We had a slower, lazier day today. It was overcast but still pleasant outside.

We went first to Place Fort La Tour. A new heritage site on an ancient land spit in St. John habour.

As we walked the pathway to the fort we stopped to see a new Naval Memorial that was unveiled last month.

The area at Place Fort La Tour has been used by the First Nations people for over 4000 years and there is a burial site near the replicated fort.

While her husband was away, Madame La Tour and her 45 men defended the fort from an attack by D’Aulnay’s war ship for three days but eventually she had to make terms of surrender. She agreed to let D’Aulnay (who was a fellow Acadian and former associate of La Tour’s from Port Royal in Nova Scotia) have the fort in exchange for freedom for her men. D’Aulnay agreed, but he was so enraged that the La Tour men had forced a retreat of his forces a few weeks earlier that he reneged on the terms and forced Mme La Tour to watch as he hanged them. Only two survived. She was so distraught at the betrayal and the death of her loyal men that she died a few weeks later.

The freight port at St. John is building a second crane to offload containers. The federal government contributed $220 million towards the project. They hope it will be completed by the end of the year. The long row of pilings in the photo below is where the new crane will be.

After we visited the fort we walked along the path to the end of the spit and then drove to the St. John Public Garden.

It took me a minute to figure out the letters in the flowers but finally realised they are E R for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.

It was nice to sit on a bench for awhile and just enjoy the lovely space.

In St. John there is a huge greenspace called Rockwood Park that was donated to the city and is a very popular place to hike, bike, and spend time on the water. The area is also a designate geopark.

This is the Fallen Worker’s Memorial to honor all who have been injured or died in the workplace. It sits outside a small Labour Museum near the entrance to Rockwood Park.

We had our lunch beside Fisher Lake in Rockwood Park and then headed back to our hotel to do nothing until dinner.

Even though we are not rushing here and there and worried about going too far in a day, or trying to see everthing there is to see, we still enjoyed having a quieter day.