” Wanda tells us. A banana-sized beaver tooth displayed at the New Brunswick Museum is evidence that giant beavers, the size of black bears today, actually existed.

*Historically, such fast-moving waterways as Reversing Falls were used for manufacturing and commerce, like the Irving Paper & Pulp Mill © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

On the other shore of the Reversing Falls is the Irving Paper & Pulp Mill, a key industry and employer in Saint John, which seems incongruous but like so many factories, was built on such dynamic waterways because of the water power and transportation and that Saint John was an industrial city.

The bridge over the Reversing Falls gorge and rapids is notable. There were three previous attempts: the St. John Bridge Company tried in 1837, but the partially completed bridge collapsed, killing seven workmen. Finally, Edward W. Serrerell, who designed the first bridge to span Niagara Falls, was hired in 1849, and three years later, the first successful bridge opened, becoming a principal north-south trade link to the United States. (The current bridge was erected in 1915).

For a different experience, you can walk “The Plank,” an observation deck 110 feet in the air overlooking the Reversing Falls Rapids (https://theplank.ca/).

*Irving Nature Park, one of the Stonehammer Geopark sites in Saint John, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We next visit the Irving Nature Park, a 600 acre wooded park located on the City’s west side, which is a Stonehammer Geopark site, owned and maintained by J.D.Irving Ltd. That offers beautiful views of the Fundy coastline, groomed trails and a gravel road for walking, hiking, and biking. And just outside the main entrance is a Children’s Forest, playground, and life-size mazes. It is also a “dark sky” preserve. Be mindful of the tide!

The full complement of 60 Stonehammer geosites presents almost continuous geological history of the planet over a billion years. Of the sites, about a dozen are easily accessible by the public and are presented as parks and recreation centers.

Dominion Park, for example, is where billion-year-old stromatolite fossils in the marble that formed in South America and evidence of an ancient cyanobacteria, was where the oldest evidence of life on Earth was first identified in 1890; it also offers some of the best beaches for swimming in Saint John https://stonehammergeopark.com/geosites/dominion-park/

“This was the most violent place on the planet 250 million years ago, but not now. Here, [the continents] stabilized.” She says this place is an example of a “failed continental rift”, where the continents stopped separating, creating a narrow bottleneck which traps the ocean. “It’s why we have the highest tides.”

Stonehammer Geopark has an interpretation/visitor center at Area 506 Container Village which displays some of the fossil collection, and can provide map and guidance on how to best visit (Open June-October, 85 Water St., 1-506-471-1310, www.stonehammergeopark.com).

Wanda Hughes’ company, Go Fundy Events, offers a variety of ecotourism and adventure programs for individuals and groups (712 Dominion Park Road, Saint John, NB E2M 5S8, 506.672.0770, 1.866.672.0770, [email protected], www.gofundyevents.com.

Saint John’s Quirky Vibe

With all this history and serious geology, what is especially notable is the quirky vibe of Saint John, which you feel especially in the project to redevelop the waterfront to host shops, a skating rink and concert venue.

*Area 506, the Waterfront Container Village, offers fun boutiques, eateries, pop up art, and music and movie space © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Area 506, the Waterfront Container Village, located next to the cruise ship terminal, opened in summer 2022 with some 60-plus shipping containers converted into retail spaces that showcase New Brunswick creativity. There is also a large stage performance and movie space, a three-level patio that provides great views of the stage and Bay of Fundy, a beer garden, food trucks, a graffiti alley for local and international artists, and pop-up activities.

*For all its history and 19^th century architecture, Saint John, New Brunswick, has a young, quirky vibe © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Saint John also “punches far above its weight in terms of dining experiences,” Scott tells us. There’s a vibrant food and beverage scene in Saint John with 80-plus bars/restaurants within 10 blocks downtown near the cruise ship terminal – all of them local and independent, offering an amazing diversity of cuisine from around the world (reflecting Saint John’s heritage as an immigration center and cruise port).

We’ve even gotten a list of recommendations:

Port City Royal (45 Grannan Street), where we savor handmade ravioli filled with whipped feta and ricotta cheese, topped with buttery glazed fiddleheads, crispy guanciale and Egyptian walking onion oil;roast pork & chick shoyu ramen and Japanese spring noodle salad. It also offers an imaginative cocktail menu.

*Saint John, New Brunswick, ”punches above its weight” in cuisine. We enjoy a dinner at Port City Royal © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Saint John Ale House (owned by celebrity chef Jesse Vergen, from Top Chef and Wall of Chefs, 1 Market Square, https://www.saintjohnalehouse.com/

Lemongrass Thai Fare / Peppers Pub, 1 Market Square.

Five and Dime, vinyl record bar, 34 Grannan Lane, https://fiveanddimesj.com/

East Coast Bistro, local cuisine prepared with French techniques, 60 Prince William Street,

Pomodori Pizza – for a casual night out – attached to Picaroons brew pub, 34 Canterbury Street.

*Picaroons Brew Pup is a popular spot in Saint John, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

It’s appropriate to mention that (at least during our visit) the US dollar goes about 25% further than the Canadian dollar, so what we buy – like a fancy meal – is at a 25 percent discount.

Being a major city, Saint John offers lots of choices of accommodations. We enjoy our stay at Hilton Saint John, an upscale property with its own parking garage, ideally located right on the waterfront, with indoor pool, fitness center, restaurant, pet-friendly rooms (1 Market Square, +1 506-693-8484).

Travel planning assistance from Discover Saint John, 1 866 463 8639, [email protected], https://www.discoversaintjohn.com/ and Tourism New Brunswick, 800-561-0123, www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca.

Next: New Brunswick Roadtrip Takes Us On the Newly Completed Fundy Trail Parkway

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Cultural travel, Destinations, Driveable adventures, Driveable destinations, Historic Hotels, Historic Places

New Brunswick Roadtrip Begins in St. Andrews

September 5, 2023 krubin723

*Picturesque, historic* *St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

By Karen Rubin, with Dave E. Leiberman, Laini Miranda & Eric Leiberman

Travel Features Syndicate, www.goingplacesfarandnear.com

Perhaps the most defining feature of New Brunswick, Canada is that it has the highest tides in the world. But unless you see it, stand in it, walk on the ocean floor one hour and kayak through rock openings the next, it is hard to wrap your head around what it means to say the Bay of Fundy has the “highest tides” in the world.

*Rising tide, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Seeing, experiencing this phenomenon for ourselves is just one of the reasons that brought us to New Brunswick, one of Canada’s Atlantic Maritime provinces and the only one of its 11 provinces that is officially bilingual (English and French). Other unique aspects were also intriguing – like seeing the vestiges of Pangea, primordial earth before the continents split apart, in one of the world’s first and most expansive UNESCO Geoparks; fossils 3.5 billion years old; and the intriguing phenomenon of Reversing Falls (one of only two places in the world).

We are also really excited to sample a new bike trail, 375 miles around the coast, that let us tour its (very French) Acadian Peninsula, going through small villages where the flag most prominently waved is that of Acadia, not New Brunswick or Canada. And then there are the bonus surprises where you can see living history of the First Nations and a colonial Acadian Village.

New Brunswick also is surprisingly easy to reach, located adjacent to Maine (there are 17 border crossings), yet so delightfully foreign and exotic because it is relatively unknown and unexplored beyond New Englanders.

*St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, a picturesque seaside historic town © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We start our New Brunswick exploration in St. Andrews, one of Canada’s most popular seaside resort towns – wonderfully picturesque, with a surprising amount of things to do.

It is also where we will launch our 10-day trip that will take us on the scenic 286-mile Fundy Coastal Drive (St. Andrews, Saint John, St. Martins, Fundy Trail Parkway, Alma, Cape Enrage and Hopewell Rocks), and on to Miramichi and the Acadian Peninsula, where we will cycle the new Acadian Peninsula Veloroute from Tracadie to Shippagan, Miscou Island and Caraquet. (We are grateful to Tourism New Brunswick for creating our itinerary.)

St. Andrews, designated a National Historic Site of Canada, is a charming community with many of the town’s buildings still reflecting its founding by the United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, especially as we walk along Water Street.

Kingsbrae Garden

Our first morning, we explore an absolute treasure of St. Andrews: Kingsbrae Garden, set on 27 acres donated by John and Lucinda Flemer. This was her family’s summer home – she tells stories of taking the train from their Montreal home and hiding in the century-old hedges which we walk through today. In fact, at 93 years old, Lucinda still lives here, walks the grounds most days (making sure everything is up to snuff), Daniel Schmids, director of operations, relates as he guides us around.

In 1996, Mrs. Flemer wanted to do something to benefit the community. She originally thought to create a school to train guide dogs, but the tourism office suggested that a garden would benefit the community more, Lucinda was not a garden hobbyist, botanist nor landscape architect. Nor was Geoff Slater, the artist she chose to design her garden (we see his murals on Water Street). She laid out her vision for the Garden one evening sitting at her kitchen table with Slater over a bottle of wine, and Kingsbrae Garden opened two years later.

*Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

The gardens are gorgeous – works of art, really – but they are so much more. You feel the heart, the compassion, that went into their creation and design. You feel as nurtured and protected as the flowers. I have never been so simultaneously excited and serene at the same time.

Kingsbrae pays tribute to some of the great garden traditions such as the White, Rose, Knot Garden, Perennial and Cottage gardens.

*One of the classic gardens at Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

There are also experimental gardens where new and old styles and plant materials are used to preserve and promote home gardening, like the Container Garden (to give apartment dwellers ideas, inspired by her time living in England). Display gardens showcase various collections of plant species and their uses – Rhododendron, Heath & Heather, Ornamental Shrub, Dwarf Conifer, Herb, Hydrangea and Gravel gardens. But Kingsbrae goes far beyond horticulture.

