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Our very dear friend/framily Uncle Bill came to visit after he had spent a week at Glimmerglass Opera near Cooperstown. (Spoiler… we are now going next year if we can find a reasonable place to stay!) We took Uncle Bill around to all the high spots around Eastport: Waco, Rosies, Sweeties Downeast, Raye’s Mustard. We sat around playing Rummikub at night. It was just a lovely time!

Mommy and I decided we needed to venture forth into Canada… many of our friends had extolled the McAdam Train Station and their Pie Sundays. We looked into it and discovered McAdam is only a hop, skip, and jump away from Fredericton and that is only 30 or so km from The World’s Largest Axe.

Many moons ago (around 2016), Jim and I took a Tour de Fromage from Carthage to Eastport. Not only did we venture through Nackawick (home of the Big Axe), but we stayed at a quaint B&B which was also known as The Big Axe Brewery. Much to our chagrin, the Big Axe Brewery did not open til 6 on this particular Saturday (August 17th). It was very curious as every other day they are open at noon….. 🤔.

So off we ventured (we must remember that although we wanted to leave at 9 am, we must leave at 8 am Eastern, because well if you have ever been to Eastport your celly has probably notified you at least once, “Welcome to Canada” and then your phone is an hour ahead!) at 8 am. Traveling east through Calais and crossing the border was smooth sailing, and Voilà! we were cruisin down the highway on our way to Nackawic. We took the road less traveled. We could tell as only the potholes had been filled in with asphalt.

We drove into Nackawic and what to our wondering eyes should appear? No not Santa…, but a man in the middle of the street directing traffic and people of all ages lined up on the sides of the street right next to the park where lives the BIG AXE. The traffic man asked us what we wanted to do. We informed him we were there to see the Big Axe and he directed us to park in the yard (someone’s house) right next to the street as the parade was about to start. Parade? What parade? I didn’t read anything about any parade when I was researching Nackawick. Granted I did not do as thorough a job as I am wont to do, but there you have it.

We parked, walked across the street and down in the park with the Big Axe. There were food trucks and bouncy houses ready for a fun day in Nackawic. So every August for about the last 50 years, Nackawic has celebrated Festival on the Bend. They have a parade, crown a princess, and fireworks at night. There is also a theme for the parade… Ths year’s theme happened to be Halloween. Beetle… was on a float, many, many witches, skeletons and ghouls, there was even one float with the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. We stayed till almost the end, then scurried our way out, eating the candy that Gammy and Uncle Bill had collected. We also found out why the Big Axe Brewery wasn’t opening until 6… they were in the parade.

The Lady in Blue (Jim’s car aka the large golfcart, but that is a story for another time and it does not start with…”No shit there I was”, go figure) was a bit disgruntled with our route plan, but she finally acquiesced and we headed for Fredericton. Road construction season was in high form and it appeared they were working on the bridge that ran over the river connected to a damn. We, however, made the green light and there was no stopping or offering of kind bars to the men/women holding the arrêt sign.

Once in Fredericton, it was time to find a place to eat as we were all hungry, even though we had eaten breakfast sammies about 5 hours earlier 🤣. We found the lovely Lighthouse by 540 and sat on the deck. Jim and I ordered the Burrata Appetizer to share, Bill had the lobster roll, Gammy had bbq tacos (Luke, our cute waiter, offered to bring Gammy samples of everything. It has now become a running joke), Jim had the sausage special, and I had a tuna poke bowl. To share responsibility of our blog page, I let Jim pick the photos I was allowed to use so you only get to see the lobster roll and the burrata appetizer. Both lovely in their own right.

After lunch, we all were much more agreeable and walked back toward where we had parked to visit the Beaverbrook Museum. There were 3 floors or so of art. On one of the floors there were several Dali paintings along with a tower. This tower was thin and about chest high. The artist had painted several paintings in an attic of house and then transferred them to the “attic” of the tower. The house was later destroyed to make room for commercial buildings. Go figure. On the bottom floor, there was an exhibit by Ann Manuel named Breath. The website and the introduction to the piece states, “The inspiration for the series began with the last breath of her father and ended with the last wish of her mother, almost sixteen years apart. This work is a call for reflection away from the distractions and noise of our everyday lives. Using a simple organic form reminiscent of a garden flower, the work embodies a deep inhale of one’s memories followed by a slow meandering exhale.” The piece starts and ends with large dandelion puff balls. Jim photographed the middle of the installation.

We then hoofed it back over the river to our motel, Fort Naswaak with a brief stop at the liquor store for a bottle of two or 3 or 4 of wine. We checked in with the lovely Majestic. Apparently we were very pleasant as Majestic lowered our room night charge. Of course we did have 3 separate rooms and they were placed all next to each other. There was a pub, Cannon’s Cross, located on premises. We ordered rocket launchers-banana peppers, cream cheese, and jalapenos wrapped in a wonton- and medium wings for the table, they were bbq and came with blue cheese; Bill and Gammy ordered fish and poutine. It was Bill’s first experience with poutine; Jim and I shared a Greek salad. And the best part of the evening? The Bills Steelers game was on the tv and Grace the bartender put the game on both tvs. Whoohoo!! After dinner, we all piled into Gammy’s room, rearranged the furniture and set up to play a few hands of Rummikub before splitting up and heading to bed.

Sunday funday is also known as Pie day during the summer at the McAdam Train station. We stopped for breakfast at Claudine’s Eatery. Jim and I both ordered the fried chicken benedict, while Bill ordered the lobster benedict, and Gammy ordered the New England benedict. All benedicts come with hashbrowns that you can get deep fried or thrown on the grill with onions. Check out their website and their bloody marys.

Still leaving an hour or so to kill, the chauffeur decided a quick walkabout the Fredericton Botanical Gardens would be in order. Lovely, lovely place and a story walk to boot! Check out the story of Bone Jaw. I really need to get a copy of the book about Jacques and Jack with Jack trying to teach Jacques how to pronounce French words!

Now it was time for the original highlight of the trip. There actually were so many highlights that I think they were more like blessings! But bigger things await and it was Pie Sunday at the train museum and we must not be late! Jim and I had visited the McAdam train station before. Did I tell you that? Some of the stories we heard, some stories had addendums, and we did not pay extra to view the upper floors of the train station. The McAdam Railway Station was built and was the customs and border station along the line across Canada from east to west. The railway pie (no, I did not buy the cookbook) was huge. A quarter of pie for everyone. Except Jim, because he did not have pie. Why you ask? He had cake… Boston Creme (not a) Pie to be exact.

What a fun trip it was with Bill Hollings! Thanks for coming and sharing “our little slice of heaven”