Finding ourselves in Calais Maine, I pointed the car towards the border crossing and on to Saint John New Brunswick. Tonight there was another QMJHL game and I had a little trick that was going to allow us to attend the game even though the dog was with us.

Obviously I'd already been Saint John's Harbour Station arena, but Isy had never been and it was now over six years since my only visit. I didn't recall loving it, but Saint John is one of my favourite Atlantic Canadian cities and that somewhat makes up for the arena.

Taking the above-ground pedestrian tunnels to avoid the outside cold, we had a great time at the game with our glass seats surrounded by empty seats to spread out. Libations were flowing too and it was all a laugh.

We even laughed through it, as Isy put her drink on the dasher and I warned her that body checks against the glass will shoot everything right off of it. A period would pass before I wasn't paying attention and bending over to grab something, when two guys then slammed into the boards, shooting her beer all over us - while I also managed to kick mine over in the frenzy of trying to avoid flying beer.

Ohhhh, good times, lol.

The last time I was in Saint John they offered local fries, but no poutine. Ever since starting this quest to see all 18 QMJHL arenas, I've pictured a collage of all 18 poutine offerings whenever I finally finish - with one sad looking photo of plain fries from Saint John.

With poutine becoming one of the most trendy foods in recent years, I sort of figured Saint John would have one by now. And it was pretty good. Not as good as Rimouski though, so we'll give it #9, just ahead of Sherbrooke.

Only two more poutines to acquire!

Isy and I headed back to the accommodations where our Kingsley trick worked out amazingly. I'd found this website called Rover.com, where people have profiles offering to host your dog in their house, visit your dog, stay with your dog, or whatever.

I felt a bit conflicted allowing some random girl to stay in our hotel room attached to my credit card, but in the end, Kingsley was content and he didn't have any apparent welts on our return, lol. She actually seemed really nice and it looked like she just chilled out and watched Netflix over the entire time we went to the game.

What a splendid service that allows you to go to dinner or sporting events in strange cities. I was very happy I was able to convince Isy that it was a good idea to leave her sweet angel with said rando.

The next morning I went for a long meander, something I've always wanted to find the time to do in Saint John due to its gorgeous and varying building stock.

Occasionally I'll stumble on articles where Saint John demolishes yet another of their old buildings, and walking today, it sure seemed like another was being demolished by neglect.

This is 113 King Street East, which was subdivided into apartments and is now owned by Irving Oil of Irving gas stations fame. They applied to demolish the structure in August 2016 and said they'd build a "memorial green space" harkening back to the original church on this lot, but the local heritage board denied the demolition permit in this historic district. Irving was told that they could put the building on the market and if it went unsold for six months, that they could then demolish it, but instead Irving decided to simply sit on the property with no electricity hooked up.

As futile as it may be, and as much as loudmouths love to mock it, I truly believe in encouraging change and taking stances with your spending. That's why I struggle with spending the night, plus buying dinner and attending an event, in Saint John.

Just off the top of my head plus a quick search, you have 34 Dorchester Street gone, Jellybean Houses gone, Anglin House gone, Centenary Queen Square United Church gone.

I'm not going to Google "Saint John NB demolition" to bum myself out by finding even more examples. And I also know that all of our cities are demolishing small buildings for parking lots or 5-over-1s, but it feels like Saint John is really at the forefront.

In walking around and thinking about this, past vacant lots where great buildings once stood, I came to the conclusion that it's not like I spend that much money in Saint John anyway. Our accommodations were a little more than normal, but not much. Our dinner was a bit frou-frou and expensive, but we didn't go out for drinks after the game or go out for breakfast.

It's with this that I can live with spending some money in a town that struggles with historic preservation. I'm not going to Saint John for an entire week of vacation, or buying a house there, or giving out positive reviews to them on the internet. Also, as much as I love the city, I don't really recommend it to people because I've heard so many others say how they don't like it, haha.

There's also value in seeing things before they're gone.

If Saint John is going to continue to demolish buildings and move closer to a city comprised of only Irving high rises, parking lots, and shipping container districts; then I should go see the parts I enjoy before they're gone.

