Quebec City Tour

I remember

The next day we decided to take a bus tour, we were glad we decided this alternative rather than driving back to the Vieux Quebec. It is a mess and the drivers there are some of the worst, we witnessed two drivers not wanting to yield, although it has become one lane. Just plain crazy! The rain was still prominent that morning, plus all the tour bus had to yield to the bicycle race, resulting to some areas that we had to miss. One of the places that we wanted to see is “La Citadelle de Quebec”, the rain just would not let up for us to go there.

The city tour was done in the morning and continue the suburbs of Quebec after we had lunch, a new bus took us to the Montmorency falls, “Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre” and ‘Ile de d’Orleans” or Orleans Island, plus some of the TOULIST TLAP, but overall were good destinations.

Pokie was a bit disappointed that the gift shop at the Sainte Anne church was closed at that time. The weather was much better in the afternoon. Guess what, when we left Quebec the next day, it was bright and sunny! What a trip to this part of the country, I felt that I went to Europe without crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

PS: The tour guide told us that there are only two seasons in Quebec, construction and winter. I thought that was very funny.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/newengland/quebec.html

Vieux Quebec

The artists quarter

We continued north-bound and proceed to cross the Canadian border, spending only a few minutes at the border crossing with a hardly any questions; coming back to the U.S. is completely different story. Pokie wanted to press on and continue to Quebec City, but I said “No”. She was too excited to see and feel the city, we ended up staying overnight in Drummondville, some 90 miles shy of “Ville de Quebec”. We stayed in Comfort Inn, this is the worst motel from our entire trip, it was still under construction and the smell of the new carpet drove me nuts.

The next morning, we drove east to Quebec, using our GPS set close to the “Vieux Quebec”, but too many streets were closed due to the bike race the next day. We ended up going through the “Old Quebec” and were caught in the traffic for awhile. Finally we were able to find a parking structure away from the city wall and parked our car there. The weather turned ugly. It was raining and miserable but it makes good photographs.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/newengland/vieux.html



Mount Washington Cog Railway

Mount Washington Cog Railway

Remember, when it comes to train is all about me. This was the second cog railway that I rode, the first being the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway in Colorado some years ago. This is also the third train ride for the year, that’s a bonus for me since my allowance is usually two train rides per year. The Mount Washington Cog Railway was the first mountain climbing cog railway in the world. The building of the railway began in 1866, with the first excursion to the top on July 3^rd, 1869.

There is no “coupler” between the coach and the locomotive, the engine simply push and hold the coach, plus you do not want 20 tons locomotive to drag you down the mountain in case there is an emergency. We missed the steam train ride by a few minutes, but that’s OK since I could take a rather amazing train steaming up the mountain. But the weather turns for the worst at the peak.

The base is located at 2,700 feet above sea level and the peak is at 6,288 feet, there is no restroom in the coach, the round trip takes about three hours. So, all aboard!

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/newengland/cog.html

Ben & Jerry Creamery and Morse Farm

Ben & Jerry Creamery, Waterbury, Vermont

After the Old Sturbridge Village, we drove west then north to Vermont, we visited Basketville which turns out to be a TOULIST TLAP, then we visited King Arthur Flour before a stop to Ben & Jerry Factory and Morse Farm Maple Syrup. Vermont is the only state that we never stay overnight, we ended up in Littleton, New Hampshire for the next tour of Cog Railway. Stay tune!

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/newengland/ben.html

Old Sturbridge Village

The Towne House

Welcome to The Old Sturbridge Village, home of the 1830s New England living history museum. From Noank, Connecticut, we drove about 84 miles to the north to Sturbridge, Massachusetts. We got here just before 10:00 AM, we felt refresh from a full night sleep. By this time we have covered three states. We walked a lot on this tour, by 3:00 o’clock we were ready to hit “home”. This is truly a fascinating place to explore the history for that period.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/newengland/osv.html

Noank, Connecticut

Damn Good Lobstha

This was our first destination, well actually it was supposed to be Mystic, CT, but we missed the turn and we ended up in Noank. I did remember that there is a lobster pound in this vicinity, so we stopped and I asked some folks to give me direction to go to this place, as a result Pokie had her first taste of  “Damn good lobstha”. It was on a Saturday, so there were many people and we were lucky to find a parking spot. Houses around here were built in the mid 1800s; roads are narrow and sidewalk are almost to a non-existence. Oh…by the way, I learned how to spell Connecticut, I just simple remember that you “Connect-I-cut”, got it? Next installment is Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/newengland/noank.html

New England Trip Highlights

Vieux Quebec

We are home to a gray and dark Sunday morning, but the best of all is we are home safe and sound from a “two-week”, fun filled trip, running like chicken with no heads at times, for example, we had to wake up at 5:00 o’clock in the morning to get ready and catch the ferry ride to Martha’s Vineyard at 8:15 AM. We walked a lot for sure, exploring Quebec City and Boston.

Pokie drove most of the way and I was the so-called navigator in training. I made a cardinal mistake one time when I entered the wrong city into our GPS, it should have been Braintree as the city, but I entered it as Boston instead. The result was harrowing, we went into some of the roughest neighborhood and we went through a huge cemetery. A good thing I realized it quickly and it was a fifteen-minute mistake.

We took the red-eye flight to Providence, Rhode Island from Portland, Oregon resulting in no sleep and a tired day when we got there, but we recovered rather quickly. I think we drove about 1,500 miles in total all in all, covering six states in the US and one province in Canada, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Quebec Province and Maine in that order.

We were hoping for “fall colors” as an added bonus, but we were about three weeks too early. The peak for fall colors starts the first week of October, so we will visit again the next time around.

We mostly stay in the “Hampton Inn and Suites”. There are two things that are certain about this hotel chain managed by Hilton, the cleanliness of the room and the consistent complimentary breakfast served from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. When you are traveling, it is a great help and we save some money along the way. I also belong to Hilton Honors, earning some free nights along the way.

We went as far as Provincetown, Cape Cod and Edgartown in Martha’s Vineyard. Along the way I took some 1,350 images, thus it will take me sometime to sort these out. Here’s some of the highlighted from this New England trip. I will do a website on each segment of the trips later on bit by bit.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2013/ne