Maine & Canada, August - September 2021

We took a 24 day vacation up the east coast into Canada in August and September 2021.  We left our home in Maryland on Friday the 13th of August, and spent that night just north of Boston.  We continued north, spending four days in Maine, and then crossed into Canada at Campobello Island just after midnight on 18 August.  We were in Canada for 19 days, and then drove from Montreal to home on the last day, Sunday, 5 September.

US, outbound: Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine --> Canada: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario --> US, return: New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland Parks: - Acadia National Park, Maine - Fundy Trail Parkway, New Brunswick - Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park, New Brunswick - Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia - Peggy's Cove Preservation Area, Nova Scotia - Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, Nova Scotia - Basin Head Provincial Park, Prince Edward Island - Prince Edward Island National Park, Prince Edward Island - Saguenay - St. Lawrence Marine Park, Quebec Highlights of our trip: - Sunset on Cadillac Mountain & climbing Beehive Trail, Acadia National Park - Kayaking at high tide at Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy, great food at Innisfree B&B - relaxing in our hot tub at night at Seascape Coastal Retreat, Ingonish - Skyline Trail, Cape Breton Highlands National Park - Church Street Winery, Wolfsville - John gets Tami drunk with lots of wine tasting - Tidal bore rafting & sitting around campfire drinking wine with the owners, Shubenacadie Tidal Bore Rafting Resort - swimming at Basin Head beach, Prince Edward Island - seeing whales & dolphins on St Lawrence River, ferry from Trois-Pistoles to Les Escoumins (warning: 90 minute quoted time for trip is wrong, our crossing took almost 3 hours) - Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City - wow!

13 - 14 August 2021, Friday - Saturday, Home to Boston to Boothbay Harbor

We left our home in Maryland and drove to Boston. We stayed in a hotel near the Interstate and did not visit anywhere during this long drive.  The next day, 14 August, we drove through Salem and then along the coast through Gloucester and Rockport.  We had lunch in Rockport and walked around the city, before heading northwest back to I-95. We continued north through New Hampshire and into Maine.  We drove back over to the coast at Kennebunkport and drove past President Bush's house at Walker Point.  Then it was back to the Interstate again, through Portland, and finally to Boothbay Harbor, where we spent the next two nights.

Kennebunkport Harbor, Walker Point

Boothbay Harbor

Rockport Harbor

15 August 2021, Sunday, Boothbay Harbor

We drove to Damariscotta to take our COVID tests so that the results would be back in time to cross the border on the evening of 17 August. We continued on to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, which is east of Boothbay Harbor, and then returned to Boothbay Harbor for a cruise around the bay and out to "Fisherman Island" and "The Hypocrites".  We had dinner in town on top of a high deck overlooking the harbor, and then slowly walked back to our hotel in the evening across the pedestrian bridge across the harbor.

16 August 2021, Monday, Boothbay Harbor to Bar Harbor

We started this morning by shipping lobster to our families from a lobster company near our hotel, so that they would all arrive on Friday afternoon in Charleston, WV (Tami's family) and Soddy Daisy, TN (Chris' family).  We drove north and then northeast to Bar Harbor, stopping at the Penobscot Narrows Bridge & Observatory, before reaching Mt Desert Island.  After checking into our hotel and walking around the town of Bar Harbor a little bit, we headed to Acadia National Park and drove up Cadillac Mountain for sunset.  During the high tourist season you have to make reservations to drive up Cadillac Mountain for $5, which we had done for sunset this evening and at noon for the following day. Our plan was to spend at least one of these reservations on top of the mountain; we ended up using both reservations.  We sat on the rocks watching sunset, drinking wine and eating cheese and crackers.  After sunset, we returned to Bar Harbor and walked a short distance down the street to a restaurant for dinner.

17 August 2021, Tuesday, Bar Harbor to Lubec

Chris got up very early on this morning and drove to a trailhead just northeast of Sand Beach, where he started his hike to the Beehive Trail.  The Beehive Trail is an exposed trail of about 500 feet vertical climb up the face of the "Beehive", a rocky out-cropping just northwest of Sand Beach.  He arrived early enough to avoid the crowds, enjoying the climb up the iron rungs, getting great video and photos along the way.  There were a few other people even at this early hour, but it was not crowded.  Later in the day, when we drove by the trailhead at around 1 PM, the area was packed - absolutely teaming with tourists.  Chris completed the hike, with the route shown below, and then drove back to the hotel for breakfast.  We checked out and headed for Cadillac Mountain at lunchtime, where Chris walked around for a little bit taking pictures in the bright light.  We drove off the mountain and began the Acadia National Park driving loop.  The video below shows our drive on Cadillac Mountain and around the scenic loop.  It was incredibly busy, with the roads packed and almost no parking available anywhere.  We were going to get a snack and drink at Jordan Pond, but there was no parking available and a long line to get into Jordan Pond House.  We stopped at a couple viewpoints, and then headed north out of the park, looking forward to getting away from crowds, which hopefully crossing the border into Canada would allow. 

