quebec ~ the city...

Let's start with a city tour today.  Quebec City is known as the crown jewel of French Canada.  For good reason! 

Quebec City is one of the oldest cities in North America....founded by Samuel de Champlain  in 1608.  It is also one of Canada's most visited cities. 

The best way to see it is on foot! But first it's a good idea to learn a little about the city...the history, the landmarks and the layout.  We did that...on a double-decker bus with an excellent tour guide named Daniel.

Who knew that Quebec is three times the size of France? We learned that churches are to Quebec what castles are to Europe...architectural marvels.  (Pictured above....the Saint-Roch church which is the largest in Quebec). We also discovered that 'hotel' means 'gathering'...and if you check in at the Hotel-Dieu de Quebec you are booked into a hospital room. Canada's oldest continuously operating hotel is the Clarendon.  We learned a lot from Daniel!

Old Quebec is surrounded by fortified city walls (the only North American city north of Mexico that has walls) ...and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Port St. Louis gate is one of four gates into the walled city.

Standing tall as the centerpiece of the Quebec City skyline is the Chateau Frontenac. It is the grandest of the grand hotels in Canada...built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1893 as a luxury hotel. It is apparently the most photographed hotel in the world!   Though we were not guests at the hotel...we walked about and had our own little tour of the areas that are open to the public. The hotel has been totally restored and is now part of the Fairmont family of hotels. It is also designated a Unesco World Heritage Site. 

It's a lovely old hotel in a great location on the St. Lawrence River.  A boardwalk is all that separates the hotel from the river.

We walked 'many steps' while we were there...past beautiful old buildings...through neighbourhoods that looked like they belonged in Paris...

 ...and along ancient cobblestone streets.

We climbed the 386 stairs from the boardwalk to the Plains of Abraham. Now called Battlefield Park...it is the scene of the greatest battle in Canadian history...when the British defeated the French in 1759.  It is now a sprawling park...a great place to relax or have a picnic in the sunshine. Apparently it also a great place for outdoor concerts...with the Rolling Stones performing there earlier this summer.

No visit to Quebec City would be complete without checking out the parliament building...an imposing structure built between 1877-1886 and inspired by The Louvre Museum in Paris.

Let me take you to one more site...a wonderful spot just outside of Quebec City.

Montmorency Falls is about a 15 minute drive from the old city...and so worth a visit. It is the tallest waterfall in Quebec...at 275 feet high.

We climbed the 487 steps to the top...and crossed the bridge suspended over the crest of the falls. From there we had a wonderful view of the surrounding area and the city in distance. Below the falls a few fisherman were fly fishing.  If you go to QC...be sure to visit the falls! And if you aren't into climbing stairs...the gondola is an option as well.

Though there is so much more to be said about Quebec City...I'll leave it at that!

If you ever have an opportunity to visit...take it. Day or night...it's charming and unforgettable!

Next we'll meander along the St. Lawrence River...a scenic drive along roads that hug the waterfront on both shores. 

tales from the trail ~ an east coast adventure...

We are back...from a splendid time on the other side of our country.

I'm left with great memories of covered bridges, lobster rolls, high tides, tall churches steeples and the friendly people we met along the way.  Our mission was to visit the Canadian provinces we had not yet been to.  We flew to Quebec City...where we rented a car and spent two weeks exploring the towns and countryside of Quebec, New Brunswick and PEI. 

We are back home with a greater appreciation of this vast and beautiful a country we live in!  We may not always have understood the words...but the smile is a universal language!  

Today I'll just share a few 'bits and pieces' from along the way, and introduce you to a few of the fine folks we met. 

We spent the first few days in the Old Town of Quebec City...

...taking a tour and enjoying all the sights.  We so enjoyed eating on the patio restaurants of Grand Allee and watching the people strolling by.  It seemed we were in a faraway and exotic place!

One of the highlights for me was visiting the old port of Quebec. On August 30, 1930 my mother arrived in Canada with her family on the Canadian Pacific Line ship called the Montcalm at the age of four. We visited the customs and excise building for information on where exactly her ship would have docked at that time.  The friendly lady that we chatted with brought out a big book from the archives with the handwritten entry for the S.S. Montcalm along with a listing of all the cargo on board for August 30, 1930.  Who would have thought that 85 years later (to the day) I would be at the docks in Quebec City where my mother first stepped onto Canadian soil? And the amazing thing is that I knew nothing about this when we planned this trip.  It was meant to be!

I should tell you that I had a lot of help in planning the itinerary for this road trip.  Who better to take advice from than some of my blogging friends? Rosella (who blogs at Rhubarb and Roses and lives in Ontario) was recently on a road trip through Quebec and New Brunswick and I took notes.  She said that L' Islet was a pretty little village on the south shores of the St. Lawrence River and had a wonderful bistro with great lobster rolls.  So we went...we saw...

