LOVE THE UNKNOWN

This is a guesthouse that rents the units mostly for long periods of time to company personnel and for people away on business trips. It has everything you would need in the unit. It has a kitchen with a double bed and bathroom. It is only suitable for one person per room because of the size, but it is very central. You can walk to most of the uptown activities. They offer daily, weekly or monthly accommodations, which are from a bachelor to three-bedroom suites with kitchen, private bath, phone and cable included, and the units are totally non-smoking. Some of the units have a whirlpool tubs, historic detailing all unique.

To check on the information for these units, the webpage is www.chipmanhill.com

The food is worth the money. It is a wait and a restaurant with a nice view. They have a smoking and a non-smoking area. Most people go there for their lunch time, and you mostly need reservations within that time because then you would have to wait or look for somewhere else to go. The food is delicious, from their pizza to their largest meal, and the environment just great.

The place is a relaxed elegant house well-deserved reputation in that town and it was published in the Victorian Homes maganize. The food is delicious. He uses only the freshest ingredients, many of which he growns in his organic vegetable and herb gardens. Signature dishes include stilton beef tenderloin, cedar-planked salmon, rack of New Zealand lamb, and mussel chowder. Dinner is served from 5:30 to 9:30pm. Sunday brunch is served from 11am to 2:30pm. I had the omelete de jour (ask your server for today's selection).

For more information go to their website.

The meal we had there was great and the place has some tables overlooking the boardwalk and slots. The restaurant has smoking and non-smoking areas. The menu is very diferent on what you can have there. You can have everything from Mexican food to just some buffalo wings.

We started out with some beers and an appetizer. The food was great but the service was not as good as the food. First everything was okay but we had to wait for about 45 minutes just for the food. It turned out that they had lost our order but after a long wait we were very pleased. The Places Bar is in Brunswick Square.

The food there is delicious. You have a long list to choose from and you can make up your mind while waiting for your table. The wait is about 10 minutes on a not-so-busy day, but it is worth the wait.

I had the waffles with fresh fruit and English cream with a orange strawberry juice and it was great. Just looking at it makes you full. It is absolutely worth the wait and the price is very low for what they give you. The service is not that good, but it is because of the number of people that go to this place. If you go to the website of this restaurant, they have reviews of all their restaurants. They are all over the place. I keep wondering when they will get one of these in Mexico. Cora's menu changes regularly to celebrate the bounty of each season: crisp salads and red, ripe strawberries in summer, crunchy Quebec harvest apples in autumn, tasty turkey stuffed with cranberries at Christmas, and the golden glow of Quebec's prized maple syrup in spring. Cora offers over 20 different lunch choices.

This place is open daily from the 31 of May to the 13 of October. Kings Landing Historical Settlement is a large museum, not the traditional kind. There are no walls enclosing them. Rather, they are a special kind of museum - an outdoor living history museum with walking trails and carriage rides where you can get a tour of the place, or just go off and wander by yourself. They give you a map so you can find the areas and a small summary of what the place was.

King's Landing is situated in the banks of the St. John River and it recreates life as it was in the nineteenth century. It was created in the late 60s when the Mactaquac Dam was constructed. Many of the homes are damaged because of the water and were moved to what now is King's Landing. Some of them had to be restored.

Costumed staff work dilligently to accurately interpret a most important era in Canadian history. Great for kids and adults, they would enjoy it very much. This site also offers fall weekends August 30, 31, and September 1 Agricultural Fair, September 12 - 14 Heritage Handiwork, October 11 – 13 Thanksgiving Festival, and a lot more. You can see what else they offer like their Visiting Cousins, which is a summer camp for children that's just great.

The scenery is just beautiful with farm animals a small pond, horses, bodies of water, and trees. Here's their website.

You take off in a twin engine, 27-foot sport boat, which is very safe. You can have up to six people with you in the boat -- you go into the open ocean and just take your chances on what you see on Bay of Fundy. You can see the famous lighthouse in New Brunswick, quaint harbors, fishing weirs, marine bird habitat, salmon farms, dolphins, and much more . . .

