Today was our last morning in Burlington. I wrote some doggeral in Patrilary's guest book (to the tune of "Sweet Betsy From Pike") And then we spent a pleasant morning with Hilary and Cary. The four of us had a light breakfast and shortly after that Cary left for Phildelphia. Then Hilary dw and I walked to the pedestrian mall and had some coffee (Sadie the dog came along to tell us when there was something interesting and vital to smell) -- Patrick had already gone to work so we were larking about without him.
We left about noon and went to a kinesthology (huh?) person (for dw) who did some back adjustments and gave dw some exercises to do. dw's back has been troublesome and she hasn't been able to drive for nearly a week. (My final pain scale update: knees: at rest 1 to 2 -- normal. walking 2 to 3.7 -- normal --- the passive range of motion worked miracles ) Anyway the adjustments and exercises seem to be helping and dw drove for awhile today.
After the kines (huh?) person we stopped at Patrick's place of work. He works for NRG -- a private company that makes and sells equipment that measures and analyzes sites for wind turbine installations. It was interesting -- it looks like a great place to work: the company (about 100 people work there) has a small gym, exercise pool, pool table, ping-pong table etc, etc. They also provide lunches (we had a piece of cake in Patrick's work area- courtesy of Laura who thought to recognize our visit - thank you, Laura) and incentives to car-pool and to buy hybrid cars. It's quite a place. The building has a large solar power installation, and a small wind turbine (it's not in a good place for wind power) It's about as green as a factory (officially -- light industry) can be.
Miscellaneous items about Burlington: We drove to Barre (pronounced Barry) Vermont (near Burlington) to look at the Hope Cemetery. Barre has, since 1818, quarried granite of a remarkably fine grade. and they have a long-time history of carving tombstones. The graveyard has a huge array of truely remarkable markers. A two-foot soccer ball on a pedestal. A bi-plane, a couple sitting up and holding hands in bed. -- Another site to Google and look at the pics. It's an amazing place -- obviously the local stone carvers use the cemetery as a marketing device. "Look at the things we can do in stone!!!"
As we were driving towards Montreal, I saw two fighter jets flying north. DA: "I think those are the vangard of our invasion of Canada." dw: "It's about time."
A couple of days ago we drove north, nearly to Canada, on the islands centered in Lake Champlain. We went to St Anne's Shrine -- now a shrine to St Anne -- rather nice -- but once the site (1667) of a French fort built to defend against the Iroquis.. I heard the following mumbles coming from the passenger seat: dw: "If it was kilometers, we'd already be there" (the site was further off the main road than we expected) and dw: "I'd rather have St Anne's Shrimp" (after having mis-read the map)
Mileage posts in Vermont tell the mileage in tenths of a mile, which is more specific than I need.
For weather reasons (too dry, too rainy, too warm) this isn't a good year for the leaf peepers. (according to an information bureau person.
All in all we had a very good day until we got to Montreal. For starters, we didn't get a good map before we got to the city, and then we arrived just at the start of rush hour. According to our map, there was Tourist Information just off the freeway. According to reality, not so much. At some point pre-Montreal we saw a sign for Tourist Information 4 K. Reality -- 4 K and no exit or any hint of Information. In the city we saw another sign: Tourist Info, L 4K. turned left, drove 5 blocks, came to a T intersection without a hint of another sign. On we trekked. Another sign Tourist Info R 1K -- turned right drove 2K and saw another sigh for Tourist Info in another K, and after two more kilometers, still nothing. At last we decided "F" this and headed for a main drag out of town. We turned right and after two blocks saw another Tourist Info sign 2K to our right. We ignored it. (all of this was during rush hour)
We have decided that Montreal can do nasty things to itself and we're moving on. If we gave it another try, I believe I'd sell my soul to the devil to get the power to inflict the Ten Plagues of Moses onto the city of Montreal. And whoever put up the Tourist Information signs would get the Ten Plagues plus a bad case of dandruff. DA
The above description of the Montreal experience has been downsized and sanitized for the general reading public - trust me. It was no picnic and I was beginning to feel we were in the Twilight Zone. To all of you out there who love and honor Montreal - maybe another time.... With better information and timing I'm sure we would be sitting in a Montreal B and B instead of this rather lovely room at the Auberge du Mont Rigaud - 1 hour and 15 minutes from downtown Montreal. Reading the "Discovery" free magazine (and real estate guide) to this area I am excited to see what daylight may bring. It could be lovely out there and we have no idea. Rigaud is on the Ottawa River and may be exploding with fall foliage but we arrived in the dark and don't know. Since the fall colour festival is this weekend here in Rigaud, I hope there's something out there for the attendees.
