No Whales

Today we left Quebec City and drove up the coast to Tadoussac, Quebec, which is a really cool little town about 2 1/2 hours north. At the very end, we got to take a ferry across the fjord and they didn't even charge us anything.

First thing, I insisted on walking on the beach with Mom and Dad.

Then we all went down on the nature trail which ended us up at the head of the fjord where the Saguenay River meets the St. Lawrence. Dad was reading from the signs about how the native people and the first Europeans met up and traded there. This is supposed to be one of the best places for staying on land and seeing whales, but we didn't see any, although we saw plenty of whale tour boats heading in and out. Anyway, the fjord was a pretty beautiful place and we stayed there and loved it for some hours.

Unfortunately, when we got back to town we found a Provincial policewoman who pointed out that our parked car had just been in a wreck, when an AAA tow truck driver dropped a towed car on ours and another one. Mom and Dad tell me that the tow truck drivers are supposed to do something like exactly the opposite. Anyway, we were still able to drive our car, and I'm proud to say that neither Mom nor Dad freaked out about this episode, and we were able to complete our journey happily with a long detour over and down through the Laurentian Mountains back to Quebec, just in time for the concert crowd.

A side benefit is that Mom and Dad were able to gather a great collection of beach glass in Tadoussac.

Tonight we are being serenaded to sleep by Elton John down in the park, as part of the music festival.

Sore Feet!

We walked our little feet off all day long. They told us Quebec was a walking city and so we set out to prove it. The first challenge was walking about 2 miles to find a place known for good pastry, which we didn't know where it was, and when we found it it wasn't open till 11 a.m. anyway.

Mom and Dad still got a decent crepes breakfast not far away, and I got some decent potato scraps under their table.

Then we did all sorts of store walking up and down hilly Quebec, with Mom going into dozens of stores and buying only one scarf. This was followed by some park, fort and battlefield walking. I guess a lot of Quebec was about French and British armies shooting at each other and building forts. As you can see, the cannons are big enough to put me in as a cannonball!! (Thankfully, the cannons are all plugged.)

More walking through the beautiful park on the high ground overlooking the big river. As you can see from the (fashionably out of focus) picture of me and Mom, with our hotel in the background, we are staying in the ugliest building on the Quebec skyline. Everybody's legs are tired tonight!

They Had Me at Wouf-Wouf

We have traveled to Quebec City and are in this very nice hotel with an excellent view (see photo) of the Old City and the St. Lawrence River. The charming French staff had me at Wouf-Wouf by fawning over me and then showing up at the door with doggy room service, a full selection of dog biscuits and my own bowls.

We didn't know it until we got here, but we showed up on the first night of a huge music festival that has tens of thousands of fans gathering outside our window for the first of four nights of concerts. We had fun mingling in the street with them. The sidewalk cafes are also pretty cool here as many of them let dogs, such as me, curl up at their owners' feet under the table.