Beehive Peak View

Looking down at "The Bowl' while descending back side of Beehive

Cadillac Mountain View

 
Beehive Trail

Beehive Trail, Acadia National Park, Maine	Head-mounted GoPro video of Beehive Trail climb
Beehive Trail, All-Trails Pro 3D, looking northeast	Beehive Trail, All-Trails Pro 3D, looking northwest

Acadia National Park, Maine - Cadillac Mountain & Scenic Loop

We drove north towards Lubec, Maine, which is the last town before crossing over into Canada at Campobello Island.  We were expecting our COVID test results at any time, but they still had not arrived.  As we were driving north, we found out that our test samples had not even arrived at the lab until 2:14 AM on this very morning, which meant that we would not have our results back by our predicted border arrival time.  We tried to get a rapid test at an urgent care center along the way, but they would only administer the test if we had symptoms; we were both feeling fine so that would not work.  We just had to hope our test results would arrive in time, so we continued to Lubec, and then waited in the car at the border crossing point.  The two hotels in the small town of Lubec were both full, and our hotel reservations were on Campobello Island in Canada, just a few miles across the border. We asked the US border guards what would happen if we drove across the bridge to Canada, saying we were waiting for our test results.  They told us the Canadian border guards would send us right back, and that if our test results were 72 hours and 1 minute old, they would also send us right back.  We killed time in Lubec at a Dollar General, where we bought some drinks and snacks, relaxed in our car in the parking lot, and the workers were nice enough to let us use the bathroom until they closed at 10 PM.  Then it was back to the border guard parking lot to wait...

18 August 2021, Wednesday, Lubec, Maine to Campobello Island, New Brunswick to St Martins, New Brunswick

Chris' test results arrived via email a few minutes after midnight, and Tami's results arrived a few minutes later.  We waited for full confirmation of both tests, which finally arrived at about 12:30 AM. We headed across the bridge into Canada with all our paperwork and electronic documentation ready.  It all ended up being anti-climactic; we showed everything to the guard who let us in with no issues.  We had already contacted our hotel manager to let her know we would be late, and she told us that she would leave our cottage unlocked with the keys inside.  We arrived at our hotel on Campobello Island at about 1 AM and immediately went to sleep.

We had been traveling for five days at this point, and with our the car parked right outside the cottage door, we decided it was a good time to repack. We completed that and drove around the island, visiting the northeast corner and Head Harbor Light-Station, and also the Roosevelt Campobello International Park, where FDR had a summer home.  We then took two ferries to get to the Canada mainland, and continued on to our B&B in St Martins, New Brunswick, where we had dinner.

19 August 2021, Thursday, St Martins to Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick

We had planned to visit the St Martins Sea Caves either on the afternoon of 18 August or the morning of 19 August, but the tides were exactly opposite that which would have allowed us to visit each time, so we ended up stopping at the viewpoint and not hiking along the coastline to the caves. However, this ended up being OK, since we had more time to drive the Fundy Trail Parkway along the coast from St Martins to Sussex. The parkway has lots of great views and hikes, including one of the prettiest small waterfalls Chris has ever seen, Fuller Falls.

Chris hiked the Long Beach Brook Falls trail and the Walton Glen Gorge - Falls Observation Deck trail; both were a few miles long.  Hint: If you hike the Long Beach Brook Falls trail and only want to see the watefall and creek, hike in and out on the left hand side of the loop trail - it is flat and runs along Long Beach Brook.  The right hand side of the loop trail climbs A LOT and then descends A LOT, back down to the creek, without really seeing anything along the way except for trees - there are no views.

We continued north to Hopewell Rocks, where we checked in and had dinner at Innnisfree B&B.  The B&B owner and manager is also a trained chef, and he fed us fantastic dinners and breakfasts for the two days we were there.

