Goodbye St. John's, Goodbye Dana

Our days in St. John's looked like this:

Lots of exploring the city...
-Checked out Signal Hill for a refresher of our Canadian history.
-Explored a geological museum, with great info on how the earth was created, the specific rock formations in NFLD (which are very ancient and unique), human evolution, and oil and gas exploration
-A day at The Rooms, NFLD's provincial museum and art gallery...really fantastically done
-A little bit of shopping, running, and eating

Our nights in St. John's looked like this...


By random coincidence, our good friend Dana was here for work and had us crash with her in her hotel...a real treat for us to be out of the cold and into luxury for four nights!

Lots of relaxing...
-a nightly routine of hot-tubbing, reading the newspaper, having a glass of wine, and sitting around gabbing
-went for some great dinners, particularly last night when we treated ourselves to a really nice place
-Dana gave us knitting lessons so now we both have scarves on the go
-learning to play our new musical instrument, inspired by our time here, a tin whistle
-and lots of good sleeps in our king size bed!

THANK YOU DANA!!!!

Newfoundland

Meg Climbing up Gross Morne

Newfoundland has been amazing so far! We took the overnight ferry from North Syndey, Nova Scotia to Port-Aux-Basque, NFLD. As only one ferry runs to NFLD in the fall and winter months (the longer ferry which goes nearer to St. John's is over by the end of summer) we arrived on Newfoundland's west coast...perfect access to Gros Morne National Park. We hiked for three days...being extremely lucky on our first as we had a beautiful warm, sunny day..not a cloud in the sky. We were able to ascend the park's biggest mountain, Gros Morne, for a great look-out over tundra/moon-like landscape. We didn't realize how lucky we were for this weather, as Gros Morne isn't a mountain that can be hiked with a foggy top as the trail gets too socked in. The following 2 days of hiking were rainy and windy, but we managed with brave faces! Gros Morne is known for its unique geology and it's quite impressive to see.

Cameron on the Tablelands

Meg at Sunset at our campsight (Green Point)

Meg in the Green Gardens Hike... Looking a little Wet

Meg on Gross Morne, overlooking a cliff surrounded lake.

Luck was with us, and Newfoundland's Music Awards were being hosted in Rocky Harbour, a small community within the park. A night on the town taking in the local acts was splendid!

We have had beautiful scenic coastal drives along our route to St. John's and have now settled into a plush hotel with our good friend Dana, who happens to be here on business...yeah!

Montreal

After our visit with Jane and Ian and Kate and Evan in Peterborough we headed off for Montreal. After a brief stop in a small town to have our muffler
reattached to our vehicle (it broke off about an hour after we started driving when we hit a bump) we sped towards Quebec at top speed (105km/hr) using Garmin as our guide.

As sometimes happens when using GPS systems blindly we had a sort of funny incident where, upon crossing the Quebec border and driving through what appeared to be the back streets of a small town, the GPS suggested "Board Ferry". Fortunately despite it being quiet dark and getting a little late, the ferry was still running and we basically drove right on. The other side of the ferry we made for Oka where we intended to camp for the night, and then visit the Monks
and see how the cheese was made. Camp we did, but it turns out our information was a little out of date and all of the monks have been moved away and their buildings are now for rent for weddings and what not. They still did have some cheese there though.

From there we got into Montreal and spent a bit of time getting lost and then trying the pretty famous (and really delicious) Schwartz smoked meat sandwhiches. From there we checked out the old part of Montreal and aside from all of the really nice buildings got to see what must have been 5 different weddings going on. There were so many brides being photographed we soon got confused as to which ones we had already seen and which ones were new to us.

That night we visited a co-worker from the PMC-Sierra Montreal office, Guillaume, and his wife Nathalie and their little ones. Another coworker Mathieu and his wife Annie and there little one also joined us. They had us over for an excellent meal which is pretty common I guess in Quebec, though we had never heard of it. It just translates to "sauerkraut" but, though Meg was worried we would just be eating pickled cabbage, it ended up being a really great
concoction of sauerkraut and potatoes and sausages all cooked for a very long time in a dutch oven. There was also a cheese course (with I think all Quebec cheeses, though maybe not), and a wonderful dessert. We had an absolutely fantastic time and got some good advice on our bike trip to come. Guillaume and his family were nice enough to have us over not only that night, but also the next night and Guillaume guarded the car for us while we were away on the trip.