BIGGEST NEWS! Dennis thought he lost the above posting which he put a lot of effort and time into and I found it! I solved a computer problem. Wow. Feel free to congratulate me in your head if you won't "comment".
That's the yin and yang of travel - a gorgeous day with family and interesting experiences and the Circle of Hell in the big city. Can't wait until tomorrow! dw
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Burlington, VT
Again, a ton of rain during the drive from Quebec to here. (I read on the news that the storm that has been plaguing us has dropped more rain than normally falls in 6 weeks) -- Flooding in Wisconsin right after we left. Hurricane in Nova Scotia / Newfoundland when we were on the Gaspe, rain and flooding in New England (especially Vermont) now that we're here. We're going to notify areas that we're coming and suggest they give us money to stay away.
We stopped at an asbestos mine on the way here -- between Thetford Mines (a town) and Black Lake (a town named after a lake that no longer exists -- it was drained to put in a mine) Another big hole in the ground. The one we saw is no longer in operation. A different mine that is still operating doesn't allow visitors. -- A great pity -- I couldn't do my old guy at a construction site routine: " Yup, that's a mighty big hole. Course back in my day we had different sort of holes, but this hole is big enough for ordinary use."
In any case, we're staying with Patrick and Hilary S. (aka Patrilary) in their condo.
Burlington is a very pleasant college town. (bookstores, art galleries, buskers, street food, etc) It reminds me of a smaller version of Madison WI, or Eugene OR. Yesterday we walked Church street -- the pedestrian mall (had a crepe for a snack) -- then down to the lake. We were going to take the ferry to New York (using the ferry as a brief tour boat) but the last ship had sailed.
Before I forget to enter this: Happy Birthday Dan -- I'd like to do lunch, perhaps with Josh when we get back. --
Yesterday, while Patrick was off to a friends wedding (joined by Hilary in the evening) Hilary was a tour guide for dw and I. We drove a fall foliage / free snack tour. I guess we're early for the foliage (it was raining anyway) but the snacks -- cheese, chocolate, cider -- at various factories were good. We went to Stowe and had lunch. Stowe is a classic example of a quaint New England town, and the residents go to a fair amount of trouble to keep it that way. A couple of years ago, one of Patrick's uncles printed up a large official sign, togged himself up in official workman's clothing, and posted the sign on a brick wall -- The sign announced the upcoming arrival of a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. Consternation and protest letters to the editor from the locals. Later, he did the same thing in Charlotte (another quaint New England town) only that time it was for a Red Lobster (Charlotte is on Lake Champlain). There were even more protests that time with a hundred or so angry letters to the editor. Though the second time someone at the newspaper noticed the signage occurred on April first.
As I'm writing this, the sun is out, no clouds in sight and we're hoping for a few good days. Today Hilary's mom (Cary N.) is coming by train from Phildelphia. We're looking forward to her arrival.
