Summary: Besides my family, I don’t often travel with others. When I do it’s usually with Jill, whom I frequently mention in my <a title="You can visit all my posts with podcasts here on my site" href="http://tamelarich.com/category/on-the-road/podcasts/">podcasts</a> and blog posts. She lives in Ohio and I live in North Carolina, so we ride our motorcycles to a meeting spot, then tour a region together before going our separate ways.<br> In September 2014 we met in <a href="http://tamelarich.com/on-the-road/brattleboros-culture-makes-you-think/">Brattleboro,</a> Vermont, and went on to tour parts of New England and New Brunswick, Canada, where she taught me a valuable lesson about letting go and living in the moment.<br> Saint John and the Supermoon<br> Our easternmost destination was Saint John, New Brunswick, where we pulled in at sunset, a sight I’ll never forget.<br> There was a <a title="Learn more about Supermoons here" href="http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/super-full-moon.html" target="_blank">“Supermoon”</a> that week, which means the moon was close to the Earth and full; it was so massive that I could have counted the craters and smelled the <a title="Haha, not really. Just referring to the old saying that the moon is made of green cheese" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_is_made_of_green_cheese" target="_blank">green cheese.</a><br> The sun was setting behind us as the Supermoon rose before us. Jill described it as “A God Moment.”<br> As we glided into town on the bridge over the harbor on the Bay of Fundy, both the pink-purple skies and that Supermoon reflected in the bay’s still waters like a painter’s landscape. Alas, I have no pictures of it for you; by the time we reached our lodgings it was nearly dark.<br> Homeport B&B<br> Speaking of which, while either of us go in for luxury accommodations very often, we adored the <a title="Here's Homeport's site. If you stay, tell Ralph and Karen I sent you!" href="http://www.homeport.nb.ca/index2.htm" target="_blank">Homeport B&B and her owners</a>. Ralph and Karen Holyoak cleaned out their personal garage to make room for our bikes and Ralph met us in the driveway with a flashlight to guide us in. He was born with a hospitality gene.<br> After settling into our suite, we caught a cab downtown for a terrific meal then walked home, well after 10:00 p.m. Safe and sound.<br> The B&B is situated on a bluff overlooking the city’s waterfront, where we witnessed sunrise from the glass-enclosed <a title="For more about Widow's Walks, hit this page...where you will see the Homeport widow's walk pictured" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow's_walk" target="_blank">widow’s watch </a>that next morning. Breakfast followed with some delightful fellow guests before we set off on foot for a day of exploration.<br> Safe, friendly, walkable Saint John<br> Saint John is designed for pedestrians. I always felt safe, even well after dark. People there are friendly and seem to be satisfied with their lives, judging by the placid looks on their faces and the pace at which they lived their lives. I’ve never before visited a city with such courteous citizens, from retail staff to my fellow patrons at Tim Horton’s. More about that in the podcast at the top of the post.<br> You hear a lot about English-French tensions in Montreal, but I sensed none of that in New Brunswick, Canada’s only officially bilingual province. Factoid: New Brunswick was visited by Vikings, who called it “Vinland.”<br> Saint John City Market is the oldest farmer’s market in Canada. The market’s roof is shaped like an inverted ship hull and there’s plenty of art and tourist kitsch to tempt you, in addition to international foods and local produce. If you got a Saint John postcard from me, chances are I bought it at the market.<br>