Fundy Trail Parkway

20 August 2021, Friday, Hopewell Rocks

High tide at Hopewell Rocks was early this morning, and we were going to kayak around the rocks at high tide. We were up early, and the B&B owner made us breakfast early to accommodate this, and then we headed over to Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park.  We kayaked around the rocks at high tide; a neat part was getting into the kayaks as high tide was approaching.  The kayaks were parked back from the water's edge and we got into them on dry ground. As the guides explained where were going and safety rules, the water rose over about 10 minutes so that by the time we were ready to paddle, we were already floating with no need to push the boats out into the water.  After spending high tide kayaking around the 'flowerpot rocks', we returned to the B&B for a little bit to allow the water to drop, and then went back to the park to walk around the rocks at low tide. The difference between high tide and low tide at Hopewell Rocks is almost 50 feet vertical, which leads to some incredible photo comparisons.  After spending quite a while hiking around the rocks and park, we headed back to our B&B for another incredible dinner prepared by the owner/chef.

Dinner at our B&B

21 August 2021, Saturday, Hopewell Rocks to Baddeck, Nova Scotia

We had three days with long drives during this trip, and today was the first of those long drives.  We headed north to Moncton, New Brunswick and then east into Nova Scotia, headed for Cape Breton Island. We crossed over the Canso Causeway onto Cape Breton Island and then continued northeast to Baddeck.  We checked into our hotel, which was a resort on the north arm of Bras d'Or Lake.  It was very nice resort, but a large wedding had just finished right before we arrived, so it seemed that almost everyone at the resort was part of the wedding party and everyone knew everyone else.  We felt a little out of place, but still enjoyed ourselves.  We relaxed in the Adirondack chairs on our deck, and then had dinner at the resort.  These chairs began our continued effort throughout the vacation to find the perfect Adirondack chair. After trying slightly different versions all over Canada, we decided that the chairs at this resort were the perfect chair – just the right leaning back angle, not too narrow, and nice flat wide arms to hold drinks.  Now we just have to figure out who made those particular chairs, as we forgot to write down the manufacturer when we were there.  All the other Adirondack chairs we tried in Canada were not quite as comfortable.

Baddeck Resort Harbor

22 August 2021, Sunday, Baddeck to Ingonish, Nova Scotia

We visited the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, and then drove north and entered Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  We drove by the Keltic Lodge at the Highlands, before we made it to our cottage in Ingonish.  Chris flew his RC airplane for the first time on this trip in the field by the shore at the cottages.  We both visited Warren Lake and Mary Ann Falls, just north of Ingonish, before going back to our cottage.  Chris then returned to the promontory at Keltic Lodge and hiked the Middle Head Trail.  On the way back from the trail, he stopped at a restaurant to pick up take-out food for dinner.  We then relaxed the rest of the evening in our private hot tub under the stars.

Middle Head Trail, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia

Aerial video from Chris' RC airplane at our cottages at Ingonish, Nova Scotia

23 August 2021, Monday, Ingonish to Cheticamp

We drove counter-clockwise around the Cabot Trail road drive, stopping at many viewpoints along the way, and driving off the Cabot Trail at the northern end to visit Dingwall.  We drove out to Beulach Ban Falls at the north center section of the drive in the middle of the island, and then west to Pleasant Bay.  We drove along the west coast, climbing to Mackenzie Mountain and south to the Skyline Trail trailhead.  Just before we reached Skyline Trail, we passed a moose next to the road, which was the one moose we saw on the trip.  Chris hiked the Skyline Trail, and then we drove to our B&B in Cheticamp.  We had dinner at the Harbor Restaurant nearby.

Our cottage in Ingonish

Cottage gardens

Skyline Trail View

Skyline Trail View

Skyline Trail, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia

24 August 2021, Tuesday, Cheticamp to Halifax

Today was the second long one-day drive of our trip.  We checked out and drove south through Inverness, visiting Inverness Beach for a few minutes.  Inverness is a pretty little town and looks to be nice place to stay.  We stopped at Glenora Inn & Distillery, just north of Mabou, where we had lunch and Tami enjoyed a whiskey tasting.  We continued south along the west coast of Cape Breton Island, eventually reaching the Canso Causeway and crossing back over the mainland on Nova Scotia.  At that point, we had about 150 miles to drive to reach Halifax, where we were staying for the next three nights.  We began to drive south out of Antigonish towards Sherbrooke where we were hoping to drive along the southern coast of Nova Scotia towards Halifax.  However, that road ended up being terrible and we only made it about 10 miles before turning around.  We stayed on the ‘Interstate’ all the way through Truro and then south to Halifax.  We made it to our hotel in downtown Halifax in the late afternoon, looking forward to staying in one room for three nights.