A small note: we were literally 6 feet past the interview with the customs officer at the U.S. border crossing when my phone (which you may remember doesn't work in Canada) rang, announcing I had some messages. DA
It's such a "welcome to the U.S. " feeling when the phone rings the minute you are two feet inside the border. Now if the messages were reading-worthy it would be even better. Nothing exciting except a few vague text messages and since we don't text it's a wonder we even receive them. Anyway, it allowed us to call and warn Hilary and Patrick we were close. Now we are in family time and have facilities to catch up on laundry and cleaning the car. How much coffee can one spill on a long distance road trip. Plenty. I'm thinking of having the carpeting changed in the car. Can you do that? Sightseeing yesterday in downtown Burlington was very much Madison State Street for those of you who may be familiar with the University of W'isconsin State Street area. For many years it was the toga capital of the world and with Halloween approaching it might be again. Plenty of pre-Halloween decor here. Pumpkins galore. And lots of beer and a few microbrews. We dined at one the evening we arrived and I have to admit the beer and food were very good and rival PDX's microbrews. Yup, Burlington is a good place to visit. Patrick and Hilary make me laugh so it's all good. More later, dw
We stopped at an asbestos mine on the way here -- between Thetford Mines (a town) and Black Lake (a town named after a lake that no longer exists -- it was drained to put in a mine) Another big hole in the ground. The one we saw is no longer in operation. A different mine that is still operating doesn't allow visitors. -- A great pity -- I couldn't do my old guy at a construction site routine: " Yup, that's a mighty big hole. Course back in my day we had different sort of holes, but this hole is big enough for ordinary use."
In any case, we're staying with Patrick and Hilary S. (aka Patrilary) in their condo.
Burlington is a very pleasant college town. (bookstores, art galleries, buskers, street food, etc) It reminds me of a smaller version of Madison WI, or Eugene OR. Yesterday we walked Church street -- the pedestrian mall (had a crepe for a snack) -- then down to the lake. We were going to take the ferry to New York (using the ferry as a brief tour boat) but the last ship had sailed.
Before I forget to enter this: Happy Birthday Dan -- I'd like to do lunch, perhaps with Josh when we get back. --
Yesterday, while Patrick was off to a friends wedding (joined by Hilary in the evening) Hilary was a tour guide for dw and I. We drove a fall foliage / free snack tour. I guess we're early for the foliage (it was raining anyway) but the snacks -- cheese, chocolate, cider -- at various factories were good. We went to Stowe and had lunch. Stowe is a classic example of a quaint New England town, and the residents go to a fair amount of trouble to keep it that way. A couple of years ago, one of Patrick's uncles printed up a large official sign, togged himself up in official workman's clothing, and posted the sign on a brick wall -- The sign announced the upcoming arrival of a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. Consternation and protest letters to the editor from the locals. Later, he did the same thing in Charlotte (another quaint New England town) only that time it was for a Red Lobster (Charlotte is on Lake Champlain). There were even more protests that time with a hundred or so angry letters to the editor. Though the second time someone at the newspaper noticed the signage occurred on April first.
As I'm writing this, the sun is out, no clouds in sight and we're hoping for a few good days. Today Hilary's mom (Cary N.) is coming by train from Phildelphia. We're looking forward to her arrival.
A small note: we were literally 6 feet past the interview with the customs officer at the U.S. border crossing when my phone (which you may remember doesn't work in Canada) rang, announcing I had some messages. DA
It's such a "welcome to the U.S. " feeling when the phone rings the minute you are two feet inside the border. Now if the messages were reading-worthy it would be even better. Nothing exciting except a few vague text messages and since we don't text it's a wonder we even receive them. Anyway, it allowed us to call and warn Hilary and Patrick we were close. Now we are in family time and have facilities to catch up on laundry and cleaning the car. How much coffee can one spill on a long distance road trip. Plenty. I'm thinking of having the carpeting changed in the car. Can you do that? Sightseeing yesterday in downtown Burlington was very much Madison State Street for those of you who may be familiar with the University of W'isconsin State Street area. For many years it was the toga capital of the world and with Halloween approaching it might be again. Plenty of pre-Halloween decor here. Pumpkins galore. And lots of beer and a few microbrews. We dined at one the evening we arrived and I have to admit the beer and food were very good and rival PDX's microbrews. Yup, Burlington is a good place to visit. Patrick and Hilary make me laugh so it's all good. More later, dw
Thursday, September 30, 2010
31 rue de la Porte, The Room
This is a posting mostly for me as I want to remember this room. So far it's my favorite. Walked over to Starbucks at the Chateau Frontenac at 0730 and purchased two cafe au lait using our own mugs - $10.50. It's the 15% tax on everything that takes a bite. The coffee was perfect with the croissant (delicious as advertised) and worth it. I need more, though...
