je t'aime quebec

We made it to Quebec City by dark. we drove into downtown, and julie told Bob all about vieux quebec (old quebec). We were about two blocks away and never knew because it was dark, and we we were tired (and not watching signs very carefully).

We couldn't find any couchsurfers from quebec. :-( Julie *really* wanted to stay with some locals, but it just didn't work. Maybe it was because she massacred the French language in her emails to the couchsurfers? Or do the Canadians hate Americans that much? Oh well. We ate at Boston Pizza, and slept in the car. At least they had free wifi. It was c o l d. Bob and Julie practiced a little bit of French at restaurant. Mostly just bonsoir, merci beaucoup, and bien.

The next morning we headed for Vieux Quebec. It was beautiful. Very cold though. We saw the Chateaux Frontenac, the most photographed hotel in the entire world. It is just as beautiful as all of the travels books describe it to be. It was designed by American architect Bruce Price. It opened in 1893. We took a quick through the lobby. Not much to see if you're not a hotel guest. It was all decorated for Christmas though, and it was very beautiful.

We wanted to eat breakfast at the Cafe du Monde, and headed that way. Too bad they were closed. Julie pulled on the door a few times, and a nice waitress came to find out what we wanted. They didn't open for about an hour, and she directed us to another nice cafe down the street. We had a fabulous breakfast, and then headed out of town. We could have stayed a lot longer!

Border Crossing and Into Canada

The drive from Bar Harbor to the border crossing went quickly. It continued to be wet and rainy.

Bob was still driving (this shouldn't surprise anyone at this point). Julie hopped into the back of the car to organize everything in case we were searched at the border. Bob decided it would be best to have all of Julie's belongings on one side of the back, and his belongings on the other side. Not sure why, but Julie wasn't going to argue about it. We had everything neat and tidy when we got to the border. We were the only ones there. The border agent looked very surprised to see people from Idaho. He asked a few questions, did some silent staring at us, and sent us on our way.

It was exciting (mostly for Julie) to start seeing road signs in French!

a car identical to brand new sally!

Madison calls the car "Brand New Sally." We can't remember if we shared this on the blog or not, so we might be repeating ourselves. She named Julie's Kia Sportage "Sally." When we bought the new car, she liked the name Sally, and decided the new car would be "Brand New Sally." The name sort of stuck.

When we were in Bar Harbor, we saw another Chrysler Pacifica with a box on top!

Acadia National Park

It rained the whole morning we were here. We didn't get out of the car too much. Lots of sightseeing from the car.

We took a few rocks and some pretty fall leaves. Pictured is more of Julie's thievery from the national parks. Yes, we know, if every person who visited the national parks each took one souvenir home, it would be very bad. Thank goodness each person doesn't!

couchsurfing in maine

We hit a minor bump in the road when we tried to couch surf in Maine. We planned to stay with a blueberry farmer. The guy said he had a beautiful farm in a remote part of Maine with acres and acres of blueberries. Previous couch surfers wrote very nice references on his site.

It was a rainy and cold night when we arrived at his "house." It was more like a barn masquerading as a house. We stayed and visited with the guy, his young son, and their neighbor. They were all nice. When it was time for bed, we were given options for sleeping - the kid's bedroom or the living room. The neighbor lady left at this point. We waited for about 1/2 till we thought the guy and his son were sleeping. We left a thank you note, snuck out, and drove away fast. It was about midnight at this point. One the note, we wrote, "We decided to hit the road a little early. ..."The guy was a little strange, but we decided later he didn't have any bad intentions. He just lived in a filthy dirty house.

We drove about 45 minutes until we found a national park information office/rest area. Big parking lot - great for parking the car. Seemed pretty safe. At about 2:30am, some car pulled in and parked right next to us! They were there for about 1/2 hour - according to Bob. At that point, Bob flashed the headlights on our car so the people knew someone was in our car. They turned on their car, and drove up on the curb, and then started to back up. Bob honked our horn, and they backed up, and hit our bumper. Unbelieveable. They finally pulled out and sped away. At this point, Julie was awake, and wanted to call 911. We decided there wouldn't really be anything to report, and we had no idea where we were/what road, etc.

We hit the road again early the next morning. It was still pouring rain. We headed for Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.

The next spot where we had Internet access, we looked at the blueberry farmer's site on couchsurfing. The other people had apparently camped at his place during picking season and didn't actually stay in his house. The berry pickers are locals and have bonfires and eat lobster at the end of a day's work.

Maine

We stopped in Kennebunkport to find some lobster sandwiches. Several places were closed, but we found a spot that looked promising. They were $11 per sandwich. Bob was really angry when we got to the car and opened the containers. He saw a show on the Food Network about huge, delicious sanwiches. These were not exactly worth $11. Oh well. We took pictures, ate them, and moved on.

Headed out of the City!

The city was so congested and overpopulated. We were happy to head out of town. We left NYC about 6pm and fought through tons of traffic. We spent the night somewhere between Connecticut and Rhode Island. The next morning we stopped in Quincy, MA to do some Internet stuff at Starbucks.

We passed through right through Boston. Didn't even stop! Kind of a shame, really, but we had sort of had it with the city at that point.

Our next stop would be Maine and Acadia National Park.