The sun is out in Charlottetown, PEI!

September 30, 2024

Charlottetown, PEI

Beautiful sunny day that we chose to do a wonderful "Trot Around Town" tour of Charlottetown. Our guide was Shelly and she was a fount of information about the town and especially the homes and their history. The driver was Amy and Shelly's 10yo daughter was along as well and did a bit of the narration and did it very well! 

The horses were Reuben (black) and Charley (tan and white). We were told what kind of horse they were but all I remember is that they are not Clydesdales and one is a Percheron and the other---isn't.

 

Reuben

Charley

Not a very pretty picture of our ship, the Seabourn Quest (which we will board again in Los Angeles in 58 days heading for Australia.

Notice the Rainbow Steps on this church!

Lots of murals in Charlottetown.

According to our guide, this is the best hotel in Charlottetown!

We would have come back here for lunch if it weren't so far from the ship!

Lots of flowers all around Charlottetown.

Charlottetown is very into Halloween decorations!

There is some color change in the leaves. Not a lot, but some!

More halloween decorations.

Beautiful old car, no idea what make or what year!

Our guide and her horses.

Our driver, Amy.

This artist makes beautiful jewelry and allowed me to mix and match the earrings of my choice!

Still raining, but no longer cats and dogs...

 September 27, 2024

Saguenay, Quebec, Canada

The Saguenay Fjord is one of the oldest in the world, not as spectacular as the fjords of Norway and the South Island of New Zealand, but still beautiful. Or we presume it would be beautiful if it weren’t raining. Again. Still. Slightly better today, however, as it is just drizzling. We have hopes of actually seeing the sun tomorrow. Maybe.

Our tour today covered a very interesting fjord museum, complete with a pretend spaceship tour of the fjord in space, near the surface, and back in time to the formation of the fjord. Ingenious presentation, sitting in a pretend spaceship, looking out the forward “windows.”

Our tour guide is Linda Tremblay-Boise. Tremblay is the most common surname in Saguenay, some 30,000 to 40,000 people with that surname, so many families added a descriptor, like -Boise, to distinguish which family were being talked about! Since boise translates to “woody” or “forested” I don’t know how framboise (raspberry) got named. Even Mr. Google doesn’t know.

Then on to a goat farm (Le Chevrier du Nord/Goatherd of the North) where the goats are not bred for their milk or meat, but for their angora wool. We got to feed them and see the workshop/store where the owner designs and makes clothing (hats, scarves mostly). Since it has been 105 where we live, I didn’t buy anything!

Perhaps the low light of the tour was a pulp museum. Yes, pulp to make paper. But they didn’t make paper, only the pulp. It was also a bicycle museum and that was mildly interesting.

Life on board ship is cruising right along! (Sorry, couldn’t resist!) We have had dinner three nights in the main dining room, called, what else, The Restaurant, at a “hosted” table where the host is one of the staff or officers. All the dinners have been absolutely delightful, starting with our first with Cice, the Assistant Cruise Director, then Marcus, one of the entertainment folks, and last night, the only “formal” night, with Milana, the Education Director on board. She trains all the staff and clearly is doing a fantastic job!

Trivia! I’m not usually a trivia buff but I started on Day Two and we have become a cohesive group of seven (the first day, not including Randy who was playing bridge), then eight the second day (including Randy), and now 10, the max, with a couple one of our members invited. We managed a tie for third the first day but have not placed since. But we laugh a lot and are having a great time. And we haven’t finished last. Yet.

There are some weird questions: What is the only state you can spell using one row on a normal QWERTY keyboard? What is in the center of the Ghana flag? What is the most common color in all the flags of the world? Lots of movie questions which Randy and I suck at and today, I, the docent, didn’t know the collective for spiders (cluster, according to Aimee, the CD) but I looked it up afterwards and I was right according to one source that said it was colony, cluster, or web (my answer).

This is one of our two sea days so lots of talks: on space and on cloud formations. And entertainment including a Liar's Club.

Later I will be joining a group of Stitch & Knit (I pushed for calling it Stitch & Bitch but Aimee (Cruise Director) didn’t like that!). And Randy has a partner for bridge, an Aussie, Jane Costello. Lots of Australians on board, a few of them worried about having been on a goat farm and having to tell the Aussie immigration that they have walked on a goat farm!

Our guide at the Fjord Museum explaining the waters and geology of the Fjord

I just like the way they designed their name

Goatherd of the North

Feeling the angora wool just sheared off the goats

We got to feed them carrots

A face only a mother could love!

Tried to figure out if this is a boy or a girl.

They didn't explain how this donkey can protect the goats, but he certainly was loud!

In the workroom

Just pretty, old fashioned, farm equipment

Once scene in the pulp museum

The evolution of the bicycle

Children's tricycles through time

The front of the "spaceship" and the "windows" onto the evolution of the fjord

It rains cats and dogs in Canada, too...