The room is on the rue de la Porte - a one way side street with a 15% (like the taxes!) grade sloping down north-northwest. So we have our own address even though the room is located in the back of the Motel St. Genevieve. Cool. Opening the outer screen door blocks the 3 foot wide sidewalk but there isn't much foot traffic so it's been all right. A bit unnerving when people do walk by while the blinds are open as they are right there! Our first view of the room was encouraging except for the giant dehumidifier plugged in and ready to go, the room being a bit musty and cold - we were assured that it would warm up in five minutes once we turned on the flat wall radiator. I ran the dehumidifier and was amazed at how it cleared up the air and even warmed the room more efficiently. Too much. Took awhile but I got hot. Some things never change!
Two single beds covered in white matelasse spreads, a beige loveseat, coffee table, two chairs, etc all on a patterned floral carpet. Walls are painted French Country Green and there is a long narrow bathroom at the back. The first night Dennis complained of sliding and sinking problems with the bed. My bed was wonderful. I thought it was his size not fitting on the single bed until I tried it myself. I sank and slid. In the interest of fairness we switched for the second night and I spent a fair amount of time messing with it trying to get it to sit and stay on the box spring but it was all too slippery. Dennis suggested rolling up the towel bath mat and shoving it under the mattress on the downhill side so at least the sliding would be less. Hey maybe it was because we are on a sloped street??!!! Slept fine after all that. Like I've said, sometimes the travel adventures are small ones. Discovered we had internet access here last night. It is everywhere.
Sink Coffee. Dennis reminded me to talk about what I like to call "sink coffee". Sometimes we cannot easily get regular brewed coffee - like the motel that had a restaurant and therefore didn't offer free morning coffee and then closed the restaurant for the season - so we have to improvise. Letting the hot water tap in the sink reach its peak temperature works for making instant coffee. We do carry small bottles of instant Italian espresso with us so we can do this when absolutely necessary. It works and the coffee is not too hot to drink. Just barely drinkable but that's another story. Meets our caffeine needs. dw
Today we're on the road again. It'll be a reasonably short drive with one possible stop at an asbestos mine. Since we needen't hurry we have a leisurely morning -- we also are waiting for the morning rush hour to abate.
There are a lot of restaurants in this (the old town) part of Quebec but otherwise a surprising lack of night life. We don't do much "night-life" stuff anyway but it is curious. But even with the rain I've really enjoyed this city and would return anytime.
Re the room: I agree with dw's comments. I felt like I should get a pack of Gitanes and sit in the open door -- holding the cigarette backwards between my thumb and forefinger. Smoking and glaring at passing tourists. DA
The room is on the rue de la Porte - a one way side street with a 15% (like the taxes!) grade sloping down north-northwest. So we have our own address even though the room is located in the back of the Motel St. Genevieve. Cool. Opening the outer screen door blocks the 3 foot wide sidewalk but there isn't much foot traffic so it's been all right. A bit unnerving when people do walk by while the blinds are open as they are right there! Our first view of the room was encouraging except for the giant dehumidifier plugged in and ready to go, the room being a bit musty and cold - we were assured that it would warm up in five minutes once we turned on the flat wall radiator. I ran the dehumidifier and was amazed at how it cleared up the air and even warmed the room more efficiently. Too much. Took awhile but I got hot. Some things never change!
Two single beds covered in white matelasse spreads, a beige loveseat, coffee table, two chairs, etc all on a patterned floral carpet. Walls are painted French Country Green and there is a long narrow bathroom at the back. The first night Dennis complained of sliding and sinking problems with the bed. My bed was wonderful. I thought it was his size not fitting on the single bed until I tried it myself. I sank and slid. In the interest of fairness we switched for the second night and I spent a fair amount of time messing with it trying to get it to sit and stay on the box spring but it was all too slippery. Dennis suggested rolling up the towel bath mat and shoving it under the mattress on the downhill side so at least the sliding would be less. Hey maybe it was because we are on a sloped street??!!! Slept fine after all that. Like I've said, sometimes the travel adventures are small ones. Discovered we had internet access here last night. It is everywhere.
