A day in Quebec City (April 30, 2011)

My target for today was to walk to Montmorency Falls which is almost 13km from my hotel. My flu is a bit better but not entirely gone yet so the decision to walk was already a bit challenging to start with. I was not very hungry in the morning either so all I took with me are 3 chocolate bars and enough water. The walk to the falls was not too bad and the park was beautiful and the falls was worth a walk. But by the time I was there, my feet was not doing so well and I was exhausted possibly due to my non-100% health condition. After walking everywhere in the park and climbing up and down the cliff I knew it will be a really tough walk back. At the end of the 26km I was definitely having a tough time climbing the last hill to my hotel and the I was also starving. Finally I made it back and went out to get supper before shutting down for the night. Tomorrow I am driving to Fredericton, New Brunswick. 

Here are a few snaps of the falls and trust me it was noisy out there. 

Montreal to Quebec City (April 29, 2011)

Generally the Ontario drivers blame the Quebec drivers and vice versa. The fact is that drivers from both provinces are practically nuts. It is quite fun though to experience how fast they drive on city streets and on the highways. However the cops are more easy in Quebec and they will not pull you over even if you are doing 125 on a 100 highway. At least that is what I experienced. The highway between Montreal and Quebec city is one of the busiest with many trucks on the road. The drive was smooth and easy without any stop. After checking in I went for a walk to explore the old Quebec city neighborhood. There are plenty of beautiful houses and amazing restaurants in this town. I can only imagine how beautiful this place can be during fall with all the different colors around. Here are a few photos from today showing the old Quebec city and Saint Lawrence river. I will be staying here tomorrow as well.

Second Day in Montreal (April 28, 2011)

Unlike yesterday's foggy morning, today except a few showers the day was clear and sunny, however, too warm for me. I walked up to the Mount Royal Park today as I did during my last visit also. That time I did not have a camera and could not take any photo but this time I had to do that hike once more for a view of the city of Montreal. Other than that nothing much planned for today. I will have some supper and hang out along the Rue Sainte-Catherine for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I will be driving to Quebec City. 

Montréal

Montréal

First day in Montreal (April 27, 2011)

This city is always beautiful no matter when I come. I have been here once before for a conference and I loved every minute of being here. This time I am all by myself and I don't have to worry about a presentation so I can explore as much as I want unlike the last time. Today I walked all over the old Montreal and along Rue Sainte Cathetine over the day time and it was absolutely amazing. The day started with a lot of fog which helped me a lot by keeping the damn temperature down. I kept taking as many pictures as I could during my exploration. 

At the end I came back at the hotel to drop off my camera and go back to a sports bar to watch the big game. Unfortunately the Habs lost the 7th game in OT and that really sucked. I could compare this to any big game when the Roughriders lose their crucial game. It was like the whole city suddenly died and definitely sad. I really wanted the Habs to win too. Now we got Canucks as the only Canadian team in the series and hopefully they get the cup. Everything would have been very different if the Habs would have won but now it is all very quiet as one would expect. One thing for sure, the people in Montreal are really awesome. Tomorrow I will walk to the university and down to the old port again to get some pictures.

Old port area of Montréal

Rue de la Commune

Vieux Montréal

Notre-Dame Basilica

Rue Notre-Dame

Restaurants

Vieux Montréal

Vieux Montréal

Vieux Montréal

Rue Sainte-Catherine

Ottawa to Montreal (April 26, 2011)

The day was rather uneventful with just a short drive to Montreal. It has been raining pretty much constantly since last night and the weather should remain the same for the next few days. Given the crazy traffic in the city, it is a good thing I am staying in the downtown area and the Shadow will stay parked for the next two days while I explore the area mostly on foot. I got to heat up my food on the room radiator after a long time in this hotel room. 

The flu virus has decided to keep me company on a rainy night in Montreal while I get to watch two big hockey games. The Habs already got their win and now it is time for the Canucks to win the series. Tomorrow I will be conducting my exploration during the day time and definitely watch the 7th game with all the Habs fans here.

A day in Ottawa (April 25, 2011)

First time after a almost a week I did not have to drive out on the highway today and that was relaxing. However, the moderate to weak flu symptoms are not helping me at the moment. I went for a walk along the river around the parliament area and also for a drive out to the city of Gatineau. I came back for a power nap during the late afternoon hours and went out again for a walk in downtown.

