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hey guys we're samuel and audrey and today we're
bringing you to grand manan an idyllic island in new brunswick
canada set in the bay of fundy quite close to the border with maine
this was a family road trip we planned with sam's parents george and debbie and
some of their best friends joan and gary there are so many things
to do in grand manan new brunswick canada and together we spent four days road tripping across the
island visiting lighthouses feasting on fresh lobster and fish and
chips exploring the historic smoke sheds in seal cove
bird watching in castelia marsh taking a side trip to whitehead island and
catching some spectacular cliff top sunsets
our trip to grand manan was laid back with lots of time outdoors in nature
and now we want to share it with you we think this is a must visit island in
atlanta canada and we'll show you why in this grand manan travel guide
all right guys so we are all aboard the ferry ready to go
ready to go supposed to be about a 90-minute ride yes
and we have beautiful weather for this so we've come up to the top deck
blue skies nice breeze how do we get so lucky seriously i know
i mean there's some times where there's even apparently fairy delays or it could
be foggy and so to get a day like this couldn't
get any better perfect summer day so yeah ready to go
we'll show you the journey
if you're planning a trip to grand man and in the summer we'd suggest going on
the grandman and coastal transport website and booking your ticket for the
crossing ahead of time this is a popular summer destination in
new brunswick so the ferry can get very busy
as for costs you have to pay for the vehicle plus each individual passenger
it was 35.80 for the car and an additional 12 dollars per passenger when
we traveled
as you know audrey and i like to eat so it wasn't long before we found ourselves
in the cafeteria sampling some of the seafood
we got the fish chowder and an order of fried scallops with french fries
a little taste of what was to come once we reached grand man
sam says laughs the beach our very our very first stop in grand
man we're here at the beach yeah
picture-perfect weather the sun is out it's actually quite a bit warmer than it
normally is here on the island we were expecting maybe
five to ten degrees cooler than fredericton nope it is nice and hot and
i don't know why you're wearing a sweater
because this with a is on i i feel great in my uh and my
t-shirt anyway yeah just a beautiful beach within what
two minute walk from where we're staying yeah so we're staying in seal cove and
our cottage isn't ready yet we've got another
hour before check-in so we just walked over to the beach
going to enjoy this lovely day go for a little stroll
yeah and then we'll take you to our herring
smoke shed converted cottage and i'll show you what that looks like
indeed
so we got pretty lucky with dinner that evening because shortly after checking
in the owners of the cottage brian and
brenda asked us if we'd be interested in buying some fresh lobster
of course we jumped at the opportunity because can you think of a better
welcome meal to grand manan new brunswick canada since we didn't really know how to cook
the lobster they offered to prepare it for us and we got
quite the cooking lesson in the process talk about hospitality
just want to make sure that's good it's boiling yeah okay so you got your live
lobster in here okay and they'll already put them in
upside down so they're passed out falling asleep more or less
and here we go they go right in water oh look at that not in the water they're
just above the water and they're gonna get steamed
and they're in there it's about 17 minutes yeah between 15 and 17 minutes
depending on you know the size and how many you're putting in the pot
right there you go thank you so we're putting the rest of the lobsters here
into the fridge and they'll keep like three four or five days
okay as long as you cool them down they got so much moisture inside of
their shell that they can live in their own salt water in there for days
wow when you want a fresh one you just open the fridge steam up some water and
good to go good to go fresh lobster rolls
yeah they've been steaming never touch the water you're gonna get the hundred
percent the yeah the flavor the real flavor of the
bay of fundy lobster the best lobster in the world
it's like cooking baking a cake it's precise
for safe you
and the moment of truth is coming up all right here we go
look at that and that's not water they were sitting in that's water from the
ocean that was inside the lobster shell that's what the
lobster lives in it's like they have their own little
cocoon of ocean water in there see the rocks
yeah rocks okay the the water is below the top of the rock so the lobster never
touched the water see so that's that's the exact amount you
want there's like not even two inches of water in there