Sink Coffee. Dennis reminded me to talk about what I like to call "sink coffee". Sometimes we cannot easily get regular brewed coffee - like the motel that had a restaurant and therefore didn't offer free morning coffee and then closed the restaurant for the season - so we have to improvise. Letting the hot water tap in the sink reach its peak temperature works for making instant coffee. We do carry small bottles of instant Italian espresso with us so we can do this when absolutely necessary. It works and the coffee is not too hot to drink. Just barely drinkable but that's another story. Meets our caffeine needs. dw
Today we're on the road again. It'll be a reasonably short drive with one possible stop at an asbestos mine. Since we needen't hurry we have a leisurely morning -- we also are waiting for the morning rush hour to abate.
There are a lot of restaurants in this (the old town) part of Quebec but otherwise a surprising lack of night life. We don't do much "night-life" stuff anyway but it is curious. But even with the rain I've really enjoyed this city and would return anytime.
Re the room: I agree with dw's comments. I felt like I should get a pack of Gitanes and sit in the open door -- holding the cigarette backwards between my thumb and forefinger. Smoking and glaring at passing tourists. DA
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
31 rue de la Porte (deux)
re: Gaspe. As we were driving the peninsula, we crossed one river after another (10 or so) called Riviere Saumon. We were thinking "Boy, they really didn't have much imagination when it came to naming rivers here!" Some variety would have been nice: Grande Saumon Riviere. Riviere Avec Saumon, etc. As it happens, the woman who checked us into our present hotel was a native of Gaspe' and she told us the "Riviere Saumon" wasn't the name of the rivers, but was referring to some sort of fishing rights.
We were on the Gaspe' after the end of the season (apparently Leafers aren't very big) and a lot of things were closed. The fall foliage was spotty -- we might have been too early -- and we met a lot of rain so the viewing was also spotty. It was a nice drive, and I'm glad we did it, but the weather definitely took out some of the pleasure.
In our next to last hotel on the Gaspe, we were 30' from the St Lawrence (our last was rain and fogged in) and we saw three freighters, a cruise ship -- coming in -- and a ferry -- going out. Here in Quebec there've been three cruise ships (with the attendant tour buses making walking the city unpleasant at times) four or five more freighters (at least one tanker) and another ferry. A lot of ship traffic but less than I expected for a seaway that serves nearly half of the U.S. and Canada
(an observation from dw: if your hotel/motel has an attached restaurant, you won't get free coffee in the morning)
Quebec is a beautiful city. We spent yesterday walking around (mostly in the rain) looking at buildings and galleries -- continued well after dark. Today the same, except it only sprinkled a few times. We went across the old town to an artists co-op gallery. The exhibits were mostly "installations" a couple were actually impressive and they all were good. After returning to the room at 4, we rested for several hours and went back out this evening. We wandered about a bit -- had a dessert -- went to view point that over-looked the lower old town, the river, and Ile de Quebec. Listened to a saxophone busker ("Smoke Gets In Your Eyes") for a bit and then back to the room. The weather this evening was near perfect: almost shirt sleeves, light breeze, no rain. The city showed us a very good side before we move on.
At the tourist info center, they have "Instant French" cheat sheets they hand out. French -- english/german/spanish/japanese/etc. Among other phrases deemed to be useful: "J'ai le Bloc!" = I have one heck of a hangover! But being the tourist city that it is, every clerk, waiter, etc. that we've met has been fully conversant in english. DA
We were on the Gaspe' after the end of the season (apparently Leafers aren't very big) and a lot of things were closed. The fall foliage was spotty -- we might have been too early -- and we met a lot of rain so the viewing was also spotty. It was a nice drive, and I'm glad we did it, but the weather definitely took out some of the pleasure.