*Lucinda Flemer designed* *Kingsbrae Garden with an artist’s eye © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

There is a Labyrinth & Maze, a Bee Garden (the bees essential to pollinate the flowers), a Monarch Garden (a certified Monarch butterfly way station providing not only the milkweed that Monarchs require but a protected place for the egg larvae to develop), a Secret Garden, and Memory Lane (a row of special trees planted in memory of someone).

*Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews, is a certified Monarch butterfly way station; larvae are taken and protected in shelters© Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

There is a Peace Garden and Afghanistan Memorial to honor and give comfort to war dead and veterans (military people get free admission); a therapy garden (the gardens work with Wounded Warriors to use gardening to relieve stress); a Scents and Sensitivity garden that invites you to identify the plant by smell or touch (the accompanying sculpture of a guide dog pays homage to Lucinda’s original idea). There is an orchard containing heirloom varieties of apple trees. An Edible Garden showcases edible plants, native and exotic fruits and berries (where the Garden Café chef makes a daily collection for his culinary creations before visitors arrive).

*Animals are among the special delights at* *Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Favorites are the Children’s Garden and a Fantasy Garden that provide outdoor environments for play and learning, with tiny cottages and animals including goats, alpacas and rabbits. The children’s garden is bordered by a “living fence” of 100 criss-crossing apple trees that have grown together over the past 10 years.

*The living fence of criss-crossed apple trees border the Children’s Garden at* *Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Possibly the most extraordinary sight is the Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis), a 200 million year old species thought to be extinct but re-discovered by a hiker in Australia; some were auctioned and a St. Andrews man won one and gifted it to Kingsbrae, now protected within a cage.

*The rare, thought to be extinct, Wollemi Pine is on view at Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

“Since dinosaurs roamed the earth to the present electronic era, a few Wollemi pines have patiently survived with their gene pool pure and unchanged, in the Blue Mountains of Australia. What was likely a tasty treat Cretaceous dinosaurs munched on for lunch is a botanical story of the century.”

One of the most magnificent displays is the working Dutch windmill, built to one-third scale. Mrs. Flemer’s husband, John, who was Dutch, had it built as an anniversary gift in 1997 (he passed 6 years ago).

*Lucinda Flemer’s husband, John, had this one-third scale Dutch windmill constructed as an anniversary present*. *© Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

You can explore a kilometer-long groomed trail through the Acadian forest and an Audubon-certified bird sanctuary, which she created after a visit to India.

Lucinda Flemer had not been a gardening person, but was art-oriented and wanted to create Kingsbrae for “the eye of artist”.

The Gardens even offers an art residency for six artists a year, housed in a historic 1908 building she purchased.

*Kingsbrae Garden is Canada’s largest private sculpture collection © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

And all the way through, tucked here and there, are sculptures that convey a theme or message or are just whimsical (like an apple core you can sit on), as well as a Sculpture Garden. Indeed, Kingsbrae Garden is Canada’s largest private sculpture collection. For many years Lucinda sponsored a sculpture competition, purchasing the top prize winners for the Garden. Now she commissions works. We see the most recent acquisition, a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, appropriately in the Heath and Heather Garden.

*A sculptural tribute to Queen Elizabeth II in the Heath & Heather Garden at* *Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Everywhere you look there is some delightful surprise.

Lucinda Flemer built the garden and then decided to build an 1100-seat amphitheater – in a town of 2500 people! “People laughed. But she thought, ‘Build it and they will come,’” Daniel tells us. And they did. The amphitheater hosts 8 to 10 events a year including Broadway productions (a local actor was Broadway’s “Come From Away” and “Rock of Ages,” and his wife is a casting director), in 2022, one event filled the amphitheater twice.

“She was inspired by what was done well, so she brought here to show people what they otherwise wouldn’t see – the same with art residency. People get to experience different culture.”

Seniors who live in a residence next door come in for free through a special gate. In July and August, there are special mobility tours by golf cart.

*Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews, offers whimsical delights like this apple core sculpture that invites you to sit © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We have the most delectable lunch at the Garden’s Café, with items enhanced by the freshly picked produce from the garden, which also houses an Art Gallery. On view are paintings created by the artist who designed Kingsbrae, Geoff Slater (he’s known for paintings out of a single line in changing colors) who also painted the murals on Water Street.

Café executive chef Alex Haun, grew up in St Andrews, started working at Kingsbrae at15 years old as a dishwasher (his father managed the garden). Haun went to Canadian Culinary Institute, competed in International Culinary Olympics, winning multiple gold medals. He probably could have gone anywhere in the world but returned to Kingsbrae. His Signature 12-course “Savor” dinner menu, offered three times a year, sells out immediately.

Kingsbrae Garden, 220 King Street, St. Andrews, 506-529-3335, www.kingsbraegarden.com (Open May-October).

Whale Watching

Dave and I have to rush away from this delectable lunch to get to the dock for a whale watching tour with Jolly Breeze Whale Adventures.

Whale watching is very popular in St. Andrews and there are many different companies. I am thrilled to be taking Jolly Breeze’s 12-passenger Zodiac – extremely comfortable, low to the water, very flexible so you are unlikely to get sea sick, and the Captain can maneuver more easily to get closer to a whale (keeping an appropriate distance).

It is very early in the season and it is really by virtue of Captain Randy’s experience (he started working on the boats when he was 13), knowing whale behavior and pattern and skill that toward the end of the 2 ½ hour cruise, we spot a Minke whale.

But even if we didn’t get to spot a whale, the cruise is really fun on the Zodiac.

*The picturesque East Quoddy Lighthouse is spotted on* Jolly Breeze Whale Watching Adventures, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

They dress us in gear that looks like we are off to explore the Arctic, so we are absolutely comfortable on the Zodiac. We get to see the picturesque East Quoddy Lighthouse, built in 1829 on a small, rocky islet located off the northern tip of Campobello Island (was frequented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and today is the world’s only national park, shared by two countries, Canada and the USA), as well as puffin and seals.

If it had been a little more into the season we might have seen as many as four different whale species that frequent this area at different times in the season. One of the regulars is an Orca they call “Old Tom.”

There is not much splash on the Zodiac, so you can bring a good camera with long lens and a dry bag is available on request.

Jolly Breeze Whale Adventures on the wharf at 4 King Street. 506-529-8116, https://jollybreeze.com.

Ministers Island

We need to pull ourselves away from wandering St. Andrews’ charming downtown by 5 pm, in order to visit Ministers Island, Canada’s largest tidal island and a National Historic Site. Since you have to drive across a sand road (Bar Road) that is quickly overrun at high tide, covered by 15 feet of water (when it becomes an island), we have to mind the time. We will have to be off at 7 pm when the tide quickly envelops the road (rangers round up any stragglers). Each day, there are two windows of opportunity to travel to the island depending on the tide schedule.

*Ministers Island, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Ministers Island is a 500 acre island, 2 miles by 1 mile, located in Passamaquoddy Bay, where Sir William Van Horne built his summer home, Covenhoven, in 1890 – a 50-room mansion, with 17 bedrooms, 11 fireplaces, 11 bathrooms – and the only place still standing that is associated with this significant historic figure.

Sir William Cornelius Van Horne was an American recruited to build Canada’s 2,900 mile-long transcontinental railroad system, finishing a year ahead of schedule (earning a $1 million bonus).

The mansion remained in the Van Horne family until 1961 when it was sold to two Americans, our guide, Susan Goertzen, relates. By 1977, they wanted to auction it off and sold off most of furnishings and artifacts. But three days into the auction, the Province of New Brunswick stopped the sale and bought it. The mansion was closed from 1977 until 1992.

In 2004, a local group took over the operation and put out a call to get back some of the original furnishings and artifacts. It is furnished today with original and period pieces. Most interesting are the paintings that Van Horne painted, the portraits and photographs, the travel posters, the original ice box and stove, his billiards table and game room.

*Van Horne’s original dining set at Covenhoven on* *Ministers Island, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

In the “Canadian Pacific Room” you learn a lot about Van Horne – an inventor, an amateur geologist who collected fossils (his collection was given to the University of Chicago), an artist and a major art collector. It is said he only slept four hours a night.

Truly a self-made man, Van Horne, was born in Illinois in 1843, and had to quit school at age 14 when his father died to go to work as a telegraph operator for the Illinois Central Railroad. By 1880 he was general superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad system. In 1881, he was recruited to become general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway and by 1885, had completed the transcontinental railway system.

*The self-made man, Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, built Canada’s transcontinental railroad © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.co*

Van Horne was not only the architect of Canada’s transcontinental railroad, he was the progenitor of its tourism industry, designing and building a network of Canadian Pacific Hotels. One of the original hotels was the Algonquin here in St. Andrews, where we get to stay; another was the famous Banff Springs Hotel.

We visit the windmill he built to pump water from a 10,000 gallon holding tank (actually a railway water car) 127 feet below ground into the house for running water.

You also can see the carriage house (a gorgeous carriage inside) and an amazing barn which features antique cars, and the magnificent 1911 bath house that overlooks a “natural” swimming pool cut from the rock just below. The setting is absolutely stunning, and can also be enjoyed picnicking and hiking on several marked trails.

There is much to explore on Ministers Island: a shell midden archaeological site, and the 1790 home of Loyalist and Anglican minister Samuel Andrews, a creamery, a livestock barn, a boarding house, an automobile garage, a horse stable, and a greenhouse.

But the tide will soon come in and we have to hurry back. Dave and Eric opt to run down from the hilltop mansion along the trail over the sand bridge (we are only a little concerned about them making it before the tide overwhelms the road again), back into St. Andrews, where we meet for dinner.

Ministers Island, 506-529-5081 https://www.ministersisland.net/ (Open May-October, Admission, $17/adults).