Guillaume and his clan went out apple picking the next day and we headed back into town on our bikes. It turns out Montreal is a pretty big city (second biggest in Canada apparently) so it took us alot longer than we expected to get around, but we did get a chance to have a few extremely delicious bagels while they were still warm, visit a not so good (in our opinion) museum, bike to the top of Mont Royal to take a look at the city as the sun set and then try out some really good beer at a brew pub call Dieu du Ciel (as suggested by the fellow at tourist information). After that fearing the cycle home we hopped on the subway and made our way to Guillaumes.

From there we started our bike trip, realizing that we had spent too little in Montreal, but hoping to get back there for a longer visit on another trip.

Celtic Colours and the Cabot Trail

We have immensely enjoyed our time in Cape Breton, taking in the Celtic Colours Music Festival. There are music events that take place all over the island, and we were able to enjoy 4 concerts of crazy fiddling, Gaelic singing, and Irish step dancing. Our only mistake when booking tickets was not paying attention to the location of each concert...in the three days of our 4 concerts we spent mad minutes (that turned into hours!) driving from east coast to west coast, eating lunch and dinner in the car in order to make things on time (think pizza burgers from a corner store, canned herring, and lots of PB and honey!)

While in Cape Breton, we've managed to take in Fort Louisbourg, and do some fantastic hiking in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Quebec City

Our stay in Quebec ended up being four fantastic days. In our original plans we had alotted two or three, but we were enjoying ourselves so much and there was so much to do that we stuck around a little longer.

We spent our first hour or so in Quebec in the information center trying to pin down a cheap place to stay. It was a long weekend and every hostel was booked up. Our last two options ended up being a room with two single beds in the YWCA or camping over in Levis a few kms from the ferry which would take us to Quebec. The YWCA won out in the end, partly because it wasn't that tempting to be on the bikes anymore and partly because I was getting tired of camping in the wet weather. Our time at the info center wasn't all bad that though, the young lady at the counter gave us quiet a few little spots to check out which were a little off the tourist paths for food and beer.

Upon arriving at the YWCA we were a little surprised to learn that we had NOT reserved a room for the current night and that, in fact, all of the two person rooms were booked up (it turns out our booking was for the next day). In the end we settled on a room with one single bed since we were getting tired, there were few options and it was getting a little dark. After a failed effort to both sleep on the tiny little bed, I made up my sleeping bag on the floor with my thermarest (Meg took the floor on other nights).
The next day the power was out. We had seen signs which indicated that the power was going to be out, but we assumed we were having some sort of language barrier problem, because honestly, why would you have the place open if the power is out! In the end though it worked out fine, the hot water was still running so we were able to have hot showers by headlamp light (there were no windows in the bathrooms) and went out for the day. Our first order of business was a walking tour of the city in order to get our bearings. It was a really neat tour, and Quebec, the old part especially, is a very walkable city. From there we headed off to catch a tour of the Citadel, it is an interesting site and a still working military base (holding some of the 22nd regiment, the "van doos"). The tour was a little hurried at 1 hour as there are many museums and what not on site that you can only get to through the tour (I guess civilians aren't allowed to wander the military base willy-nilly). After some more walking around we called it a day.

After the first day we spent much of our time seeing the various historical sites and getting a refresher course in Canadian History (it was like Social Studies in grade 10 come to life). There are also many many art galleries in the lower city (I think is what they called it) and there was alot of interesting and very pretty art to be checked out by artists in and around Quebec City. We had mixed results on the food scene but of note were two meals in particular. The first one was our expensive dinner out night; we chose a restaurant suggested by the Lonely Planet. We both chose to eat off the fixed menu and the food ended up being pretty good, but the thing that was amazing was the size of the proportions. I ordered a "Quebec Sample Platter" (or something to that effect) expecting to get 5 small samples of the main dishes, instead I got 5 basically full meals. And then at dessert, I ordered a maple syrup pie, and got a 1/4 of a pie! (The pie was really good). Meg's dessert was kind of funny too, it was white bread, with cream poured over top and then huge chunks of maple sugar, it was also good, but we both left feeling a little sickly full. Fortunately we walked about an hour to get back to the room for the night so we felt better.


