Vermont to Montreal April 15, 2011

We decided to stay another day in Burlington, Vermont. Our flight doesn't leave until 2pm on Saturday and it's only 2 hours from here to the airport, so we have extra time.

We drove around, exploring a bit and looking for another Brooks Bros. for Stephen.  Found one , I guess the prices are better than on-line but the selection is limited.

Went to downtown Burlington. Like so many other east coast cities, the buildings are very old,  huge churches, big traditional style mansions with white columns in front. Mostly red brick construction.

They have a nice shopping area in the middle of town, 3 blocks closed to traffic with lots of shops and restaurants. We ate lunch at The Farmhouse Tap and Grill. They pride themselves on supporting local farms ,so most of the meat and cheese and veggies are from nearby sources. Great selection of Vermont beers, I tried a couple.Small ones!!

After lunch we were off on another quest to find treats to bring home for Mickey and the cats. Not many doggie boutiques in Burlington

This is a huge university town, home to The University of Vermont, Trinity College, and Champlain College.

There are young people everywhere. It's the first time we've seen sorority and fraternity houses. Huge old homes with Greek letters on the walls. Reminds me of Animal House with John  Belushi and the Lamda something frat house!

I forgot to mention yesterday that Lake George is where Rachael Ray started her career. She has a home in a nearby town but she didn't come out to see us!

We didn't see much wildlife on this trip. Two deer in eastern Quebec, four wild turkeys flew across the road in Maine, saw a couple of squirrels here and there and some turtles in a pond and possibly a moose, it may have been a stump. Those were the live ones. There were two dead beavers, several dead porcupines, a couple of dead skunks in the middle of the road that we could smell for miles and a few unidentifiable critters.

Tonight we ordered pizza from Juniors, next door, not bad but not great either. Now we have to finish off whats left of our wine and rum before we cross the border. It's a hard life!

Tomorrow  on to Montreal Airport.

Vermont to NY to Vermont

Awoke to a sunny day in White River Junction.

We headed west through Woodstock [not that Woodstock]. There are 3 covered bridges there, the oldest from 1836, one 1877, the other rebuilt in 1969.

We continued on through the mountains, past Killington Ski Resort, very big in Vermont, to Lake George , New York. Lake George is a huge summer tourist destination, tons of boat rentals, motels and amusement parks, most closed this time of year. there is still ice on parts of the lake.It is in Adirondack Park which is huge. Once outside of the resort area it was all hardwood forests and no traffic on narrow 2 lane roads.

We had planned on taking a small ferry from Ticonderoga, back across Lake Champlaine, which is just north of Lake George and runs all the way to the Canada border.

Alas, it was also closed for the season so we had to drive further north to what is shown on the map as a bridge. The bridge has been torn down and is being rebuilt but luckily they have started a free small ferry service until the bridge is finished.

After a 15 minute ferry ride we were once again in Vermont and headed north to Burlington. Found a motel around 4pm.

We are tired of restaurant food so bought a cooked chicken and some potatoe salad at a grocery store and took it back to the room for dinner.

Maine to Vermont April13, 2011

We left Brunswick in light rain, stopped in Freeport, 5 minutes down the road, to search for some requests from Stephen at Brooks Brothers and J.Crew.
 Our duty done we continued south and west. By now the rain was very heavy, 1 inch forecast. It was really poor visibility so I was glad when the GPS took me off the freeway and onto some secondary highways for our journey west through New Hampshire and into Vermont.

We drove through a lot of hardwood forests and, without any leaves on the trees, it looked very Blair Witchy!
Strange that most of Stephen King's books are set in New England, as well as all sorts of other witch and haunting stories. Hope the car doesn't break down!

Reached our destination of White River Junction. Finally found our lobstah dinner at a place near the motel.

Huge seafood platter for 2, $42.  2 lobstah tails, 4 crab legs, a dozen clams, some barbecued shrimp, all after the salad bar and scallop and corn chowdah!

We rolled back to the room to flop and watch Survivor.

Tomorrow we hope to see some covered bridges on our route west through New York's Adirondacks,

Maine, April 12, 2011

We decided to spend a second night in Brunswick. After breakfast at the motel we dropped off some laundry at local place then drove to Portland.

We followed the coast highway north back towards Freeport. Lots of huge beautiful New England style houses.

We had a bit of a quest. Karen wanted to dip her feet in the Atlantic but it became a real challenge. There is very little public access to the water , at least in this area. There are docks and wharfs but they are all far above the shoreline. 

After lots of driving down many twisty little roads we finally found a small beach access. It was down a short road with a " Private" sign on it but we went anyway and Karen achieved her goal.

My goal was to have my picture taken with the giant boot at LL Bean. I must be a more shallow person!

Freeport is LL Bean central, they have 4 seperate stores for each of their departments and their headquarters here. I think they must be the largest employer around.

Our other goal was a lobster dinner but the nearest restaurant serving fresh lobster was 15 miles away . We were tired of driving all day so we settled for a pub diinner with " chowdah" , as it's pronounced heah.

Tomorrow we head a little furthur south before turning west into New Hampshire and Vermont

2 geese for Brian and Joan

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Quebec to Maine April 11, 2011

Marielle

We said" Aurevoir" to Marielle at 9:30 am and began our drive to Maine. The day was overcast but dry.

It was what we consider a long drive, about 5 hours.

The border crossing into Maine is the smallest I've ever seen. We were the only car there. A few questions and we were on our way. Should have stopped for lunch at the first place we saw because we didn't see another until about 2pm. Passed many places closed for the season or just gone out of business. Finally found a place open in Bingham. Food wasn't great but we needed to eat.



