Whale watching on St. Lawrence

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On Friday morning we left the Tadoussac Harbor on a whale watching boat which went into the St. Lawrence Seaway for a few hours. We were fortunate to see lots of whales during that time, mostly minke whales plus a couple of humpbacks which flipped their tails. As you can see, I'm rather pleased with my tail shots. No whales "breached" (jumped out of the water), but I read at their marine museum that breaching is rare. All in all, we thought the trip was a success with more whales showing up than we had even hoped for. Later, as the sky clouded over, we drove around the area and saw several lobster boats on trailers near a rocky beach, either finished for the season or waiting for the season to begin . . . we're not sure.

Some comments about Quebec --
This is Bob's and my second trip to Quebec. Our first trip was around five years ago when we drove around the Gaspe Penninsula. We find this to be a beautiful country (province, actually) of very proud people, and rightly so. Everything we see, with rare exception, is neat and well maintained and attractive -- the houses and yards and gardens, the farms and businesses. The people seem quite professional and efficient in their jobs, whether serving us in a restaurant or running a ferry, whatever they may be doing. And the people themselves are -- across the board -- courteous and helpful and pleasant. Not one person has been rude. They're friendly, though somewhat reserved compared to Canadians from other parts. And everyone speaks French, no surprise there. We've found that almost all the young people can speak English but a lot of the people over 30 or so don't speak English at all or perhaps just a little. In those cases I drag out my two years of high school French (although I was a dreadful student) and we do a lot of gesturing and smiling and things work out OK. There's one exception to all this courtesy -- and that's when they get behind the wheel of a car. But otherwise, they're quite wonderful.

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Comments

[Marshall Seiden]

Looks like you're having a whale of a time! Sounds like a great trip.