wow there they are there they are oh i think a beauty
look at that you don't get colors like that
ta-da lo and behold our dinner i seriously don't think we could have
asked for a better first meal on this
island
yeah i believe it take two comes home tail comes off
yeah you don't get that yep
nice and juicy and then put your finger in there and slip it out
slip it out oh i see oh here it comes look at that
oh wow want to do mine too sam that was very easy that was easy
no those dangly bits all these dangly bits okay just pull it
back like that yeah because there's a green stuff in there
okay fine sam you just bathed yourself and locked
lobster juice on my own all over your shirt like it looks like someone puked
on you well i got it you got it i got it i
earned it there you go i can't believe how much juice i spilled
that was legendary you bathed yourself sam
not graceful but then you take this one off
oh look at that
now before we forget let's give you a quick tour of the smokeshed cottages in
sealcove beach which is where we stayed for the
duration of our trip to grandma and the smoke sheds and seal cove were
designated a national historic site in 1994
and they encompassed 54 wooden buildings that were built between 1870
and 1930. these structures were part of the leading center of herring production
in canada the smokeshed cottage we stayed in was
lovingly restored by its owners brian and brenda mclaughlin who now have a few
different places to rent we stayed in their two-bedroom cottage
and it proved to be the perfect base for exploring the island
plus we love being so close to the beach one bit of advice
cottages on this island get booked up months and sometimes a year in advance
so it's good to start planning your trip early
on our quest to book a cottage anywhere on the island we also discovered that
hardly anyone uses websites like booking or airbnb
so we had to do things the old-fashioned way and call in email places to check
availability just so you know
later that evening we drove down to southwest head lighthouse so that we
could catch the sunset this part of the island is known for its
cliffs and it felt like a little slice of ireland
we walked along the trail and stopped to enjoy the views while we waited for the
sun to dip in the horizon
oh no those are seals they're two heads
the next morning before meeting up with the whole gang sam and i went out to
explore our neighborhood of seal cove
all right guys so good morning from seal cove
it is day two here on grand banana island
we had a great sleep so peaceful out here
and yeah this morning we're just going for a little walk
to show you around these sheds these were former
herring smoke sheds they used to smoke the fish here
but nowadays they've kind of been repurposed
so we're seeing in one that's been turned into a cottage some people
actually live in them they've turned them into homes
some of them are storage units for fishermen who have their lobster traps
and their fishing gear and their boats so it's really cool it's just like a
small little area so you can walk around explore on foot and yeah just a historic
part of the island so we're gonna give you
a little tour let's go check it out
we were walking around snapping photos of the herring smoke sheds
buoys and lobster traps when someone invited us to come and see what the
inside of one of these sheds looks like now let me just say that coming from a
big city i normally don't go around following
strangers into dark sheds but everyone we met on grand manan was
so friendly and so kind that we didn't even hesitate so cool so this was
at one point in smoke shack yeah and then they they used it
they would uh we salt bait or whatever so like we'll take a ton of bait of hair
and then we'll put salt in with it and it pickles it
yeah yeah wow so that's what these cups were used for at one point those are the
saltine cups those are salting tops here
and how far out do you have to go to set the lobster traps
at this time of the year uh we got to go quite a ways we have to go almost the
whole way be about a three hour steam on the end
oh that's quite a waste
later that morning we met up with a new friend sharon and we went to check out
some of the boats in ingles head two of our favorites were debatable and
senile we had some good laughs over that
we eventually drove up to castelia marsh which is a prime birding spot on grandma
and island
all right guys so we have now made it to castelia marsh this is our next stop
today but yeah apparently this is a really
good place to come bird watching it's all marshland and you
have little trails some different lookout points
they also have huts where you can kind of like hide and
bring out your binoculars do a little bit of bird watching there
so it's a really cool spot we're down by the water right now
the tide's going out so you can see all the
seaweed on the rocks but yeah we're just enjoying