In our next to last hotel on the Gaspe, we were 30' from the St Lawrence (our last was rain and fogged in) and we saw three freighters, a cruise ship -- coming in -- and a ferry -- going out. Here in Quebec there've been three cruise ships (with the attendant tour buses making walking the city unpleasant at times) four or five more freighters (at least one tanker) and another ferry. A lot of ship traffic but less than I expected for a seaway that serves nearly half of the U.S. and Canada
(an observation from dw: if your hotel/motel has an attached restaurant, you won't get free coffee in the morning)
Quebec is a beautiful city. We spent yesterday walking around (mostly in the rain) looking at buildings and galleries -- continued well after dark. Today the same, except it only sprinkled a few times. We went across the old town to an artists co-op gallery. The exhibits were mostly "installations" a couple were actually impressive and they all were good. After returning to the room at 4, we rested for several hours and went back out this evening. We wandered about a bit -- had a dessert -- went to view point that over-looked the lower old town, the river, and Ile de Quebec. Listened to a saxophone busker ("Smoke Gets In Your Eyes") for a bit and then back to the room. The weather this evening was near perfect: almost shirt sleeves, light breeze, no rain. The city showed us a very good side before we move on.
At the tourist info center, they have "Instant French" cheat sheets they hand out. French -- english/german/spanish/japanese/etc. Among other phrases deemed to be useful: "J'ai le Bloc!" = I have one heck of a hangover! But being the tourist city that it is, every clerk, waiter, etc. that we've met has been fully conversant in english. DA
Quebec City - Old Town, 31 rue de la Porte
Whew, what a day. Haven't walked that much in years! The day began with breakfast at the Creperie le Petit Chateau known for Swiss fondue and crepes. I had normal one egg/toast/hash browns/fruit and coffee $7.95 plus tax 15%. This hotel does not have morning coffee so we had to get it somewhere and the Creperie was close. The tour of the Chateau Frontenac began at 10 a.m. $8.50 me, $7.75 Dennis (senior rate) and was mostly about the history of the Chateau as one of the first railroad hotels built to attract travelers. We were shown a room but none of the special suites because the place is full! Roosevelt, Churchill and a Canadian premier spent extended time in the hotel during the war planning D-Day. Lots of celebrities, too, have spent time there. I really wanted to see where these famous personages slept but it was not to be. Not to worry, the room we did see had internet connections, a fabulous view of the St. Lawrence River and a very normal bathroom - no gold faucets or anything.
On to the Notre Dame Cathedral - another big church with a pretty impressive gold painted altar. Quebec City has churches everywhere, too. Lots of steeples. I stopped in a church this afternoon and it turned out to be the public library - complete with stained glass windows and a baptismal font. The woman who checked us in yesterday turned out to be from the Gaspe peninsula and she told us the reason the churches were closed - and she confirmed that they were ALL closed - was because there were no priests. Current priests minister to several villages and the churches are only in use for weddings and funerals. Wow, all those churches and no one to use them.
Lunch at the Cafe Boulangerie Paillard - salad with duck, cranberries, carrots, apple in a maple vinaigrette for me, beef sandwich with bleu cheese and carmelized onions for Dennis plus a glass of wine. It was delicious and writing about it is making me hungry. The Boulangerie Paillard has been recognized as having the best croissants in the city. Bought two to bring "home" for breakfast tomorrow so I'll get back to you... Have to admit, our fine dining experiences are very limited as neither of us is comfortable spending $60 for an average dinner. And $60 is low - advertised specials are for $80 - $98 for a dinner for two - usually chateaubriand. Seems to be a popular menu selection. The B.P. served excellent food and the tourist information woman who recommended it made a good choice.
Wandered around the old town enjoying window shopping and experiencing the European feel of the place. Weather continues to be rainy and warm and manageable with an umbrella. Fall color is present and that's tempering the dismal skies. There is a rainfall warning for tomorrow and I don't know what that means. We will find out as we drive to Burlington, Vermont. dw
On to the Notre Dame Cathedral - another big church with a pretty impressive gold painted altar. Quebec City has churches everywhere, too. Lots of steeples. I stopped in a church this afternoon and it turned out to be the public library - complete with stained glass windows and a baptismal font. The woman who checked us in yesterday turned out to be from the Gaspe peninsula and she told us the reason the churches were closed - and she confirmed that they were ALL closed - was because there were no priests. Current priests minister to several villages and the churches are only in use for weddings and funerals. Wow, all those churches and no one to use them.
