Quality Time in Quebec City

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We awoke around 6:00 AM this morning, early enough for a workout in the gym; but, I decided to skip my exercising this morning. Little did I know the aerobic workout in store for me today! I had just the Scottish Stone Ground Oatmeal with bananas and some brown sugar, and some potato cakes, and a croissant, and some of Sharon’s crisp Turkey Bacon which she says that I need to find back home. Okay, so maybe I got carried away with my eating healthy, and what good that might have done was probably cancelled out by those tempting add-ons! Sharon started to order the All American Breakfast, but then switched to French Toast, and doesn’t even try to order it with just one slice because they always bring it with two anyway!

We did our morning Sudoku Challenge back in the cabin, before it was time to go ashore for our last tour. Sharon had her glasses, and she had her pen, so there are no excuses today. We gathered at the assembly point inside the port terminal. I called my mother (two days late) and she was beginning to wonder what had happened to us. It was about a one hour bus ride out to St. Anne Canyon. Along the way we passed a waterfall that is one hundred feet taller than Niagara, but nowhere near as wide or impressive. Our guide was a young enthusiastic woman born in France but raised in Quebec. She regaled us with a number of fascinating stories, instructed us in the correct pronunciation of Quebec (kay-beck) meaning in the local Indian dialect “where the river narrows”, and encouraged us to sample the ice wine during that portion of our tour after visiting St. Anne Canyon, even though, as it turns out, she is extremely sensitive to wine. Someone asked how sensitive and she replied, “It’s like a severe peanut allergy, and I’d get red, swell up and die.” Okay, that’s pretty severe… and she’s urging us to try the wine. She pointed out the various style roofs, French ones that are sloping down and then curved at the end. The British influence sloped, then dropped straight down, before sloping again to a curved end. Housed could be dated over a 400-year period by the roofs that they supported. And she told us about the men’s tri-cornered hats, and how they came to be. The beaver pelt became ever so important for the making of these hats due to the waterproof properties of their supple hides. Walking through town, next to buildings, these hats (along with cloaks that gentlemen wore), provided them with some measure of protection. You could never be sure when some chambermaid might open a second story window, shout out “Hatch alloh,” before emptying the contents of a chamber pot. Her warning shouts out have evolved into what we use today as “Hello”. A toss or nod of the head could allow anything that had been tossed onto him to be directed to the ground, and with the cloak providing protection for him and his garments. Needless to say, these particular articles didn’t smell the best, if they did their job. And about those roofs, she noted that many were also painted bright vibrant colors, visible for quite some distance. These served as points of reference for sailors, whose maps would be annotated with the colors of roofs along the St. Lawrence. Our guide also had a pretty good sense of humor, including the nicely veiled dig she was able to offer regarding the intelligence, or perhaps lack of it, that some American tourists have, citing some of her favorite “Frequently Asked Questions”. Her favorite was from a lady who wanted to know, “How long does it take for a deer to grow up into a moose?”