September 26, 2024

Pouring down rain in Quebec, our guide, Jean Caesar, told us the wonderful statistic that it was the first rain in three weeks, he told us that THREE times. We were first on the bus so got the front seat. Not very useful as it was raining cats and dogs most of the day.

We do have hopes for trees turning color as, once we got out of Quebec, there were some color changes, especially at the Sugar Shack, aka Cabana a Sucre, our first tour stop. They taught us how they harvest the maple water from the sugar maples that eventually becomes the maple syrup we love on our pancakes. We tried it on a delicious Apple Crumble that they make there at the Sugar Shack and it was an awesome addition. Not so happy about maple syrup in our coffee.

Onward (in the rain, of course) to Montmorency Falls, 100 feet taller than Niagara Falls (but, in my opinion, not nearly as spectacular). We took the funitel, a kind of cablecar (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funitel) to the top of the falls. Remember, it is still raining. Well, not raining exactly, it was pouring down rain. And I had a leaky umbrella. How does an umbrella leak, you ask? From the very tippy top where there is apparently a tiny hole and water thus runs down your arm.

We got off the funitel (which also leaked, by the way), looked around for about two seconds (ok, ONE second) and headed for the bus, which happily was waiting for us. And waiting for six others who took so long to get back to the bus that we had to forego the last stop. I forget what the last stop was going to be, that’s how memorable it was. But we passengers bonded over our travails.

We noticed the price of fuel in Canada. If you think it’s bad in the US, better think again. It took me about 5 minutes and a calculator to estimate the price in our dollars (years ago, when we drove to Alaska in our motorhome, I could do it in my head! Ah, youth.). I’ll save you the brainpower, it’s $4.34/gallon. Higher, but not THAT much higher.

So, back to the ship, caviar and cheese in our “suite” and a “hosted” dinner with one of the entertainers, Marcus. We’ll probably not see any shows since the only show is at 9:30pm and that’s our bedtime.

So, tomorrow we’re on to Saguenay where Randy came with his grandmother in about 1952. Here we are 72 years later.

Rain, rain everywhere.

Sugar Shack diorama of old time sugar maple harvesting.

Our guide at the Sugar Shack

More or less how they harvest "maple water" which eventually becomes maple syrup.

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!

This is Montmorency Falls. Not sure how they can compare it to Niagara!

And we’re off! Well, more like we’re on...

 September 25, 2024

What's stressful is that Montreal is not well served by some of its taxi drivers. One at the hotel, who quoted us $10 to go to a store and when we got there said $15. And wouldn’t budge. And the taxi driver who, after we started out to the pier said it’s a flat fee of $25 from the hotel to the pier—about 10 blocks. Oh, well, cheaper than a rental car and parking.

Well, boarding was not stressful! Our experience with Seabourn Quest was seamless and stressless. I even got a wheelchair because, the man said, “It’s a really long walk!” (It wasn’t that long.) No waiting at any of the checkpoints. The suite (all the cabins on Seabourn are “suites”) is very nice but poorly laid out. For example, the closet is long and very narrow so Randy and I cannot be in there at the same time. The only drawers are in that closet, however. The electric outlets are also poorly laid out. One I couldn’t even find until somebody told me EXACTLY where to look. They do have several USB outlets, so that’s good.

Day 2 is rainy and cold so, since we’ve already done the HOHO—well, most of the normal HOHO run—we’re staying on board.

Speaking of on board, Seabourn has an app (who doesn’t, these days?) that is not the most intuitive I’ve seen. For instance, you must put your phone in Airplane mode for it to work. I eventually had to go down to Seabourn Square to get live help. We can only have two devices online at the same time, that’s the bad news. The good news is that the internet is free. Well, it’s “free” if you don’t count the money we’ve spent on the cruise itself!

Had a wonderful dinner in The Restaurant. Yes, the name of the restaurant IS The Restaurant. Seabourn does Hosted tables. Meaning that one of the shipboard crew (might be officers or might be entertainment staff) “hosts” the table. Last night we were at the table that Cice (pronounced See-See) was hosting. She is the Assistant Cruise Director to the CD, Aimee. We got a ton of information at dinner! And Randy found a bridge partner.

Don’t know if we’ll go back tonight or try the Colonnade which is Seabourn’s cafeteria style restaurant, but it looks nicer than the normal cafeteria style.

Then there is the Observation Bar where it seems like everybody meets before dinner. And The Club where various functions happen. Lots of places to meet people!

Our "suite"

The good news: booze is "free" onboard, no more smuggling booze!

 

Our dining table. For two, only!

Our deck

Tomorrow, Quebec and our first tour. entitled Quebec Countryside, Sugar Shack, & Montmorency Falls. Cross your fingers that it doesn't rain!