Seniors on the road, the ocean, off the beaten path—and wherever: 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.