New Brunswick | Robert Humrickhouse

Today we traveled a short distance to Lucerne In Maine, Maine, to have a farewell dinner with friends Dorothea and Charlie from Camden. We are staying at the aptly named Lucerne Inn in Lucerne in Maine, Maine. Before we left St. Andrews we took a short jaunt to Minister’s Island. The tides were in our favor as you can only cross the causeway at low tide. We’ve never driven on the bottom of the ocean floor before today. The island is famous as the summer home of Sir William Van Horn. He learned the railroad trade with the Illinois Central Railroad and rose through the ranks. In 1882 he was appointed general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway and oversaw construction of the first Canadian Transcontinental Railway. He brought the project in under budget and half the allotted time for which he receive a bonus of $1,000,000 in the 1880’s. He used that money to build Covenhoven, his summer home which after multiple additions has 50 rooms, 11 fireplaces, and 11 bathrooms (all built with flush toilets). The house and the barn are the few remaining structures on the island. He bred cattle and Clydesdale horses, farmed vegetables, made butter, cheese, and milk so the enterprise was self sustaining (no doubt due to the workers who made $93 for an entire season).

We’ve covered over 1,800 miles and had a wonderful vacation. We are very fortunate. But there was one last surprise. When we checked into the Lucerne Inn we were told there was a wedding this evening and our windows looked out onto the tent. Okay, not great but no big deal. Well we didn’t look onto the wedding we looked into the wedding. Literally.

Wayne took a front row seat for the vows.

Dinner was wonderful with one last lobster for the road (a two pounder).

We made it back to our room just in time for the electric slide.

Farewell and safe journeys.

Note: It seems I forgot to press a “make public” button on YouTube. In case you missed some of the previous videos, they are now public.

We made a change to the itinerary, chopping our planned long drive to Saint Andrews into two days so yesterday we only had a 2 1/2 hour drive. We’re staying at the Algonquin Hotel, a grand dame of yesteryear.

This morning we awoke to fog that quickly burned off and so we nabbed two bicycles and headed out to explore. I read a little about Kingsbrae Garden but didn’t really know much about it. Little did we know the exquisite experience we were about to enjoy. Here’s a little info from the link above. Kingsbrae Garden was created by John and Lucinda Flemer to preserve and maintain into perpetuity the family’s former estate. With the downturn of industry in the nineties, the Flemers wanted to do something about the rising unemployment and recognized that, by creating Kingsbrae Garden, the job opportunities would keep families in this area. Perhaps what sums this up best is a quote from Lucinda Flemer “Even more important to us, here at Kingsbrae Garden, than growing plants is helping our community and the people of this area grow as well”.

Here’s a slide show of this beautiful place as we experienced it today. Recommend enlarging.

After spending about two hours in total peace, we headed to the cafe for an early lunch. Wow, another surprise. The chef, Alex Haun, chose his home town to open his first restaurant after studying at the Culinary Institute of Canada on Prince Edward Island. He is recognized internationally and seems very at home in this beautiful place. The cafe is only open for lunch and a gourmand, ten course dinner every Friday evening. They are sold out for tomorrow. The setting and the cuisine are both exceptional. We lazed over a charcuterie board with homemade pâtés as well as smoked duck. He is deep into pickling and I immediately noticed pickled spring ramps as well as garlic scapes. The chef came to our table and after serious discussion I have the recipes. Raves from me. We’ll go back tomorrow.

We sat outside but would love to have dinner in the dining room, a sitting room of the former estate. Lucinda Flemer is now ninety one years old and lunches daily in the courtyard. Shortly after I took the picture, Wayne spotted her enjoying lunch with her black poodle.