Toronto's Gardiner: Someday, a Great Street?

If anyone listens to the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation, maybe, yes.

our house in the morning













For morning beauty, my room is rivalled only by the front hall, but somehow I have never thought to take a picture at the time when the sunrise comes.

Ottawa

Ottawa was at the beginning of the trip, but for some reason I cannot track down downloaded photographs of our visit there. Tala has published some photographs of that part of the trip on her personal blog, here and here.

Auberge du Lac Morency in St-Hippolyte

At the end of our vacation we stayed in the Auberge du Lac Morency in St-Hippolyte, outside Montreal. We were all going to leave on Sunday, September 10, but our van broke down. Everyone stayed to wait for it being fixed, but Gideon flew home to be at work on Monday.

The pictures below provide evidence that the disaster was considerably mitigated for those who stayed behind ...

Montreal

We visited Montreal briefly. This involved almost no sightseeing, and just a very little bit of shopping for clothes. We did find an affordable place for eating Chinese, and with no Revenge of the Lucky Dragon (which we have learned to fear).

Birthday Girl!

On September 8 we celebrated Angela's birthday at our little abode in the village of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges. This year's major gift trends: amber earrings and novels by Wendell Berry and Alexander McCall Smith. (And let's not forget the cute little jacket.)

Île d'Orléans

The Île d'Orléans in the St. Lawrence River, across from Quebec City, is known as the “Garden of Quebec.” One of its several villages, Sainte-Pétronille de Beaulieu, was long a summer retreat of the English families of Quebec City, according to the tourist information booklets we read. We also particularly enjoyed the workshop of the blacksmith Guy Bel, cleverly named La Forge à Pique-Assaut, and the farmlands and forests at the heart of the island.

Photographer credits

I should mention that most of the photographs of our Quebec trip appearing here were taken by Tala Strauss and Neville Garzouzie, with some by Hannah Strauss, and a very, very few by Gideon and Angela Strauss.

Behind the Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré

The Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré is a pilgrimage destination. We did not entire the shrine proper, or the cyclorama of Jerusalem next to it, but we did visit the little church and the life-size portrayal of the Stations of the Cross against the hill behind it.

The Route de la Nouvelle-France

For the middle part of our vacation we stayed in and every day drove along the Route de la Nouvelle-France (or the adjacent highway) through the Côte-de-Beaupré.

















One big feature: ye olde root cellars. In one of the pictures below, Angela stands in front of a root cellar built in 1650: two years before Jan van Riebeeck settled at the Cape of Good Hope.






















Many buildings along the route have roofs with distinctive swooping eaves.


















There is the odd roadside shrine.




















Destination: the grassy sides of the fortifications of the Citadelle of Quebec, from which their is a beautiful view of the Château Frontenac and the city.

Quebec City has some tourist traps ...

View from the funicular.





















A street in the Quartier du Petit Champlain.

The Basilica-Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Québec in Quebec City

Inside the Basilica-Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Québec: the first cathedral built in North America.

Votive candles.

Mosaic pillar.

Statuette.

Iron gate detail.

In Quebec City - First Encounters

While on our brief family vacation last week we visited our dear friends John and Sally Patrick and the city of Ottawa, and then travelled on to Quebec City. See the official postcard collection of the city here.















Walking up from our first parking space (Angela, Hannah, Celeste, Gideon).




















A sculpture celebrating William Price, the 19th century lumber magnate.




















Our first close-up view of Le Château Frontenac, the old railroad hotel at the heart of old Quebec City.




















Another view of the Château Frontenac.















Placed over an archway into the front courtyard of the the Château, this stone memorializes an earlier building on the site.

Angela's parents are visiting with us

Neville and Celeste Garzouzie, Angela's parents, travelled by rail from their home in Vancouver to spend some time in our home. Tala already posted some pictures of their visit. Here are some more.
















En route
















At Centennial Pier in Hamilton (Angela, Celeste, Tala). Interesting web pages: the Hamilton Port Authority website and the Bay Area Restoration Council website.





















Aboard the Waterfront Trolley (Angela, unidentified person, Celeste).

















In the kitchen at Gideon's Argentia Street office in Mississauga (Angela, Neville, Brian Dijkema - a colleague and friend of Gideon)
















Reader and red couch (Celeste). I think the cats still like the red couches better than anyone else does, though.