On my way back I decided to grab some flu medications and as soon after going inside the Shoppers I realized my Jeep key is inside and I just locked myself out with my phone inside as well. This is the last thing I needed right now. Thanks to the girl at the Shoppers for calling me the towing company for unlocking the Shadow. The whole process took almost 40 minutes. After that I had a late supper and now back to rest more for my drive to Montreal tomorrow. Here are a few snaps from today.

Alexandra Bridge

Back of the Parliament

Back of Parliament building

Alexandra bridge and the city of Gatineau

Parliament and Sussex drive

Giant spider

Ottawa

Parliament

Alexandra and Ottawa river

Parliament

Parliament area

Ottawa

Greater Sudbury to Ottawa (April 24, 2011)

While loading my Jeep for the drive, I noticed some coolant laying on the ground underneath the radiator. This has been happening to the hunter off and on. I checked the level and it was above "add" but still I tried to get a seal and some coolant from the Canadian Tire before taking off. Due to the holidays, the store was closed and I got out of Sudbury and figured I can get it in Ottawa tomorrow.

This was again a bright warm sunny day but the drive was mostly not that much exciting. The landscape was rather general with some nice views once in a while. The rocks changed from metamorphic to sedimentary close to Ottawa. After North Bay, I missed the exit and had to make a U-turn on a "no U-turn unless authorized" pavement. The highway had too many small towns with slower speed limits and the traffic was pretty busy as well. There were plenty of highway patrol cars pulling drivers over everywhere, but still these Ontario drivers sure drive like maniac. 

I arrived in Ottawa in time to find a place for two nights and a beautiful long drive+walk along the river. Tomorrow I am staying in Ottawa and will not be out on highway till the day after when I go to Montreal. I am also feeling a bit sick today and hopefully this goes away.

Sault Ste. Marie to Greater Sudbury (April 22, 2011)

My Plan was to drive straight to Ottawa from Sault Ste. Marie and then I realized what the hell am I doing? Being a geo and a meteorite lover I must stop at Sudbury. The cloudy and misty day with drizzling rain made the driving a bit more exciting and it was a good change from the past few bright sunny days. All the little hills were smoking water vapors everywhere after a night long rain along my route. It was quite beautiful. For a long time there were nothing really exciting in terms of rocks along the highway but in the beginning, part of the TransCanada was divided with 90kmph speed limit. 

As I got closer to Sudbury, the rocks started to look interesting with a lot of structures and hydrothermal alteration. It was getting to a point when I was having hard time keeping my eyes on the road so had to pull over for a check. They were intensely structurally deformed, dark and light banded rocks with some areas having very fine grained mylonitic texture. I got myself a small sample and kept on driving towards my destination. 

I read online about a museum there called Dynamic Earth and that became my primary target and I drove straight to it after arriving here. There were some interesting displays and an underground tour but a geo like me does not really care about those basic stuff and the reason I went there was not this at all. I wanted to know about the location where I could find shatter cones and the guys in the museum knew the closest location. If you are reading this and do not know about shatter cones, here is a link and some pictures to help you out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatter_cone and most of you might know that Sudbury saw a meteorite impact almost 1.8 billion years ago.

Dynamic Earth building

Shatter cone

Shatter cone

Shatter cone

As soon as the museum part was done, I went straight to hunt for some shatter cones. I was totally amazed on when I saw absolutely beautiful specimens right along the road cuts. Some of them are too huge to break for my own collection, so had to take pictures. I broke off some small ones and loaded my Jeep with shatter cones. Another mission accomplished for me and next stop is Ottawa.

Wawa to Sault Ste. Marie (April 22, 2011)

As soon as I left Wawa after filling up at a Petrocan station, sure enough there is an Esso on the highway. This time it was all my fault and I should have asked someone before. It is the Easter weekend so everything was closed there except the gas station, which fortunately had the ice bags for my cooler. 

Another clear sky and great driving day with some spectacular view of Lake Superior on the highway between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie, which are 225km apart. The drive took much longer than it should have because of the scenery and interesting outcrops. There were a few great beaches and scenic lookout points and because everything is still closed till mid May, it was more fun to walk around and take pictures. Smoking pipe tobacco on the fine clean sand of one of those beaches is definitely priceless.

Lake Superior beach

same beach

Lake Superior

Frozen shore

Frozen shore

Shadow hunter beside Lake Superior

St. Mary's river in Sault Ste. Marie

The city of Sault Ste. Marie is also very quiet for the holidays. After walking along the river boardwalk, which is a great place in summer I am sure with all the visible setup there, I was able to find some much needed food. This will be a slow night here and tomorrow I head to Sudbury.