*Dave and Eric race the incoming tide as they dash from Ministers Island, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Where to Stay, Dine

There are so many charming restaurants and cafes along Water Street.

The previous day we sampled some of the town’s marvelous restaurants and sights.

The Niger Reef Tea House (1 Joes Point Rd, St. Andrews, 506-529-8005, nigerreefteahouse.com) is a real find, offering the most marvelous ambiance and distinctive cuisine. It’s where the locals go for an elegant, sophisticated dinner in a homey, casual, comfortable but classy atmosphere. It looks like a Japanese teahouse – in fact, the magnificent murals painted by Lucille Davenport in the 19^th century were uncovered when the residence was converted to the tea house in 1926.

*Enjoying a meal and the ambiance at Niger Reef Teahouse in St. Andrews © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We start with the oysters served on kelp that chef Anthony Davidson has dashed out to the Bay to gather, enjoy the jerk chicken and pesto pizza, and finish with the delectable strawberry rhubarb crumble (the rhubarb is growing in the garden).

The setting – a sprawling lawn that goes down to the Bay – also lets us explore The Blockhouse, the town’s last remaining wooden defensive structure from the War of 1812 (great for picnicking and view of harbor).

*Sunset*, *St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

This evening, we find a delightful deck to enjoy the view of the wharf and sunset at Saint Andrews Brewing Company (201 Water St., 506-529-2337) set in what was the Customs House, which serves snacks but invites you to order in the rest of the meal. We order from a delightful restaurant just across the plaza, The Red Herring Pub, (211 Water St., 506-529-8455 – they even delivered!) and just revel in the scenery.

We go down to the wharf to take in a magnificent sunset, but I rush away to get to our hotel, the grand, historic Algonquin Resort, in time for the 9 pm Ghost Tour.

The Algonquin Resort is reputed to be haunted and is said to be the inspiration for Stephen King’s horror story, The Shining. (Bangor, Maine, where King lives, is a two-hour drive from St. Andrews.)

The Ghost Tour is a fun way to see parts of the resort you would otherwise never see. We creep through the underground passageway (the staff wasn’t allowed to be seen by the guests in their street clothes) as our guide tells the story of the tunnel being haunted by a ‘night watchman’ (people hear his keys rattling). There is a haunted piano (one of only two items from the original 1889 hotel that was saved from a fire that destroyed it in 1914; Van Horne had it rebuilt and reopened just six months later) which people claim to hear play even though it is locked shut with a key that cannot be replaced; he tells about a boy named Benjamin who people claim they hear bouncing a ball.

*Walking through underground passageway on the Algonquin’s Ghost Tour St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

I finish the ghost tour in time to take in the wonderful ambiance of the resort and enjoy the Algonquin’s indoor pool and water slide.

One of the original Canadian Pacific Hotels (another ingenious Van Horne idea to promote travel on the railroad) and now part of the Marriott Autograph Collection, the Algonquin lets you drift back into that grand era as soon as you step across the threshold.

*The grand, historic Algonquin Resort, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Set on a hilltop overlooking the town (and just next to Kingsbrae Gardens), The Algonquin has the most magnificent outdoor pool complex, an indoor pool with a water slide, tennis courts, 18-hole golf course. It also has a fleet bicycles available just for the asking to bike over the beautiful Van Horne Trail, built on what had been the train tracks. We wake up early to take advantage before we have to tear ourselves away (you really want to stay) to continue on to our next New Brunswick adventure, in the historic city of St. John.

Algonquin Resort, 184 Adolphus Street, St. Andrews, 506-529-8823, https://www.marriott.com/en-gb/en-gb/hotels/travel/ysjak-the-algonquin-resort-st-andrews-by-the-sea-autograph-collection/

For planning help, visit Tourism New Brunswick, 800-561-0123, www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca

Next: New Brunswick Roadtrip: Saint John, a City of Oldests, Firsts, Amazements

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Biking Tours, Cultural travel, Sustainable Travel

Cycling Quebec’s Eastern Townships: So Near and Yet Feeling Far (in the Best Way)

August 6, 2023 krubin723

*Our Discovery Bicycle Tours’ group of ladies on the Quebec Eastern Townships ride show their mettle © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

It doesn’t take long before we bike across the border into Quebec, Canada, just about 16 miles from Montgomery Center in northern Vermont. The countryside landscape, even the architecture, isn’t all that different, but we immediately see signs in French that remind motorists that 90 km is 60 mph. It is literally crossing a threshold. This Discovery Bicycle Tours cycling trip through Quebec’s Eastern Townships is marvelous in how you feel instantaneously transported far away – in fact, to a foreign country and forget how near we actually are, mere biking distance from our home country.

Discovery Bicycle Tours makes it all so easy. In fact, as our guides tell us when we meet for our orientation, “This is your vacation…”

I have arrived at Phineas Swann Inn, Montgomery Center, Vt around 4:30 pm the day before we set out for Quebec with plenty of time to get settled in my spacious room (more of a suite, with fire place, refrigerator, snacks and sodas, and coffee maker) before our 5:30 pm orientation with our leaders and the other riders.

The quaint, luxurious, historic Phineas Swann Inn, Montgomery Center, Vermont, is the starting and ending point for Discovery Bicycle Tours’ Quebec Eastern Townships trip © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

What a hoot! I recognize Jim Ortuno as the leader of my first Discovery Bicycles trip, in Woodstock Vt. several years ago. (I have since also taken Discovery’s Coastal Maine bike trip.) Our second leader is Lindsay Smith. Both prove to be exceptionally caring, earnest, and efficient (Jim is a volunteer firefighter and Lindsay is an EMT). After we cross the border, we are joined by our Quebecois leader, Jacques Hebert, who provides such personal insights of the route, the places, the culture and history of where we travel that would not be obvious as we cycle by.

We go around the inn’s salon to introduce ourselves. I find it enormously interesting that all nine of us are women and not exactly spring chickens (but each with zeal and zest). Our complement includes a group of five ladies from New Hampshire who have been biking together since COVID and make me think of a cycling version of “Jane Austin Book Club”; two sisters from Massachusetts; and two of us who are traveling solo, from New Jersey and Long Island (bike trips are marvelous for solo travelers, and Discovery does a great job of accommodating singles).

What I love best about Discovery Bicycle Tours is the underlying philosophy: “Ride your own ride,” in order to make the experience, regardless of biking ability, as pleasurable as possible. That is not the case with some bike tour operators that have the group ride together at some communal pace (you have to ask permission to stop for a photo) and is really the difference for me, maximizing the enjoyment and the experience.

***The irresistibly gorgeous northern Vermont countryside, enroute to the Canadian border to Quebec © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com***

The secret ingredient is Discovery’s use of Ride With GPS app. We all have our own route on our phone (customized by Discovery’s owner, Scott Cone) – they also give you a printed cue sheet if you ask, which I do. That means you can ride at your own pace, you’re not pressured to keep up or even keep riding (I like to stop for photos and to see things). You know how far you’ve come and how far you have to go.

Scott has organized the GPS so it alerts us to an attraction or when to show special caution such as a railroad crossing or an upcoming turn, and most importantly, when you’ve gone off-route. The GPS (and the cue sheet) alert you to what’s coming up “there will be 1.3 miles of gravel road ahead – note round barn up on the left.” “There is a nice view of Riviere Yamaska off to the right.” “1976 Olympic Equestrian Venue on Left”. “A very nice bakery on the left. Cash or debit cards only.” “Stop at the granite marker for the 45^th parallel. You are half way between the Equator and the North Pole.”

(If you are concerned about the phone battery dying, you can either bring a battery pack, charge it at lunch, or keep it in airplane mode to conserve battery, which does not interfere with the GPS).

*Riding through one of Vermont’s famous covered bridges, the Comstock bridge © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Another quality of Discovery’s trip planning is that each day there is the primary ride and an option to do extra miles, which is a great way of accommodating riders of a range of abilities and interests. (One of the guides also drives the van each day that is available in case of a problem, but also sets up our rest stop/snacks/water each morning and afternoon.)

This Quebec Eastern Townships ride is classed as “2” or “intermediate” – so the rides are around 25-35 miles a day with options to do more (the toughest climbs are usually optional), and have for some long climbs along the road, as well as rolling hills, so that you can use the momentum from coming down to get you much of the way back up. Most of the ride are along the paved and gravel roads (but the Canadians are very polite and accommodating). Half of the group ride e-bikes (either their own or Discovery’s which they make available at no extra charge); a couple have carbon road bikes; and one lady switched from her road bike to Discovery’s e-bike. I am about the only one riding a regular hybrid bike, and at the end of a ride where there was one of the hardest climbs, everyone cheers as I come in.

“Our job is to make sure you have a good time. It’s important to us that you have a great week,” Lindsay tells us. And that isn’t just words. She asks what snacks we like and want (she is going to the grocery first thing in the morning to shop) – and the final list might suggest the cravings of pregnancy – olives, peppercorn chocolate which she purchases at the Chocolate Museum, chips, beer, plus fresh cherries, strawberries, bananas and other good stuff.

*The gorgeous pastoral scenery on Discovery Bicycle Tours’ Quebec Eastern Townships © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Jim and Lindsay, who are really good humored, really caring and really kind, fuss over us like mother hens (Lindsay more than once, seeing that my seat was too low, stopped to adjust it). Jim makes it his mission to offer great pro-tips on tackling the hills: keep chin up, relax the shoulders, light hands on the handlebar, push/pull pedals, breathe in once, out twice to empty the lungs; sing (which distracts). My method also includes not looking up at the hill, but looking 10 feet ahead, to keep mental focus, because once a doubt crosses your mind, that’s when you stop. I absorb and practice his methods as much as I can, but in the end, decide I am going to get up the hill any way I can even if it doesn’t look pretty. It’s mostly the “can-do” attitude that gets me to the top. Other tips: shift before you need to, drink before you’re thirsty – take 2-3 oz sips every 10 minutes so you stay hydrated but don’t need to pee.