We arrived at St. Anne Canyon and were given about one hour to go out and see the falls. On the beautifully maintained grounds approaching the falls, there were many large sculpted wildlife figures, including a life-size moose, and a super-large woodpecker. Upstream a bit from the waterfall, there is a walking bridge with heavy wood planks for flooring to get you to the other side. There is some sway and bounce when crossing; but, the bridge is quite wide, feels solid and will support the crossing by golf carts driven by a guide for those who choose not to walk. From the far side, there is a bit of a downstream walk; with a couple lookout points to see the majesty of the falls. The water is impressive as it cascades through the narrow gorge. Near the top of the falls, a second suspension bridge extends back to the other side. This bridge is narrower, needs to be crossed by walking, and has much more bounce and sway when walking on it, making walking behind someone else problematic at times. Adjacent to this bridge is a zip-line, where the truly adventurous can have the thrill of propelling themselves out over the actual falls above the water crashing to the rocks far below. Sharon and I both made it across, and decided to walk on down towards the third walking bridge below. We reached a waiting area where a signed warned “Only 187 more steps down to the bridge.” Well, nobody puts out a sign like that that I can resist the challenge of verifying the count! There are, in fact, 183 steps! Sharon decided to wait for me, not wanting to risk that many steps both up and down before the long hike back to the bus when we had only about 25 minutes left. The decent is steep down the side of the gorge on a series of wooden steps. This changes to metal steps with see-through floor panels that allows you to see the ground, rocks or white water at the bottom of the falls (there is no glass material in the floor; rather, it is made with a mesh design that minimizes any obstruction in what you see below you). This bridge angles down from above and anchored at the low point back on the far side, gratefully has a solid platform that you can walk-off on and gather your bearings and wits. It’s also a pretty good place to take pictures from below. This bridge is the bounciest and narrowest of the three, and its flooring includes thirty or so of those 183 steps; albeit, not very high steps! I had to rest a couple times getting back to Sharon, and a time check showed that we had about twelve minutes to get back to the bus. We still had quite an ascent back to the parking lot; but, we paced ourselves (okay, I had to sit down a couple times while Sharon kept plodding along). We got back with about one minute to spare. I went into the gift shop and got a 7-Up for Sharon and a bottle of water for me. Arriving on time, the tour guide had that anxious look on her face; although, another couple showed up after us. Truth be told, I think the bus managed to leave on time, and when we arrived at the winery we were back ahead of schedule.

We visited the Isle de Bacchus Winery and the tour was reminiscent of the winery that we’d visited in South America, with the rows of vineyards. This winery had 32,000 vines, with each of them requiring considerable hands-on attention. The original house, now serving for our wine tasting room, was over 300 years old. The property had a view of the river, the power lines heading from the river, and views of the towns along the river, including one large copper-roofed church. We were given tiny amounts of eight different kinds of wine, including a white wine, a red wine and then a number of specialty or sweeter wines. The wine mixed with black currant syrup was quite sweet and tasty. The one mixed with grain alcohol and maple syrup was probably my favorite. The final offering was their ice wine, which I felt wasn’t up to what I’d tried near Niagara Falls. And for taste, smoothness or sweetness, I would say, give me a good Auslese any day.

We arrived back at the ship at 3:00pm, and boarded in time for the scheduled 3:30pm departure. The departure, and tours, had been moved forward by fifteen minutes because of the rising waters in the St. Lawrence, impacting the optimal time for the cruise ship to pass under the bridge. As it is, at best, it has just a six foot clearance. Its sister ship the Veendam doesn’t make the trip to Montreal because she rides a bit taller in the water. Sharon went up to the Dive-In to grab a burger; while, I changed clothes, donning my “Google” shirt, and headed up to Team Trivia in the Crow’s Nest. When we’d gotten back, we noticed that the casino had left me a plate of chocolate covered strawberries. I took them with me and hoped my teammates would help me eat them. Fortunately Edie was up the challenge.

Sharon showed up just in time to offer up which month, is the least favorite month, to have a wedding. We’ve been told that October, the month Sharon and I were married, is the most popular month; due to milder temperatures than may be found in the number two June. Sharon’s first marriage was in January after she graduated, and January indeed was the answer. And we all knew who the only woman reporter was that went with Nixon on his historic trip to China (Barbara Walters). I don’t think anyone missed the first word in the book “Citizen Kane”. Rosebud. Tooney was a repeat answer from our first week of the cruise, and if it had been the bonus question this time also, we would have won. But we couldn’t come up with the name of the song some Canadian sang with the words “Those were the best days of my life”. We failed to come up with “Summer of ’69”. Still, we got a score of “14” without the bonus, missing just one regular question, “Who was the only hockey player to captain a Stanley Cup victory with two different teams?” I’m sorry, but I still don’t know the answer. Except that it’s not Gretsky, or Orr, and I’m not sure that I could come up with the name of another hockey player. And my teammates weren’t much good either.

