August 22-26 - Quebec

We camped 25 miles outside of Quebec City in a really nice setting off the highway & amid farmland. Most campers seemed to be locals who keep their "VR"s on site all summer. Not knowing French didn't hamper us since most everyone was happy to be able to practice their English. Thank goodness! Now, the people were as nice as could be & their language is beautiful, but I must ask why most the men walked around the campground with no shirts??? The worst offenders were those who definitely should have worn their shirts. Isn't that always the case? But I digress... We took the ferry across the St. Lawrence River on our first visit to Quebec City. The ferry terminal is in the perfect location. The town is built on two levels that are connected by stairs and a funicular. We wandered around the lower town & then took the funicular up the hill. The Chateau Frontenac hotel opened in 1893. It sits at the edge of the hill & is visible from EVERYWHERE so it ended up in a lot of pictures. It was a great spot to grab a snack, cool down, use the facilities, etc. We wandered all over the narrow streets in town & marveled at so many beautiful stone buildings that dated back to the 1700's. Knowing nothing about Canadian history, we went to a museum that explained the 6 attacks on Quebec City over the years, the last of which was led by Benedict Arnold in 1775. It's amazing that anything is still standing. Quebec City is celebrating its 400th birthday this year with many special events. Celine Dion gave a free concert for 250,000 people the night before we arrived. We drove in for our second day of sightseeing & ran right into a marathon! This slowed us down a bit & changed our intended route, but it was interesting to see the sights & many of the runners. We visited a museum with such a variety of exhibits that it took us half the dayto see. The museum was across from the cruise ship terminal, so Barb whimpered as the lucky cruisers set sail. One of our best finds was our dinner at Aux Anciens Canadiens. The restaurant occupies the oldest house in Quebec, built in 1675. Our $17 early bird special included wine/beer, bread, soup, entree & dessert. Dennis loved his wild meat pie entree & Barb could have eaten a whole maple pie dessert. We returned to the campground & visited with Dennis' new friend, Gaston. We hope to hear from him when he comes to Mesa this winter. Gaston told us about another campground about 100 miles down the road & it was even nicer than we expected. We passed so much beautiful farmland in our drive. The fields are laid out in ribbons & remind us of pictures we've seen of France & Italy. Quebec is a beautiful & friendly province. We hope to return again one day.

August 18-21 - Vermont

As expected, we ate our way through Vermont. So many yummy factories. Surprisingly, Barb's long-awaited pilgrimage to Ben & Jerry's did not meet expectations but it was interesting enough & capped off with free samples of brownie cheesecake ice cream. Cold Hollow Cider Mill was an unexpected treat. We tasted the #4 donuts in the U.S., made with apple cider & not sicky sweet. Definite thumbs up. Couldn't resist buying an apple pie since they were making them in front of us & the place smelled heavenly. Also bought a delicious maple smoked cheddar cheese. A side road trip took us to the Trapp Family Lodge, as in the Von Trapp family from "The Sound of Music". The location definitely could have reminded them of Austria. Further down the road, we happened on a beautiful drive & short hike through woods & large boulders. Our campground was on an island in the middle of Lake Champlain. We had a beautiful view of the lake & it inspired us to drive around all the Champlain Islands. The towns were pretty sleepy but the shoreline views were amazing. And we found cinnamon creme chocolates. Possibly the best chocolate we've had, but it's a small operation & they don't ship so we'll have to be happy with the one we ate there. Lake Champlain Chocolates in Burlington came as close as possible on the yummy scale. We saw them make truffles & molded hollow chocolates in their factory. It was very interesting & the tour was filled with SO MANY samples. We ended our great Vermont visit with a concert at a local vineyard. The band was really good, playing mostly 60's & 70's music. We brought our chairs & bought a bottle of wine. The concert ended when the sun went down & we saw a beautiful sunset over one of the bays. We're defecting to Canada tomorrow for a visit to Quebec City & beyond. Not sure what we'll find for internet but will update when we can. Yes, we know they have internet in Canada, but we will be staying in relatively remote locations.
P.S. Happy birthday Steve!