Our boat left the St. Andrews dock so that we could enjoy the scenic and wonderful area which the whales enjoy but the boats leave four times a day at 8:30am, 11:30am, 2:30pm, and (daylight permitting) 5:30pm. They are also available for charters and specialized tours. You can make your reservation on line, by phone, or by mail. Simply go to the tour reservations page. Doctor Chuck is very informed about the area and he would give you all the information for the area and also for the whales themselves and the different things that you would find while on your tour it is great to have someone with you that can make the trip interesting.

Today I came to the close of the first week in Saint John and I loved every minute of it. First of all I saw that almost every person in Canada will drink Tim Horton's Cafe (a little too sweet for me), but it is real good.

First trip was uptown. There the boardwalk is in a very nice location being a beautiful walk. The weather was nice. There are malls, pubs, and a lot of restaurants that have different food.

We went to Rocky's, which is a sports bar, to eat and have a beer, and we take our breaks from work at Dooly's, a pool hall that's just great. We were to go whale watching on Friday but it was too windy and we went to Kings Landing. There you can see how people in New Brunswick lived in the 1800s and everything they used to live through at that time. I will write about that some more later.

Then on Saturday we went to the Matchbox 20 concert, which was just great. It was something that would not be missed. To the pubs after that, then on Sunday we went to see the whales finally and it was something I will never forget--it was unbelievable.

Well, I will let you know what goes on next week, write to you later!!

This week in St. John we worked from Monday to Friday and we really did not go out during the week, but starting on Friday night we went to STUDIO 54 to the Latin dance night. It was great. It was just like being at homei. They gave you salsa dancing lessons and merengue lessons. I love it. There were not a lot of people, but it was still great. There was people from Cuba, Chile, and locals there. It was just great and also to have the people help you to learn so you have no excuse not to dance.

Then on Saturday we left the house at 8pm to go to a house party. Joyce was the one to take us (she is the Global Guide that went to South Africa). When we got there everyone was just so nice and everyone was very helpful. It was great. We had to take our own drinks, so I took my tequila corralejo with me and it was a kick, they really liked it.

On Sunday it was a lay back day. We just stayed home and got our sleep back from the other nights of beers.

Well, this week I had a "cool" experience. Cindy, who was nice to take some time away, drove us to Halifax. It is about a 4 hour drive from Saint John, but along the way, we had a beautiful view of the fall up here. The trees were so many different colors and the reflection of the sunlight on the bodies of water is a perfect combination. I loved it so much that in my home video, I am going to have a lot of trees.

Still in Halifax, we stayed at Cindy's sister’s house. It is beautiful. It's on a lake on Lakeshore Street. They were really nice to us, just like everyone in Saint John. I really enjoyed it there. The only thing that was not very nice was the rain . . . I mean, I love the rain, but it was colder with the wind. The first day, it was a stay home day -- we got to know each other over a cup of coffee and tea.

On Saturday, we headed to uptown Halifax. It was cool, but not yet raining. The rain started after our breakfast/brunch meal at Cora's, which is a place you have to visit while in Halifax. The food is just great -- I had a waffle with fresh fruit with English cream and a orange and strawberry juice. People wait in line to go into this place. They are only open from 6am to 3pm. The food is very good and the prices are not very high.

After lunch, the rain took over while we were headed to Halifax Citadel National Historic Site. There, you have to pay C$3.75 to get inside, but it is worth it. They have unbelievable views from where the cannons were fired from every day at noon and the people are dressed as they would back in that time.

It was raining, so we took the bus tour because it was to cold for us to walk. We went ahead with the tour and we saw the Casino and the Gardens, which, because of the hurricane, were really not something you wanted to see. The tour was about 1.5 hours and it showed you the major areas of uptown Halifax.

