We've been in Quebec a day and a half and seem to have walked miles - around the Citadel, through Bas Ancien Quebec down by the St Lawrence River, across the Fields of Abraham (the old battlefield),
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| The Frontenac |
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| Bas Ancien Quebec |
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| Le Marche |
and up and down most of the narrow winding streets. Our B&B, Maison James Thompson, is right in Old Quebec, so we've been able to just park the car in the tiny courtyard and walk everywhere. The Marche is impressive with the care vendors take displaying their fresh produce, and such produce! Fortunately we had eaten a big breakfast and so weren't tempted. Meals out in the evening have been outstanding, from poached salmon in hollandaise sauce to lobster pizza, though it's been necessary to indulge the French cuisine and go off our vegan track. So, if we were going to deviate, we decided we might as well have tiramisu and creme brulee for dessert last night! Mmmmm....
Tomorrow we'll drive out to the big waterfall northeast of the city and probably explore the broader area a bit, and then Friday we head for Baxter State Park. It'll be quite a contrast going from our B&B to a campsite, and we heard it'll be pretty cold, but our new tent should keep us toasty - we hope.
So we headed south out of Quebec to reach Baxter State Park on Saturday 9/7, driving 16 miles from the nearest town, Millinocket, to the park entrance, and then 8 miles on a dirt road to our camp area. The forest was fragrant - lots of pines and birch. We got our tent and picnic table awning up and decided to not bother cooking so we'd have time to take a short hike to a nearby pond - they say the moose often show up at dusk - no moose. It rained that night, but the new tent worked like a charm - nice and dry. Unfortunately the rain kept up all the next day. We hiked anyway in rain gear up to Chimney pond under the cirque of Mt Katahdin's Baxter Peak. Ir was cold and wet, with quite a bit of cloud cover blowing by the mountain, interspersed with clear blue skies - go figure. We were tired after that, so even though it went down into the 30's Sunday night, we slept warm and peacefully. The next day was clear and warmed up into the 70's. We went up a peak north of Katahdin and got a spectacular view of all of the various peaks. Tuesday we pulled up stakes and headed for Wiscasset, Maine along the coast to stay at the Snow Squall Inn B&B. It's a great place, centrally located and providing perfect access for gorging on lobster, fish chowders, and every other form of seafood imaginable. We've been slipping off the non-dairy diet a bit, but it's been worth it! The small towns are picturesque and the rugged coastline is pristine, Fog shrouded the shoreline until about noon today, but then temperatures went into the 80's - very pleasant.
