Quebec 2012 Part 2 - Tadoussac

We left Quebec City Weds. the 22 and traveled the 3 hours up and down some fairly significant mountiany bits to Tadoussac. This little town is located at the junction of the St. Lawrence Estuary and the Saguenay Fjord, in a beautiful bay. The unique junction of these 2 bodies of water stirs up huge amounts of little sea creatures and that, combined with a really deep trench that runs through the area, attracts an amazing variety of marine mammals. Which means - WHALES!

Now, we have whales here in Massachusetts - Humpbacks especially but in Tadoussac, they have those and more! Including the southernmost colony of belugas and for a few weeks in August/September - Blue Whales. 

All in all, we saw minkes, 3 fin whales swimming in a pod, a couple of humpbacks (Blizzard and Perseus), lots of harbour porpoise (usually in pairs), grey seals, a whole mess of belugas and several blue whales.

We took a couple of 12 person Zodiac trips and a couple of kayaking trips. Happily, the biggest whale seen by kayak was a minke which is pretty small!!
Highlights: several blue whales, one almost close enough to touch! - breaching minke (from the Zodiac, not kayak!) - on kayak, being surrounded, literally, by harbour porpoises and minkes surfacing. You could hear their breath sounds all around - beluga beach, a hike into a beach area where we saw about 50 belugas frolicking around and actually heard them whistle and click - Kayaking at midnight with a huge sky of stars. Every dip of the paddle stirred up bioluminescence so the water looked full of stars too. With the help of a hydrophone, we heard belugas and harbour porpoises singing underwater.

 Fin whale  - our Zodiac boat is black and actually a bit smaller!

 

 

Blue Whale - there is no zoom used on these photos!!

 

We didn't take very many photos during the Tadoussac portion of the trip. The boats and kayaks were bumpy and awkward (and often very splashy!) and our whale pictures never seem to capture the truly awesome experience of being with these creatures. I have to say, Aoife took all of these photos and she did much better than I usually do. I normally have a whole mess of ocean pictures where a whale just was......

 

 



Aoife, self portrait - Alan and Brendan behind her - on a zodiac boat

Brendan and a beluga sculpture

 

Happily, no child was eaten by whales....

It was pretty hard to come back to Northampton...

Quebec 2012 - Quebec CIty

We are just back from an amazing holiday in Quebec, Canada. The first part of the trip was spent in Quebec City - a 7 hour drive from Northampton. We were there from Sunday Aug. 19 until Weds. Aug. 22. The campground was right outside the city and very convenient. They even had a litter of kittens, just hatched, in the campground office, much to Aoife's delight!
Quebec City is a beautiful city with a very Frenchlike feel. There is even an elevator between the lower and upper city - just like Paris.

Some of our trip highlights included a visit to the Citadelle de Quebec:
"The Citadel is the largest British fortress built in North America. A unique location, it is an active military garrison, some of whose walls enclose 300 years of military history in Quebec City spanning the French, British and Canadian periods. First occupied by British troops and the Canadian artillery, since 1920 it has been the official residence of the Royal 22e Régiment, the only Francophone infantry regiment in the CF Regular Force." (taken from the official Citadel website)

We attended the changing of the guards ceremony. The best part about this regiment is that it has an actual goat as its mascot. This is a pretty fancy goat......

The goat doesn't actually guard anything......

We went to a great museum, ate crepes in a funny little cafe, saw some churches, had a great meal at a restaurant called Le Cafe du Monde (that 'le' is very important, no beignets here.....:-(, and visited a big giant waterfall.

The stay puff marshmallow man was everywhere we went.......

A very french Brendan.......

The kids thought it was really funny that 'KFC' was 'PFK' in french but 'Subway' was still 'Subway'.....

 

Waterfall - "Located just a few minutes from Old Québec is the Parc de la Chute-Montmorency. The waterfall is an awe-inspiring 83 m/272', a full one and a half times higher than Niagara Falls. " (taken from the Quebec Tourism website)

Stay puff guy at the waterfall......

 

This is the way NOT travelled.....we took the cable car!!

 

And that is our Quebec City adventure!

Now on to Tadoussac!

 

 

5th Grade Play

At Leeds Elementary School, the leaving fifth grade class puts on a special play at the end of the school year. Liam and Brendan's class play was a fun informational musical about the American Revolution.

There are two fifth grade classes and each stood on risers on each side of the stage. This is a play constructed for large educational settings so there were no especially big parts - lots of little one or two line parts so everyone got a chance to speak.

Brendan as Alexander Hamilton





 Brendan did a wonderful job and clearly had the best costume!!

Liam is the host of a Home Shopping Network Channel selling colonial artifacts - He was pretty funny. While on the risers, singing the different songs, Liam was incredibly goofy and animated. He was doing some groovy dance moves and singing out. I wish I could have gotten this on film - it was very liam and very funny.

Little League Regular Season Ends - Playoff time!

Liam and Brendan's little league team - Cooper's Corner - has won the regular season play this year. Now we head into double elimination playoffs....some of the other teams are really good so this should be a nailbiter of a series!
Here are some picture highlights from Sunday's game (photo credit goes to Aoife):

                                                          Brendan at bat

                                                             Liam manning third base

                                                          Brendan in the dugout

Track Season In Full Swing

Liam, Brendan and Aoife have begun the quick six week track season. Every Friday night at the high school oodles of kids, third grade to ninth grade, run relays, sprints, long jump, and high jump.
Our three are fast! Aoife and Brendan won their sprints this week and Brendan cleared 10'7" at the long jump.

Brendan - Relay

Aoife (far right) and friends waiting for long jump

Liam (L) and Brendan (R)

Ok, yes YPC did win.....

YPC was the winner in the childern's catagory- this is the second year YPC has claimed that title - the first with all 3 McBrides. The season closed with the Hampshire Young Peoples Chorus singing one more concert. Aoife had a horse conflict but Liam and Brendan sang their hearts out.
Big changes afoot for next year's YPC - the kids will be in a smaller select group and will get to go to Chicago for a concert tour!

Together in Song

Sunday Liam, Brendan, Aoife and the Hampshire YPC arrived in Springfield to compete in the semi finals of Together in Song live on our PBS station.
Link:
Semi Finals of Together in Song

Did they win????

Stay tuned...