Sonya's Blog - Day 73 - Walking Tour of Fredericton

Sonya’s Blog - Day 73 - September 3rd - Walking Tour of Fredericton

We started off the day with the kids doing school work. Isaac did some more multiplication tables, started on his WWI report, practiced his letters, and had a conversation in french. He then went outside with Blake and played lacrosse for his phys. ed. Natasha started on her report on the formation of Canada, went online to try and get the math text downloaded, to no avail.

While they were doing this, I finished The Last Dragonslayer. It was a really cute book, he had some funny situations and tongue in cheek names for things. It will be a good book for Isaac to read.

I had also packed lunches for each of us so that as soon as the kids were done we could bike into Fredericton. We got on the bikes at about noon and headed into town. We knew where we were going this time so we made it to the Historic Garrison District in about 40 minutes and found a place to sit down and have lunch. After lunch we walked around and checked out some areas we had not seen yet. It was then time for the walking tour, and the kids history lesson, so we headed over to City Hall and joined the walking tour. It was just us and a guy from Cochrane, which was pretty funny. All Albertans. The square where City Hall is built is called Phoenix Square, because the building has burned down 3 times. It wasn’t always City Hall, but it is in the same spot where the other 3 buildings stood. Fredericton lies along the St. John River, which used to be called the Wolastoq by the Native people who first inhabited this area. The Europeans arrived in the 17th Century, mostly British and French. The tour took us through the historic sections of Fredericton and pointed out the influences of the Garrison, Lord Beaverbrook and early settlers to the area. The tour ended at a church, that was built in the Gothic Revival style. Our tour guide was an interesting character and he gave us a good history lesson about Fredericton.

The boys went and got haircuts after the tour was over and Natasha wanted to head back to the used bookstore that we had popped into right before the tour had started. It was called The Owl’s Nest and it was the messiest used book store I had ever been in. There were boxes of books in every isle, just stacked up. The books on the shelves were packed in there. Then there was also stacks of books in various spots, many of them falling over. The store was very deep, and there were several rooms it occupied and it got messier and messier as you went further in. In several places there was just piles of books on the floor, just looked like they were dumped there. It was giving me anxiety attacks just being in there, it was too messy for me. I also found their prices really high. The paperbacks were between $6 and $7 and the hardcovers were $10 to $12 which seemed more expensive than other used bookstores I have been in. I just felt like if the hardcovers were more like $6 and the paperbacks $3 they would move a lot more books out and then have some room. Ah well, not my store and not my problem. Plus, we will never be back there in all likelihood. Natasha ended up finding some books she wanted and Blake and Isaac bought a Star Wars book, I was too cheap to buy the books I found, but I found a couple in the $1 bin that was outside of the store. Enough about that now.

We then biked back to the RV and then Blake and I jumped in the truck to go to the grocery store. We would have taken the bikes there, but our saddle bags were full of books and lunch kits. We did our errands and filled up the truck so that we are all set to leave in the morning. Blake packed up stuff and I made supper. Isaac was working on his blogs and Natasha was reading her book. After supper, Blake had to run out with Natasha because she was panicking about not having a post card for Fredericton. She also got to drive the truck, so she was pretty excited. I stayed back and did the dishes. Isaac was supposed to do the dishes, but he called his Auntie Amber instead and spent an hour yakking her ear off and I did the dishes for him. A good deal for him in the end. I also made our lunch for the drive tomorrow and then did those dishes, so I was up late.

We head to PEI tomorrow, looking forward to that. We have only been to PEI once and it was for about 4 days when Isaac was 11 months old. After that trip we wondered why we had not been there before and spent more time there. We vowed that next time we came out east we would spend more time in PEI. We are back and spending a week this time, so we are looking forward to that. Red Sand beaches and lovely scenery. Blake’s Uncle Fred and Aunt Teresa are supposed to be joining us for a few days while are there, so that will be enjoyable.

Sonya