East Coast 2022: Shediac, NB and Drive to Dartmouth

We had a much shorter drive on the second day of our East Coast road trip, ending up in Shediac, New Brunswick by late afternoon.  We headed directly to the main tourist attraction in the town, which is the Giant Lobster created by Winston Bronnum the same artist who made the giant potato that we saw the day before.  Created in 1990 to celebrate Shediac’s claim to fame as the “Lobster capital of the world”, the concrete sculpture stands 35 feet in length, 16 feet in height, and 16 feet in width, weighing 90 tons, with a pedestal that includes a staircase allowing tourists to climb to the top.  It is regularly refinished to maintain the realistic hues on its shell.

Lobster is by far the most important aspect of Shediac.  Its image is prominently displayed on the town’s road and informational signs. The Homarus Centre offers lobster-related educational themes and visitor experiences.  Gift shops feature lobster-shaped knickknacks and lobster-patterned designs on all sorts of souvenirs.  Even the bicycle racks are lobster-shaped and of course, there many shacks and restaurants selling lobster rolls.

Nearby the giant lobster sculpture is The Lobster Shop, a distributor of fresh lobsters and assorted lobster products to Canadian, American, Asian and European food industries.  Looking across the narrow strip of the Shediac Harbour while viewing the giant lobster sculpture, we could see an amazing 3-D mural on the on the back of the shop.  Crossing Main Street, we got a closer look at the work titled “The Good Ol’ Days”, which depicts life on the wharf in the 1950s.  Ernest Maillet opened a small canteen to sell lobster to tourists in 1952, which led to the Lobster Shop factory in 1968.  From top right to left, the figures in the work depict owner Ernest and his wife Geneva, fisherman Eduoard Pellerin in the fishing boat named “Sea Siren”, hoisting a lobster trap to his assistant, Eduoard’s 8-year-old son holding a giant lobster, and a tourist inspecting the catch.

The lobster theme continues to be prominent on Shediac’s main drag, Main Street.  There are lobster symbols on the sidewalk.  Many of the shops and storefronts boast a stenciled cartoon-like image of a lobster with big eyes and a toothy grin, usually in a pose that reflects the purpose of the store.  This includes the shopping lobster laden with bags, the lobster with scissors at a barber shop, and the lobster riding a bike on the window of a bicycle store.  Even a graffiti work imbeds a subtle image of a lobster claw amid all the other renderings.

We next headed to Pointe-du-Chêne Wharf, a narrow spit of land on the east side of Shediac which protrudes out into the Shediac Bay and is lined with restaurants and tourist shops on one side and a marina along the other.  Because of the single road leading into this busy tourist area, a long stretch of cars were lined up trying to get in.  Luckily our hotel was within walking distance.  On a beautiful, sunny day, we were able to stroll leisurely past the stalled vehicles to reach The Sandbar, where we hoped to score a table for dinner.

We did get to the Sandbar Restaurant early enough in the late afternoon to get a table on the patio facing the water.  This was a mixed blessing since we had a nice view of Shediac Bay, but the sun was blazing hot and the umbrellas did not offer much shade or shelter.  We each ordered the classic Pointe Lobster Roll, consisting of large chunks of fresh Atlantic lobster meat mixed with mayo, minced celery and lettuce, served on a garlic toasted “New England styled” bun, with a side salad.

After dinner, we climbed the stairs of a decorative lighthouse at the edge wharf which alludes to the days in the 17th century when Range Lights lighthouses guided ships into Shediac Bay.  From the second tier of the lighthouse, we could see people fishing at the edges of the wharf as well as seadoos racing around in the harbour.  Strolling back along the wharf, we peeked into various bars and restaurants that featured musical acts, as well as some souvenir shops and art galleries.

The next morning, we wandered over to the Pascal Poirier Park to take part in the Shediac Market, a huge farmer’s market that is held on Sunday mornings from 9am-noon between mid June to mid September.  In addition to venders selling arts and crafts, clothing, hand bags and belts, woven linens, books and more, there were many food stands giving us a wide choice of options for breakfast.  Rich and I went for shrimp and lobster “Chapati” sandwiches, which were freshly made Indian flatbreads stuffed with our choice of seafood, lettuce, cucumber and sauce as well as iced coffee.  Yim and Murray came back with bacon breakfast sandwiches and a box of fresh strawberries for us to share.  While we ate at our picnic tables, we were serenaded by a guitar-playing singer who performed in both French and English, since Shediac is mostly a French speaking town.

