Back to Canada to visit family and friends

Our main reason for coming back to Canada was to visit with Family and friends. There are some people you can go months or even years without seeing, but when you finally get together, it feels like it was only yesterday when you saw them last.

We landed in Canada and our first stop was to visit our daughter Janice and son-in-law Scott in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Of course we also stopped along the way to enjoy a Timmy´s.

It was great spending time with them and enjoying their company. One day we decided to head out toward St. Andrews and visit Ministers Island and the home to the Van Horne Estate.

Now, visiting an island sounds pretty straightforward but this one was different. Ministers Island is known as a tidal island, which means the road to the island is actually exposed ocean floor. We had to time our visit with the tides because, unlike most roads, this one disappears with high tide. we arrived early in the morning and there was a heavy fog along the coast. We drove along the Ocean floor and eventually reached the island. This was a unique experience and interesting to say the least.

View of the Ocean floor along the route to Morrison Island

In 1891, Van Horne purchased land on Ministers Island and turned it into his summer retreat. The estate had the main house, gardens, farmland, a huge barn, dairy, carriage house, windmill, bathhouse and even a gardener’s cottage. At the island our first stop was at a very large Barn.

Scott, Shelley and Janice at the Van Horne barn

We explored the barn and it was interesting to note that this barn was considered the most modern style with a built in elevator and scale system. However the main attraction on the island is the Covenhoven.

The former summer home of Sir William Van Horne. If that name sounds familiar, there’s a good reason. Van Horne was one of the key figures behind the Canadian Pacific Railway and served as its president. He is in the historic photo of the last spike in the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Original photo of the “last spike” on Canadian Pacific Railway

One of the salons inside the Covenhoven estate

Massive game room in the Covenhoven Estate

We explored the Covenhoven and walked trough the many different rooms. It was like walking through a piece of Canadian history.

It was a perfect day to explore the grounds of the estate and so we walked throughout parts of the island. We came upon one of the locals who simply watched us walk by.