Lunch at the Cafe Boulangerie Paillard - salad with duck, cranberries, carrots, apple in a maple vinaigrette for me, beef sandwich with bleu cheese and carmelized onions for Dennis plus a glass of wine. It was delicious and writing about it is making me hungry. The Boulangerie Paillard has been recognized as having the best croissants in the city. Bought two to bring "home" for breakfast tomorrow so I'll get back to you... Have to admit, our fine dining experiences are very limited as neither of us is comfortable spending $60 for an average dinner. And $60 is low - advertised specials are for $80 - $98 for a dinner for two - usually chateaubriand. Seems to be a popular menu selection. The B.P. served excellent food and the tourist information woman who recommended it made a good choice.
Wandered around the old town enjoying window shopping and experiencing the European feel of the place. Weather continues to be rainy and warm and manageable with an umbrella. Fall color is present and that's tempering the dismal skies. There is a rainfall warning for tomorrow and I don't know what that means. We will find out as we drive to Burlington, Vermont. dw
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Port Daniel-Gascons, Gaspe' Peninsula, Quebec
To those who know, it's really Gaspesie -- Not that I'm snobby or anything. A quiet day today. Yesterday we drove in the non-stop rain. Went through some large areas of excellent fall foliage made especially brilliant in contrast to the grey sky and dark pines. Sun would have been better. Today has also been rainy.
To take a break from driving, we're staying a second night here in Port Daniel. Instead of moving on, today we went to a couple of nearby small villages -- looked at a couple of art galleries, each one had some nice pieces -- Another we stopped at was closed, but even better had a giant brown and white Saint Bernard who stared at us. He was a cross with something so he looked like a BIG Saint Bernard on stilts -- nearly the high-light of the day. We stopped at a fish-market / restaurant, and had lunch. We each had the fish soup which was quite good -- The same soup was offered avec snails. I've eaten snails and I might have missed something, but really, what's the point? Aside from being SNAILS they taste like rubbery not-much-of-anything.
While going to the first village, we passed two touring cyclists. The one in front was pulling a sort of wagon (it looked like a street luge) that was suspended in the front -- like the bike wagons for children --
A dog in a doggy rain-coat was sitting on this wagon. With that arrangement, the dog could hop off and run or walk whenever it wanted, and hop back on whenever it wanted. Looked like a great arrangement for the dog. Tomorrow we plan to move on.
For those of you who know and love the pain management scale: re my knees: today at rest: 1 (down from 1.5 yesterday and 2 the day before) today walking: 5 (down from 6.4 yesterday, and 7.8 the day before) -- a signal improvement, and aren't you glad you asked? DA
I take credit for the overnight knee improvement as I did passive range of motion to the legs! Wow, what a health care provider, eh?
Yeah, this Gaspe peninsula is interesting. There are tiny communities about every 10-15 km and each one has at least one tall steepled church and many have two or more. Picture small white houses scattered along the coast line, surrounded by pine trees and a tall steeple sticking up over the countryside. The Catholics and Anglicans duked it our here for the religious prize of large congregations and did it the way we do today - advertising. Hard to miss those churches and all I can think about is who built them as they are quite old. We tried a few doors today hoping to see the inside but all were locked. Perhaps tomorrow we can sneak in between services. Bit of local color - we stumbled onto the local teen hangout (drug drop?) at the Visitor Information parking lot! Honda Civics and little Toyotas and a small Saturn or two took turns pulling next to each other - driver window to driver window. At one point three cars were within an arms reach of each other and I imagined the guys in the middle shuffling from one side of the car to the other. Who knows what they were doing, a car would leave and shortly another would show up carefully maneuvering so no one had to get out of the car. It was raining after all... But really - "meet you at the Visitor Information parking lot" - no one has a better idea than that?!?