Most of the damage from the hurricane was trees knocked down and the power outage for a couple of days or some weeks, but there was no damage on the houses. After the tour, we went to the Casino. It was great, nothing like Las Vegas, but better than the slots near the airport of Toronto. There were slots, black jack, and poker tables. There is a smoking and a non-smoking area -- I am a smoker, but I would recommend the non-smoking area because I got sick after breathing in so much smoke. The area is very small and it has glass electric door to get to the non-smoking area.

At night, we went to the Liquor Dome. I was thinking it was like the bars in Los Angeles where you can listen to the music when you are walking up to it and that it was going to have a lot of lights, but it was different than I expected. It’s an excellent place to visit. It is a number of bars with doors leading to each one. There was only one smoking bar in the whole area, which is called The Attic. All of the others are non-smoking. If you like to eat after drinking, there is a place up the street where you can get some pizza for only C$3 per slice.

This week was very laid-back. Federico from Mexico City left this week and I was feeling homesick.

First, we went to a farewell dinner for Fred at a very nice restaurant by Reversing Falls. The food was a little bit different than what I am used to, but it was great. The service was excellent and you have to go to this place. I will tell you more about it in a different journal.

Thursday, I went to a club that they call the AQ (Aquarium). It was student party night and it was fun. On Friday, I was supposed to go Latin dancing at Studio 54, but it was moved to Saturday. Since I already had plans for that day, I have to go next week. On Saturday, I finally went to 3 Mile. Everyone told me I had to go there and they were right -- it is very good for all different age groups. I enjoyed it a lot. It is different from the bars uptown because 3 Mile is more for dancing while uptown, you only drink and sometimes listen to live bands. Well, I liked the 3 Mile more then the AQ.

Well, we only have one week to go and it is just Tony and I left. To be honest when Fred went back to Mexico City last Friday I was very homesick and I really wanted to leave, but now I am not really sure. I think I am not so happy about the idea of leaving now, but I must and I just loved it here. I am going to miss it. I just wish I get to come back someday, but maybe during the summer cause it is really cold around this time a year and that is the only thing I will not miss. I mean if it was snowing then I would not mind it cause I would love to see it snow.

Well anyway this week was not very exciting. I mean we could have done more but we just spent most of the time at HOME on Monday we just went to subway for lunch and went home. Tony went to the City Market to eat at the Crazy Carrot and he loved it. They make salads and wraps that look good, but I was not in the mood for either. On Halloween we went trick or treating with Cyndi and Charlotte and her daughter. We had a good time but I was cold and they told us that was good weather. I mean I do not want to know what bad weather is up here. We went to Rockies (SPORTS BAR) cause the waitress were playboy bunnies and Tony wanted to go and have a look so we went to have some drinks there. It was my first time trying the White Russians and loved it, so I have a new favorite drink when I get back home instead of tequila. We then went to the boardwalk to Cougars to dance for a while and drink some more but it is just a shame that everything closes at 2:30am around here. Well, we went back home.

On Saturday I went to a hockey game. It was a great game. The final score was Saint John THUNDER CATS 6 and the other team which I think was from Quebec 3 and it is better to see it live then to see it on TV. I mean you have a lot of contests going on you can see all of the action easier and the fights and of course the beer and food at the game. It was in HARBOUR STATION, the same place where the MATCHBOX TWENTY concert was. I have most of the goals on video so my family can see it. I loved it and had a great time.

After the game we went home to leave my camera and then went to Rockies to have lunch and then we went to Studio 54 but did not go in cause there was a lot of older people and just disco music so we ended up going to the 3 Mile and it was Tony's first time there. I like it but you need a big crowd to enjoy the club or know at least some of the people around. It was fun and I had White Russians all night and danced for a little while and went home around 2am.

Sunday we went to have lunch at Cyndi's and I never expected that much food. We had some chili, salad with potatoes, and for dessert we had gingerbread and blueberry bread with cream and it all was great. I especially loved the blueberry bread. I will let you know about the sixth and late week when I get home but I am sure it will be great and all this experiences have been.