History By the Sea

St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, is truly is a “by the sea” town, with so much beauty surrounding the sea.   We took a tour along the coast and around the town and learned a lot about this area.  One of the most noticeable things is the tidal rise and fall up to 28 ft. and occurs twice a day. We experienced this a bit yesterday when we drove across the sandbar to Ministers Island, but didn’t realize the extent of it until we saw the before and after. 

 

 

Our guide explained that the tidal activity stirs up the plankton and this is what attracts the whales to the area for feeding during the summer.  They are already seeing whales in the area.  Spot was able to enjoy the “beach” when the tide went out.

 

St. Andrews by the Sea is one of the oldest coastal towns in Canada.  There are about 550 buildings in the town and 280 were built before 1880 and 14 of those have survived from the 1700’s!   Some Loyalists even brought their homes with them piece by piece when the American Revolution didn’t go their way.  I guess you could say those were the first “mobile homes”!  The streets that go one way are named for King George’s kids –William, Charles, Harriet, Elizabeth, Charlotte, etc. etc.—he had 15 kids!  The streets that go the other way are named for Loyalists—Parr, Carleton. 

There are some beautiful homes, including this one that belonged to Irving Berlin.  It is for sale, at only $1.2 million, but what a view! 

 

There was a neat yarn shop that has been in business 100 years, and I found some locally dyed yarn to save for a new project.

We toured the Anglican Church where Prince Charles and Princess Di visited in 1983 (we even got to sit in the pew where they sat…it is marked with a commemorative marker).  The guide told a story about having to build a washroom in the church (a requirement for a royal visit).  It is now called the royal flush!  The church is beautiful with ornate woodwork, influenced by the work of ship-builders who worked on buildings when they were unemployed.

We had lunch at the Kingsbrae Garden Cafe, and were able to tour the gardens.  The garden has more than 2500 different varieties of trees, shrubs and plants on the grounds, arranged in different gardens and pathways across the grounds.  Lupines are a natural flower here that grows wild on the side of the road and are so pretty in the gardens. 

 

The rhododendrons were also beautiful, and we also saw a pretty white peacock!

There is a grand hotel, the Algonquin Resort that has overlooked the town since 1889 and has hosted many famous overnight guests, from Roosevelt, to Prince Charles and Princess Di, to Bill Cosby!

The deer are a problem in the town—they are very hungry after the harsh winter, and they have been eating away the hedges…you can see in this picture what they are doing in the area.

This is a beautiful, quiet place by the sea!