In addition to QMJHL hockey, staying the night in Saint John put us close enough that we could catch the ferry over to Grand Manan Island the next morning.

Grand Manan is a big enough island that you hear about it from Atlantic Canadians, like Brier Island or the Magdalen Islands. In addition to being the biggest island in the Bay of Fundy, it's also interesting that Grand Manan is only 11km away from the easternmost point of the U.S. at Maine's West Quoddy Head, while it sits 11.5km southeast of Liberty Point in New Brunswick.

About 10km by 20km (6mi x 12.5mi), Grand Manan is big enough that the road leading from its northernmost point at Long Eddy Lighthouse, to its southernmost point at Southwest Point Lighthouse, is 31km (19.2mi) long.

Also, these frames of reference show you additional reasons for why I'd want to find myself on Grand Manan. It's not just that lots of people talk about it.

Isy spent some time in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in her youth, thanks to a cycletouring trip as well as a road trip with her parents. It's with that, that we were heading towards Grand Manan on the secondary highway and she offered, "we're going to Grand Manan, right? Yeah, I've been there."

People love when they beat me to places.

Landing on Grand Manan, it was already late enough in this short late fall day, that we needed to keep it moving and immediately headed to the Long Eddy Lighthouse.

I was reminded of Nova Scotia's Caribou Lighthouse here, with a similar shape, set right along a ferry path. Going back to the update where I saw said Caribou Lighthouse, I see it's not quite so similar, but it'd been six years ago so sue me.

As much as I'm happy that the people of Grand Manan and the Swallowtail Keepers Society have been granted heritage status for the Long Eddy Lighthouse, the next Grand Manan lighthouse is much more remarkable and iconic.

From Lighthouses of Canada calendars, to New Brunswick tourist publications, to Atlantic Canada travelogues, this is one of the more popular New Brunswick lighthouses to photograph.

And I don't know why, but there's something I like about visiting popular places. To check off the sites you always see in pictures and guides. With that, I was putting the pressure on Isy to pick up the pace, as I was pretty excited to get down these stairs.

That being said, holy hell, these stairs. This was quite a bit of infrastructure just to allow people to visit the Swallowtail Lighthouse.

Once again, big ups to the Swallowtail Keepers Society!

As we approached, the ferry was returning to the mainland for the night and we rushed forward to get some shots with it in the background.

Swallowtail was built in 1860, making it New Brunswick's fifth-oldest lighthouse. In a province with many cookie-cut Canadian Coast Guard lighthouses, it feels extra special to wander upon one like this instead of a typical pepper pot tower or one of those Peggy's Cove octagonal concrete towers.

The lighthouse here was painted in 2004 and 2006, and eventually the Coast Guard transferred ownership to the local society that seems to really care for the light. The tower is actually open for the occasional tour, but not at some random hour in late November, haha.

By the way, the name Swallowtail? It comes from how this lighthouse is located on one of Grand Manan's two sharp northern headlands which resemble the tail of a swallow (a swallow is a fast-moving bird which is easily discerned because of its two pointy wings).

Heading back, there was one more example of the Swallowtail Keepers Society killing it. While I walked up and thought this might be an old lantern room from Swallowtail itself, it's actually from nearby Great Duck Island. It's there that the Coast Guard put up a new skeletal tower, but inexplicably put it in a spot where the old lighthouse lantern room blocked the new light from certain directions.

With plans to destroy or decapitate the old lighthouse when funds became available, the Swallowtail Keepers Society stepped in to ask the Coast Guard to instead helicopter the Great Duck Island lantern room here to the Swallowtail grounds.

By the way, knowing how invested you are in my arbitrary lighthouse rules, I don't count this as checking off Great Duck Island Lighthouse.

Cruising through Grand Manan's small villages of Tattons Corner and Castelia, I have to say that I expected more splendour in an area of Atlantic Canada with Canadian Grand Railway Hotels and presidential getaways.

Still though, Grand Manaan was handsome enough, with a few buildings that looked great set against the shallow beach.

Running out of daylight, we arrived via gravel roads at Southwest Head Lighthouse right at dusk.

Even if the sun had already set, this was still a pretty magical time to find ourselves atop these high cliffs. I couldn't help but wander past the lighthouse and down to further coves.