It’s like going on safari or hiking to Machu Picchu with people who are there to make the adventure as comfortable as possible. (Discovery also offers some actual adventure cycling trips for the more hard-core.)

Discovery Bicycle Tours does an outstanding job of preparing you for the ride – giving you all the information you need for contact (phone, email, addresses); fitting the bikes and helmets, safety talk; map talk preparing you for the trip and for the day’s ride. Everything is conveniently accessible on the Ride with GPS app, including the elevations for the route. (They also arrange for shuttle for anyone flying into Burlington airport.)

*A wine tasting and repast is a delightful surprise on our first day of Discovery Bicycle Tours’ Quebec Eastern Townships © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

The meals (all breakfast, all but one dinner) are fantastic – excellent selection (we mostly order off the menu), marvelously prepared, with excellent choices, as well as accommodating diet preferences.

And the lodgings they choose are not merely places to overnight, but are special.

Our stay at the Phineas Swann Inn, in Montgomery Center, really sets the stage for the quality we experience all along the way. The inn is a restored 1880s farmhouse which TripAdvisor and Boston Magazine have named one of the most romantic inns in America. It is really plush, luxurious, quaint and has a spa for those who would like to indulge.

After our orientation meeting, we have a wonderful dinner at the inn and then a delicious breakfast, last bike fitting for anyone who needs it, and map talk before we start riding and a last reminder: HAVE YOUR PASSPORT ON YOU!

Cycling “Route des Vins”

The primary ride this first morning is 35.3 miles, with an option for11.7 more, for 47 miles. I take note of the map showing elevations – six climbs, one descent, 1,664 ft. for the main; and 483 ft for the next 11 with a rather long climb.

Though we generally are able to ride at our own pace, on this first morning, because of crossing the US-Canada border, Lindsay, who will be biking with us while Jim drives the van, tells us we need to pretty much stick together (which means not stopping for photos which is painful because the scenery, with farm houses and covered bridges, one-room schoolhouse, is really beautiful). They have to get the van through first because Jim has to present paperwork and go through inspection. But after that, we are back to riding our own ride.

*“Welcome to Quebec!” Greets us just after crossing the border on our first morning of Discovery Bicycle Tours’ Quebec Eastern Townships ride © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

It is rather exciting to go through the border, even though it is pretty pro-forma.

Our first rest stop and snack is at a visitor center located in what used to be the Grammar School. There is a bust of Adelard Godbout, who was an important Prime Minister of Quebec (1936, 1939-1944), who Jacques tells us was a real progressive, winning the right to vote for women (1940), creating a conservatory of music and drama arts (1942); free, universal public education (1943) and hydro power as well as instituting progressive (sustainable) agricultural programs (he was an agronomist by profession).

*Lindsay poses with Quebec’s progressive prime minister, Adelard Godbout © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

“He transformed the public function and adopted laws that amounted to a peaceful revolution transforming modern Quebec” (is my loose translation – so fun to remember my public school French). I find it interesting that the bust was placed there as recently as 2019.

We ride passed a cottage which is a “Poterie” (a potter’s studio), but alas, the potter is not in.

Much of our ride is along the wonderfully scenic Quebec’s “Route des Vins” (a winery/vineyards trail), and this day, we cycle to a winery, Domaine du Ridge, at mile 27.6 for a beautiful lunch (it’s really a surprise), where we have a delightful tasting of four wines accompanied by a plate of cheese, meats, pate, served at small tables outside on the lawn.

*Enjoying a delightful wine tasting and lunch at Domaine du Ridge on our first day on* *Discovery Bicycle Tours’ Quebec Eastern Townships ride © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Vineyards, Jacques tells us, began to take hold in 1979; then, in the 1990s, micro-breweries came in, and today, the new trend (prompted by Internet wealth) are gin and whiskey distilleries.

We pass the Musee Missiquoi, which inhabits a water mill, which we would normally visit but it is closed on Monday.

There are several opportunities to stop and sample the wines and ciders at some of Quebec’s most famous vineyards, including Opailleur and Domaine des Côtes D’Ardoise and Union Libre Cidre & Vin.

*The Musee Missiquoi, the local history museum, inhabits a watermill © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We end the regular ride at another winery which also has a sculpture park (they have arranged admission), and we are given the choice of riding the van back from here or ride 12 miles on gravel road to the hotel.

I continue on for the option, which is mostly on gravel country road with some hills (worth it for the views, they keep reminding us). Jacques has promised gorgeous scenery and it is true – the countryside scenes are painterly.

Scenery is important to me – the opportunity to see landscapes, villages, people going about their day at the pace of a bicycle, with the ability to stop and take it in, take a photo – is why I love bike trips so much. The physical feeling you get – the satisfaction of attacking a hill (and being successful) – is great, too, but not my priority, though tackling distance and hills is the priority for some of the road riders.

I’m loving this trip because we are immersed in a foreign culture – the fact it is French speaking – is such a wonderful overlay – and yet so accessible.

*What covered bridges are to Vermonters, round barns are to the Quebecois © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We pass a Quebec highlight, a round barn (Jacques what covered bridges are to Vermonters, round bars are to Quebecois). Off to the distance we can see our destination for the night, the charming Auberge & Spa West Brome, where we have access to their sauna, gym and gorgeous indoor heated pool. Just as we arrive, it begins to rain, and it is so very enjoyable to paddle around in the indoor pool and totally decompress. We chat with some of the other guests who have come from Montreal, summoning my French while they practice their English.

We have a sensational dinner at the Auberge’s Bistro – Chef Ugo’s inspiration menu. I get to taste Jacque’s Boudin noir maison (homemade black pudding, bacon-whisky marmalade, apples with Calvados – it’s actually quite tasty), but enjoy my appetizer, citrus salmon; for the main I have the duck leg confit with creamy roasted garlic puree. The dessert, chocolat mousse is fabulous.

*Heading towards the Auberge & Spa West Brome, nestled amid 200 acres of farmland, and* *the end of Discovery Bicycle Tours’ first day’s Quebec Eastern Townships ride © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

This inn (actually modern, but very charming, with a series of small buildings) really caters to cyclists. It is set amid 200 acres of picturesque farmlands, just north of the town of West Brome, surrounded by the lovely rolling hills that characterize the Eastern Townships of Quebec.

It takes no time at all for us to bond as a group, even though we are a blend of four entities, including two of us who are “solo travelers”. That is the reason that bike tours are such an excellent choice for single travelers (I’ve had this experience so many times). This is especially true of the group of five ladies from New Hampshire, who instead of being cliquey (each day, they wear the same cycling colors) are so welcoming, mixing up seatings.

Discovery Bicycle Tours, 2520 W. Woodstock Rd., Woodstock, VT 05091, 800-257-2226, [email protected], https://discoverybicycletours.com/

Next: Discovery Bicycle Tours’ Quebec Eastern Townships: Scenic Routes & Chocolate

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Arts, Arts & Entertainment, Attractions, Cultural travel, Culture, Ecotourism

Granville Island, Vancouver’s Nearby Getaway, is Cornucopia of Art, Culture

July 29, 2023 krubin723

One of the most photographed scenes in Vancouver: “The Giants” at the cement factory on Granville Island, painted by Brazilian graffiti artists Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo (known as OSGEMEOS). Granville Island is a mecca for arts and culture © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

I have cleverly arranged for a late flight from Vancouver, so I would have a whole day to continue to explore.

Indigenous Tourism BC which has arranged my itinerary has offered a number of suggestions: rent a bike and riding around the seawall at Stanley Park; visit the Vancouver Art Gallery (750 Hornby St, Vancouver); visit Museum of Vancouver (1100 Chestnut St, Vancouver) to see Indigenous micro-exhibition Spirit Journeys: Walking with Resilience, Wellbeing and Respect; visit Granville Island.

Rick, the Skwachàys Lodge manager, just the evening before, had raved about how much he loves visiting to Granville Island – it has the best public market – and was planning to go himself.

I map out a delightful 3.3 km walk from the hotel to David Lam Park where I hop the cute Aquabus ferry for the few minutes ride to Granville Island. (Aquabus, $6/roundtrip, which also offers a 40-minute ferry ride tour)

*Arriving on Granville Island by ferry © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

As soon as I climb the stairs from the ferry dock, I appreciate why Granville Island very properly boasts of being a “magical escape within a city.” I would add: playful, whimsical, fantastical, a place of endless delight, a non-stop smile.

*The public market on Granville Island is one of the best, most fun in the world © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*The public market on Granville Island is a place of endless delight © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

The charm of Granville Island lies in its unexpected mix of uses which reveal themselves as you simply wander around. People come for the most spectacular public market (open daily 9am-7pm) with 70 purveyors of all manner of fresh produce and fine foods (some famous, like Lee Donuts, where as Rick tells me to expect, there is a line outside to get in).

*People queue up to enter Lee’s Donuts in the public market on Granville Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Bringing his child back to the Granville Island public market he enjoyed as a child © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

There is the Net Loft featuring “offbeat artisan goods” and marvelous boutiques and shops with local creations and imported crafts from Latin America, Asia and Africa like Mondo Company (“Step into our world and discover fairly traded, ethically sourced, handcrafted products from artisans around the globe”, www.mondoandcompany.com); a bustling Artisan District where you see and meet artists at work in their studios and galleries; a children’s district (toy stores!); and performance venues (Ballet BC coming to Granville Island), plus special events and festivals, all taking over vacated (and for a time decrepit) industrial buildings. There is even a hotel.

