Hanging Around Forillon National Park

Eastern Canada Road Trip 2019

This pregnant red squirrel was doing all sorts of acrobatics while eating beside our campsite.

Jardins de Metis

Eastern Canada Road Trip 2019

The Jardins de Metis was one of our favorite stops on the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. These lovely botanical gardens were a great place to stretch our legs and revel in huge lupine as far as the eye could see. For this alone, you should visit. But what really made it a must-see stop was The International Garden Festival, comprised of more than two dozen magical, interactive works of art that connect the viewer to nature in creative ways.

La ligne de 100 ans, hatem+d

This was my daughter’s favorite. You could actually paddle around this man-made flooded landscape.

Forêt, Ronan Virondaud, Mathilde Leveau

Ici et ailleurs, José Luis Torres

Le caveau, Christian Poules

Réflexions colorées, Hal Ingberg

This last one was my favorite, a large equilateral triangle made of a reflective green glass. I was fascinated by what was reflected back to me - a sort of hyper-real, over-saturated forest where I found myself looking back. I enjoyed walking around the exterior and then also standing inside. Every little movement resulted in a different view, with things like the aspen trunks or the foliage taking prominence and then disappearing.

We spent hours here, and I could have spent hours more. There are so many more art pieces that we very much enjoyed - it was like a playground that both children and adults found equally fascinating.

Parc du Bic, Quebec

Eastern Canada Road Trip 2019

After leaving Quebec City, we headed northeast, around the Gaspe Peninsula. This beautiful route took us along the St. Lawrence River, and around to where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. It was incredible, with small towns over each rise, and a view of the water for nearly the entire drive. Our first stop was Parc du Bic, one of the Quebec National Parks (not to be confused with Parks Canada). It was foggy as we parked the RV, but it burned off before I could go shoot. We were watching a movie after dinner and I kept peeking outside to see if the fog would return, and sure enough it did. I called the family out to see it, because it was so very pretty. It was worth it to me, but my poor child had her first run in with the famous Canadian bugs! Her neck was bloody afterwards with bug bites that took weeks to heal.

Despite that, she was a champ the next morning when I asked her to walk down to the shore with me. She is never one to pass up playing on a beach! We doused ourselves with bug spray and were on our way. I pride myself on noticing the little details in nature, but she pointed out to me that we were walking over many, many snails on the path. I was proud she noticed! We stopped to help a few to the side of the path.

It was my first time seeing the flowers above. Aren’t they fantastically weird and beautiful? It’s Silene vulgaris, or Bladder Campion. And after a rain, the lovely daisy below was looking a bit smudged, but there is something about imperfection that is so wonderful, isn’t there?

Quebec

Eastern Canada Road Trip 2019

Strolling down one of Quebec’s lovely streets.

Last year we toured around the United States in our RV for the summer, and we decided we should do the same this year, but in eastern Canada. Neither my husband nor I had ever been, and we were excited to fill in that big blank spot on the map with images we had seen with our own eyes.

Our first big stop was the city of Quebec. What a beautiful place! It reminded me of downtown Charleston, S.C. (near where I am from) with the old buildings and welcome of tourists. We stayed in a campground at the southern edge of town, and took a cab in every day to see the sights. We spent a lot of time just walking around, soaking it all in.

One thing I really liked about the city was the juxtaposition of the new with the old. Modern art was around every corner, it seemed, and we thought it was really beautiful.

Line Roof Garden, Musee de la Civilisation, lovely installation art by Coryn Kempster, Julia Jamrozik

Line Roof Garden, Musee de la Civilisation, lovely installation art by Coryn Kempster, Julia Jamrozik

Robert Moses State Park, NY

We spent a lovely few days at Robert Moses State Park, in New York. We had a huge campsite, with a nearly private beach. Wyle was delighted that there were kids in the next site over. They played at the beach together for days, staying up late since the sun sets so late this time of year. My grandpa was still with us for this part of the trip, and we really enjoyed chatting by the fire while enjoying the sunset over the St. Lawrence River.

We had our first good wildlife spotting here too, seeing a short-tailed weasel several times. The first time, it emerged from the bushes at the right of the photo to cross the sand, with a chipmunk in its mouth. Upon seeing me standing right there, it dropped the dead chipmunk. Then, deciding that was too important a meal to lose, it grabbed it and continued on its way to the bushes on the left. Pretty cool!

Boldt Castle, New York

It’s tough to get a good picture of the mansion, because of all the lovely trees surrounding it.

The island was originally Hart Island, and I learned hart is another word for stag. So there are stags adorning parts of the castle and the grounds.

The castle is surrounded by lovely gardens.

We drove up through The Thousand Islands region of New York, along the St. Lawrence Seaway. We didn’t have any particular plans, so we got some brochures as we stopped here and there, and we decided we had to see Boldt Castle in person. It’s a quick boat ride from Alexandria Bay to the island where famed hotelier George Boldt built a dream house for his wife, Louise, on Heart Island. When she died suddenly, just months before the house’s completion, he sent all the workers home and never stepped foot on the island again. The mansion fell into ruin for the next 77 years, until The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority purchased it and began to restore it.

A portrait of Louise Boldt hangs over the fireplace.

The inside is just as majestic as the outside of this grand house. With the original plans, the first two floors of have been restored.

Grandpa takes a photo of a map of the area.

The top floors have not been restored, which shows just how much work had to be done. There are unopened crates with building supplies that were abandoned when all construction ceased. And there is graffiti everywhere from the years when it was empty - clearly this was a place for local kids to go hang out.

The power house is a castle in and of itself.

The water has risen past where it was in 1900 when construction began, and you can see that it has intruded into some of the structures on the island, including the power house, shown above. The children’s ‘play house,’ another mini-castle, has water flooding the bowling alley. It’s sad to see the areas that have been loving restored being damaged again, but the house sits higher up on the middle of the island, and so far is out of reach of the St. Lawrence River.

Old Fort Niagara, NY

Not far from Niagara Falls is Old Fort Niagara, one of the prettiest forts you will ever see. The French built it in 1726, but wanted it to look like a ‘House of Peace’ instead of a fort, so as not to arouse the suspicions of the Iroquois. It was later taken by the British, then the Americans, and once again by the British. It was returned to the Americans at the end of the War of 1812. That was the fort’s last armed conflict, and since then has served as a barracks and training station.