The second meal of note was our poutine and beer sampling night. The young lady at the tourist information center had suggested a few places to go for poutine as well as a few local brew pubs so we spent the night touring around them. I think in the end we ended up having four poutines in a 24 hour period. Something else that we learned on that expedition is that in Quebec you can serve alcohol without food, so we were getting pretty hungry and a little tipsy after our first few stops which were all at breweries. After a really sunny day spent cycling around the outer edge of the city and eating a "home" cooked meal from ingredients bought at the farmers market, we hopped on the bus and said goodbye to Quebec.

La Route Verte

La Route Verte was amazing...a must for all bikers! It''s a series of bike trails connected around the province that takes you from north to south, east to west...wherever you'd like!

Where we went...

Day 1: Montreal to Farnham (Stayed at a motel)

Day 2: Farnham to Magog (rough/free camped)

Day 3: Magog to Richmond (motel)

Day 4: Richmond to Plessisville (rough/free camped)

Day 5: Plessisville to Quebec (YWCA)

Some details...

Day 1: A little later than expected start we finally got out of Guillaume's house. We don't have much stuff on this cross country trip, but it seemed like we had to go through all of it to decide what we needed, and what would fit on the bikes. After we finally got going (a little sore already unfortunately from the biking the previous day) we wound our way through the streets of Montreal, Longueuil and Chambly which was a neat start. These areas have really nicely marked bicycle routes, often times removed from the road or protected from the road by little posts, there are also little bicycle "Arretez" signs. It made us a appreciate the current mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson's, vision for Vancouver, hopefully they work out. After reaching Chambly we ended up riding along series of locks. This was an absolutely beautiful ride, very little grade and completely isolated from traffic, this ran all the way to St.Jean sur le Richelieu where we changed to another isolated path this time behind farmlands on what must have been old train tracks (based on the flatness and the straightness). We pulled off the trail in Farnham as darkness approached. We were unable to find any good spots to rough camp as most of the day we had been surrounded by really wet fields so we grabbed a motel room for the night

Day 2: We got on the road at exactly 9am the next morning, a time planned to coincide with the opening of the Farnham Fromagerie (Fromagerie des Cantons). We popped by for a bit of an early morning cheese sampling which we liked, so we bought some more for lunch for the next two days. Getting back on the trail the day started pretty similarly to how the previous day ended. Farmlands. This continued for much of the day through some really pretty little towns. Eventually though all good things end and we started climbing some hills as we approached the Mont Orford National Park. Before actually entering the park the Route Vert sent us along some wonderful (though steep) country back roads. It was the perfect view of autumn with the leaves changing and farms being harvested. As we climbed into and through the park we got some great views looking over the rolling hills covered in reds, yellows and oranges. In the park itself there was quiet a bit of climbing, which was funny as it was also the hottest part of the trip. We were both in t-shirts and shorts and I ended up with a sun tan at the end of the day. After being sent onto the highway by a biking detour we skipped a bit of the Route Vert to get into Magog where the Lonely Planet had indicated there was a brew pub we should try out, which we did, and enjoyed. That night we went a little out of the way on the Route Vert and set up tent on a nice patch of grass.

Day 3: The third day of the trip started much the same as the previous two days, absolutely wonderful weather. We expected this as the weather forcast was for rain only on Thursday (this was Wednesday). After a few hours though, it clouded over and got a little rainy. During that time we were sharing the road with cars which wasn't that pleasant. We ended up in a little town called North Hatley though which was quiet nice and we had a solid lunch so we were in good spirits heading into the afternoon. From there we were on an isolated path again up most of the way to Sherbrooke. Sherbrooke was the biggest town we had come across since our first day and we regretted we didn't get a chance to check it out more. It was also the home of Mathieu's parents, who had generously agreed to take us in for a night if we needed it, which makes what was to come even more unfortunate. We had decided that with the rain we might as well rent a room for the night rather than camp, but if we were going to do that, we might as well push out a long day as we would have a shower at the end of it. Unfortately there were not that many hotels in the next few towns so we started off in the direction of Richmond which along the Route vert was ~30km. After about 8km the rain was really starting to come down and just outside of Bromptonville we got into a part of the path which was marked closed (though we couldn't quite understand the reason). Our only alternative was a pretty busy highway so we took the chance and started to cycle. About 4km along this path we figured out why it was closed. It was a mud pit. The mud was deep and sticky such that Megs tires got so covered they got locked up with the fenders and wouldn't turn. Needless to say our pace slowed to a crawl. About this point it really started to rain hard. Also about this point with the sun setting and such dense clouds, it started to get really really dark. So basically we were riding along, through mud, with our little bicycle head lights our only source of light in the pitch black while the rain pounded down on us. Eventually we reached the next little town Windsor. At this point we called it quits for the day and with alot of help from a couple of young people at a gas station (the language barrier was a bit of an issue here) were able to get a taxi which drove our really wet and muddy selves and bikes to Richmond. At the motel we spread our gear everywhere and turned up the heat to dry everything off. We then sat in the shower until we warmed up.

