Take [Us] Back to Old New Brunswick

June 5, 2008 5:47 AM

Road Trip Filter: Help us plot our road trip to Canada! Difficulty: active toddler.

Once again my wife and I head into the wilds of New Brunswick (Canada, not New Jersey). Normally, we’d fly or breeze on up, but this is our first trip back to her family farm since the birth of our wiggly and “busy” daughter. Ideally, we’ll take two days of driving from DC to near St. John. Please hive mind, help us plot a trip that involves minimal driving and traffic snarls but maximum beauty, interest, and spots to stop, change diapers, pump her full of food and allow her to run and scream for a bit. Bonus points for a great place to stop for the night where we’d all have a great time or any ideas for making a two day road trip with an active pre-terrible-two more pleasant! Thanks in advance!

Extra bonus: Daddy loves lobster rolls.

posted by Pollomacho to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

I don't know anything about that drive, but, I would say that you should probably invest in a portable dvd player. Our kid is the same age and also very wiggly, and everytime we've had to do a drive of more than a few hours (and those are the only times we bust it out) it's been worth it's weight in gold.
posted by trbrts at 8:07 AM on June 5, 2008

I'm from there, and I'll think about this a bit, but for now: it's Saint John. Full s-a-i-n-t. We're a bit sensitive about this, y'see.
posted by loiseau at 9:05 AM on June 5, 2008

Are you necessarily limited to only two days to get there? I was once a wiggly kid myself, and my parents took me and my sister on lots of road trips. What strikes me about them in retrospect is how little distance we would cover in a day; when I was very young, the distances we would cover wouldn't really take more than six hours. The rest of the day would be spent at roadside parks, museums, and other neat attractions.

Moreover, making the trip in three six-hour days instead of two eight-hour ones gives you more time to drive, thereby allowing you to route yourself around the worst of the Philly-NYC-Boston mess; you can go via Harrisburg & Scranton to get around Philly & NYC, and you could even cut north to Albany and across southern Vermont on a state road, or check out some of the scenery along the Maine coast (US-1 instead of ME-9 like Google Maps seems to be suggesting.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:22 AM on June 5, 2008

Well, there's just not a whole lot on the way from Bangor, ME to Saint John besides trees and the Atlantic. St. Stephen, the border town, should have someplace good to eat. On the plus side, there's not much in the way of traffic, ever, once you get to that point.
St. Andrews is pretty nice, too. It's near St. Stephen. It's touristy and on the ocean. They do whale tours and have a modest aquarium. In St. George, which is about half way between St. Stephen and Saint John, there's a takeout place on the south side of the highway called Ossie's that reputedly make good lobster rolls. My dad always liked em, at any rate. And of course, the City Market in Saint John has seafood galore.

If you're going past Saint John and northeast to Moncton or beyond, I could suggest more interesting sights and places to eat.
posted by picea at 1:53 PM on June 5, 2008

I can't believe Ossie's got a plug on Metafilter! I agree with Picea, Ossie's is great, and it's less than half an hour from St. Stephen.

There's in fact lots between St. Stephen and Saint John -- the loop down to Black's Harbour and back is gorgeous, and there's also Deer Island -- just not a whole lot that would amuse a kid. But I'll keep thinking.
posted by loiseau at 6:39 PM on June 5, 2008