Ramble On

Waking up for the last full day of our trip was bittersweet.  It was a gray day in Montreal and even raining a bit.  We went for a run through Mount Royal Park where the fall colors were gorgeous against the gray sky. I always think of my mom when the weather is like that.  She says its her favorite: a cool, even chilly gray day when the leaves are all at peak color. We packed up and then headed to a Bagel Cafe to get some authentic Montreal Bagels .  They were DELICIOUS. So after carb-loading and a hot drink, we drove out of Montreal, across the bridge, and into the U.S. of A.  Burlington, VT is very close to Montreal and so we were there before much had happened.  Didn't stop us from going to a local brew pub, getting some craft beer, ordering more food, and then walking through the town in search of souvenirs and local charm.  Burlington is even more college-y than most college towns, and even though there were gray skies and a chilly wind, we...

And sample it we did! We arrived in Montreal around 6:30pm on Wednesday night. After we got settled, we decided to go out to dinner. The front desk clerk recommended a place, and after checking it out we found it dead and uninspired.  Of course, it's a Wednesday night, but we had hoped for a more fun atmosphere.  So we hopped in a cab and went to a cocktail bar called Lab where, again, we were pretty much the only people there, but we had a great chat with the bartender.  Lab is like the Montreal version of my favorite cocktail place, PX, which is in Old Town and never fails to make me feel fancy and serve me delicious alcoholic treats.  After we had both had some cocktails, and chatted a good bit, Gabrielle sent us to the place where we had the best meal of the entire trip. (This isn't where we ate but the sign was too funny.)  We walked a few blocks through a bougie neighborhood and found Le Chien Fumant to be warm, intimate, delicious-smelling, and p...

Our only morning in Quebec City started with a run along the Old Port, outside the city walls, and down along the highway.  The city is dominated by the huge chateau, fortress and fortified walls that protected Quebec from foes such as those nasty Americans, and date back to the 17th century. We walked through the city and up to the fortress to get a closer look, and then we split off for a while.  I went to the Champs D'Abraham and Christi went to a cafe and to do some shopping since she still hadn't gotten her baggage.  I took a long walk and hit upon this nature trail which was calming and very relaxing to do.  Just to my left out of frame in this photo, you could see the river down a very steep and long embankment. Then I walked back through the fields slowly working my way back to town to meet Christi for lunch and I saw this hilarious park bench, which perhaps had seen better days.  The other thing about seeing something like this in pseud...

Once again our day began very early.  We had a solid 6 hours in the car to get to the ferry that would take us to that night's destination.  If we missed the ferry, we'd be stuck on one side of the St. Lawrence and miss whale watching the next morning.  We wanted a good cushion of time to ensure we had no issues. Driving out of Bar Harbor in the wee morning hours, we encountered fog and it was rough going for a while on the country roads.  But the farmlands, the fog settling in the valleys, and the beautiful autumn colors made for dramatic scenery.  We stopped just before the Canadian border to get some gas and some coffee and then crossed into New Brunswick.  We weren't there very long and then we crossed into Québec.  There was a lot of car time that day but arriving in the little village of Tadoussac was worth it. On the ferry ride across the St. Lawrence river we saw three blue whales.  We had lots of attention from the Québeco...

5am wake up calls are not a welcome thing on vacation.  I happened to have already been awake because a squirrel was scurrying around on the roof of the cabin at our campsite in the middle of the night and I freaked myself out.  Instead of a squirrel running around and gathering food, the sound, in my mind was The Bar Harbor KOA Campground Killer.  He slowly stalks campsites with unsuspecting female guests, scraping his knife up and down the cabin walls around and around again, so that they wake up and are able to fully realize the terror of their situation before they meet their gruesome end. That is literally the place I went to in my head when I first heard the squirrel.  Then after I had listened long enough to know that it was definitely a squirrel (or mice or bats. My time in Martinique came in surprisingly handy here...) I had scared myself and my heart was racing so fast I couldn't go back to sleep.  I just tried to read but I couldn't even do that. ...

On this rainy fall day, D.C. is doing it's best to bring gloom, but the memories of my recent trip to the Northeast US and Québec will not be denied their day in the sun. I realize that probably not a lot of people would find someone else's vacation interesting.  But I mostly just write about it to process it and to capture the little details that will filter through the sieve of my ever-aging mind after too long.  At least there are pictures.   So it all started on a beautiful Saturday morning in DC.  My favorite thing about living in Old Town is going for a run along the Potomac River and through the cobblestone alleys of my little corner of the metropolitan sprawl.  After that I threw the rest of my stuff together and booked it to the airport.  I arrived in Boston around 10:30am.  I met up with Christi (of Grenoble fame ) with whom this whole trip was planned, and we began our tour.  Christi had just returned from a week in France and t...