Bonjour!

We have made it to Quebec City, Quebec, our next to last stop before heading back to the states.  It is French first here.  Signs are all in French and generally everyone is speaking French, but most who cater to tourists also speak English.  We are staying in St. Nicolas which is a few miles outside of Quebec City.  We are at KOA campground and it is very busy.  It is off the main highway so it fills up every night and each morning there is a long parade of RV’s leaving. 

Our first adventure was into Quebec City via a shuttle bus from the RV park.  This took us to the heart of Old Quebec City where we went on a 2 1/2 hour guided walking tour.  We then added our own walking tour so that we pretty much saw the upper and lower portions of Old Quebec City.  It was a busy day in the city as Paul McCartney was in town to do a concert that evening.  We even ran into his entourage at his hotel but did not get to see him as his cars moved to another location to let him out.

The old part of the city, which is behind the original walls built to guard the city, feels just like being in a European city, like Paris.  The buildings are very old but nicely restored.  Streets are narrow and very clean.  Businesses are restricted to just a small hanging sign and almost all the café’s have outdoor seating.  What is really neat is the view of the St. Lawrence river from the upper portion of the city. 

Here are some pictures

Le Chateau Frontenac, famous hotel in the old city.

One of the streets in the old city

This is the gate to the Citadel, the military base for the old city.  This is only original gate in size, the others were all widened to accommodate modern vehicles.  The Citadel is still an active military base but they have guided tours.  Note the guards on either side of the gate.  They stand rigid for two hour shifts.

View of the river from the Citadel.  The yacht (very large) in the picture was anchored there all day. 

This is another of the original gates but was widened.

Our next adventure was to Montmorency Falls which were nearby.  A smaller version, in width, than Niagara Falls but they are actually higher.

They have a gondola that takes you back and forth to the top of the falls or you can walk via a 485 foot staircase.  We took the gondola up and walked down. Once at the top you walk along the cliff then cross over the falls via a suspension bridge.  The trail gave you great views of the falls from all angles.

View from the suspension bridge

View of Quebec City from above the falls

Staircase we walked down.  Note the rainbow from the falls

The staircase

Fran took this picture from the visitors center at the falls.  The small speck towards the bottom is a fly fisherman.

We leave on Monday for Montreal.

Still in Canada

We have now moved to Quebec City, Quebec but let me get you caught up with our past week.

We left Prince Edward Island and drove over to Truro, Nova Scotia.  In our trip planning I put this stop in to say we had stopped in Nova Scotia, since it was so close, and to check out the tidal bore at Truro.  Since Truro is at the end of the Bay of Fundy it is supposed to have a big tidal shift that was worth seeing.  WRONG.  Not sure if it is because of the time of year but you could barely notice the “wave” coming in the bay in Truro.  The water level did increase at a rapid speed, but nothing like what I had read.  The area was nice and Truro has nice park, Victoria Park, that we hiked in.  Here are some pictures from the park.

The trail wound all around the park, with many stairs and elevated walkways.

From talking with other travellers it appears the place to visit in Nova Scotia is more north, the towns of Sydney and Baddeck.  This is the Cape Breton area which has the Cabot Trail.  From there you can take a ferry and visit New Foundland.  Should we make it back to this area I think we will focus our attention on that area.

We spent just a few days in Truro and then started west towards Quebec City and Montreal.  In planning this leg of the trip the halfway point was a little town called Woodstock in New Brunswick.  There were a couple of RV parks in the town, one being a Jellystone Park, which we generally avoid (geared towards families and kids).  The other was a small campground that was part of a small motel.  What a find.  Most of the spaces were very near the river and had fantastic views.  Other than fast internet the park really had no amenities but the view was just great. 

This was our view from our patio.

We spent the weekend in Woodstock and left yesterday for Quebec City.

Prince Edward Island, Canada

This past week we moved from Moncton, New Brunswick to Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.   Before I talk about our PEI experience let me finish up our stay in Moncton.  While in Moncton we took one last drive before we left.  This took us to Shediac, which calls itself the lobster capital of the world.  To honor that recognition they have a huge statue of a lobster at the entrance to the town.

Fran’s fun picture

and mine!

We had lunch in town and I had, of course, a lobster roll.

Now back to PEI.  They have built this 8 mile bridge linking the island to New Brunswick.  It is a toll bridge but they do not charge you until you leave, which will be close to $50 for our truck and RV.  They do warn you about the toll before you get on the bridge.

PEI is a beautiful place and Cavendish is the tourist center as it has the National Park and the famed Anne of Green Gables house and Avonlea village as well as the Cavendish Boardwalk, some water parks and other tourist attractions.  The entire island is fairly sizeable but only 140,000 people live on it, so it is mostly open country.  Big thing here is farming and they grow potato’s. 

They island is divided up into three sections with each having its own designated scenic drive.  To do all three would take a few days as it would be hundreds of miles.  We ended up doing portions of each to see the countryside and the small little towns.  On the first one we went as far north and east as St. Peters were we stopped for lunch.  In St. Peter’s there is a little restaurant, The Chowder Factory, that is famous for its seafood chowder.  I was not disappointed. 

Another drive took us to the western part of the island and we found this huge Catholic church out in the middle of nowhere.  It has been here since 1898 and is just gorgeous. 

We drove into Charlottetown, which is their biggest city to do some sightseeing.  The town has some very nice restored old buildings and homes.  We learned on our tour of the town that the government provides free grants each year to the owners of these homes to help them maintain them and keep the town looking nice.

Fran loves to take the duck tours whenever they are available in towns we visit.  In Charlottetown it is called a hippo tour but the bus/boat is about the same.