Inverness Beach View

Halifax View

25 August 2021, Wednesday, Halifax

Chris got up early and walked around the south end of Halifax along the waterfront, then returned to the hotel and we drove southwest out of town to Peggy's Cove. After walking around the lighthouse and rocks, we had ice cream in the small village of Peggy’s Cove, and then headed back towards Halifax, turning off just before reaching town to drive to Crystal Crescent Beach. We spent several hours swimming, and then drove back to town.  Chris went out to pick up donairs for dinner from Johnny K’s Authentic Donair take-out at ‘Pizza Corner’.  Donairs are famous as the Halifax official food.  We both agreed we would not be trying donairs again – they are an acquired taste, and neither of us enjoyed them.

View from Halifax Citadel Hill

26 August 2021, Thursday, Halifax

Chris visited the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, and then we both headed to the waterfront to pick up rental bikes for a self-guided tour around Halifax.  After biking, we stopped at several restaurants on the way back to the hotel, sampling different foods, wine, beer, cider, and ‘boat-drinks’ over several hours.  We eventually stumbled all the way up the steep hills of Halifax back to our hotel and crashed for the evening.

27 August 2021, Friday, Halifax to Lower Argyle (Yarmouth)

We drove southwest, headed for Yarmouth at the extreme southwest end of Nova Scotia.  We stopped in Mahone Bay and also visited Lunenburg, driving to the east end of that point of land at Blue Rocks.  We made it to our hotel, Argyler Lodge and Restaurant in Lower Argyle, by early evening.  We enjoyed dinner with a sunset view in the restaurant with live music from a very good band.  We headed outside after dinner and relaxed with wine on the shore in comfortable Adirondack chairs while watching stars in the dark night sky.

28 August 2021, Saturday, Lower Argyle

We drove into Yarmouth and visited Cape Forchu Lighthouse before driving out through the islands south of town to Morris Island, which was directly west of our hotel.  We could just make out our hotel a few miles away, directly across the water.  The actual drive from the south end of Morris Island back to our hotel was 25 miles.  After getting back to the hotel, Chris flew his RC airplane via FPV out over the water, then we repeated the previous evening, with dinner at the hotel, sunset, and relaxing with wine on the shore in the evening. There was no live music this evening though.

 
Aerial video from Chris' RC airplane at our B&B in Lower Argyle, Nova Scotia

29 August 2021, Sunday, Lower Argyle to Wolfsville

Before we left for Wolfville, Chris flew his RC airplane and quadcopter this morning. The wind was almost completely calm, so the aerial video was much smoother than the afternoon before. We drove north along the northwest coast of Nova Scotia, enjoying the beautiful views through the Annapolis Valley, and then checked into our B&B in Wolfville.  Wolfville is known for its wineries, and we visited several on this afternoon, with Tami doing tasting at each and we bought some wine also.  There were bald eagles soaring overhead at the first winery we visited, a working phone booth in the middle of the vineyard fields in the second winery, and a wine/soda machine in the middle of the vineyard fields of the third winery.  Our biggest purchase was a case of Nova 7 wine at Benjamin Bridge Winery, the third winery we visited.  We had dinner in town not too far from our B&B, and then returned to enjoy some wine on the deck of the B&B that evening.  Notice anything about wine in the evenings in our travel history?

30 August 2021, Monday, Wolfville to Urbania

We would be rafting this afternoon in Urbania, but before we left Wolfville, we wanted to go to a few more wineries.  We visited two wineries similar to the afternoon before, where Tami had a couple more tastings and we bought a few bottles of wine.  Then we found Church Street Winery.

We were the first visitors to Church Street Winery on this morning, and were greeted by the owners’ two very large and very friendly Labrador dogs as we got out of our car.  John, the owner, ushered us inside his tasting room, which was the top floor of his wine storage building, with great views looking out over the grape vines of his 15 acre farm.  Tami asked about a tasting of his wines and he said “What do you like?”  At that point, the wine started and just kept coming.  He poured large amounts from every wine bottle, pretty much larger than normal wine pours, 4+ ounces each, for 15 different wines.  This went on and on with fresh wine glasses for every new wine type; somewhere in the middle he broke out fresh bread from a local bakery and special Dutch cheese to go along with the wine.  Throughout this drinking session (it was much more than a ‘tasting’), we talked and he told us about his farming and family history, winery work, and the creation of this winery.  And the big, friendly dogs were ever-present, right at our feet, rolling over on our shoes and always looking for a head scratch or belly rub.  John was also pouring himself a small drink for every wine that Tami had, telling us he wanted to make sure that nothing had turned overnight since we were the first visitors this day.  Tami was pretty tipsy when she finished the last glass, at which point we asked “How much is this tasting?”, as it was a LOT of wine.  He replied “Well, I figured you would be buying at least $100 of wine.”, to which we replied “Of course”.  His response was that the wine tasting, bread, and cheese were all free, and he would just bring us an empty wine case box to fill with as much wine as we wanted.  We filled it with 12 bottles and his sales process was a complete success.

