We had to go to Sydney NS in order to take the ferry to Newfoundland, on the way, we stopped in Halifax for a quick visit.

The “lobster-lovers” in our group decided it would be a good idea to have a lobster dinner.  The campground owner highly recommended a lobster market near Peggy’s Cove, a 20 minutes ride from the campground.  While Chicken waited by the water, admiring the view, the “lobster-lovers” made their choice.

Chicken waiting for the "Lobster-lovers" to make their choice.

How big is big enough?  Does size really matter?  …. Seems to, because the sheer size of this lobster saved his life…  None of the “lobster-lovers” thought they could eat that much lobster in one sitting.

Big enough?

So, the owner of the shop presented other choices.

The smallest one, although he looked quite feisty,   was nicknamed “Wimpy” because of his size.  He was a pound and a half lobster and became Bear’s dinner.  The others ordered 2 pounders.   We brought them back to the campground where the owner graciously cooked and cracked them for us.  (When I say us, I don’t include myself, I ate delicious Nova Scotia scallops that night).

We visited Halifax harbour where we saw some interesting and beautiful ships.

Do you recognize that one?

Beautiful sailing ship

We  savoured an ice cream at Cow’s.  Bad for the waist, but good for the soul.

Prize winning ice cream

Surprise!  Surprise!  Halifax had been yarnbombed!

Look at the bottom of the light pole...

Of course, the perpetrator had left her card…

The next day, our traveling friends had bought tickets for the Halifax Tattoo, but since we had seen it the last time we were here, we’d elected not to go.  Bear had promised me a surprise instead.  I tried my best to get him to tell me what it was, but he holds secrets better than Fort Knox, so I had to wait.

We took the car and made our way to Dartmouth.  Do you know that they have parking for fiddles in Dartmouth?  If you don’t believe me… just look:

Only in Canada!

Anyway, to get back to my “surprise” story.  All of you know I am knitting right?  I’m quite passionate about it and I love taking classes.  There are some people I really admire in the “knitting” business and I try to take classes from as many of them as possible, both to perfect my knowledge and advance my knitting skills, and also because it’s  just  cool to  be around one of them for a while. (Ok I’m a knitting groupie…there… I said it.. )

One of these people I’d always dreamed of taking a class from,   is Lucy Neatby.  She is originally from Scotland and used to be a Navigational Officer in the  Merchant Marine.  She took up knitting after having children, because, as she said, at least with her knitting she had a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.  Needless to say, she became a very skilled, knowledgeable knitter.  Her designs are always very clever.  She also made instructional DVDs that are the best on the market.

So, when he took me to Dartmouth that morning, I thought he’d found out at which yarn shop Lucy Neatby likes to go hang out and that maybe I would be able to catch a glimpse of her… just maybe.. if she was in town and not teaching somewhere in the US or in Canada.

Imagine my surprise when my dear hubby took me to a residential area instead of a commercial area…  I was really confused and didn’t know what to think…

Then he parked the car in front of a cute little house, and went knocking at the door…   And Lucy Neatby came and opened the door… and at that moment, I lost all brain function!  I was star-struck .   There I was, at Lucy Neatby’s house where she graciously invited us for tea.  I HAD  AFTERNOON TEA AT LUCY NEATBY’S HOUSE!!!!!!  We also visited her basement studio and I purchased a few things…  like yarn, patterns,   you know…..  Anyway, this is me and Lucy 🙂

Lucy and me (and Chicken of course, he always has to get in the pictures!!)

As it turns out, my dear hubby had been conspiring with Lucy, by email, since last October in order to surprise me like this.  That’s a lot of “good-hubby points” in the bank for him…  What a sweetheart!  I will never forget it!

Of course, we had to leave Lucy’s house and go back to the coach to prepare to leave for Sydney.

McLobster anyone?

Although our ultimate destination this summer is Newfoundland, we decided to take a detour around the Bas St. Laurent and Gaspésie Peninsula in the Province of Québec.  Notwithstanding the foggy days that made taking pictures difficult, we were in for a treat.  (See map)

This area of Québec is composed of small fishing villages along the coast, with the Appalachian mountains as a backdrop.  The scenery is spectacular, winding roads, up and down  very steep hills, it sometimes felt like driving on a roller coaster.  Typical of this area, each village has its own church.  Since most of them were built during the 19th century, they all have about the same architecture, pointy steeple reaching for the sky over a steep roof.  99% of them are Catholic churches.  Often built from stone, sometimes from brick, they are always quite handsome.  Depending on how wealthy people were in the village, the interiors can be either richly decorated or very humble.

Notre-Dame-des Neiges de Trois-Pistoles built from 1882 to 1887. Typical of 19th century architecture

Inside Notre-Dame-des-Neiges

We spent our first night in Trois-Pistoles and were treated to a spectacular sunset, without having to move from the campground.  Our day was spent touring the area, especially visiting the Basque Cheese Factory and the fish markets 🙂

Sunset in Trois-Pistoles

Our second stop was in Ste-Anne-des-Monts.  We were camping right at the edge of the beach.  What a view from our front window!

View from our windshield while parked at the campground

We spent a little time at l’Exploramer, an activity complex forcusing on the marine environment.  Yours truly found enough courage to touch and hold sea creatures; like sea cucumbers, lobsters, star fish and sea urchin.  Those who really know me, will understand how atypical this was for me. I don’t even swim in the sea for fear of having contact with fishes!

Yup, that's my hands holding this sea urchin!

We saw some very interesting fish and crustaceans, including this 7 year old blue lobster!

Ever seen a blue lobster?

