June 9 - New Glasgow, Nova Scotia

Checked out of the hotel in Saint John, and headed directly toward what is called The Marketplace. Quaint little area with a few buildings, parking garage, etc. Had to park in the garage, but I am (so far) lucking out on parking spots everywhere. Got one close to the New Brunswick Museum, and honed in like a missile!

The Museum was not at all like I expected, nor one would. It was inside a building that housed many shops and an upscale food court.

UNFORTUNATELY.... the girl at the front desk of the museum informed me (quite cheerily) the mammoth bones were not there. They have temporary exhibition galleries, and it was there but had moved on. I wanted to cry. Then she informed me they did have several excellent (permanent) exhibits of prehistoric fossils, and a mastodon fossil.

I figured, I was there, I got a AAA discount on my ticket, and hey, why not? Besides, she was really cheerful.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The Museum was 3 floors. The first is dedicated to New Brunswick's history - logging, ship building, etc. There were a lot of excellent dioramas that must have been painstaking to create. Several live guides on each floor in addition to the recorded information available on many exhibits. I spoke with one of the guides at length about the logging industry in the 1800s, and she was very knowledgeable. I learned a lot!

The second floor houses the fossils, the bones, and a lot of it is dedicated to whaling and shipping, which were booming industries. In addition to the mastodon, they have several whale fossils, and a room dedicated to fossils of smaller creatures and plants. According to the info, a mastadon weighed about 3-4 times as much as a modern day elephant. I could not get the whole skeleton in one photo!

Mastodon's head

Back end of the mastodon

Skeleton of whale jaws

The 4th pic is a skeleton of a whale's head I must share! I did speak with another guide on the 2nd floor, but I think she was new as she was not quite up on all the exhibits and information. (She was, however, quite cheerful! A plethora of cheerful people today!)

A lot of pre-historic whales were covered with long hair; not the smooth "skin" we recognize them in today. The Museum had several excellent exhibits of these. Some of the hides are taller than I! I wish I had got pix, but my camera chose an unfortunate time to deplete its batteries.
 
They also had some excellent dioramas of the sailing ships on that floor; anyone who knows me knows I also have a thing about ships. These were totally cool. The rigging is SOOO intricate on them.

Even though I enjoy painting them, just looking at the rigging close up gave  me palpitations! It would give
anyone on the receiving end of my
ship paintings pause... (and you know who you are!)

The third floor is more of an "artist's gallery", if you will. Beautiful examples of Canadian artwork throughout history. They had some international pieces as well, that relate to New Brunswick's history.

So much to take in! It was time truly well spent. While I am disappointed about the mammoth bones, I am very, very glad I went to the museum. It was quite an education and I totally loved it! The dioramas, especially, really impressed me. They were good size (guessing 3-4 ft. long X 2+ ft. high and deep), so a lot of care and thought has gone into those. And I did get to see mastodon bones!! NB Museum has the most complete (permanent!) exhibit of mastodon bones in the world.

I lingered there much longer than I had thought I would. Oh well! It was so well worth it. I would not have missed that experience :)

Then headed out for the next leg of my journey, and drove to New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

It is so beautiful up here. Even in the sporadic rain of today (it was about 55 degrees I think), it was gorgeous. The farms spread out far and wide on either side of the road, so green and full of (mostly) cows. It is just different than New England. If possible, I think it may be greener.

Everyone I have met and spoken with has been so friendly and gone out of their way to help me out where they can. It is so nice to be able to speak with people so easily who do not look at you like you have two heads or cut you off in traffic. Everyone up here uses turn signals, and DO actually "stay right unless passing". What a concept!

And after today's adventures, and 3+ hour drive, I am tired. My back hurts badly, and the free breakfast here starts at the ungodly hour of 6. I am going to order some delivery, and catch some zzz's.

Tomorrow new adventures await!