Tonight’s dinner featured specialties from various continents in their tribute to international cuisine. I chose the hummus and Mediterranean sampler plate with dolmas, pita and olives, and this was quite good. And Sharon had ordered me the Vietnamese spring roll with its rice paper wrapper. It was also very good, and the dipping sauce had some kick to it as well. Sharon ordered the NY strip steak from the Daily Menu (it was either that or peanut butter crackers). It almost like being back in China! (Food, food, everywhere, but not a bite to eat.) I ordered the vegetable korma, a curry dish that I’d had before with HAL that contains peas, carrots and cauliflower. It was interesting that tonight’s menu didn’t say that it contained curry, and I do believe it was less curry than I remember (it wasn’t quite as good this time). I suspect some people avoid trying this because of the word “curry”. Too bad. The person sitting next to me ordered the squab (Sharon was sitting across from me this time). The bird came out and looked like a bird that had been gathered as road-kill (a pile of mangled bones). She asked and got the steward to get her “Whatever he’s having” pointing at my korma. Sharon got her traditional Baked Alaska with this meal. It came out as a mass of ice cream and meringue mush on a plate, but at least it was with chocolate ice cream and not strawberry that seems to have been her plight in the past. They’ve definitely changed how they make this dessert; but, Sharon said that it tasted quite good.

We had some time to kill before the show, and so we went into the casino. The blackjack tournament winner was playing at the table by himself, playing two hands, including first base. I just watched, and the dealer was killing him. As I weighed the pros and cons of sitting down at third base, someone else beat me to it. The dealer continued to prevail, hand after hand. In the eight hands that followed, the new player, who played fine, hitting when he should, didn’t win a hand. And the guy at first base won just one hand (a blackjack). I talked to three of the Club-21 pit people, and thanked each of them for the chocolate colored strawberries, and it wasn’t clear to me from their looks of puzzlement (that look people get when they haven’t been kept in the loop and they don’t want to say anything wrong so you smile knowingly) who had had them sent to me, but that’s okay. Sharon had broken even on video poker, and then won on the Monkey Business machine. She was trying to cash in but the link wasn’t working and she couldn’t transfer the money from her card.

We went to the 9:30 PM Dancing with the Stars at Sea Final. The guest comedienne with the pink and purple hair was one of the judges. We watched as the two winners of the earlier competitions performed their versions of the waltz, jive and cha-cha. The first guy to perform, originally from Columbia, danced the jive, and as I’d predicted earlier: Each judge awarded this first performance “9” points each. The second judge acknowledged, “It’s never easy to go first.” The next dancer was probably technically the most proficient, dancing to the Tennessee Waltz. The pace of this dance was much slower than the other two dance genres. And, this dancer didn’t quite make that audience connection. She did get perfect “10’s” from the judges, with the second judge noting, “It’s never easy to go second.” The contest came down to the cha-cha. The first of these was the young blonde twenty-something dancer with lively steps whose smile did connect with the audience. She danced third, and you guessed it, it’s never easy to go third. Her perfect “10’s” were matched “10” for “10” by her rival cha-cha dancer. And even though, it is never easy to fourth, or fifth, or last either, she exuded personality, and it held her in good stead when it came down to the applause-meter.



Our vacation on the Maasdam was now becoming unmistakably clear, as all there was left to do was to go back to our cabin and finish packing, put out my large suitcase to be taken ashore by the porters. Sharon had put her suitcase out before the show. We were both done with the casino, and Sharon was able to get the money off of the room card at the cashier. The nice lady, who was playing blackjack much better than earlier in the week, was now sitting at first base. I’m thinking that they had spent the week watching me play, and now they figure that that must be my secret. The dealers must love her because she tips them after every blackjack, split or double down that she wins. I recovered what I’d lost the previous week, maybe a little bit more, and all that is left is a long drive home.

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Photos

Small Chapel
One of the small chapels on the roads leading from Quebec City to St. Anne de Beaupre for people that were making pilgramages

St. Anne Canyon
Rock area around waterfall for climbing with wires to guide them