I thought of my first time seeing the ocean, with my friend Grayfox, from the backside of a ruined fish plant in some random Massachusetts town.

You'd have a hard time reaching this point where I was standing without first seeing the ocean via some other point, but it's really night and day the differences in where you first see it.

God it was so good to stand here on snowless ground. Not even just some dry ground with snow around, but lord as my witness, snowless land.

It's so fucked that people get to live their early Decembers like this. I don't have the words to express my jealousy and it makes me so sad thinking back to some past life where this used to be the norm.

It was pitch black as we raced towards the cabin, racing because I was excited about the cheap, old school abode we got on a little cove - but also because the Chiefs were playing in the Sunday Night Football game.

Pulling up in complete darkness, I rushed our things inside to not miss much of the game. Firing up my computer to find a stream, Isy turned on the TV and they actually got the football game. Noice!

The Chiefs dismantled the Rayyyydiz by a score of 40-9 and a splendid evening on Grand Manan was had by all!

We had to get on the early morning ferry the next day, so the exciting concrete block I spotted in Grand Manan would have to wait for someone else to come along with their bike and backlash it.

As for the ferry, after the pleasant and shocking surprise of having the football game on during yesterday's crossing, today a woman walked up to us upon seeing the dog & told us about the cabin tranquliteé where you can go with your dog so that they're comfortable and not overwhelmed with both the boat and the people.

No one else was up in the cabin tranquliteé. Isy fell asleep quite quickly, while I slept for part, but also chilled and enjoyed this fantastic crossing. We weren't on Marine Atlantic anymore and seeing as there's some stuff on Grand Manan I'd like to come back for, I happily look forward to someday riding this ferry again.

The schedule worked out in a way where we could have either taken a later ferry and had no wiggle room while racing to the Newfoundland ferry; or we could take the early morning ferry and play it safe (while also having a bit of extra time).

Taking the 7:30am boat, we now had time to grab a random lighthouse from this area between Saint John and Calais, where there's lighthouses but I'm usually rushing past.

This is the cleverly-named Lighthouse Point Lighthouse, lmao.

I thought this lighthouse might have an interesting history because if this point of land was known as Lighthouse Point, then it must've been home to lighthouses - and before that fires - to alert ships for centuries.

Instead, in researching the history, this lighthouse was known as the Drew's Head Lighthouse for many years, until the name was changed for some unknown reason in recent years.

With time in hand, we stopped at the skatepark in Saint John. Within a few minutes, this old school, double brake guy showed up on a shiny bike and we started chatting.

It wasn't long before he stated that, "y'know, I used to live in Toronto and had Joyride Skatepark, but then I had to come out here for work and now I only have this..." and then waved his hand and motioned over the $600,000 park he's saddled with.

I thought back to the last time I was in Saint John, where I was sad and rode this park in 38°F weather because the Town of Corner Brook told me there wasn't enough time before winter to install the new $10k manual pad, curved ledge, and picnic table. My happiness so dependent on one slapdick recreation department and $10k in ramps, when I used to have Tilbury, Amherstburg, Forest Glade, Atkinson, Bothwell, etc.

God, it's so all about perspective.

For once, for all these years of loud talk and bullshit, I left the skatepark early with goals of filming a clip for some never-coming-out video section.

With time running out, the pressure on and fear brewing, I managed to give it a few tries, even as I saw a skateboarder from the skatepark rolling down the road. In that attempt I ate a fair bit of shit, where he then rolled up telling me I totally had it, then offered up the weed he was smoking with another assurance that the sticky stuff would help me get it done. I assured him that was definitely not the key to me landing anything, lol.

That skateboarder left and I only had the clock to race against, where I then ate it again, but felt good enough to give it a few more tries. I eventually sort of got what I was trying, although I'm not sure if I'm happy enough with the execution.

What I'm sure of is that I was appreciative of my long legs on the attempt that went wrong. I had no idea how I didn't get hurt more on this attempt until I went home and reviewed the video, haha.

Anyway, from there we (I) obviously stocked up on Taco Bell in Truro, before getting back to the ferry and back to the place where we live.

Thanks for reading as always.