On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Elma
At the end of September and first part of October 2022, I took a trip to Canada and New England. We started in Montreal, sailed down the St. Lawrence, toured the Canadian Maritime provinces, and down the New England coast to Boston. I booked this trip two years ago, in hopes that COVID would be over. Well, COVID isn’t over, but the tour company assured me that I could travel safely.
I wrote several long paragraphs about all the obstacles I encountered, but decided it was more than your really wanted to know. I remember when travel used to be easy and fun. The only thing that rose above the level of annoying was that just as we were setting out down the river, Hurricane Fiona slammed into and tore up most of Atlantic Canada, necessitating some rearranged itinerary.
We had a city tour of Montreal and then went out to a “sugar shack”, where they made maple syrup the old fashioned way. Here they are offering us maple taffy. I remember when I was a kid, if we had the right kind of snow, my mom would cook the maple syrup down and pour it onto the fresh snow to make what she called wax on snow. This tasted like I remember.
After enjoying Montreal, including an impromptu pub crawl, we embarked on our ship, the Ocean Explorer. She is an “expedition” ship, one designed to get you as close to the action as possible. The captain had only been master of the ship for less than a year, so he really enjoyed showing us what she could do.
Our first port was Quebec City. Here is a view of the iconic but not old Hotel Frontenac, from the really old town.
There was not as much fall color along the river as I had expected.
We next called in at Baie-Comeau. It was a town built by Colonel Robert McCormick, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune. He needed a paper mill to supply the newsprint, so he built the mill and the town. It was a nice place. Because all these places were small towns, they did not have nice tourist coaches. Instead we got school buses. The buses, with questionable suspension, took out to see Havre St. Pancrace fjord.
As befits an expedition ship, there was an array of Zodiacs on the aft deck. When I saw in our itinerary that at one port we would be getting into the Zodiacs to go to shore, my reaction was “no this is where I will fall, ignominiously, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.” But that particular port was closed to us because of storm damage, so I never got to find out if I could have done it.
On October 2nd we sailed around Bonaventure Island off the Gaspé Peninsula. The Ship’s Naturalist was beside himself with joy because all the Northern Gannets were still there. He had expected them to have started their migration by then.
Then we sailed around Percé Rock, where the captain took the opportunity to show off his ship by getting as close to the Rock as he could. The cruise director was very excited as he explained the amazing technology that was allowing this. What convinced me that it was a really impressive feat was when member of the crew, from the engine room, kitchen and housekeeping, rushed up on deck to take selfies with the Rock in the background. We got a lot closer than this picture suggests.
raven
Awesome!
Steve in the ATL
You are a very good writer.
PBK
These are bringing back memories of childhood driving trips throughout eastern Canada. Cannot wait for the rest of the series. Thank you for sharing them!
JPL
What a fun trip and thank you for sharing your journey with us.
Baud
Isn’t that the captain of the Costa Concordia tried?
Glad you had a better outcome.
Elizabelle
O Canada.
Climate change is wreaking havoc with leaf peeping tours, fer sure. Although, in Virginia, we had the prettiest and longest lasting leaves in my memory.
Northern gannets were still there. Because it was too warm to trigger them to migrate?
Ramalama
Nice photos, nice writing. I recall a scene in one of Laura ingalls Wilder books about eating maple snow…when I first tried it at Mont tremblant. Not a lot of red maple in Quebec this fall. A neighbor commented years ago about how a red fall meant something about the degree of cold for the winter. Forget which.
Kinda hoping it means not so bitter this year.
Kevin
Looks like fun! My aunt and uncle just did a similar trip though I think farther East. I can’t wait to see more of Canada in the future.
OzarkHillbilly
Autumn in Canada… That made me think of my time at Lake of the Woods. Autumn came to a screeching halt in the middle of October with 6″ of snow. The natives were all saying, “Yep, that’s it. We won’t see the ground again until May.”
JoyceCB
The leaf colours in central Southern Ontario were the best they have been in years.
MelissaM
This looks like a great trip. How big, i.e. how many passengers on the ship?
JanieM
Elma — lovely pictures and good story-telling to go with them. I’ve been wanting to get more acquainted with Quebec, and this post will serve as inspiration.
I’m wondering about the syrup-making in September — they must refrigerate sap, or maybe not-quite-boiled-down syrup (which would need less volume), so they can do this at the times of year when the sap isn’t running…?
@JoyceCB: I was just going to say that around where I live, in central Maine, the colors on a large scale were pretty dull this year. So Elma’s picture and comment didn’t surprise me, although it’s also true that the color can vary from one region to another, as suggested by the difference between your year and mine.
It seems like it’s only once in every several years (7? 10? I don’t keep track) that we get a year where everything bursts into color at once. We had semi-drought conditions this summer; I assume that affected us this year. There are still always pockets of stunning color, you just have to search in a more fine-tuned way.
Elma
@MelissaM: Maximum of 160. If it is going some “expeditiony” place, like Antarctica 145. I’m not going to Antarctica. I live in Wisconsin and that is quite enough frozen tundra for me.
Elma
@JanieM: The syrup making is all done in February and March. Someone asked if the bears bothered the sap gathering activities. They said it was all over before the bears came out of hibernation. To make the maple taffy, finished syrup is cooked down to a thicker consistency.
The leaf colors in Maine and Massachusetts were much more vibrant. But the best color was when I got home to Wisconsin. People were stopping on the side of the interstate to take pictures of trees.
pieceofpeace
Enjoyed viewing this area of Canada and your descriptive writing is top-notch. I’ve admired Quebec City from afar. Thanks.