...and we tasted!  Never mind that it was actually far too early for dinner...we shared the lobster roll! It was a great little bistro...across from an old church and with a great ocean river view! (Who knows where the St. Lawrence river ends and the Gulf of St. Lawrence begins?) And here's the thing...it was on the yard of a dairy farm.  Of course hubby went to check that out...and watched the hoof trimmer hard at work. Never mind that only French was spoken there...farming is a universal language!

Then there was Pam (who blogs at Playing With My Camera)...who lives near Fredericton and gave us lots of tips on seeing her part of the country.

She took a day off while we were there and joined us at King's Landing Historical Settlement... on a warm and muggy day.  We had a delightful time together...and  later met up with Pam and her hubby for dinner at a lovely spot on a golf course in her neighbourhood.  Thanks, Pam!  Pam has family in Chilliwack...so I'm thinking we might just meet up over here next time.

Our resident travel agent in PEI was my blogging friend, Kathie...who lives not far from Charlottetown and blogs at A Sparrow's Home.   She supplied us with names of places to stay, things to do and where to eat.  We took her advice...all good! Though she was entertaining a houseful of guests while we were in PEI...she took time out to come join us for coffee one morning.  How nice to meet up face-to-face!  I'm encouraging her to come out to the west coast one day...and we will carry on where we left off.

Our rental car turned out to be a Kia Soul.

White, of course.  It seemed everyone else thought driving a white vehicle was a good idea as well... 

...judging by the cars in this ferry line-up! 

Let me share 'our smile for the day' during our stay in PEI.  We had our breakfast out on the deck of our B & B one morning...with a view of the parking lot.  It seemed that someone in a white Chevy SUV had a difficult time parking their car the previous night!  Though there was plenty of room on the other side, the Chevy was angle parked just inches from our Kia Soul.  Hubby quit smiling when he realized he had to climb in the passenger door and over the console to get into the driver's seat. And let's just say that getting out of that tight spot was not a simple matter! 

Speaking of B & B's...we stayed at some wonderful ones along the way.  

We stayed at the Carriage House Inn in Fredericton...an 1875 Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion.  We were on the third floor and most thankful that our room came with air conditioning since it was muggy and hot during our stay. It's always fun to visit with other guests over breakfast. Our tablemates at the Carriage House were from Philadelphia, Penticton, and New York.  We discovered that we had been on the same tour in Quebec City with one of the couples just days earlier.  Another couple we met up with again in PEI several days later.  They seemed like old friends by then!

Also in New Brunswick...

...we crossed the world's longest covered bridge in Hartland.

We walked the ocean floor on the Bay of Fundy...during low tide, of course! 

In PEI...it seems that everything is red (including the cliffs, the beach, the dirt and Anne's braids). We so enjoyed our time on this beautiful island! 

Who knew that Cows ice-cream originated here?  Judging by the line-ups at this store front in Charlottetown...it is worth waiting for! 

Just down the street from the ice-cream shop...is The Bookman.  I felt like I was back in Chilliwack for a moment...since we have a wonderful bookstore on the main street of our old town with the same name.  Though they are not in any way connected...both The Bookman in Chilliwack and in Charlottetown made the list of 'Charming Canadian Bookstores you need to visit'.  Visit we did!

For the most part...the weather was warm hot and beautiful.  We had heavy rain the day we left PEI......where the only photo I took was this one between swipes of the wipers.

  

  Truckloads of lobster traps are not seen on highways where I come from!  

I was thankful to have taken photos of Confederation Bridge on our arrival, since it was lost in the rain and the mist on our departure.  

Our return to Quebec took us north along the Acadian Coastal Trail on the east coast of New Brunswick.  We felt like we were already back in Quebec...since French is the language of choice over there.



The sign at a Tim Horton's where we stopped for lunch read 'Toujours Frais' instead of 'Always Fresh'. The menu inside was only in French...though we decided that the pictures told the story in any language.  Our server spoke only limited English...and recruited someone else to serve us.  While we had our lunch...we listened to the happy sound of other patrons visiting around their tables. We never understood a word.

Once we were back in Quebec...we took the ferry across the St. Lawrence and drove along the north shore. We spent one night in Tadoussac...

...France's first trading post in Canada and the oldest surviving French settlement in the Americas.  Today it is a tourist destination...primarily for whale watching.   We saw many white beluga whales from the deck of the ferry as we left Tadoussac. 

The Tadoussac Hotel is a landmark resort...that opened its doors in 1864. There was a wedding happening on the front lawn while we were there.

