Whales !!!

Monday 8/4 was our day to see whales. It was a 2hr 40min drive to Baie-Saint-Catherine, where the Sagueney river flows into the St Lawrence. With Tim Horton’s coffee and a few pastries from Cruquembouche (Peggy’s new favorite place in the whole wide world) we made the drive with plenty of time to find an ideal spot to park leaving our dog in the shade (it was 65 degrees outside) and still be early for boarding. We had been told by our guide the day before not to expect much but things looked promising when Jackie spotted a seal while we were still waiting to board. We hadn’t been on the boat more than two minutes when we spotted beluga whales. The population of belugas in the St Lawrence is not migratory, only about 2,000 remain here. They were easy to see, the adults being all white, but the boat isn’t allowed close to them. In a few more minutes we saw our first non-beluga, a Minke whale. This one was about 30 feet long. Hard to photograph, they suddenly appear, spout or splash then dive again….

No pics of belugas. Although fairly easy to see they look don’t show up well in pics taken from 2 – 300 yards. We thought we had 3rd class seats but when the attendant saw our tickets he called for back up. Someone came and escorted us to the top deck.???

While the top deck was great with 360 degree views and looking down on the whales, the lower decks were nice to escape the constant wind and cool temps.

The cruise was 3 hours, about the right amount of time. We stopped at Montmorency falls on the way back. Much higher than Niagra falls its obviously not as wide. An early location for hydroelectric power (late 1800’s) it no long has a turbine.

We climbed part way up the staircase to an observation platform.

The walk makes a circle and takes you to the top of the plateau where you can walk over the river, see the footbridge above the falls.

Ate at a ramen place near our hotel later that night back in Quebec city. Breakfast again at Peggy’s favorite place in the whole wide world, then packed, picked K & J up at the Clarendon and headed for Montreal. Ate lunch at the place pictured below, truly local, basically they only sold poutine to diners, they also sold cheeses for take out but all we saw people buy were very large bags of cheese curd, ?to make poutine at home? …..

Drove on to Montreal where I took the car top carrier off and put it in our hotel room so we could use the free parking beneath our hotel.