a nice relaxing morning walk over here and then we are going to continue our
tour of the island have you seen any birds
um just from a distance from a distance yeah you've got the zoom lens
yeah so i've grabbed a few shots like that but um
yeah they're kind of on the opposite end of the marsh but yeah we are seeing a
few out here by the by the beach yeah it's pretty cool
then it was time for lunch we went to food for thought in woodward's cove
where we enjoyed some tasty sandwiches and homemade chocolate chip and
gingerbread cookies just a quick bite because we had another
ferry to catch
all right we are going on a little trip to another island
our grandma and island adventures continue by going to another island
whitehead island ferry service yeah we're going to be leaving on this one
from grand manan new brunswick and coming back on this one yeah 1 30
and 4 30. and if we don't catch that then we we
have a seven o'clock stay until seven o'clock
we're just really excited it's a free ferry we should mention we didn't
mention that so you think we like free things so we're gonna we're
gonna enjoy our time and one last little bit of information guys
is that the ferry crossing is only 28 minutes each way so it's a nice short
ride nice short ride yep
well hello hello we made it to whitehead we are yeah
somewhere on the shores of the island we've been scrambling over rocks yeah
doing a bit of hiking a bit of an adventurous path to be
honest yes there's a tiny bit that's kind of marked
and the rest we've just been kind of climbing over rocks
and doing it ourselves yeah this is like a really nice place to come enjoy a
picnic have a nap on the warm rocks there's
seagulls flying around we think we've seen a seal like its
little head pop out of the water and whoop back down yeah we were at a bit of
a further vantage point and now that we're where
we thought the seal was it hasn't reappeared
yeah we're hoping to see it again yeah it's a little bit windy here so i hope
you can hear us okay but it's really nice it's such a relaxed
island like it's even smaller than yamana and even less people living here
yeah so if gram and in is chillaxing this is super duper chillaxing
love it out here
so
we also made it down to the beach on whitehead island we dipped our feet in
the waters and they were so numbingly glacial which explains why no one there
was swimming
later that afternoon back on gram and end we decided to tackle another hike
our family friends were staying at anchorage provincial park so we walk the
red point trail which is a coastal trail that starts off
with a forest boardwalk and then leads down to the beach
that night sam and i went out for dinner at isla cocina
the name translates to island kitchen and it's a food truck serving up mexican
food and seal cove we placed our order and then befriended
the cute little pup who lives there
guys the food is here i am so hungry i've been looking forward to this
all day long first up fish tacos they look delicious they come with a little
bit of fried rice beans then i'm really glad sam decided
to order a little side dish a little snack coconut shrimp
looks so good and then your quesadilla let's just dig on
in shall we cherry
so how is it so good real corn tortillas i'm just so hungry you can feed me
anything right now look at that
coconut coconutty as one would hope this was piping hot cause it's fresh out
of the fryer but it's got a nice sweetness to it
i like it
and you may have chosen the best one again i always do
it always happens sam really knows how to order food
every time he gets stuff his is like amazing
well i can't wait to try it we are in need of a little bit of caffeine this
morning yeah we found a great place recommended
by our family friends gary and joan yes um which what's the area of this
island i can't forget we just feel like we're just south of woodward's coast yes
exactly exactly and there's a giant coffee sign to lure
you into this uh into this place
breakfast in the party mobile breakfast in the party mobile so i've got a peanut
butter square that has marshmallows i forget
the name is this a rocky road i think this might be called rocky road i'm not
entirely sure my mom you ordered what i have an
english muffin english muffin we've got french vanilla coffee yeah we
all have french vanilla coffee we do and mom's got a giant i'm going to
show them my mom it's bigger than my bigger than my face
wow look at that so that's what we're having
in the party van how's the coffee we had a little bit of an upgrade from
the coffee that we had this morning uh dish pan coffee maybe
we called it retrograde or retrograde you know yeah retro bait
retrofit
we went we went we went up to french vanilla
french vanilla with butter cream with buttered cream yeah
this is this tastes more like coffee believe me
it's very very easy
how's yours joan well it's chocolate macaroon
and as you can see i didn't care much about it i didn't like it at all