After breakfast, we wandered around the market some more to look at the various tented stalls.  In front of one stall that might have been for car restoration, there was a cool black late ‘70s Pontiac Trans Am with the license plate “Bandit”, a red jacket emblazed with Bandit hanging from the front seat, a black cowboy hat on its roof, and a CB radio receiver hanging from the rear-view mirror and a gold firebird logo painted on the front hood.  This seemed like a replica of the car from the iconic 1977 Burt Reynolds movie Smokey and the Bandit.  In another stall were paintings each with a poem attached to it.  The works were collaborations from a husband-and-wife team where the wife Nicole Tremblay created the paintings and the husband, author Zev Bagel wrote the corresponding poems.  Murray purchased Zev Bagel’s novel Solitary, which won the David Adams Richards Award for best novel.

At the far end of the park is another massive sculptural mural titled “Shediac: Then and Now” created in 2019 by 3-D muralist and sculptor Monette Léger.  It features 3 black and white panels on the left depicting Shediac’s history in transportation (from canoe to airplane), historic buildings including Simon Poirier House (of Poirer Park?), the Weldon House (now the Shediac Hotel) and the old Train Station, and the Fishing and Agricultural industries.  Silhouettes of children (including the artist at age 3 on the far left) walk towards the future as a figure on the right pulls back the canvas to review the colourful Shediac of “Now” being painted by a 3-D sculptural figure with paint cans and a paint brush.  The Now Panels depict the Giant lobster sculpture representing the lobster industry, fireworks and a Ferris wheel associated with the Lobster Festival, Parlee beach lighthouse, maple leaves and a grade 9 Shediac student who was chosen to represent the “Pride of Shediac”.  Along the bottom of the work are round circles with footprints leading from Then to Now, perhaps including the artist’s own footprint since she signed her name around one of the circles.

Leaving the market, we took a final walk downtown and saw some interestingly decorated electrical boxes whose themes reflected the buildings that they stood in front of.  The one in front of the post office shows a stamped postcard on one side with an image of a beach on the other and a pencil along the narrow edge.  The one in front of the library is painted to resemble books on bookshelves.  Maison Tait House is a heritage building built in 1911 in the neo-Queen Anne and neo Italian styles owned by the Chesley Tait family who made their fortune in the potato industry.  The building is now a restaurant, bar, boutique hotel and venue for weddings and parties. For some reason, there is a pirate ship named "Menacing Manner" sitting on the lawn in front of the house.  On our way out of town, we made a final stop at the historic Shediac Train Station which was the former CNR station built in 1906 the Craftsman style of architecture.

As we traversed the last leg of our drive before reaching Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, we came across several interesting sights.  In Grand Barachois just East of Shediac, we spotted a giant metal minion wearing a Montreal Canadians hockey cap sitting on the front town of a house.   He also had the Toronto Blue Jays logo on his tie.  The town of Amherst, Nova Scotia, which was the first town after the border of New Brunswick, was so beautiful that we had to stop and walk around for a bit.  I have always been fascinated by the different design of water towers across Ontario and the one in East Hants, Nova Scotia was one of the more uniquely coloured ones, striped red and white like a candy cane.

Amherst, N.S. was an important region for shipbuilding during the 19th Century and became a major manufacturing town in 1865 with the arrival of the Intercolonial Railway.  Many beautiful historic buildings still line the downtown area.  Most prominent is the recently renovated First Baptist Church, built in 1809 and designed in the Richardson Romanesque architectural style with multiple turrets and an exterior of red sandstone that came from Amherst quarries.  It was too bad we could not get inside to see the beautiful stained-glass windows including the large rose window.  Other majestic buildings on the main strip included the Amherst Court House, the original stone Beaux Arts Bank of Nova Scotia building erected in 1907 and the Amherst Train Station that ran from 1908 to 2012 and is now a restaurant.  There are also some gorgeous heritage homes in Amherst but unfortunately, we did not have time to look for them.  If we are in this area again, we will definitely spend some more time here.

Across the street from the First Baptist Church in Victoria Park was a wooden sculpture of a fashionable 19^th Century Victorian woman wearing a blue dress accessorized by a large hat and purse.  She is one of many “Tree People” carved and painted from the trunks of elm trees by local artist, sculptor and wood carver Bruce Hebert.  According to his Facebook page, this one was carved in 2006 but apparently, he created many more.  Also in the park was the most practical of the “giant Adirondack chairs” that seem to litter every North American town and city.  This one had steps leading up to the seat, unlike all the others that I have encountered where one had to hoist oneself or leap onto the chairs.  Off to one side was a chalkboard sign which had a groaner of a joke written on it.  I wonder if someone writes a new bad “dad joke” each day?  On the side of the Dominion Public Building was a touching memorial mural celebrating the N.N.S. Highlanders.  And in a store window was a “Stanley Cup” made up of hockey cards of past iconic players.  Amherst was such a delightful town.  I wish we had more time to explore it.  But it was onward to Dartmouth to reunite Murray with his family for a week visit while Rich and I headed on to Cape Breton.