Dearest Family and Friends,
Today we are in Québec City, Québec, Canada on the
St. Lawrence Seaway. Québec, named from
an Algonquin Indian word, Kébec, that means “narrows” or more literally
translated, “where the river narrows”. It
was one of the biggest surprises of our entire voyage, but more about that
tomorrow.
We sailed from Sydney to Charlottetown, the provincial
capital of Prince Edward Island, Canada.
It was the first town settled in the PEI in 1720 and was French before
it passed to the British in 1758.
Charlottetown was the site of the 1864 Convention where the founding
fathers met to negotiate the ultimate combining of all territories into the
nation we now know, collectively, as Canada.
We were charmed by this intimate and lovely city with its Victorian
buildings, hundreds of hanging flower pots lining the streets, colorful
heritage homes and beautifully manicured lawns ending in extremely clean
streets.
We took a tour out to a river which is the home to
hundreds of oyster beds and met with a family who owns an oyster lease, a
section of water about 200 yards by 100 yards along the banks of a river with a
combination of salt and fresh water. The
river actually had an eight foot tide because of its closeness to the ocean.
The couple had been “oyster fishing” for 13 years
and they were really cute as they opened up their home and taught us all about
how oyster harvesting works. There are
strictly-enforced rules and regulations involved with this harvesting and it is
truly a hand operation that requires 8-10 hours a day hard work. One man (or woman) works a boat and only one
boat is allowed on a given lease. They
haul up about a dozen oysters with each “raking” of the bed, but may only keep
2-4 that are over 3” long and are graded either “standard” or “choice”,
depending on its size, shape and age. The
rest are tossed back for more time to develop.
Oysters covered with one or more baby oysters are spared so the younger
oysters may grow.
Did you know that oysters are either male or
female but they can change gender? Don’t
ask me how or why, but they must have had their roots in San Francisco. Did you know that oysters can survive out of
water and stay fresh that entire time for up to ten weeks? Did you know that oysters develop rings, much
like a tree, and that is how you can roughly tell their age? Is that like wrinkles on a human?
After learning everything about oysters you ever
wanted to know, we ate them. Lots of
them. Very, very tasty….a lovely
combination of salty and sweet. And
clams, the sweetest I have ever had, cooked on a BBQ grill until their shells
opened. Delicious! Prince Edward Island is a beautiful spot and
it was the best tour we had been on since we sailed.
We then sailed up out of the Atlantic and entered
the gigantic mouth of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
We spent a day at sea in transit to our next port, Saguenay.
Now, Saguenay did not even exist officially until
2002 by amalgamating four cities and two municipalities. It encompasses the entire Saguenay River
region, an oasis in the vast remote wilderness of Northern Québec which was
carved out of the land by a huge glacier nearly 20,000 years ago. It is not hugely populated and, in fact,
there are no human settlements due north of Saguenay all the way to the
Canadian Arctic Island. The joke is the
only difference between the United States and Canada is that nobody lives in
Canada.
That being said, we have been looking for the
turning leaves of fall for the past eight days in every port from Newport, RI
to Prince Edwards Island and we have never seen so much green in our
lives. That yearning was satisfied when
we visited the Fjord du Saguenay Nationale Parc on the banks of the Saguenay
River. We took the most enjoyable two
mile “stroll” through the woods with a learned guide who gave us more
information about the flora and fauna then we could ever absorb BUT the scenery
was absolutely gorgeous. I will let the
photos below speak for themselves.
Enjoy.
We are off in Montreal tomorrow, before the crack,
taking a city tour and staying overnight for a 7:30 AM flight back to
Texas. I will report on Québec and
Montreal after we return. Hope you have enjoyed
these Travel Updates.
God Bless you all,
Jud and Vicki
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