This afternoon I took the kids for a walk around uptown Saint John. We have wandered around uptown before, but it was on a day that a cruise ship was in so it was CRAZY busy everywhere. Today it was as quiet as uptown gets so we got to enjoy it a little more.
First off we walked through the Old Loyalist Burial Grounds. It is a beautiful, well kept cemetery full of very old graves, beautiful trees, brick pathways, and plenty of flowers. The Irving family (owns Irving fuel, very wealthy and very famous here in Saint John) started to upkeep the grounds after it had been ignored for many years. They built this beaver fountain in the middle. I'm not really sure why...
Right across the street from the cemetery is Kings Square. It is also a very beautiful green space with a beautiful fountain. The fountain is a memorial for King Edward and there is a memorial of the great war (WWII) as well as a few other memorials.
The square is full of benches, perfect for the kids to stop and take a rest. I think Jensen needed it the most!
The city market is right across the street from Kings Square. It is kind of like a farmer's market but more permanent. There is some good looking produce and other food there. Yum. It was nice to be there when it isn't so busy.
On Market Square there are these two statues that Aubrey has been dying to get pictures with. It's so funny to me how she has gone from despising having her picture taken to loving having her picture taken and having to glam it up. Jensen has taken over the picture hater role.
We continued to walk down to the harbor where the cruise ships come in. It is a beautiful little piece of the world, the bay of Fundy is!
As we started our walk home we ran into some more statues that Aubrey really wanted a picture with.
We walked back through Kings Square and found that there was singing in the park! The guy performing was no Chris, but he was decent. I really liked his guitar though...
Aubrey listened to the music while relaxing on the bench, but the little rocker, Carter, danced away. He also clapped enthusiastically at the end of every song and yelled, "YAY!" while he was at it. The performer loved it. It was the most acknowledgement he got from anyone.
The Kids were enjoying running around the war monument. It is really neat.
There are some things that I have come to learn about Saint John. I recently learned that it was awarded the culture capital of Canada in 2010. I'm not sure what that entails, but it sounded cool. I have also come to learn that you aren't cool here unless you smoke. It's rare to see people who don't smoke. The only way you can escape the smoke is going into buildings. People even smoke on the playgrounds which is supposed to be illegal but whatever. And it doesn't matter the age either. I have seen so many young kids smoking. It's sad. On our little walk today There was a family of 5 (a Mom, Dad, and 3 teenage boys, the eldest couldn't have been older than 16) sitting in their car and each and every person was smoking. Sad. So of course there are cigarette butts all over the ground! There is also dog poop all over the ground. Apparently it isn't law here to pick up your dog's poop on public property. That, or people don't obey the law. And then there is the smog... There are quite a few factories in the area, most of them Irving owned (such as Irving oil refinery and Irving pulp and paper). There is a constant smog cloud hovering over the city. I swear it's worse than what it was in Toronto. Okay, that might be exaggerating. It is a really neat, beautiful city and I am enjoying my time here, I could just do without the smoke, poop, and smog.
Anyway, it was really nice to get out today and let the kids burn off some energy and enjoy some of what Saint John has to offer after being cooped up for a few days because of the rain and the cool.
First off we walked through the Old Loyalist Burial Grounds. It is a beautiful, well kept cemetery full of very old graves, beautiful trees, brick pathways, and plenty of flowers. The Irving family (owns Irving fuel, very wealthy and very famous here in Saint John) started to upkeep the grounds after it had been ignored for many years. They built this beaver fountain in the middle. I'm not really sure why...
Right across the street from the cemetery is Kings Square. It is also a very beautiful green space with a beautiful fountain. The fountain is a memorial for King Edward and there is a memorial of the great war (WWII) as well as a few other memorials.
The square is full of benches, perfect for the kids to stop and take a rest. I think Jensen needed it the most!
The city market is right across the street from Kings Square. It is kind of like a farmer's market but more permanent. There is some good looking produce and other food there. Yum. It was nice to be there when it isn't so busy.
On Market Square there are these two statues that Aubrey has been dying to get pictures with. It's so funny to me how she has gone from despising having her picture taken to loving having her picture taken and having to glam it up. Jensen has taken over the picture hater role.
We continued to walk down to the harbor where the cruise ships come in. It is a beautiful little piece of the world, the bay of Fundy is!
As we started our walk home we ran into some more statues that Aubrey really wanted a picture with.
We walked back through Kings Square and found that there was singing in the park! The guy performing was no Chris, but he was decent. I really liked his guitar though...
Aubrey listened to the music while relaxing on the bench, but the little rocker, Carter, danced away. He also clapped enthusiastically at the end of every song and yelled, "YAY!" while he was at it. The performer loved it. It was the most acknowledgement he got from anyone.
The Kids were enjoying running around the war monument. It is really neat.
There are some things that I have come to learn about Saint John. I recently learned that it was awarded the culture capital of Canada in 2010. I'm not sure what that entails, but it sounded cool. I have also come to learn that you aren't cool here unless you smoke. It's rare to see people who don't smoke. The only way you can escape the smoke is going into buildings. People even smoke on the playgrounds which is supposed to be illegal but whatever. And it doesn't matter the age either. I have seen so many young kids smoking. It's sad. On our little walk today There was a family of 5 (a Mom, Dad, and 3 teenage boys, the eldest couldn't have been older than 16) sitting in their car and each and every person was smoking. Sad. So of course there are cigarette butts all over the ground! There is also dog poop all over the ground. Apparently it isn't law here to pick up your dog's poop on public property. That, or people don't obey the law. And then there is the smog... There are quite a few factories in the area, most of them Irving owned (such as Irving oil refinery and Irving pulp and paper). There is a constant smog cloud hovering over the city. I swear it's worse than what it was in Toronto. Okay, that might be exaggerating. It is a really neat, beautiful city and I am enjoying my time here, I could just do without the smoke, poop, and smog.
Anyway, it was really nice to get out today and let the kids burn off some energy and enjoy some of what Saint John has to offer after being cooped up for a few days because of the rain and the cool.
1 comments:
I'm horrified about the smoking...the family with teenage boys...yuck.
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