Canada at last: Montreal to PEI

Posted bybrantdyer6929Posted inUncategorized
We saw this type of steeple throughout French Canada but the steeple’s architecture changed as we moved into other provinces.

Love having posts to remind me later of our trips but when we stay with friends I don’t want to overstep privacy boundaries. I do however want to say that I still can’t believe that since retirement we have met so many fun, kind, and helpful friends. I have heard that your world shrinks after you retire. It seems to be the opposite for us. Certainly the people we have met world wide have made us feel a bit better about the world.

Unusual to see so much color on office buildings. This one even reflected onto the others
I loved the mix of modern and old. So clever to put that streak of red on the building. (Matches with the car).
This is an old fire station (old Montreal)
Note the black fountain on bottom right.
I thought we should checkout the peel pub. I was disappointed to hear that it was just the name of the street—-Peel St.
We have eaten lots of mussels on this trip. GMTA (old Montreal)
… more color. Note how the interior orange matches the post.

Our friends picked us up at the airport and took us to their ski town of Saint-Saveur. It’s a just the right sized cute town with nearby slopes. I’d wanted to see Montreal and a hop on hop off bus gave us a pleasant way to check it out. Our guide was not the best but he consistently advised us it was a “clean and safe city”. Good to know!

In Shingle Springs we had Apple hill, and we have now seen the French Canadian counterpart. A beautiful day to zip through wineries and Apple orchards in a convertible. Definitely an age reversing activity.

Lots of well manicured apple orchards
I think Tarte aux pommes sounds better than apple pie.
I did not know Canada had covered bridges
A covered bridge is a perfect spot to stop for wine, cheese and grapes.
So lucky to have perfect picnic weather… we made good use of it.

We have heard from many that we would like Quebec and they were right. Even better, to have a French Canadian at the wheel kindly picking up another friend at the airport (5 minutes after her arrival) then all 5 of us headed to the city. Yes, the city does feel European but with much wider streets. (It’s probably safer and cleaner too)

Lots of good street musicians.
Lots of street art. Those tiny men (see bottom right pic) were all over the city. At the Ex Muro the little men came together in a display called eclipse but I still don’t think I understood it.
Here I am pondering on whether I want to take the funicular. We were excessively reassured of it’s safety.
We have a pic with us in the chairs but I like the pink sunset one better.
Quebec is a walled city… the only one in Canada and North America . They say you can walk the entire circumference…. Next time!
Every morning it was nice to get up and sip coffee while looking out the window at this fountain. Loved watching the kids race back and forth through the water.
This is a huge boardwalk high above the St Lawrence. Plenty of street performers and benches to sit and watch. And that is one big hotel back there! (Le Chateau Frontenac)
Lots of flower baskets covering the buildings
We took the ferry to the other side and back just so we could get this pic. So did a bunch of other people.
So many art galleries! Lots of beautiful art to inspire us.

From Quebec City, after a quick stop at the Montmorency Falls,we headed down the Gaspecie peninsula. I grew up in a family that mainly camped but we got the occasional treat of the cabin with paper thin walls, just enough for a bed and a cooktop handy for heating up the spaghetti-os ((which you could generally do while sitting on the edge of the bed). I loved those cottages and was thrilled to find we had one for the night. A little cube of a place a few feet from the beach. So tiny that our bed was stuck against the wall. In the middle of the night my cheek brushed the wall and was so icy cold it woke me. If my tongue was sticking out it would have stuck to it! I loved it.

This is a type of poutine with a specific name I don’t recall. French fries, cheese curds, peas, chicken and gravy. Interesting
Unusual that these waterfalls (taller than Niagara) seem to be just tucked into suburbia. Lots of nice trails and a beautiful rainbow..
And a bridge and zip line that goes right over them.

The next day we hiked in a national park. We took the ranger recommended hike and along the way got lots of advice regarding the hike in French (at least I think it was advice). Actually people seemed pretty bilingual but I hated to tell them I only spoke English after they had given a 5 minute explanation in French .

Our room was half of once of those.
This National Park had unique beauty.
Very steep mountains
Perfect picnic spot
So here we are filling time while we wait for several mile Confederate bridge to reopen. once a year they have a walk/ run across the bridge. Lots of folks getting their pic taken with the giant lobster. I think it would have been pretty fun to do the hike but we didn’t find out about it until Siri refused to take us there.

It was interesting how we abruptly crossed switched back to English in Prince Edward Island. Also the coffee and croissants were not as good on the English side. Canadians are proud that they have created a fairly bilingual nation. They should be. We all decided it was fun but slightly confusing.

On PEI we stayed in a cute place. A little cabin with its own beach where we dug up clams! Tasty steamers which I got pretty much to myself because of my chicken friends.

Yup we are holding peaches. Just peachy. It’s a peachy and beachy spot
Here is the front of our cabin. I wish I’d had time to sit there and read by a nice fire.

We were happy we managed to fit in a visit with friends with a property just across the bay from where we were staying … a 15 minute kayak if it hadn’t been getting windy.

Our friend gave us a terrific/tour hike of the place.
So many of the trees are becoming dirt. In the meantime providing interesting photo prop.

Sadly Fiona (hurricane) toppled thousands of mainly diseased firs all over the island. After some clean up our friends are replacing the forest (with a group of foresters) who are replanting with a widely divergent group of native trees. It will be a healthy happy forest built to withstand hurricanes. Given our thorough soaking at the fairy pools we plan to come back in 50 years to check it out.

I took these pics all along that “road”. It is packed with roses . I want a picture in the spring.

We also were able to find Maryanne’s cousin’s land. Made for a nice hike that would never have been realized without the efficiency of texting with family.

Once again a well timed text from a cousin, caused us to turn into this pottery, art shop combined with restaurant and beautiful gardens. These are giant birdfeeders.

We spent one day of beach hopping…. Always my favorite. The beaches while beautiful were red sand so a bit hard to adjust a persistent “red tide”.

Brant chatted with a man in a judo suit on the beach that had just finished his daily one hour waist high walk in the water. (They were talking about the music he was listening to while water walking). After they finished talking about the music he was playing, he suggested we have lunch at the Blue Mussel (especially given our 35 percent discount). He was born and raised on PEI and recently retired from being a forester. Like so often we hear from Canadians, he would like to explore the Baja someday. I’m still not exactly sure why he wears his his judo suit to walk waist deep in the water. Maybe it scares off most people from chatting with him. Not us! Actually he as a forester was tremendously knowledgeable about the area.

And he was right about the restaurant. Definitely one of the best meals of the trip.
We saw the name on this boat and had to get a pic with it. “My two girls “ if you can’t see it.

We all enjoyed PEI. I don’t think I’d come during summer season as I suspect the place would be packed. It’s a big island so you drive long distances if you wish to explore. It has a different feel from Nova Scotia and certainly Newfoundland. It’s a peaceful pleasant place. A place I’d come back to kayak and walk and dig clams.

Many many thanks to our Montreal friends who (in the dark due to a delay) picked up our jet lagged bodies at the airport and proceeded to give us a truly wonderful tour of their home. It is a tremendous gift to have the time and resources to be able to be able to travel. It is an even greater gift to have friends to share it with!

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