August 10-17 - Finger Lakes & Adirondacks

NASCAR is stalking us! While sightseeing around Watkins Glen, we saw NASCAR semis & RVs on the move again. We toured the countryside & saw a few Amish farms. It was Sunday & no one was working but we did see their horse-drawn equipment & several fields of oat shocks. We found blueberries at a roadside stand so we're happily eating cobblers for dessert. Watkins Glen State Park was a real treat. We hiked a mile up a deep canyon filled with beautiful large & small waterfalls. The Finger Lakes were carved by glaciers & are beautiful. We stopped at Seneca Lake for a drink at the Tiki Bar, sat on their beach & watched boats go by. Did you know there is a salt bed under the lake? Dennis had good questions: Why did someone decide to drill 50 feet below a freshwater lake? What did they think they'd find? Who would guess salt? We saw demonstrations on glass blowing, glass making & glass breaking at the Corning Museum of Glass. Barb made her own glass flower (with a lot of help). We made an overnight stop near Binghamton. There are 6 antique carousels in parks around the area. We rode 3 of them & had lunch in Little Italy in Endicott. Definitely a good day! We moved on to the Adirondacks & tried twice to go to thoroughbred racing at Saratoga. We were too late for the Friday afternoon race, which was attended by ladies in dresses & wide-brimmed hats (very appealing to Barb). So we tried again Sunday morning but found out this session was attended by the unwashed masses. :) We weren't even sure we'd get a seat, so gave up & gawked at the beautiful mansions near the track instead. We did end up at the harness racing track on Friday night, which was a lot of fun. We won only one bet (which netted us $0.70!) when we bet on Cocktails at Five in honor of our friend LeeDelle, aka Ms Five O'Clock Somewhere. Our luck improved on our Saturday outing to Lake Placid where we visited most of the sites from the 1932 & 1980 Winter Olympics & watched a ski jump competition. During the summer, the runs are either porcelain tile or grooved metal & the landings are covered in a long astroturf. The competitors we watched were 14-17 years old. Danielle will be happy to know that the 14 year old girl came in 2nd place. After the competition ended, we were able to go to the top of the 120m jump tower & look down the run. Scary! We also watched the aerial skiers practice by flipping off the ends of their ramps into a pool. We saw the Herb Brooks ice hockey arena & Ice Capades tryouts were going on at another rink. Barb lacked the skill but still dreamed of being in the Ice Capades as a girl so was thrilled just to wish good luck to one of the hopefuls. Our last night in New York was spent in front of a campfire. We really hadn't thought much about what to expect from New York, but were constantly amazed at the beauty of it.

August 4-9 - Michigan & Niagara Falls

We finally left Wisconsin! We had a great time there but were beginning to feel like residents. Spent a couple days on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with an incredible view of Lake Michigan. The U.P. seems to be more of a place to relax at a rented cabin for a month than a sightseeing location. We were a couple days early for a classic wooden boat regatta, but did get to see the beautiful early arrivals. Barb took lots of pics as we traveled across the Mackinac Bridge. Picked up a hitchhiker on the way south! A ladybug crashed into our windshield at 60 MPH & lived. She (we're assuming) crawled around for about 15 minutes snacking on less fortunate bugs til she made it to the edge & blew off. The other ladybugs will never believe her story. We spent a night near Flint & toured the GM Truck Assembly Plant. We were alone on our tour & Roz did a great job explaining all the steps to building 3/4 ton & larger trucks. Funny note - they made us park our Jeep in a far-off parking lot! We thought they were kidding at first. They weren't. Cutting through Canada was a shorter route to Niagara Falls, but not as short as we expected. We waited on the highway about 1.5 hours due to a bomb threat on the bridge at Port Huron. The bridge did not blow up & we continued through Canada without incident. Niagara Falls was a fun stop. Not quite brave enough to go over the edge in a barrel, we went on the Maid of the Mist boat tour & got soaked. Just as we dried off, we hiked down to Cave of the Winds & really got soaked. Travel brochures revealed we were near the Erie Canal so we took a 2 hour canal cruise. It took us through two modern locks, by five historic locks & under two lift bridges. Over 150 years ago, people were allowed to take the leftover smaller stones when the large stones were cut for the canal. There are 12 "free stone" buildings left in Lockport, NY. Very interesting. We ended our Niagara adventure with a drive to the Canadian side to see the falls lit up at night. They were beautiful but masses of people on a Saturday night kept us from staying too long.