We then drove to Urbania, where we stayed at the Tidal Bore Rafting Resort in one of their cabins, and would be rafting in the next tidal bore coming up the Shubenacadie River, which was at about 5 PM on this evening.  We unpacked into the cabin, got ready for the rafting, and returned to the main building to join the other rafters.  We walked down to the river and boarded the Zodiak boats, which held 8 passengers and the guide/driver.  The next 3 hours consisted of getting very wet and dirty, diving through the high waves of the tidal bore, and sliding down the muddy banks of the river.  We were talking with the other rafters about our visit to wineries earlier in the day, and one person said she was from Wolfville and asked what winery had got Tami drunk.  We told her, and she replied "Yea, Johnny has gotten me drunk before also."  When the trip was done, we showered off in the resort’s outside showers to get the worst part of the mud off, and then retuned to our cabin to get the rest of the mud off.  We had a campfire in front of our cabin, and sat at the campfire enjoying wine (again) while relaxing in front of the fire.  The resort owners were in the cabin next to ours, and we invited them to join us and have some wine.  They both came over and we talked and drank for several hours, having a great evening.  The owner was a pilot and engineer, so we all had fun with our evening discussions.

 
Tidal Bore Rafting on Shubenacadie River

31 August 2021, Tuesday, Urbania to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

We drove north and east, through Truro to Caribou.  We arrived just in time to catch the ferry to Prince Edward Island. There was a bald eagle sitting by the ferry as we departed the mainland.  After passing through the very strict COVID checks to get onto Prince Edward Island, we drove to Basin Head Provincial Park, almost to the far eastern end of PEI.  This was a very neat beach, with a harbor and small channel running from the ocean into the harbor.  With the slowly rising tide when we were there, you could swim into the channel from the ocean and be pushed through into the harbor by the incoming current.  We swam for several hours, cleaned up in the very nice facilities, and then drove to Charlottetown, the capital and biggest city on PEI.  We checked into our hotel for the next two nights, and had take-out pizza in our room on this evening.

1 September 2021, Wednesday, Charlottetown

Chris walked around Victoria Park in the morning, and then we headed north to Prince Edward Island National Park on the north shore.  We swam at Brackley Beach and visited Dalvay by the Sea, a large hotel on the ocean we had considered staying in.  It looked very nice, but we also liked where we were in Charlottetown.  We drove west, stopping in Cavendish at the Green Gables Heritage Place.  Neither of us has ever read Anne of Green Gables, which takes place on PEI, but we were this close so we drove through the parking lot to see what all the hubbub was about.   It is a house with green gables, with a lot of history.  OK, moving on… We drove out to Cavendish Beach, which was very pretty, but we did not go swimming as it was late in the day.  Cavendish itself is very touristy – lots of family amusement centers, and some small roller-coasters and other rides for kids.  On the way back to Charlottetown, Chris flew his RC airplane for one last time on this trip at New Glasgow.  We had dinner at a restaurant down the street from out hotel.

 
Victoria Park, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Brackley Beach, Prince Edward Island