Just remembered we did see a moose yesterday. It was splayed out in the back of a pickup truck having been dressed out after a successful hunt. It was huge! Worried me a bit that it might fall out of the pickup bed and that we would be hit by a dead moose. Guess it was heavy enough that it didn't happen. Those who may remember Dennis's den with the inflatable moosehead prominently displayed over the computer will be glad to hear that the same inflatable moosehead was prominently displayed in a cafe/gallery in Bonaventure. Are we trendy or what? Supposed to be sunny tomorrow and I certainly hope so. These last two days have been too like rainy Portland to be very enjoyable. dw
To take a break from driving, we're staying a second night here in Port Daniel. Instead of moving on, today we went to a couple of nearby small villages -- looked at a couple of art galleries, each one had some nice pieces -- Another we stopped at was closed, but even better had a giant brown and white Saint Bernard who stared at us. He was a cross with something so he looked like a BIG Saint Bernard on stilts -- nearly the high-light of the day. We stopped at a fish-market / restaurant, and had lunch. We each had the fish soup which was quite good -- The same soup was offered avec snails. I've eaten snails and I might have missed something, but really, what's the point? Aside from being SNAILS they taste like rubbery not-much-of-anything.
While going to the first village, we passed two touring cyclists. The one in front was pulling a sort of wagon (it looked like a street luge) that was suspended in the front -- like the bike wagons for children --
A dog in a doggy rain-coat was sitting on this wagon. With that arrangement, the dog could hop off and run or walk whenever it wanted, and hop back on whenever it wanted. Looked like a great arrangement for the dog. Tomorrow we plan to move on.
For those of you who know and love the pain management scale: re my knees: today at rest: 1 (down from 1.5 yesterday and 2 the day before) today walking: 5 (down from 6.4 yesterday, and 7.8 the day before) -- a signal improvement, and aren't you glad you asked? DA
I take credit for the overnight knee improvement as I did passive range of motion to the legs! Wow, what a health care provider, eh?
Yeah, this Gaspe peninsula is interesting. There are tiny communities about every 10-15 km and each one has at least one tall steepled church and many have two or more. Picture small white houses scattered along the coast line, surrounded by pine trees and a tall steeple sticking up over the countryside. The Catholics and Anglicans duked it our here for the religious prize of large congregations and did it the way we do today - advertising. Hard to miss those churches and all I can think about is who built them as they are quite old. We tried a few doors today hoping to see the inside but all were locked. Perhaps tomorrow we can sneak in between services. Bit of local color - we stumbled onto the local teen hangout (drug drop?) at the Visitor Information parking lot! Honda Civics and little Toyotas and a small Saturn or two took turns pulling next to each other - driver window to driver window. At one point three cars were within an arms reach of each other and I imagined the guys in the middle shuffling from one side of the car to the other. Who knows what they were doing, a car would leave and shortly another would show up carefully maneuvering so no one had to get out of the car. It was raining after all... But really - "meet you at the Visitor Information parking lot" - no one has a better idea than that?!?
Just remembered we did see a moose yesterday. It was splayed out in the back of a pickup truck having been dressed out after a successful hunt. It was huge! Worried me a bit that it might fall out of the pickup bed and that we would be hit by a dead moose. Guess it was heavy enough that it didn't happen. Those who may remember Dennis's den with the inflatable moosehead prominently displayed over the computer will be glad to hear that the same inflatable moosehead was prominently displayed in a cafe/gallery in Bonaventure. Are we trendy or what? Supposed to be sunny tomorrow and I certainly hope so. These last two days have been too like rainy Portland to be very enjoyable. dw
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Caribou, Maine DA here
Yesterday we stopped at the Ben and Jerry's factory. It was 1 1/2 miles off the freeway and not worth the side trip. There wasn't anything in particular wrong with it it just wasn't interesting. We each had a child's size ice cream cone (mine was vanilla with caramel and chocolate chunky bits) the ice cream was too warm and started to drip right away. There seemed to be a high percentage of large people visiting the factory. -- Though maybe I'm just being snarky. -- My knees are worse than they've ever been -- to make it even better, they're both acting up -- and for no good reason. As I write this they seem to be improving -- today I was even having trouble getting in and out of the car. (not to whine or anything)
As dw said: some nice fall foliage but I think we're about a week ahead of prime time. Otherwise the last two days have been quiet. DA
As dw said: some nice fall foliage but I think we're about a week ahead of prime time. Otherwise the last two days have been quiet. DA
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