It’s only a 10-minute drive to Grand Falls (the tourist destination) which I’ll get to in a minute. We’ve researched and discovered there’s really not a whole lot to do around here. AND there’s very little cell service, even in town! I really don’t like being out of touch. But even more frustrating is when the internet suddenly stops working. Grrrrr!
There is this round black thing in the middle of ‘our’ pond and we wondered what it was. About 6pm, we found out. Turns out, it’s a small fountain that lights up with changing florescent lights. Cute.
And speaking of cute – – there’s a mama duck and NINE ducklings who swim all around the pond. Those little things are fast! But they never come near the shore unless they’re in the cattails, so it was very hard to get a picture.
I had visions of posting an adorable close-up picture of these little guys, but even our zoom lens on our camera (which we never use since we got cell phones ☹), wouldn’t get close enough.
Grand Falls is the name of the town and also the waterfall/gorge area. They regulate the flow at the power plant and sometimes, they divert so much that there’s hardly any left for the gorge river. They call it a ‘seasonal fall’ – May-October which is tourist season. However, it’s all free. There’s a visitor information center where the workers are bi-lingual and wear tags saying what languages they speak. We noticed a lot of French speaking going on around here and most things and signs are printed in both English and French.
Our first visit to the Falls was kind of an accident as we were looking for information on the area and knew there was an info building around. We didn’t realize it was actually at the falls. We looked around some, but it was late, so we returned the next day.
On the way, Blaine made a wrong turn, but just look what we found!
a potato field
and across the street, a canola field
Here’s some interesting info on canola oil. I had no idea! (Remember, when I copy and paste to save time, I can’t seem to get rid of the ‘extras’.)
In just a few decades, canola has become one of the world’s most important oilseed crops and the most profitable commodity for Canadian farmers. The name canola is a contraction of Canada and ola, meaning oil. To earn the name canola, products must meet an internationally regulated standard.
The world’s healthiest vegetable oil is extracted from the seeds of the canola plant. The seeds are 44% oil – more than double the oil content of soybeans. In addition to its heart-healthy properties, canola oil is renowned for its fine culinary qualities.
High-protein meal is produced from the other 56% of the canola seed. Canola meal is an excellent animal feed for cattle, poultry, swine and fish. When fed to dairy cows, it can increase milk production by one litre per day. Researchers have also developed a protein isolate that could one day be used for human nutrition.
Canola is the world’s only “Made in Canada” crop. It was developed by researchers from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the University of Manitoba in the 1970s, using traditional plant breeding techniques.
There is a LOT of power here at Grand Falls as you can see! We’ve seen pictures and when the dam is fully open, the water is everywhere! Looks a bit like Horseshoe Falls at Niagara, only a little smaller.
IMG_1399 This is a short video
They zipline across the falls!
See the rainbow?
View of the visitor center from a walking path to the other side
View of the gorge from the walking path
View of a tributary seen from the walking path
Lunch View for today.
Besides the falls and gorge, there’s a lot of focus on the Maliseet Indians and one in particular, whose name was Malabeam. Here is the legend of Malabeam as written by poet, James Hannay. I think it was originally written in something other than English since it’s not very poetic sounding. 😊
A young Maliseet maiden saved her people from destruction by luring an attacking party of Mohawks.
Five hundred years ago, the Wigoudi (Saint John River) flowed over the falls. On the banks above, the Maliseet had built a village. At that time, the Maliseets and the Mohawks were foes.
Sacobie and his young daughter Malabeam were on an island above the Quisibis stream.
The Mohawks killed Sacobie and took Malabeam prisoner. “If you guide us to your father’s town, your life will be spared and you will wed a Mohawk brave”.
“Keep your canoes together and I will lead the way” said Malabeam.
During the night, they could hear the thunderous roar “But it is only a torrent that joins the Wigoudi”, she said.
With a cry of triumph, she went over the falls bringing along all 300 Mohawks into the dark abyss of death 80 feet below.
The bodies of the Mohawks were found the following day but not Malabeam’s. Her tribe still tells the story around their council fires and honour her name.
We also walked around town and visited a few sights. There’s a really nice artists’ gallery called, Acanthus. It’s not on the main drag, but the girl at the info center at the falls suggested we visit. What a wonderful place! Such marvelous works of art for sale! There were things like paintings, jewelry, quilts, pottery, woodworked pieces, soap and much more. Everything was top notch and reasonably priced. We didn’t buy anything – motorhome, remember? – but if I’d just been vacationing I definitely would have! And the two ladies who were working there were so very nice and friendly!
Grand Falls is also the hometown of jockey, Ron Tourcotte. Anyone want to guess who he is? Ever heard of Secretariat? Yep! He’s the jockey who rode him to a Triple Crown victory in 1973. And not too many years ago, Hollywood made a movie about it.
Monument to Ron Tourcotte
Best we could do. If you look, you can see Blaine’s reflection.
We saw an interesting church steeple as we drove through town, so we went . . . . . in search of . . . .
Here’s what Wikipedia says about the Assumption (because I had no idea and was curious):
The Assumption of Mary into Heaven, often shortened to the Assumption and also known as the Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Dormition), according to the beliefs of the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of Anglicanism, was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life.
The Catholic Church teaches as dogma that the Virgin Mary “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”. This doctrine was dogmatically defined by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950, in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus by exercising papal infallibility. While the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church believe in the Dormition of the Theotokos, which is the same as the Assumption, whether Mary had a physical death has not been dogmatically defined.
In Munificentissimus Deus (item 39) Pope Pius XII pointed to the Book of Genesis (3:15) as scriptural support for the dogma in terms of Mary’s victory over sin and death as also reflected in 1 Corinthians 15:54: “then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory”.
In the churches that observe it, the Assumption is a major feast day, commonly celebrated on 15 August. In many countries, the feast is also marked as a Holy Day of Obligation in the Roman Catholic Church and as a festival (under various names) in the Anglican Communion.
Don’t feel bad. I didn’t understand some of it either . . . . 😊