 
Aerial video from Chris' RC airplane at New Glasgow, Prince Edward Island

2 September 2021, Thursday, Charlottetown to Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec

This day was the last long day drive of the trip, other than the final day to get home.  We were driving through the remnants of Hurricane Ida, and there was lots of rain. We crossed the Confederation Bridge in light rain, and it got much worse over the next several hours as we headed northwest towards the St Lawrence River.  We eventually made it out of the very heavy rain as we neared the US border in eastern Maine.  The roads in Canada are not great in many places, with pronounced gullies in the right hand lanes of almost all ‘Interstates’. Those gullies fill with water and hydroplaning is a very likely, dangerous outcome.  At one point, our car left the road surface and migrated by itself from the right lane into the left lane. Fortunately, no other cars were nearby when that happened. Chris stuck to the left lane as much as possible after that.  We were driving along, occasionally getting passed by minivans and trucks, asking ‘How are they doing that?”  A short time later, we passed a minivan that had slid off the road into the median below and between the northbound and southbound lanes of the road.  We stopped in Hartland to drive across the longest covered bridge in the world.  We continued on north into Quebec province, stopping for the night in Riviere-du-Loup on the south side of the St Lawrence River.  We had arrived late, and found out that the hotel restaurant had no more room for dinner reservations. It was same way for breakfast the following morning, so we were not thrilled with that hotel.  We ended up having KFC (PFK ‘Poulet Frit Kentucky’ in French-speaking Quebec) take-out for dinner.  Strangely enough, KFC is still called KFC in France; it is only in Quebec province Canada where they changed the name.  Also, the stop signs in Quebec say ‘Arret’, but the stop signs in France say ‘STOP”.  They take their French seriously in Quebec.

Longest covered bridge in the world, Hartland, New Brunswick

3 September 2021, Friday, Riviere-du-Loup to Quebec City

We would be staying this evening at the grandest hotel on the entire trip, the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City.  We had dinner reservations at 8:30 PM at the hotel restaurant, which we were looking forward to very much.  If we drove directly from Riviere-du-Loup to Quebec City, the trip was only 120 miles, along the south side of the St Lawrence River. However, we read that the drive along the north side of the river was much prettier. Also, there was a good chance we would see whales and dolphins from the ferry as we crossed the river.  So we went north to Trois-Pistoles and took the ferry across to Les Escoumins.  The ferry schedule showed the crossing as taking 90 minutes.  Unfortunately, the ferry left almost 30 minutes late and took almost 3 hours to cross.  We did see beluga whales (big white shapes), lots of dolphins, a seal playing in the ship’s wake, and a large whale tail lift up out of the water during the crossing.  When we got off the ferry in Les Escoumins, our navigation system told us we would be arriving at our hotel at 8:20 PM, and we still had another ferry to take at Tadoussac across the Saguenay River.  We had wanted to check in a little early to enjoy the grand hotel before dinner, but had blown that chance by getting too creative with our route.  We pushed it and made it to the hotel by 8:10 PM, checked in, cleaned up quickly, and were only a couple minutes late to our dinner reservations.  Dinner was very good.  After dinner, Chris went out and took night photos around old-town Quebec City.

St Lawrence River, view from Riviere du Loup

4 September 2021, Saturday, Quebec City to Montreal

We had late checkout with our Fairmont status, so we took advantage of it.  After a great breakfast at the hotel, we walked outside and relaxed on the main walkway in old town Quebec. Chris walked around all over that section of the city, down to the waterfront, up to the Quebec parliament building, and around the Quebec City Citadel.  We finally checked out at 3 PM, and headed for Montreal where we had hotel reservations for the night of 5 September. We did not have any hotel reservations for this night, figuring we would find something along the way, halfway between Quebec City and Montreal.  We drove along the north shore of the St Lawrence River, slowly making our way southwest. We never did find anyplace we liked that had rooms available.  We finally gave up and settled for a high priced chain hotel just north of Montreal.

5 September 2021, Sunday, Montreal to home

We receive an email from our hotel in Montreal that the food staff of the hotel was on strike, so they were allowing cancellations with no penalty.  We had been looking forward to eating there, which was one of the main reasons we had picked that hotel.  We called and cancelled our room, but were already nearby so we drove by the hotel to see what it was like.  There was lots of trash at the front of the hotel, construction all around the main entrance, the parking garage was closed, and the outside area in front of the hotel was covered with a homeless encampment. The area in front of the hotel transitioned into a park area, but we would not have felt safe walking in that area, and the only place to park the car would have been in the small circle in front of the hotel, surrounded by the homeless encampment.  We decided it was good that we had cancelled our reservations.  We drove around Montreal for a little bit to see if we liked the city, but it was a dreary rainy day and we did not see anything that caught our attention that we wanted to see.  Our route into the city had also taken us for several miles along the city’s industrial waterfront, which is like driving through any industrial area; that had also turned us off to the city.  We decided to skip Montreal for this trip and just head home.  It was 600 miles to home at this point.  We headed south, crossing back into the US over the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge.  We stopped just before the bridge at the Johnstown Duty Free shop before leaving Canada, and spent our last Canadian dollars on some ice wine to take home.  We drove south across New York and Pennsylvania, arriving home in Maryland by about 11 PM.