*Granville Island has an entire Children’s District © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Silk weaving on Granville Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Art (and music) is everywhere- even the cement factory (one of the few industrial uses that remains) has painted “Giants”on its gi-normous silos (painted by Brazilian graffiti artists Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, known collectively as OSGEMEOS (Portuguese for THETWINS), which was commissioned in 2014 by Vancouver Biennale as part of an open-air museum, and were only expected to be up temporarily. It cost $180,000 and 1400 cans of spray paint and costs $17,000 a year to maintain. (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/giants-on-granville-island-silos)

But before Granville Island was a cultural mecca, before it was an urban wasteland, before it was an industrial hub, it was the meeting place for three First Nations summer potlatch.

“The xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples are indigenous to the area around Vancouver and have lived on these lands for thousands of years…” Chief Janice George, Skwxwú7mesh, writes. “The Salish, the Indigenous people of the area, used a large sand bar (later filled in to become an Industrial Island, then Granville Island), and the surrounding areas for traditional purposes such as hunting, gathering, travel, and everyday living and cultural activities. The resources were so plentiful, the Salish people had a saying, ‘when the tide went out, the table was set,’ meaning that when the tide went out, they could walk with the tide and have enough food for their families.”

*Re-creating the meeting place the indigenous people who occupied this land for thousands of years, on Granville Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

As Vancouver was colonized in the 1860s, it became shipping port (there are still the railroad tracks), but as industries shuttered, it descended into a derelict industrial wasteland from 1950-60s. A few artists squirreled away, making art in studios within the Quonset huts.

A historic marker notes that Granville Island was created between 1913 and 1916 when the government of Canada and the newly created federal Vancouver Harbour Commission contracted to pump and dredge over 1 million cubic yards from the bottom of False Creek and deposit the material behind pilings ringing several sandbars and First Nation fishing weirs. “Over the next 50 years, heavy industry waxed and waned” on Granville Island. By the early 1960s it had become a squalid, seedy and derelict industrial area.” For the next 10 years, while politicians debated, four entrepreneurs began buying up four buildings which they renovated into “The Creekhouse,” interestingly, retaining the industrial look.

*“Creekside” that spurred the repurposing and redevelopment of Granville Island, from a dilapidated industrial wasteland to a mecca for culture and art © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Granville Island has been redeveloped and repurposed from a dilapidated industrial wasteland to a mecca for culture and art, food and fun © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

In the 1970s, MP Ron Basford arranged for the Canadian government to buy the land and experiment with public spaces and venues for food, culture, and artists. Today, Granville Island provides space for 300 businesses employing more than 3,000 people and is “an active public space showcasing Vancouver culture to locals and rest of world,” a marker states.

*On Granville Island you see artists and artisans at work in their studios, like this art glass studio © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

In the Artisan District, I meet artists Cheryl Hamilton and Michael Vandermere in their enormous, factory-sized studio space, ie creative artworks (her imaginative sculptures lately have been themed about climate change); BC Blacksmith Miran Elbakyan (www.bcblacksmith.com); Benjamin Kikkert who works in hot glass and mixed media sculpture; carver Todd Woffinden; silk weavers (www.silkweavingstudio.com), broommakers Mary and Sarah Schwieger (broomcompany.com). There are also indigenous art galleries.

*One of the indigenous art galleries on Granville Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

At my last stop, I find myself in front of a gold plaque identifying this place as the site of renowned artist Bill Reid’s studio, where he created the sculpture that is now at Vancouver Airport.

*A gold plaque marks the former studio of acclaimed Haida artist Bill Reid where he created some of his famous monumental works© Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

This is now the Nutter Studio, where glass artisan John Nutter does the etching in glass that many of the indigenous artists design. He even created the glass windows for Young Israel Synagogue in Hillcrest, Queens NY (my old neighborhood!) and seven windows for Atlantic Beach Jewish Center on Long Island (my brother’s neighborhood!) Small world! (www.johnnutterglassstudio.com).

*Glass craftsmanJohn Nutter now occupies Bill Reid’s studio © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We have a vigorous discussion of art versus craft, the revival of indigenous arts (or is it crafts?) and artists who feel obligated to re-create traditional symbols, images and techniques, versus developing their own style and statement.

Throughout Granville Island, there are homages to its Indigenous origins, and the website offers this statement: CMHC-Granville Island would like to acknowledge that we are located on the traditional territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations.

Glass craftsman John Nutter, whose studio is the site of Bill Reid’s studio on Granville Island, shows a $20 bill featuring Bill Reid’s famous “The Spirit of Haida Gwaii” © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Check the Granville Island website for events (Sunset Dragonboat and Saturday Dragonboat drop in Sessions!), https://granvilleisland.com/

Skwachàys Lodge, Canada’s First Aboriginal Art Hotel

Staying at the Skwachàys Lodge – Canada’s first Aboriginal Art Hotel – enhances my experience in Vancouver with this immersion into local Indigenous art and culture.

Vancouver Native Housing Society (VNHS opened the Skwachàys Lodge, the Urban Aboriginal Fair-Trade Gallery, and the Artists in Residence Program in June 2012, transforming a derelict SRO hotel into a social enterprise consisting of a boutique hotel with a street-level art gallery and on-site housing and studio space for 24 Indigenous artists.

“VNHS identified the vulnerability of many urban Indigenous artists – artists in need of housing, artists who for various reasons are not able to properly represent and market themselves or their work. Often these artists are commercially exploited through a long established ‘street or underground’ market that takes advantage of their vulnerability. They try to live ‘off their work’ by selling on the street or in the bars or through the commercial dealer network that purchases original, gallery quality art for, at times, only five or ten cents on the dollar,” the notes state.

“By creating a live/work supportive complex with a built-in gallery and community production space, VNHS took a lead role in addressing the social and economic inequities that Indigenous artists can face.”

The Artists in Residence Program provides up to three years of affordable housing, 24/7 access to workshops, and opportunities for personal and professional development that help artists develop their craft and move into the next phase of their careers. To date, 110 Indigenous artists have participated in the program.

The Lodge, the Urban Aboriginal Fair-Trade Gallery and production space are operated as a self-sustaining social enterprise. Artists are paid a fair price for their work (30%-60% of the retail price depending on the artist’s reputation and the cost that is underwritten by the gallery (framing, marketing and promotional expenses).

*The gallery at Skwachàys Lodge is part of the social enterprise that supports indigenous artists © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

In this way, each hotel guest’s travel dollars, and each purchase of art at the Skwachàys Lodge has a social impact.

“A simple purchase fights cultural misappropriation and ensures that Indigenous artists are paid fairly for their work. Cultural tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism sector and there is absolutely a place for our urban Indigenous artists to participate in this industry as a means of reclaiming their lives and independence.”

Skwachàys Lodge goes way beyond living in and supporting art – there are also opportunities for guests to engage in authentic Indigenous cultural experiences

Sweat Lodge Ceremony: Skwachàys has a traditional First Nations Sweat Lodge and offers private Sweat Lodge Purification Ceremonies lead by a Sweat Lodge Keeper. The Sweat Lodge, located in the rooftop garden, is a domed structure constructed from inter-woven willow branches symbolizing Mother Nature’s womb. During the ceremony, the Keeper places heated rocks –known as “grandmothers and grandfathers” – to cleanse and purify the participant’s heart, soul and spirit, bringing life balance and connection to Mother Nature.

Traditional Smudge Ceremony: Skwachàys has an authentic Indigenous Smudge Room on its Raven Level. In a Smudging Ceremony, sacred plants are burned, surrounding the participants’ body and senses in the aromatic smoke to purify body, spirit and home. Three different kinds of plants are used: cedar bows are burned for cleansing; sage to drive out ill feelings or influences, protecting the place of ceremony; and sweet grass, one of the most sacred plants, is burned to bring in positive influences and energies.

These ceremonies are personal and private, so arrangements must be made in advance. A minimum number of people is required. (For more information and costs, [email protected]).

Studio Visits With Artists: Visitors can also arrange studio visits with Indigenous artists in residence. Artists including jewelers, painters, carvers, sculptors work on projects in the shared Artist Studio, located in the basement throughout the year.

***Kayachtn Room*** *(the Salishan word for “welcome”) is a space where the Lodge community can come together to connect, create memories and share a meal – and is where breakfast is served at* *Skwachàys Lodge © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

The Skwachàys Lodge has a Kayachtn Room (the Salishan word for “welcome”), a space where the Lodge community can come together to connect, create memories and share a meal – and is where breakfast is served.

“Indigenous culture rests on a communal social structure, one that values living in harmony with one another, as well as with the natural world.”

Skwàchays Lodge 31 W Pender St Vancouver, BC V6B 1R3 604.687.3589, 1 888 998 0797, [email protected], https://skwachays.com/.

Indigenous Tourism BC

With 204 Indigenous communities and more than 30 Indigenous languages – about one-third of Canada’s First nations population – British Columbia offer extensive authentic Indigenous experiences on reserves, in remote areas and even cities like Vancouver.

The best guide to these experiences is Indigenous British Columbia, a tourism development and promotion organization that connects visitors with Indigenous-owned, operated and staffed lodges, museums, culture centers, restaurants, wineries, hiking (indigenous guide), bear viewing, whale watching, outdoors adventures, wellness and other experiences.