Some of the fish had a face only a mother could love.  They are so well camouflaged, it’s hard to see that there are actually 3 fishes in this picture.

Can you see the three fishes?

From there, we moved on to the Percé area.  We stayed at Indian Head campground, aptly named because of this  giant natural rock formation visible from it that looks exactly like an Indian head.

Indian head rock

Again, we had a very nice view from our front windshield!

We took a boat tour to Ile Bonaventure, to see the bird sanctuary.   Chicken played Humpty Dumpty on Ron’s head while waiting for the boat 😉

Chicken doing his stunt in front of a surprised Sandy.

Of course, he insisted on driving the boat to go see his friends the sea birds!

Chicken drove the tour boat, assisted by the Captain 🙂

250, 000 birds nest on this island, including the second largest and most accessible colony of “fous de bassan” (Northern Gannets) who share their island with other pelagic birds like the “Petit Pingouin”.

Northen Gannets and Small Pinguins nesting on Bonaventure Island

Birds flying around their nest site on Bonaventure Island

A grey seal near Bonaventure Island.

The name Percé means “pierced” in french and comes from the giant pierced rock (Rocher Percé) we can see close to shore.

Rocher Percé

Chicken made friend with a giant Gannet 😉

After his experience piloting a boat, Chicken found a boat he wanted us to buy him.    It was appropriately named “Baby Bear”,   but we decided against it.  Frustrated, Chicken went back in my bag. 😉

The boat Chicken really wanted to have 😉

We spent the next day sightseeing. The road presented us with gorgeous scenes.

Scenes from the road in Gaspésie

Finally we went searching for jasper and agates on  Coin-du-Banc beach and then found the “Auberge Coin-du-Banc” where we savored the most delicious gourmet meal we’d had so far.  It was time to move on again….

Since we left home at the beginning of May, many things happened, mostly good ones, with a few hiccups along the way.

Our first stop was in Louisiana, where I visited with my friend Cheryl for 2 days. I was so absorbed playing with her weaving and spinning toys, that I totally forgot to take pictures. 🙁 I was just having way too much fun! Needless to say, I would love to go back.  I had a wonderful time!

We also took a day to go to New Orleans. We, of course, went to Café du Monde for some “beignets” and Chicken ate his share!

Chicken really appreciated the beignets

We walked around and enjoyed the French Quarter, the weather was nice and cool, a perfect day for a walk.

From Louisiana, we left to go visit with our friends Jerry and Suzie Bush, who, we thought at first, were in Franklin TN. About 100 miles from Franklin TN, we realized that in fact, they were in Franklin NC! What a detour! 283 miles and a broken tow-bar later, we made it to the right Franklin!

Jerry and Suzie Bush

That was an eventful day! We stayed 3 days with Suzie and Jerry, they were so much fun! Their dogs however, did not really like Chicken!

This Chicken tastes awful! Yeurk!!

After taking delivery of our new tow-bar, we made our way to Montreal.  It was good to see my family again.  The weather was pretty nasty at first but improved tremendously as the days went by.  We ended up having nice breezy, mid 70’s sunny days most of the time 🙂

We visited my  mom every week.  She loves going to the music concerts organized by the nursing home for entertainment.  We enjoyed ourselves too!

Mom wearing her mandatory sunglasses (so she looks like a star!), listening to the music concert at the nursing home.

After our friends Curtis, Gladys, Terry and Evelyn joined us, we spent one day sightseeing in Montreal.  We re-visited Notre-Dame Basilica.  Gorgeous carved dark walnut features,   gold leafed details and wonderful sculpted statues never cease to amaze. It was built in 1824-1829.  The architect is James O’Donnell, an Irish protestant living in New York.  He moved to Montreal to oversee the construction,   converted to Catholicism, and died a few months after the church’s inauguration.  The inspiration for the interior decor comes from the “Sainte-Chapelle” in Paris.  The style is Rococo.   The work to decorate the inside was completed in 1880.  The church’s organ features 7000 tubes and 4 keyboards.

It is hard to capture the beauty of Notre-Dame Basilica.

Wooden statues of prophets

View of a part of Montreal and its bridges. In the foreground, Pont Jacques-Cartier.

Bear chasing birds on the grounds of the Olympic Stadium

The 1976 Olympic pool

Of course, Montreal is also about visiting with my kids and my grandson 🙂

My grandson Mathew and Chicken at a soccer match in Montréal

We also spent 24 hours in Quebec city (pronounce kaebek).  We stayed at the Chateau Frontenac, the famous hotel built on top of Cap Diamand in the late 1800’s, overlooking the St. Lawrence river. The name Quebec means “were the river narrows” .  Samuel the Champlain found the location ideal as a strategic point.  Since the river narrows to only half a mile wide at that point, he thought that whoever would control this location, would in fact, control the St. Lawrence river.  He founded Quebec in 1608, and at first, it was a fur trading post.  The fortifications of Quebec are still intact today.

Chateaul Frontenac, and at the bottom of the hill, the "Basse ville" featuring houses built in the 1600's.

Chicken thought he could help the maid dust the rooms at Chateau Frontenac!

Doug, Chicken, Curtis, Gladys, Terry and Evelyn on "Les Terrasses Dufferin" in Québec.

Terry and Evelyn enjoying breakfast in old Québec

Picture of the Montmorency falls taken from a cruise ship. They are higher than Niagara falls, but definetely not as spectacular.

Bear enjoying a little rest in our room at Chateau Frontenac

We are leaving Monday for the second leg of our trip.  We will visit the Bas Saint-Laurent area, the Gaspésie and then head for the Maritimes.