NEW BRUNSWICK TREATS THE KIDS WELL

Author: By Michael Schuman, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, June 28, 1998

Page: M9

Section: Travel

The St. Andrews Creative Playground is a link connecting the tourists' St. Andrews and the locals' St. Andrews. Rob Stephenson, one of the playground's organizers, said, it's not uncommon for folks to drive from the New Brunswick capital of Fredericton, 84 miles away, to let their kids have a go at the rambling playland with its turrets, its swinging bridge, its ropes and swings and finger mazes, its built-in musical chimes, its staircase of tires, its wooden tick-tack-toe board, and its myriad nooks and hiding places.

Yet at any given time, there are as many if not more town youngsters playing here, and if you spend a few days in St. Andrews you will discover a sense of community not often found in resort areas. People here don't court your money as much as they court you. Customers in line at the bank chat with you as you wait to cash travelers' checks. US motorists may have trouble getting used to friendly drivers.

Not that people here don't want your money. The tourism business in this town just a half hour across the Maine border centers on the Algonquin resort, as it has for over 100 years. The Algonquin staff has taken a cue from the tire-climbing children at the creative playground. General manager Andrew Turnbull was instrumental in starting children's activities in 1994, and those activities developed into a solid children's program by 1996.

Turnbull said, ``The Algonquin had been more of a resort for seniors than for young families. What we started to observe in the early 1990s were baby boomers travelling with kids. Our management team accounts for one quarter of the town's 5- and 6-year-olds, and we understand what it's like to travel with children. So we decided to do something for this market.''

The result is a different full-day schedule of special activities for youngsters throughout the week, from croquet to drawing with chalk on sidewalks to an evening campout. Parents can join in or escape for a round of golf, a swim in the pool, or a tour of the town.

We stayed with our children as they maneuvered through an obstacle course in recreational gymnastics, then made all sorts of craft creations with yarn, paper bags, and markers. At the campout, they spent a mellow July evening roasting hot dogs and marshmallows on sticks at cozy Katy's Cove before playing Simon Says and other camp games.

Like the St. Andrews Creative Playground, The Algonquin has its own turrets, prompting our 5-year-old to gush, ``It looks like a castle.'' Tudor-manor style is more accurate. The Algonquin is a long, white Y-shaped building, with green trim, a roomy veranda, and a red roof of Welsh slate. It was the climate that first drew tourists in the 19th-century to this spit of land projecting like a foot into Passamaquoddy Bay. St. Andrews was touted as both the town without mosquitoes and a haven for hay fever sufferers.

Yet while the Algonquin is the biggest employer in St. Andrews, it is not the sole employer. The town is progressing toward high-tech light industry to complement traditional businesses relating to aquaculture. Nods to the 21st century notwithstanding, this is still salmon country, and it appears that after language the most divisive issue in Canada is which coast produces the better salmon.

Plenty of places exist where one can taste Atlantic salmon, one of the best being The Algonquin's Sunday brunch. To see the fish in action, visit the Atlantic Salmon Center just north of town. Stand in front of a viewing tank to observe salmon as big as house cats blissfully swimming under your nose. Then walk a short nature trail to see salmon fry (i.e. baby salmon, not cooked salmon) inside a tub, a.k.a. a salmon nursery, alongside Chamcook Creek. Hard to believe these swimming flyspecks will grow to be big fish.

A second place to dive into the world of fish is the Huntsman Marine Aquarium Museum, which you will find a low-key affair, especially if you are used to big city aquatic behemoths. Guide Sarah Adamowicz stood at a touch tank and let us hold a hermit crab (not really sharp) and a sea cucumber (truly slimy). Our children had no reservations about holding that viscid salt water resident; adults did.

Before the aquarium and salmon center were here, before the playground and the Algonquin, there was still the town of St. Andrews. The people were just as welcoming two centuries ago, especially to Loyalists, the American colonists who supported the Crown and left in a rush after the American Revolution ended.

