New Brunswick: Great outdoors, good eats, and mosquitoes

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As often as I can, I head to New Brunswick to be with my family, but I’ll be the first to admit that it’s no as often as I would like.

The thing is though, once I’m there, everything about the place comes rushing back. I grew up in New Brunswick, right up until I went to university, and I think it’s safe to say the province, and the whole way of life there, played a big part in shaping who I am.

On the obvious side, the people in New Brunswick, and the East Coast in general, are far friendlier than most anywhere else. It’s like a whole province filled with good neighbours and people who want to be part of a community, and that rubs off a little if you visit, and a whole lot if you’ve lived here. (Sure, there are bad neighbours too, but they seem to be a bit fewer and more far between than in other places somehow.)

Living in New Brunswick, I think I also grew up believing in the home cooked meal, which can change your outlook on life, if you have them often enough. Home cooked meals taste better, and whether you mother makes them, or you have them at a friend’s house, or at a great restaurant, they seem to make the world feel a little brighter.

And then, there are the mosquitoes. Say what you will about the mosquitoes and the bugs, but if you can survive the pestilence in most parts of the province, you can survive almost anything in my books. I can’t help but think they must toughen you up just a little bit too, but it also is all about the fact that New Brunswick is a lush, green province, and with the good, you also have to take a little bit of the bad. Because of all those lush forests, I still have a big appreciation for the green outdoors, and being able to escape the urban jungles now and then, especially during the summer.

Now that I’m back in Toronto, I’m missing the great things about New Brunswick already, but at least I know that the province is always just a good road trip away. This summer, I’m going to bring my appreciate for the east coast to my blog with a few great road trip ideas, and travel pieces about why I love travelling there. Stay tuned for posts about Covered Bridge potato chips, dulse (a seaweed that East-Coaster’s eat as a snack), Saint John’s revolution into a must-visit city for food and drink along the coast, and a few other tidbits on some of my favorite places out east.