*Indigenous Tourism BC connects visitors to experiences such as Vancouver’s only indigenous restaurant, Salmon n’ Bannock Bistro © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

In addition to the experiences I have (the Bill Reid Gallery, Talaysay Tours, Salmon n’ Bannock Bistro, Granville Island, the Skwàchays Lodge in Vancouver, and the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre and the Audain Art Museum in Whistler), other entities include:

Takaya Tours: Open during summer, guests can experience an array of tours, from cultural experiences, to canoe tours and even multi-day experiences
Great River Fishing Adventures: Another great tour company where guests can learn about the history of BC, as it started in this area from the mining era. A top experience is going sturgeon fishing, and these are not normal-sized fish!
Gulf Island Seaplanes: New this spring, they have introduced scenic cultural tours which involve a flight over Vancouver, along with the history and story-telling of the land

Multi-day itineraries are available. For example, a two-day Kamloops-Chase-Barriere-Merritt itinerary features a stay at Quaaout Lodge and Spa on Little Shuswap Lake in Squilax (Chase, British Columbia), Indigenous fusion cuisine, golf and spa facilities, visit to Tsutswecw Provincial Park and a 14-km Moccasin Trails Canoe Journey from Lafarge Landing to Valleyview with a local knowledge guide, down the South Thompson River along the traditional Secwepemc water route to Tkemlups.

“Immersive Indigenous destinations and experiences are expansive and transformational. Augment your reality with an Indigenous point-of-view and see old places with new eyes. By their nature, Indigenous perspectives cannot be understood as a bystander or simple witness. Step out of ordinary time and daily routine with Indigenous hosts around BC,” the tourism office says.

Indeed, the indigenous peoples’ respect for Mother Earth that is so fundamental to their culture and society – that the colonizers so intentionally sought to eradicate – is being validated as human-caused climate change is wreaking disaster after disaster. It is important that this sensibility, these philosophies, this approach to living in the world be elevated and embraced in modern terms. Travel helps us see and experience and take lessons back to our own homes and communities.

Indigenous Tourism BC offers travel ideas, things to do, places to go, places to stay, and suggested itineraries. Download a trip planning app (https://www.indigenousbc.com/indigenous-bc-trip-planner-app/)

Indigenous Tourism BC, 100 Park Royal S #707, West Vancouver, BC V7T 1A2, 604-921-1070, https://www.indigenousbc.com

WALKING TOURS, DINING EXPERIENCES REVEAL VANCOUVER’S REVIVED INDIGENOUS HERITAGE

TRAIL TO DISCOVER BRITISH COLUMBIA’S INDIGENOUS HERITAGE WEAVES THROUGH WHISTLER-BLACKCOMB

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Arts, Arts & Entertainment, Attractions, Cultural travel, Culture, Ecotourism, Heritage Travel, Museums and Exhibits

Trail to Discover British Columbia’s Indigenous Heritage Weaves Through Whistler-Blackcomb

July 26, 2023 krubin723

Audain Art Museum, Whistler, is a world-class art museum with one of finest collections of indigenous masks going back to mid-1800s and British Columbia artists © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

My whirlwind odyssey to learn about the renaissance of British Columbia’s indigenous heritage takes me to Whistler-Blackcomb, the world-famous ski resort. The mountain resort, one of the largest in North America, is on First Nations land and is where a cultural center, a joint endeavor of the Lil’wat and the Squamash nations, has opened.

I hop the Skylynx shuttle bus, packed with skiers, that leaves from the Hyatt Regency Vancouver downtown (also close to the Bill Reid Gallery and the Fairmont Hotel) for a pleasant, scenic two-hour ride to Whistler Village Centre.

The skiing even this late in the season looks fantastic but I am here to continue my study of the indigenous heritage – past and present – that permeates this place. The spirit is very strong here in Whistler. While the skiers all head to the gondola, I find my way to a trail that leads to the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre.

The idea for a world-class cultural center originated with the Resort Municipality of Whistler in 1997, which met with the Lil’wat Nation to discuss its participation and presence in Whistler. Mindful of its historic collaboration and shared interest in land stewardship with the Squamish Nation, in 2001, the two nations signed a historic Protocol Agreement, the only one of its kind in Canada. The Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre opened in 2008. In 2020, a framework Agreement was signed between the Nations and the Resort Municipality of Whistler, providing for collaborations on economic development, tourism and promotion of cultural awareness.

*Dalilah conducts a “What We Treasure” tour* of *Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

The building is a beautiful space with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out to the woods. I join nine others for the center’s signature tour, “What We Treasure,” which are led by cultural ambassadors who share their own stories and first-hand cultural experiences. The tour begins with an excellent 15-minute orientation film.

Our guide is Dalilah, whose Lil’wat name is T’ac T’ac , or “sweet sweet” like sweetie or sweatheart. She is a 17-year old high school student interning on her spring break. She begins by singing in her native language, “We belong to the land, the land is our people, we belong to the land.” We view artifacts and hear stories that give us a sense of the past and present way of life of the Squamish and Lil’wat peoples.

*It is fascinating to seen the differences in clothes at the* *Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

As we go through the center, I am struck by how different the clothes, foods and therefore the traditions and daily habits are for these two peoples who live “where rivers and mountains meet.” It is starkly clear how culture and lifestyle is linked to the ecology and topography of their land and the materials and resources at hand. The Squamash are coastal, the Lil’wat live on the mountain. Culture is a manifestation of the ecosystem we inhabit – even and especially today.

It is these traditions and lessons of living in close harmony with nature (Mother Earth), to the point of spiritual devotion, that the indigenous people impart today, all the more relevant in light of the climate disasters of a planet out of sync with nature.

The displays are less historic artifacts and more contemporary examples of the traditional arts and crafts being revived; often these are not just re-creations of centuries-old design and form, but with modern twists.

We learn how their societies were so careful to live in harmony with their environment – their canoes are made from red cedar bark, but they only harvest a precise section of the tree – hugging the tree so that there are two hand-widths.

“We make sure to only take a piece of the tree so we don’t kill it. We are connected to the cedar through the things we make with it,” notes Joy Joseph-McCullough, a Squamish weaver.

*Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

There is an element of mythology, mysticism, handed down from the ancients, that continues to underpin their worldview, reflected in the urgency to save language, and the oral tradition, and resurrect traditional arts and crafts.

It is reflected in Joy McCullough-Joseph’s notes about the traditional Coast Salish Blanket she named “The Message.” “I twilled and twined on a Traditional Coast Salish Loom. I named my blanket, “The Message’ because the design for the blanket came to me in a dream. In my dream our Ancestors told me to weave in Mother Earth to remind us of our responsibility to the Earth. The second message is to honour and remember the sixteen families that amalgamated to form the Squamish Nation. The last message is to honour our Ancestors who were weavers.”

Another note reads “when you wear the blankets, you feel the protection of all who have been called to protect you… We feel the prayers offered by the weaver and our ancestors, when we wear the robes.”

You have to wait a year before you can weave cedar bark and it can three apprentices six months to weave a cedar mat, Dalilah tells us. “When we are sad, we don’t weave, otherwise it would transfer negative thoughts.”

*Dalilah the importance of weaving at the* *Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

We learn how mountain goat wool was used in Salish weaving, an ancient art form that dates back to the ice age. A mountain goat wool blanket in those times could mean the difference between surviving or succumbing to the elements. The inner wool of the mountain goat was gathered during spring molt, collected off of bushes from wool shed by the goat or from harvested animals. “It takes 5 to 10 years to collect enough for a blanket,” she tells us.

The wool was mixed with hair from a specially bred dog. Natural dyes were derived from plants, berries and clays. Intricate geometric designs reflected elements of nature and families held the rights to use those designs.

I am lucky to see a special photography exhibit on view: “Unceded – Photographic Journey into Belonging”. This temporary exhibit makes graphic the meaning of “unceded” – land that was considered stolen, taken by force, without a legal treaty. The photos show contemporary indigenous people in places like downtown Vancouver. But it is actually speaking more to the First Nations people, prodding them to see themselves in this modern world, but retaining their connection to their heritage. Unceded “doesn’t mean our people aren’t still there.”

“As urban cities, farmland, towns, and recreation parks built up around us, our Ancestors are still here, living in the blood of the people of this land. While pop culture, fashion trends and global connection are influencing how people move through society, people residing on and off reserve are living deeply in their culture, engaged socially and politically with the world around them, reviving ancient traditions, re-enforcing a stewardship that guides their climate and lands safely through the first 50 thousand years before contact.”

I have a delightful lunch at Thunderbird Café, and survey a marvelous gift shop at the center before heading off to do a bit of sightseeing on Whistler’s famous Peak 2 Peak Gondola.

Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, 4584 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, 1 866 441 SLCC (7522), https://slcc.ca/.

Peak 2 Peak Gondola

Considering how vast Whistler-Blackcomb is, it is actually surprisingly easy to get around (once I figure it out).

*Whistler-Blackcomb, the site of 2010 Winter Olympics events, is a world-class ski resort and one of the biggest in North America © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

I take the Blackcomb Gondola from the base of Blackcomb Mountain for the ride to the top of Blackcomb Mountain. From here it is a short walk – skirting the skiers and snowboarders – to the Peak 2 Peak Gondola which links Blackcomb Mountain to Whistler Mountain. I’m feeling jealous of the skiers but I am sightseeing today and this is an absolutely gorgeous ride. A man I ride up the Blackcomb Gondola with tells me to look for special sightseeing gondolas that have a plexiglass bottom you can look through – we sightseers stand on a separate line so we get first dibs when the car comes around.

*Sightseeing on the Peak 2 Peak Gondola linking Whistler and Blackcomb mountains © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

After opening on December 12, 2008, the massive gondola revolutionized the way skiers, riders and hikers experienced the mountains. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola, as part of the world’s longest continuous lift system, isn’t just to move skiers, it also gives summer guests access to Whistler Blackcomb’s high alpine for sightseeing, hiking and mountain-top dining.

The Peak 2 Peak Gondola travels a span of 2.73 miles giving sightseers and hikers a serene aerial flight showcasing flora and fauna (even black bears in their protected habitats), Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains; the Coast Mountain Range’s many glaciers and peaks; and Whistler Village, surrounded by lakes.