Because the island is famous for its potato’s it is logical that their french fries would be great.  Right next to the hippo tour is The Chip Shack owned by the Queen of Fries.  She sings and dances while she is making your order then comes out and gives each customer a hug.  The fries are good.  We did not try them the Canadian way which is called Poutine.  This is fries with gravy and cheese curds.

Next stop is Truro, Nova Scotia which is the tip of the Bay of Fundy.  We are there for just a few days then begin our drive over to Quebec.

Panoramic Pictures

Just after we started our Life on the Road we purchased a digital camera that has a nice feature to make panoramic pictures.  It directs you to take three successive pictures, moving the camera in an arc and it stitches them together.  I generally use this feature when we are viewing a vista from a high place.  Some of these pictures are in previous posts, but as I was organizing our pictures I thought it might be fun to put some of my favorites in one place.

Banff, Alberta, Canada

 

Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada

 

Chattanooga, Tennessee

 

Pikes Peak, Colorado

 

Grand Canyon, Arizona

 

Gloucester, Massachusetts

 

Sedona, Arizona

 

Smoky Mountains, Tennessee

 

Stone Mountain, Georgia

 

Acadia National Park, Maine

Bay of Fundy

We moved from St. Andrews, New Brunswick to Moncton, New Brunswick this past week.  As I mentioned in my last post we are in the area surrounding the Bay of Fundy.  This bay is known for its huge tidal shifts in a short period of time.  It has something to do with the shape of the bay, being north and other stuff I have no idea about.  In this area, Moncton, there is a place called Hopewell Rocks.  Here the tide rises and falls about 35 feet twice a day.  The cliffs are made of sandstone so the water has eroded them into interesting shapes.  Twice a day, at low tide, you can walk the beach and see the towering rocks.  It is just amazing what nature can do. 

Here are some pictures of Hopewell Rocks

To give you some perspective of their size.  That is Fran standing in front.  At high tide the water will be just below the top of the rock.

Another natural phenomenon is a tidal bore.  These happen a few places in the world and are caused by the incoming high tide meeting up with an opposite flowing river.  Here in Moncton is one of those places and it happens twice a day when the high tide comes.  The river in town is flowing towards the Bay of Fundy but when the bay begins to rise the water flows upriver and causes a little wave and the river current to change direction.  In Moncton this tidal bore could be as high as 3 to 4 feet but due to construction of a bridge and the resulting silt in the river bed the bore is now only a few inches to a foot.  It can be higher at different times of the year depending on the gravitational pull of the moon.  It was interesting to see.  I made a video so you can see it arrive and pass by.

Moncton Tidal Bore

Now that I have told you about the tidal shifts, lets say you are a commercial fisherman and you park your boat at the dock in town.  But, the tide goes out twice each day so that there is no water in the harbor.  What do you do?  Well, we found out in a little town we passed called Alma.  They just let the boat sit on the ocean floor still tied to the dock.

Also in Moncton is another natural wonder they call Magnetic Hill.  It is a stretch of road where it appears you are going uphill but actually you are not.  You all have probably been in one of these tourist attractions called a “Mystery House” where water flows uphill, etc.  It is easy to see what is happening in those as it all has to do with perspective and what the eye perceives.  In this case it still is all about perspective but outdoors, on a road.  I am not sure if the pictures can show you properly but here they are.

This is what it looks like where you start.  Looks like you are about to drive downhill.  You drive to the white pole on the left, put your car in neutral and then take your foot off the brake.  Your vehicle then rolls back to where this picture was taken.

Here we are at the white pole looking back getting ready to go backwards.

It was fun.  You pay to do this and they let you do it twice, once forwards and once backwards.

This past week Passport America published another one of my articles in their weekly news blast.  Here is the link for the article http://www.multibriefs.com/briefs/exclusive/canadian_rockies_adventure.html#.Udg94m0UuSo

Oh, Canada!

Our east coast trek has now taken us into Canada.  We left Trenton, Maine and made our way up the coast entering Canada at St. Stephen.  We made our way to the town of St. Andrews which sits on the Passamaquoddy Bay which is an off shoot of the Bay of Fundy.  What is fascinating about this area, Bay of Fundy, and has brought us up here is the dramatic tidal changes.  These tidal changes are over a short period of time and are supposed to be very interesting to see.  On our next stop, Moncton, there are some interesting rock formations that the tide changes have created.  Here in St. Andrews our RV park is right on the ocean and we have been able to see how dramatic the tidal shift is.  In this area the tidal shifts are not as fast but they are dramatic.  Over the period of 12 hours the water can be rolling up against the rocks near the road then roll out so the shore is over 200 to 300 yards away.  The boats for the town have to be anchored way out in the middle of the bay as they would be on dry land at some point every day if they docked at the pier.

The town of St. Andrews is very quaint.  Many of the buildings date back to the 1800’s.  This includes the homes and the stores.  It was nice as we were able to walk from our RV park to the downtown area.  This came in really handy as we were here for Canada Day, July 1st.  For you non-Canadians this is a national holiday similar to our Independence day.  The town had a lot of activities planned including a nice old fashioned small town parade.  There is supposed to be fireworks but as I write this it is raining lightly so not sure they will be able to have the display.

Since we arrived the weather has been not very good.  It rained all day when we arrived on Friday and in the afternoon on Saturday. Sunday it was nicer in the afternoon and the fog actually lifted and we could see the bay.  Monday was nice until the evening. 

Here are some pictures.

When the tide is out.  When it is in the water would be right up to the rocks.

The fog lifted.  This is our view from the RV.

Fran’s usual fun picture!

The town on Canada Day.

We were just here for the weekend and will move on further up the bay.