Today was not quite as adventurous. BUT, while doing laundry, I met two really nice local ladies (seasonals staying at the park) who told me about a place to get “The best fish and chips anywhere.” And I didn’t even ask! Proving once again, that it pays to talk to people. They also suggested we only order 1 piece rather than 2 pieces of fish. “One’s plenty!”
About ½ hour away in a town named Masstown, we easily found the Masstown Market and Lighthouse they told me about. And we ordered fish and chips (fries). Not what we’d planned on food-wise for the day, but we have the luxury of doing that if we so choose. One piece of Haddock was more than enough! They were huge pieces of fish! Just as I was told. And it was really tasty!
View of our lunch spot from the top of their lighthouse.
You place your order at the truck and they call you with one of those little square buzzers when it’s ready and you go pick it up.
The lighthouse there (just for show/decoration) has a fresh fish market and other food items downstairs and they encourage you to walk to the top of the tower also. On the way up, there were all kinds of signs with information on them – about the area or critters. We didn’t buy anything. Maybe because we weren’t hungry anymore. Maybe because we weren’t going home for about 5 hours. Maybe because it was super expensive. Example: 8 scallops was $17. Two small pieces of salmon was $19.
But it was here we learned that lobsters have teeth. Did you know that??? They’re in their stomach of all places!! They like to eat crabs, clams, mussels, starfish, smaller fish and sometimes other lobsters. The food is chewed in the stomach by what looks like three molars. How in the world did people figure this out?!?!? And how could this possibly be outside of a Creator God?!? He’s beyond belief! Beyond anything we can conceive or imagine!
The Masstown Market was a grocery store. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, bakery items, deli and a small take out area. We bought a pie and two donuts. Both exceptional! Probably the best apple pie I’ve ever had (sorry, Mom). The deli items were just as expensive as everywhere else and the only veggies we needed were also expensive here. While we were waiting in the check-out line, there were bottles of vanilla sitting there. Since I can always use vanilla and I sometimes bought mine at the small stores like Beiler’s where you could get large bottles for relatively small prices, I picked up a bottle. Good thing I checked the price!! $18 for about 3-4 oz.! The larger bottle was $35! I put them back quickly and carefully!
We headed back towards home with very full bellies and a slightly lighter wallet, stopping at Victoria Park again. We took some different paths this time, thoroughly enjoying ourselves and snapping pictures of what wild life we could find.
I know it’s ‘just a pigeon’, but I’ve never seen one this close and they really are beautiful birds!
Slim pickins as you can see!
But then, just before we reached the parking lot, there was a family of deer! They were so tame we could’ve gotten even closer, but for a jogger who started stomping her feet in the gravel and chasing them away. Grrrr!!
As she passed us she said, “I wasn’t sure if deer attack.” Whatever! Of course, I know they can attack, but these were obviously very used to people being around.
We had another timetable to keep as we wanted to get to the Interpretive Center for the tidal bore there. This is the one that was supposed to be so turbulent they white-water raft on. So, we drove all that way only to find out that this would be a really low tide due to the moon, previous rain (which makes the river more full to start with) and one other thing that neither of us can remember. In fact, the only way you could tell the water was moving backwards was to watch the little foam bubbles directly below us. It was really slow . . . . and bore-ing.
Remnants of a train bridge that swiveled to allow ships to come thru.
When this bridge was built, it was supposed to be a proper arch, but notice how it dips int he middle? Something went wrong and they had to add a piece. Ooops!
We were really glad we didn’t pay for the rafting trip we’d considered since it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The boats are similar to the zodiac we whale-watched in, but smaller. So no rowing. And probably no falling out as we’ve done on other rafting trips. 😊
We stayed long enough to see some of the boats come by. Pretty anti-climactic. We left early. But please keep in mind, when the tide is high, this can be quite a wild experience!
If their boats hadn’t had motors, I’m not sure they’da had any fun at all. The guides were running over each others’ wakes. Bad day for rafting, but there were at least 20 rafts! We were surprised there were so many!
On to our next adventure which should involve a lot of hiking again!