It is notable that Whistler Blackcomb (now part of Vail Resorts, which means the resort is part of the Epic Pass) is consistently ranked one of the top ski resorts in North America. With more than 8,100 acres of terrain, variety is an understatement: there are steeps, deeps, chutes, bowls, glades, long cruisers, and high alpine and gentle rollers. And the numbers speak for themselves: one vertical mile drop; two side-by-side mountains connected by a pedestrian village, more than 200 trails, three glaciers, 37 lifts, and 16 alpine bowls – all of it top quality.

Even this late in the season, the snow looks great and the trails look gorgeous– plenty of easy, intermediate runs!

Riding the Peak 2 Peak Gondola is such fun and the view so beautiful, that I actually ride it back and forth and back again for an hour before downloading via Whistler Village Gondola into Skiers Plaza in Whistler Village. (Whistler Blackcomb, https://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/)

Audain Art Museum

Back down in the charming village, I pass lovely shops and eateries on my way to the Audain Art Museum. Outside is the invitation to see the “Masters of Print: Rembrandt and Beyond”- a clue that this is a world-class museum. I did not expect to see Rembrandt prints at Whistler. Nor did I expect to see what is arguably the world’s finest collection of First Nations masks, dating from the mid 1800s.

Sure enough, the Audain Art Museum delivers on its promise of a transformative experience for appreciating the art of British Columbia as well as exhibitions from around Canada and around the world. It’s in this part of the world but very much of the world. It is as local as local can be but brings the reaches of the globe into this small section of it.

The Audain Art Museum’s Permanent Collection of some 200 works – nearly all of it from the collection of Michael Audain and his wife, Yoshiko Karasawa, or purchased with their funding – is a visual journey through the history of art from coastal British Columbia.

*Audain Art Museum, Whistler, showcases one of finest collections of indigenous masks going back to mid-1800s © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Most astonishing is the room housing Audain’s collection of Northwest Coast First Nations masks. They are extraordinary because you see the individualism of the artist as well as the subject (many seem to be representations of actual people rather than mythic figures) and different techniques. I wonder if this reflects changes over time (spanning the mid 1800s to the present), regional differences and styles or perhaps just the artist’s own creativity.

A truly monumental piece, an exquisitely carved red cedar “Dance Screen” (2010-2013) by Haida Chief 7idansuu (James Hart) who was a friend and collaborator of Bill Reid, takes up an entire wall of this room.

James Hart’s striking ‘The Dance Screen (The Scream Too)’, 2010-2013, red cedar panel takes up an entire wall at the Audain Art Museum Collection, gift of Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The next room has a huge collection of a beloved British Columbia artist, Emily Carr. You see her in her Impressionist phase, when she studied in France in 1911; how she incorporated First Nations elements into her landscapes when she returned in 1912. There are also post-war modernists including E.J. Hughes, Gordon Smith and Jack Shadbolt as well as works by internationally renowned, contemporary British Columbia artists including Jeff Wall, Dana Claxton, Marianne Nicolson, Rodney Graham and Stan Douglas.

*Emily Carr is a beloved British Columbia artist who studied impressionism in France, then integrated indigenous subjects into her landscapes when she returned © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

*Audain Art Museum, Whistler, showcases a stunning collection of Emily Carr’s work © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

I’m told that Audain had never even been to Whistler before, but his friend, who designed Whistler Village in the 1980s, encouraged him that he could build a museum in Whistler which would connect to nature, where people could quietly contemplate art. They worked with award-winning architects John and Patricia Patkau. The museum opened in 2016. (Open Thursday to Monday 11am – 6pm).

It is fascinating to see traditional symbols, subjects reflected in contemporary indigenous British Columbia artists work, on view at the Audain Art Museum, Whistler © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The website includes this statement: “Audain Art Museum is grateful to be on the shared, unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation and Lil̓wat7úl (Lil’wat) Nation.”

Audain Art Museum, 4350 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, V8E 1N3, [email protected] 604-962-0413, https://audainartmuseum.com/

*The stunning design of the Audain Art Museum, Whistler, provides an exquisite ambiance to experience art © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

I have a rushed dinner at Caramba! Restaurant (#12 4314 Main Street (Town Plaza), Whistler, BC V0N 1B0 Phone: 604.938.1879 www.carambarestaurant.com/), a fun, casual place before I get back on the Skylynx shuttle for the 7 pm departure back to Vancouver (get there early because the bus fills up), arriving back to downtown Vancouver at 9:30 pm.

Indigenous Tourism BC offers travel ideas, things to do, places to go, places to stay, and suggested itineraries and a trip planning app (https://www.indigenousbc.com/)

Next: GRANVILLE ISLAND, VANCOUVER’S NEARBY GETAWAY, IS CORNUCOPIA OF ART, CULTURE

WALKING TOURS, DINING EXPERIENCES REVEAL VANCOUVER’S REVIVED INDIGENOUS HERITAGE

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Arts & Entertainment, Attractions, Cultural travel, Ecotourism, Food & Wine, Heritage Travel

Walking Tours, Dining Experiences Reveal Vancouver’s Revived Indigenous Heritage

July 23, 2023 krubin723

Totem poles at Brockton Point in Stanley Park are the most visited attraction in British Columbia, but few visitors realize they tell the personal stories of First Nations families © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

Vancouver’s Stanley Park is much like Central Park in New York or Golden Gate Park in San Francisco – an incredibly vast (1001-acre) green oasis in a metropolis. It is absolutely stunning, on a point that juts into the Burrard Inlet and English Bay, with scenic views of water, mountains, sky, the natural West Coast rainforest, and the Park’s famous Seawall.. You can ride a miniature train, rent bikes, go to the Teahouse, take a ride on a horse-drawn carriage, visit the Vancouver Aquarium (65,000 animals, 120 world-class exhibits), walk the many marvelous trails and paths. Most of the manmade structures present in the park– like the lighthouse – were built between 1911 and 1937 by then superintendent W.S. Rawlings. Additional attractions, such as a polar bear exhibit, aquarium, and a miniature train, were added in the post-war period.

*A horse-drawn carriage tour is one of the many ways to enjoy Stanley Park, Vancouver’s oasis © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

But the tranquility of Stanley Park belies its history. The park occupies land that had been used by indigenous peoples for thousands of years – it was one of the most important salmon fisheries in the region and was rich in other resources, including beaver and lumber. British colonizers came in force to British Columbia during the 1858 Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, and extract other resources including lumber. The British then set up military fortifications at Hallelujah Point to guard the entrance to Vancouver harbor (there is still a Navy outpost and the city’s marina).

(A federation of colonies in British North America – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario – joined together to become the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867; Canada only became wholly independent of Great Britain in 1982.)

In 1886, the city incorporated the land and turned it into Vancouver’s first park. It was named for Lord Stanley, 16^th Earl of Derby, a British politician who had recently been appointed Canada’s Governor General. Lord Stanley (better known today for hockey’s Stanley Cup) became the first Governor General to visit Vancouver when he came in 1888 to officially open the park.

And that is what brings me together with Patrick, an indigenous guide from Talaysay Tours, who leads me and a woman with her two daughters on a “Spoken Treasures” walking tour of the park.

*Talaysay Tours guide Patrick explains the significance of the totem poles and gateway portals at Brockton Point during a Spoken Treasures” walking* *tour of Stanley Park* *© Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Patrick says that Indigenous peoples have occupied this area for 8,000 years and there is still a 4,000-year old shell midden within the park. Where Lord Stanley gave his speech was an indigenous burial ground.

Indigenous people who had already been pushed out of their villages in the north had migrated here to the point they outnumbered the settlers, so there was a campaign to force them out or decimate the population. Smallpox was intentionally spread, Patrick says. One way was to inoculate, but not vaccinate people (those who were inoculated could still spread the disease). One cartographer alerted the indigenous people to what was happening.

The park – in fact all of Vancouver – is on “unceded land” – Canada never signed a treaty to acquire it, which means that under Crown and Canadian law, the land is still illegally occupied.

(By way of mitigation, if not restitution, on various websites including Stanley Park, you find a note like this, “The City of Vancouver acknowledges that it is situated on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation.”)

The view from the seawall at Stanley Park across Burrard Inlet to West Vancouver, where indigenous peoples had lived for thousands of years taking advantage of rich fishing and hunting before being forced out of land considered “unceded.” Expression of indigenous culture was banned in Canada for more than 100 years © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

There is a marker at Hallelujah Point that describes this place as a thriving settlement which for several millennia was inhabited by the Coast Salish people. From the 1860s, Europeans, Chinese and others built houses and lived along the shoreline. After Stanley Park opened in 1888, the Chinese, who were brought in as laborers and built the park road and the yacht club, were removed; others lived here until evicted in 1931, with the last person leaving in 1957.

Hallelujah Point was taken over as a military fortification to protect Vancouver Harbor and the Canadian Navy still has a small outpost. Patrick says that this was the site of a battlefield with war canoes and was a burial site.

Beaver Lake, one of the park’s major attractions and a place of urban tranquility, “was a sacred site where they brought in beavers,” Patrick said.

Patrick brings us to a grouping of nine Totem Poles, set near Brockton Point and the Brockton Point Lighthouse – considered British Columbia’s most visited tourist attraction.

The collection started at Lumberman’s Arch in the 1920s (originally the village of X’ay’x’ay, which would have had long houses and in 1885, held a great potlatch ceremony attended by 2000 First Nations and European residents of Burrard Inlet), when the Park Board bought four totems from Vancouver Island’s Alert Bay. More purchased totems came from Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) and the BC central coast Rivers Inlet, to celebrate the 1936 Golden Jubilee. In the mid 1960s, the totem poles were moved to Brockton Point. Several of the poles are re-creations, replicas or replacements.