History here is real, and a walking tour led by Elaine Haun or someone like her is the best place to meet residents of the past. The most popular of Haun's Heritage Discovery Tours lasts two hours and takes you through the streets where you hear about pirates and ghosts, like the one said to inhabit the old gaol (and you can show how smart you are by properly pronouncing it ``jail'').

Haun's tours take you past but not inside the town's historic treasures. You can go on your own to visit the dank gaol, which housed prisoners from 1832 to 1979. Inmates through the years included debtors, truants (sure to scare your kids out of playing hooky), and those convicted of murder, like one Tommy Dowd.

An inmate in the 1870s, Dowd covered for his wife by pleading guilty to a murder she committed. Shocked to receive a death sentence, Dowd recanted, but to no avail. He was hanged from a nearby tree, and some locals swear his ghost comes back in the form of a dime-shaped light, trying to write ``innocent'' on a cell wall.

Former jailer George Goodeill acknowledged, ``This light would go across the wall trying to write something. I can't explain it and no one else can explain it, but it was there, and three or four people have seen it.''

Not us, although we did see figures of the past at the Sheriff Andrews House, a neoclassical gem on King Street. Elaine Townsend, garbed in cotton day cap and floor-length day dress, stood in the basement kitchen ladling punch and serving ginger snaps to visitors. As we relaxed in shorts and T-shirts, she discussed life in the 1820s, making us wonder what was good about the old days.

Necessary frugality led the Andrews family to use the same water repeatedly for dishwashing, creating a germ motel in the kitchen. Women's undergarments literally fanned the flames in cavernous household fireplaces, often causing injuries; Elaine says she once discovered an ember lodged against her skin. Dresses fit tightly around the shoulders, and by the end of the day one didn't smell so good. Baths were relegated to one night a week. Yuck.

Consider also that the Andrews family was among the upper crust in town. However, the best example of an abode of the wealthy is also the most fun to get to. Tours to the mansion home of railroad magnate William Van Horne on Ministers Island are offered twice daily, only at low tide. You drive on the ocean floor to get there; at high tide, the same path you drove hours earlier is under eight feet of water.

Once on the lupine-laden island, you are given a guided tour of Van Horne's property, including his 50-room mansion, Covenhoven. It's not as dreadful for children as you might think. Guides allow freedom to wander in the sparsely furnished rooms on your own. Our 5-year-old liked the clawed feet on the old-fashioned bathtubs (``bear paw prints,'' she called them) and staking out the half-sized (or ``kid-sized'') closets, built that way to fit the sloping roof line.

Then again, in this family-friendly town, you might think Van Horne installed those bathtubs and closets just to keep children happy.

The Atlantic Conservation Salmon Center is open mid-May through Oct. 14. Phone 506-529-4581.

Huntsman Marine Aquarium Museum is open May 17-Oct. 30. Call 506-529-1200.

Heritage Discovery Tours are offered daily 10 a.m. to noon. Call 506-529-4011.

Sheriff Andrews House. Open mid-June through late September. Call 506- 529-5080.

Minister's Island. Tour schedule depends on tide times, June-Oct. 14. Phone 506-529-5081.

Kingsbrae Gardens consists of 27 landscaped acres of roses and day lilies, butterfly and bird gardens, a labyrinth and maze, and a Dutch windmill. Call 506-529-3335.

Lodging: The Algonquin, St. Andrews; basic rates for two persons about $90-$150 US. Phone 800-441-1414 or 506-529-8823.

Among others are: Hiram Walker Heritage Inn, former summer home of distiller Hiram Walker and family dates from 1912, full breakfast, doubles about $125-$250 US. Call 800-470-4088 or 506-529-4210.

Hanson House B & B, doubles, about $45-$55 US. Phone 506-529-4947.

Tara Manor Inn, doubles about $75-$125 US. Phone 506-529-3304.