Binghams greasy spoon



I didn't realize how sparsely populated this area of Maine was.

We reached civilization and headed south on I-95 towards Freeport, just north of Portland.

Lots of high end shops, including the LL Bean flagship store, they have about a block of buildings for themselves alone.

We found a Comfort Inn in Brunswick, just north of Freeport, to spend the night.


Tomorrow we will do a little shopping and go looking for some Maine lobsters to eat!

The route so far

Quebec City April 10, 2011

# 5 , Our room

We had a good nights sleep in the Hotel Maison du Fort. Marielle had coffee, tea , juice and pastries for us as well as a newspaper in English!
The hotel was built as a private residence in1855. She has owned for 20 years. Some of the interior walls still feature the original stone.



Funiculaire



After breakfast we walked to the center of Old Quebec, only a couple of short blocks. We took the Funiculaire, a tram that travels up and down the hill, to the lower city, which is even older than the upper. Strolled the streets , lots of boutiques.

Returned to the upper town and had lunch at a streetside cafe, then took a tour in a small bus to see the rest of the city. we saw the Plains of Abraham and the Citadel, where the French fought the British.



A quaint boutique!





Karen at 1640



 In the afternoon the streets were packed with people, I've never seen so many.They were 4 abreast in endless lines on every street. It is the first warm ,sunny weekend after the winter and the snow has just about all melted so everyone is enjoying the weather, it as about 15 C. For every ten people there was at least 1 dog
For dinner we got Marielle to phone in a pizza order for us from La petite Italie. I walked there and picked it up to bring back to eat in the room.
The pizza was small so I also picked up some sushi made by a white French Canadian, wasn't too bad.
Karen's knee was sore so she wanted to rest it .
Tomorrow we will make our way to Maine



Hotel Frontenac in the upper Old City



Quebec City April 9, 2011

I picked up the rental car this morning and managed to get back to the hotel, street construction everywhere.
We made our way out of Montreal, heading towards Trois-Rivieres and Quebec.

Followed the GPS , Gladys, all the way. Only mishap occurred in the middle of the Quebec. Gladys said keep left at an intersection so I obeyed . I looked over and saw a car trying to turn into my lane, I was in the oncoming lane! No lines on the road. I managed to reverse and get in the correct lane . Luckily the guy just smiled and didn't give me the finger!

Arrived at our little hotel, Le Maison du Fort, about 3:30. Very cute , 10 rooms, we are the only ones here other than Marielle, the owner.
We got settled, had a glass of wine then went for a walk to find a place for dinner . We ate at Le Lobby, nice little spot. Dinner for two of starter,soup, choice of entre, we chose the filet, desert, coffee and a bottle of wine for $60! Tres bon value.

After dinner we did a little stroll them came back to the hotel only to find I had left my backpack with Karen's insulin kit in the cafe. Raced back and found it still on the floor. Good for the adrenalin!

We met the two resident chats, Piano and something else.

Nice to pet an animal every so often.

Friday April 8

Had a wakeup call for 6am, far too early after a late night of dinner and free wine.

We did our duty at the convention until 11 am, then we were free. We had signed up for a 3 hour bus tour of the city. It wasn’t bad but not as much fun as the carriage tour. We did see a lot more of the city and learned a few things. Saw the Olympic stadium and things left over from Expo 67 like Habitat for Humanity also St. Josephs Catherdral. Drove to the top of Mount Royal for a great view of the city.

We got back to the hotel about 5pm , had  a couple of drinks with Stan and Sharron from Nanaimo, then went for dinner with them.

Tomorrow morning I pick up the rental car and we try to find our way out of the city and make our way to Quebec City.

Thursday April 7, 2011

Today was day 1 of the convention. we were served a nice breakfast then spent the day in the meeting room, quite boring.
At 7 pm we have the dinner and gala.
Tomorrow is only a half day of convention then we are going on a bus tour of the city, on to Quebec City on Saturday.
The weather is sunny, temp about 6 C.

Tuesday April 5, 2011

We arrived at Montreal Airport at about 6:30 pm. Happy to see our luggage come down the chute after being sent on from Nanaimo.

Took a taxi to the Hyatt for a flat rate of $38 then got checked in. Not impressed with the hotel, generally shabby but it is undergoing a remodel. The room is fine though.

Wireless internet costs $12 a day in the room but there is free wi-fi in the food court of the attached shopping center so I will try it out.

Stayed up until midnight last night, late for us but Montreal is 3 hours ahead of Nanaimo so it was only 9 for us.

Wednesday April 6, 2011

After coffee and croissant in the food court we took a cab to Old Montreal. The day was clear but cool.

We started at the Basilica of Notre-Dame, built in 1839. We took a short tour and were very impressed with beauty of the church. It has very a high gothic arched ceiling and lots of stained glass windows.

After the tour we walked along Rue St. James and had a nice lunch at a little crepe café. We then continued up the street to the Place de Jacques Cartier where we took an hour long horse drawn carriage tour of the Old City. We were glad for the blankets provided because the wind was cold, we saw a few snow flakes but the sky was mostly clear. The driver was good, providing interesting descriptions of the old buildings. Lots of history here.

Karen fed some carrots to Mimi, the horse.

We took another taxi back to the hotel to rest our feet and get ready for the rest of our group arriving.

Tomorrow is the Telus Ambassadors convention , the reason we are here. It will be a boring day sitting in a meeting room but there is a dinner and awards Gala in the evening.