Each has a story.

The Ga’akstalas was carved by Wayne Alfred and Beau Dick in 1991 based on a design by Russell Smith. “We wanted this pole to be a beacon of strength of our young people and show respect for our elders. It is to all our people who have made contributions to our culture,” Beau Dick wrote.

The Chief Skedans Mortuary Pole was carved by Bill Reid with assistant Werner True in 1964 to replace an older version that was raised in the Haida village of Skidegate about 1870, to honor the Raven Chief. The pole has two tiny figures in the bear’s ears to represent the chief’s daughter and son-in-law who erected the pole and gave a potlatch for the chief’s memorial. A rectangular board at the top of the original pole covered a cavity that would have held the chief’s remains.

Patrick isn’t exactly happy with the totem poles being here, which he considers appropriation (exploitation? a balm to soothe a guilty conscience?) rather than a way of raising awareness, respect and honor for indigenous heritage.

A totem pole, he explains, was like legal title to property, marking the land as yours, and would be carved with symbols that basically tell the story of that family.

*The Rose Cole Yelton Memorial Pole, erected in front of the house site where the Cole family lived until 1935 © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Only one of the totem poles is legitimately where it should be, he says: the Rose Cole Yelton Memorial Pole of the Squamish Nation, raised in 2009, to honor Yelton, her family and all those who lived in Stanley Park. It was erected in front of the home site where the Cole family lived until 1935. She was the last surviving resident of the Brockton community when she passed away in 2002.

“The Totem was the British Columbia Indians coat of arms,” a bronze plaque reads, using language that might be considered inappropriate today. I had not realized that these poles are unique to the northwest coast of B.C. and lower Alaska. Carved from western red cedar, each carving tells of a real or mythical event. “They were not idols, nor were they worshipped. Each carving on each pole has a meaning. The eagle represents the kingdom of the air; the whale, the lordship of the sea; the wolf, the genius of the land, and the front, the transitional link between the land and sea.”

Such skills, though, had to be resurrected because the government criminalized indigenous art, language and culture, with the intention of eradicating indigenous culture and assimilating the people into Christian society. Because art – the shapes, line and symbols – took the place of written language, the practical effect was cultural genocide.

“Art was criminalized – it is hard to relearn it, but people found other ways to preserve their art,” Patrick tells us. For example, people would make bentwood boxes but weren’t allowed to give them away (that would be considered an illegal potlatch), but could sell them.

“For 100 years, indigenous people were forced into residential schools,” Patrick says. “Oral history made it easy to eradicate. Potlatch, language was criminalized, but people practiced in secret. We have to relearn history.” These house poles, he says, tell the story of that family.

*One of the three carved red cedar portals created by Coast Salish artist Susan Point, installed in 2008 © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Three beautifully carved, red cedar portals welcome visitors to the Brockton Point Visitor Centre and to the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people. Installed in 2008, the gateways were created by Coast Salish artist Susan Point, in collaboration with Coast Salish Arts; Vancouver Storyscapes (a City of Vancouver Social Planning project to encourage Indigenous people to share their stories through a variety of media); the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations; and the Vancouver Park Board.

“Shore to Shore” carved in cedar then cast in bronze by Stz’uminus Master Carver Luke Marston, is a tribute to the ancestral connection between the area’s aboriginal and Portuguese communities. Joe Silvey came to BC from the Azores around 1860 and married Pqaltanat, a high-born matriarch of Musqueam and Squamish descent, who died; Silvey then married Kwatleematt a Sechelt matriarch who is depicted in the sculpture. The Silvey family lived at Brockton Point in a community of First Nations, Portuguese and Hawaiian people.

Founded in 2002, Talaysay Tours is owned and operated by Candace and Larry Campo, Shíshálh (Sechelt) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation members. “Our goal is to support culture revitalization, education and reclamation.”

Talaysay Tours, 334 Skawshen Rd, West Vancouver, V7P 3T1, [email protected], 1 (800) 605-4643, 1 (604) 628-8555, www.talaysay.com.

Salmon n’ Bannock Bistro

*Celebrating a birthday at Salmon n’Bannock, Vancouver’s original indigenous restaurant © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

From Stanley Park, I take an Uber across a bridge to a neighborhood that reminds me of going to Brooklyn from Manhattan.

Salmon n’ Bannock Bistro is (so far) the only indigenous restaurant in Vancouver (though Inez Cook, the owner, has just opened a second location at the international departure terminal at Vancouver International Airport).

“It was always a dream,” she tells me – not just to have a restaurant, but to revive and share indigenous culture.

Inez says that like so many of her generation, she was not raised with native heritage.

She shows me a children’s book, “Sixties Scoop,” she has written which describes how she is Nuxalk, born in Bella Coola, BC, but was taken away when she was one year old and adopted by a Caucasian family in Vancouver.

“I am part of what’s called Sixties Scoop, when the government took native kids and adopted them out to non-native families. Our native status was given up and we were supposed to grow up without our culture, without our heritage,” she writes. The “Sixties Scoop” began in the 1950s and lasted until the 1980s.

As an adult, she went to find her native roots and discovered she had a younger sister who was also given up for adoption.

That has made her all the more purposeful in showcasing her heritage with pride. (Inez also serves on the board of the Aboriginal Tourism British Columbia.)

Cook says she was inspired after seeing the Kekuli Café in Kellown, a Canadian Aboriginal bannock restaurant with contemporary twist – bannock, burgers, Indian Tacos, and espresso. (Kekuli Café, which also has restaurants in West Kelowna, Kamloops, and Merritt, BC, has decidedly 21^st century marketing techniques including franchising, apps, rewards points and clever slogan, “Don’t panic, we have bannock” https://www.kekulicafe.com).

Cook was raised with the foods of her adoptive mother’s family who were Dutch Mennonite, so when she decided to open an indigenous restaurant, she needed to research native ingredients and First Nations cooking techniques.

“I wanted the restaurant to showcase food from the land and sea that the Indigenous people had traditionally hunted, harvested and eaten – everything from fiddlehead ferns to bison and sock-eye salmon,” she told the BBC. “I wanted to incorporate their traditional methods too: how they smoked food or preserved it over the long winters. I did a lot of asking and learning, then began to improvise.”

“The Olympics was coming. I dove in.” She opened Salmon n’ Bannock in 2010 to offer native cuisine with a modern twist.

Her team is indigenous, the menu based on what’s in season and available. She would ask them, “What’s your favorite dish?” and bring modern inspiration.

*Inez Cook opened her indigenous restaurant Salmon n’Bannock to revive and share First Nations culture, which she had to discover for herself © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

Some of the more interesting items on the menu this evening: pemmican mousse with bannock crackers; game sausage (this evening it is elk and huckleberry which is sensational); bison bone marrow served with sage rub and bannock crostini; bison pot roast with mash; smoked sablefish on Haudenosaunee corn polento,. I have the Fish n’ Rice” – wild sockeye with Anishinaabe wild rice.

She will take a native ingredient like soapberries or kelp, or a traditional recipe, and turn it into something new.

Her twist on pemmican, a staple for her ancestors, is an example. The traditional way of serving pemmican was as a mixture of dried meat and berries, which were buried to provide food on a journey. Instead, here the pemmican is made of bison meat, smoked, dried and ground before blending it with cream cheese and sage-infused berries.

Cook worked for airlines for 33 years which enabled her to experience other cultures around the world including Saudi Arabia, India,Egypt, Chad, Nigeria, Indonesia and England, returning to Vancouver in time to open her second 2^nd location, at Vancouver airport.

“I’ve lived all over the world- I wanted to take people on a journey to experience the culture of land…Food and culture bring people together,”

She doesn’t miss an opportunity to share the experience and educate. Even the menu features these interesting facts:

Present day Canada is set on land of 600 indigenous nations, over 200 of them in present day British Columbia. “There’s a cousin behind every corner and a Cree behind every tree.”

“Indigenous” is an umbrella term that represents First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples –distinct groups with distinct cultures.

There are more than 70 indigenous languages, coast to coast in Canada, “many of them endangered due to systemic efforts to separate indigenous people from their culture.”

(I subsequently learn that 1,807,250 Canadians identify as Indigenous, according to the 2021 Census, accounting for 5% of the country’s total population, of which 290,210 live in British Columbia. The population that identifies as Indigenous is the fastest growing demographic group in Canada, increasing by 42.5% between 2006 and 2016.)

For Inez, the restaurant is a chance to show indigenous culture and real people in a contemporary setting, rather than as displays in a museum or separated on a reserve. “We could be your doctor, lawyer, your neighbor,”

It’s an intimate bistro setting – only about eight tables (24 guests) – but its reputation is going global. Time, Elle Magazine have raved and on this evening, seven media people from France have arrived, and Inez greets them in French.

Salmon n’ Bannock Address: 1128 W Broadway #7, Vancouver, BC, 604-568-8971, [email protected], www.salmonandbannock.net

*The famous steam clock in Gastown © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com*

I leave the restaurant and have Uber take me to Gastown – with its famous steam clock – to enjoy that nighttime vibe and then take the 15 minute walk back to the Skwachays Lodge just after dark. (Skwàchays Lodge 31 W Pender St Vancouver, BC V6B 1R3 604.687.3589, 1 888 998 0797, [email protected], https://skwachays.com/)

Indigenous Tourism BC offers travel ideas, things to do, places to go, places to stay, and suggested itineraries and a trip planning app (https://www.indigenousbc.com/)

Next: Trail to Discover British Columbia’s Indigenous Heritage Goes Through Whistler-Blackcomb

_____________________________

Going Places, Far & Near

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