Parrsboro and Band Day!

We arrived in Parrsboro, a small town on Fundy Bay, in time to catch the last hour and a half of Band Day! The local band was playing in the aptly named town bandstand. Satin Doll, some Beatles, and a couple other standards I just don’t recall were performed. They had lots of heart. I guess this is what a local band practices for all year - Band Day.

Parrsboro has clearly had a commitment to add arts and history throughout the town. It was surprisingly rich. There were small art installations between and on lots of the buildings. They had plaques all over with stories from many of the buildings’ histories and what they use to be or who they housed. Unfortunately, they had this giant wooden statue of a local First Nations person next to the bandstand. It was weird with a mop-like thing draped over it for hair and ochre red painted skin. It had a sign talking about the indigenous peoples who lived and continue to live in the area but... it didn’t quite sit right.

The geological museum was excellent with one of the best displays of how the earth’s land masses have moved around over millions and millions of years. Parrsboro was once attached to Morocco. Imagine that. We took a walking tour and saw actual dinosaur bones (teeny tiny bones) imbedded in the sandstone at the dig site. This is the location where they unearthed the oldest dinosaur bones in all of North America. Pretty cool.

Fundy Bay has tidal fluctuations of upwards of 5 meters leaving slim to no beach or long muddy flats to reach the water’s edge. Given the position of the moon and time of the tides, we were there for some of the highest highs and lowest lows. They described it like water sloshing in a bathtub. It creates these giant waves up the bay. You can “ride” these in special raft trips. Given the extremes, we opted for less bone-jangling activities. After spending so many days strolling with Jeanne in Halifax, it was good to get out and hike a little bit along the beaches.

We stayed at a very old Victorian home that had been preserved by the great-grandson of the original owners. We had all of the upstairs to ourselves with a parlour/sitting room, two bedrooms with a double and three quarter beds (we love the smaller beds), huge bathroom with a walk-in bathtub (over-rated), and every wall covered with original wallpaper. It was also stuffed with Victorian antiques. I can’t say it was beautiful but it certainly was interesting. The guy had I Love Lucy memorabilia all over the house including Vegivitavetamin bottles. We thought he was gay - but he mentioned his girlfriend about a zillion times. He nearly always had a glass of red wine in his hand. Fun times.

Next up will be three days kayaking and camping on the beach.Read more