Day 4: Day 4 started much the same day 3 ended, with heavy rain. We almost threw in the towel at this point, in fact had there been a bus or a train that actually ran through Richmond, we probably would have been on it. We figured if we were going to be in the rain, we might as well be walking through Quebec and going back to a dry hostel. Fortunately, there was no reasonably priced way to leave town except our bikes so we took off. By about lunch time, we were starting to see hints of sun mixed with periods of rain. We also had a bit of a tail wind, and we made some good distance despite a late start and really enjoyed the day. Late into dusk we set up our tent outside of Plessisville.

Day 5: The trail started really soft on the fifth day. That's something that I didn't mention earlier, it seemed like each canton decided what form the Route vert would take in their area. We saw a variety of different finishes from asphalt to compact gravel, to just hard dirt, but nothing like the area around Plessisville which looked just fine but while riding on it, it felt like you had a flat tire. Immedietly after leaving the area and changing trail types our speed increased 50%. After that the rest of the day was great with much of the route paved, we cruised into Quebec around 2:30 and after a bit of a mix up at the YWCA ended up in a room with a single bed on the 5th floor, which is I guess where the bike trip ends.

A Winter's Tale...and some more fun!

It was sad to say our goodbyes in Owen Sound, though we look forward to seeing Dana and Charlie in Portland, Maine come November.

We beetled our way down some nice country roads to Guelph to spend the night with friends Jim and Ester. Along the way, we had pit stops in Fergus and Elora, two very cute towns. We very much enjoyed the quaintness of this area.

Guelph was home to Meghan's Mum and Dad for their time at university, so we wandered around the veterinary buildings on campus, trying to imagine what adventures they had! We had a great night playing Quarkle with Jim and Ester, and enjoyed seeing their newly purchased house--it's beautiful you guys! Part of our Guelph adventure, was Meghan learning how to "bomb start" Derby...see "About Derby" for an update on his latest and greatest :-)

We took in A Winter's Tale at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Fantastic, and perhaps some of the best acting and costumes we've seen!


Hopped back to Waterloo and were lucky enough to steal Meghan's cousin, Jessi, for dinner at a cute little pub outside the city. Hmmmm...pig tails anyone? (yes, it's true..this is the Waterloo County speciality it seems).


St. Jacob's Market was lots of fun, with tonnes of beautiful produce from the local farms and maybe other local goods (as well as some not very local). We also took in an exhibit about the Mennonites living in the area which was very interesting and where we could have definitely have spent more time.


Our night ended in Peterborough with a great visit with more Karner family...Jane, Ian, Evan and Kate were all doing fantastic. It was lovely to see you guys, and thanks for the hospitality! See you in the spring!

A Fabulous Wedding

We had a spectacular weekend celebrating the marriage of good friends, Dana and Charlie. We managed to roll into Owen Sound on Friday, only a day late from our original plan...not so shabby considering the below mentioned car mishap!

The wedding was spectacular (thanks guys!). A yummy pig roast, great food, fabulous friends, and a good time on the dance floor. The wedding itself was in an airport hanger at the Billy Bishop Regional Airport, and was beautifully decorated in tree/fall theme. Had a yummy breakfast at the Mersich household to wrap things up on Sunday morning, thanks Jackie and Dan!

Spent time outside the wedding hiking the Bruce Trail and enjoying the autumn colours. It was great to have Kathryn and Link out for the wedding, meet Dana's Norwegian friend Jon, and steal some time with Dana and Charlie after the wedding.

A big treat was moving into a cabin on the Georgian Bay for our last few nights in Owen Sound. Unfortunately, Charlie's grandma had to head home earlier than expected, and passed her accommodation onto us (there's something about sleeping in a tent in the rainy season that gets us pitied). It turned into the perfect hang out spot and we had a couple big dinners with our gang, and had friends spend the night with us. Yeah!