 

I must include one photo of a neat and tidy wood pile...as seen everywhere on the east coast.  It's been a long time since we were able to burn wood for heat in my corner of the world...but over there it seems to be the fuel of choice!  There was nothing messy about their wood piles either.

We shared the road with motorcycles, motorhomes and moose.  Well...mostly just signs warning of moose!

We saw lighthouses along the St. Lawrence...on the Bay of Fundy...and on the northern shore of PEI.  They are a wonderful reminder of the not-too-distant past.

This post is plenty long enough so I'll leave you with one last photo...

...a sunset, of course!  We spent one night in Campbellton, NB...and walked along the riverfront in the evening as the sun was setting.  In the morning we crossed over that bridge into Quebec. 

So that is a wee peek into our most excellent road trip adventure of the past few weeks.  Now that we are back at home...there is much to catch up on and it is cropping time on the farm.  I'll be back with posts from the different provinces as I 'unpack' my pictures and find time to journal.  Thanks for joining me 'on the trail'!

Happy September!



 

august ~ a mid-month edition...

Though the month is only half-spent...here I am!  The end of August will find us on the east coast of Canada...and I'll tell you about that once I'm back.

Now...let's go back to the end of July.  We packed up the RV and headed to the North Okanagan for a few days.  Our first stop...

...Shuswap Lake.  Specifically...Scotch Creek where we spent a few days parked at the cabin while several of my sisters were vacationing there...along with my niece and her two wee ones.

We have been to Scotch Creek many times over the past few decades...and it seems I always come home with one more picture of these old barns along the main road.  What is it about weathered old barns that appeals to me?

We walked along the shores of lake early one morning at Shuswap Lake Provincial Park....with its splendid views of the lake and Copper Island.

When it was time to move on...our wee grandniece, Brooklyn thought she might just hitch a ride with us.  Actually, she claimed the driver's seat and woke up the neighbourhood by trying out the horn.  Sweet child who lives in faraway Manitoba! 

Next stop was Kelowna in the South Okanagan...where the sun always shines and the vineyards grace the hills.  It was a good time!  We camped in an apple orchard...ate fresh peaches and plums...and visited all the nieces and nephews at their homes.  I think we invited ourselves over...but we are glad we did!

While we were in Kelowna...we celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary. We had always planned to cycle the Myra Canyon portion of the Kettle Valley Railway trail...and July 31st seemed like the perfect day to do that.

Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park is a short 25 minute drive from the city....one that takes you through rolling vineyards and past several great lookout points.We began our cycling adventure from the east entrance...on a trail that took us over 18 trestles and through two tunnels. Since the 24 km. (round trip) trail was constructed on the former Kettle Valley rail-bed...it is almost flat and suitable for all levels and ages.  In 2003 twelve of the 18 trestles were destroyed in a massive forest fire...along with some 200 homes in the area. The trestles have all been re-built...and the trail through Myra Canyon is part of the Trans-Canada Trail system. The charred trees that still stand are evidence of the huge fire that devastated the area...but new growth from the forest floor is already taking over.  It was a beautiful ride...with stunning views and lots of history (it is also a National Historic Site). It was an excellent adventure...and the perfect thing to do on our anniversary.

Our brother-in-law John...who lives in Kelowna...had never cycled the trail and joined us. He is quite amazing for an octogenarian!   While we were out cycling, Liz (his wife) was back home preparing a lovely anniversary dinner for us.  It was a most memorable day.

Before we left for home the next day...we enjoyed breakfast at The Jammery with John and Liz and Martha (hubby's sister).  It's a great place to have brunch...featuring homemade everything! 

We were back in time to be part of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook summer get-together.  Seven of us and our spouses hiked to Cascade Falls in Mission...and checked out their new suspension bridge.  It's a lovely spot...and the company was the best too!  
 

From there we made our way to Anneliese's lakehouse on Hatzic Lake...where Marg and John also joined us for a BBQ dinner.  (We just wish our two Manitoba girls could join us at times like these.)  The sun was shining...the food was fabulous...the setting was perfect...and we always have such a great time when we get together!

Kris had a birthday last week.  The years just seem to fly by!  We got together for a picnic / birthday party at Cultus Lake one evening to celebrate.  The kids had great fun in the water...and the rest of us had a good time on dry land.   Happy Birthday to our  firstborn...who thinks he is 39...again.  We know better!
 

Cultus Lake Provincial Park is right in our backyard...a beautiful place to have a picnic or watch the sunset.  We should visit more often!

A sunset is always a good way to end a post, right?  Enjoy what's left of August...and I'll be back come September!