Overnight Scoot: Campobello, New Brunswick - pet friendly! — Conversations At The Wienerburger Diner

I’m going to make an ongoing feature - the “Overnight Scoot” If you’re like me, you’re pretty busy and often the only travel we can do is the quick overnight trip. These can be a lovely way to explore a place you might not know as well as you like within an easy day’s drive. Some of them are pet friendly and are so noted in the title.

Renny, aka Le Petit M. Renard, best travel buddy

I recently traveled to Campobello, New Brunswick specifically because the Roosevelt-Campobello International Park was having their first “Evening At The Cottage” - a special event at FDR’s “cottage.” It included a cocktail hour - FDR’s “Children’s Hour” at the Prince Cottage, where we could enjoy his favorite dirty martini. FDR had a daily practice of inviting colleagues, friends, associates to what he called the Children’s Hour, after the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, for cocktails and conversation. He’d mix the drinks himself. Interestingly, after he became unable to do that because he was too ill with polio, Eleanor, who did not drink herself, would mix the drinks. She was a very patient woman.

entrance, Roosevelt Cottage

We then had a private tour of the main “cottage” which is a large, pleasant and somewhat modest summer home. The furnishings are rustic and cozy, not grand. The tour guides were wonderful, imparting historical facts and anecdotes, answering questions on all kinds of subjects.

sitting room

For dinner, we returned to the Prince Cottage and enjoyed a very nice meal of seafood chowder, lobster and a delicious fresh raspberry cobbler. A very pleasant, reasonably priced evening. It was their first attempt, and I hope they continue it next season.

I stayed with my dog Renny at the very pleasant Friars Bay Inn and Cottages. A nice, clean motel with microwave and fridge, sited right across from the beach - there are two cottages on the beach.

Friar’s Bay Inn and Cottages

The main attraction on Campobello other than the Roosevelt Cottage is Head Harbour (East Quoddy) Light, the iconic lighthouse pictured above. It’s an incredibly dramatic site, tides rushing through a narrow gap where you can walk out to the lighthouse at low tide down and up very steep metal stairs. I’ve never done it, being perfectly content to take pictures from the island side. I have seen whales here, but not very frequently. It’s a spectacular spot.

I enjoyed lunch the first day and breakfast the next day at the highly recommended Herring Cove Restaurant in the provincial park, adjoining the golf course and next to the wonderful campground. Fish and Chips was perfect, and the next morning, I had fish cakes with scrambled eggs and chow chow relish, something I’ve never seen in the US.

Fish. and chips.

We spent several delightful hours walking and hiking the more remote part of the island. I thought I might see more migrating birds, but it was a little early in the season. The mid-September weather was perfect, and there was no fog. Campobello is just over two hours from home, an easy trip but well worth an overnight stay. US citizens will need a passport.