barely touched it let's get back to gary
after breakfast we drove up to north head to visit swallowtail lighthouse
this was the first lighthouse to be built on grand manan in response to a
number of shipwrecks including the wreck of the lord
ashburton in january 1857 where 21 sailors lost their lives the
lighthouse was first lit in 1860 and a fog bell was later introduced in 1915
all right guys so this morning we are visiting
the swallowtail lighthouse probably the most iconic lighthouse here in grand
manan it's on a peninsula so we had to cross a
little bridge over the small gorge to get here and it
is stunning we've got a bit of a gray overcast day but i feel like that just
adds a little bit of moodiness to the place and the shots and
yeah it's just so beautiful you can smell
that fresh sea breeze it's windy it's cool
there's also a lot of lookout points along the way so we're going to take you
to a few and show you the views because it is really spectacular
how's it how's it it's great i mean wait until you see this view
it is amazing wow talk about rugged coastline huh i
know amazing hopefully you can hear what i'm
saying it's very windy here so cool
swallowtail lighthouse was one of my favorite places on the island
things started off a little gray and overcast and we were seriously wondering
if we were going to get rain but by the time we made it across the
bridge and over to the lighthouse the clouds had cleared and the sun was out
in full force the landscape was completely transformed
in front of us i guess what they say about islands is true
if you don't like the weather just wait five minutes
uh
we had heard from a few people that swallowtail can be a good place to spot
whales we didn't get lucky this time though we
did see some seals and the ferry heading back to the mainland
we we just got a great selection of ellie's jellies
uh i think we got five or six different flavors
and uh which one are you looking forward to the most oh uh
baked apple jam that's awesome this one's apple jam
one of joan and gary's favorite so the interesting thing is the person who
makes these is from gram and m but lived in gold
river where i grew up where we grew up for a while the other
interesting thing about these here all the berries that are used are picked
on grand manan island yeah there's no there's no imported
berries okay yeah so if you're coming to graham and ant
grab grab some ellie's jello jellies yeah there you go okay
lunchtime was fast approaching so then we drove to sunrise foods in woodward's
cove if you're looking to try lobster rolls
clams scallops or fish and chips this is the place to go i ordered the
scallops and chips and sam went for the fisherman's platter which came with
fried clams scallops and fish a nice way to try a little bit of
everything also the portions were huge and we probably could have shared
we'd highly recommend coming to this place for seafood takeout if you're
visiting grand manan now moving on to our final morning on
the island we couldn't leave graham and then without buying some dalts
in case you haven't heard of it adults is a type of red seaweed that grows in
the cold waters of the northern pacific and atlantic coastlines well it turns
out that gram and nan exports adults all over the world
on a good year they can harvest as much as one million
pounds of wet vault and the very best is from dark arbor
we drove to roland sea vegetables where we bought a one pound bag of dolls
we've been using it in our ramen and also eating is a dry snack ever since we
came back from this trip i have a feeling it's going to last us
until next year
and that was it for our visit to grand manan we had a ferry to catch so we
drove to north head where we enjoyed a quick bite at the old wellhouse cafe
before heading back to the mainland well guys that is a wrap for our visit
to beautiful grand manan these past four days just
flew by i know it went so fast i can see how
people come here for a week or even a month
some people come and spend the whole summer here yeah so we loved it i'm sure
we're going to be back someday and now we know to stay for a full week
because there really is so so much to do yeah i couldn't imagine coming on just a
day trip we saw a lot of the highlights but there is still
more left to see yeah exactly if we came back again we'd probably do some sea
kayaking we'd do a whale watching tour we go to a few other parts of the island
we didn't get to dark arbor would have done that as well
so i mean it just shows you how much there is to do you should come for
definitely a few days and if you can stay longer consider doing that as well
so we hope you enjoy this video and we'll see you soon with
more adventures from atlantic canada exactly
thanks again for watching if you liked the episode don't forget
to subscribe and leave us a comment letting us know where else we should
travel in canada see you next time
you