Canada–26 April to 7 May and 20 May to 4 June 2011

We visited our children and grand children in the USA and decided to spend some time exploring Canada, which we did in two visits.
In April/May we visited Kingston the first capital of Canada, Montreal, Gananoque on the St. Lawrence Seaway near the Thousand Islands then Niagara on the Lake.
The St. Lawrence was the superhighway of its era, so much of it is dotted with forts to give control of the waterway.  Kingston has Fort Henry and is also home to Royal Military College of Canada. The Wolfe Island Ferry provides a free trip into the St. Lawrence across to Wolfe Island, the largest of the Thousand Islands which stretch North East in the St. Lawrence from Kingston.
Our next stop was Montreal, where we wandered to the top of Mont Royal and then took the magnificent Metro to St. Joseph’s Oratory, an amazing church, the result of one humble father of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, who started with a simple chapel which over time grew to the magnificent Basilica it is today.  We saw the Black Watch Regiment on its annual May Day parade through Montreal.

We wandered through the old town, and the city with its many fine buildings and sculptures and then toured the Notre Dame de Montreal Basilica.

From Montreal we followed the St. Lawrence to Gananoque, staying off season at the Gananoque Inn, located right on the St. Lawrence.  We discovered the Socialist Pig coffee lounge, with some of the best coffee we have had in North America, even a flat white.

We visited Jones Lock on the Rideau Canal.

We took a Thousand Island cruise through the many magnificent mansions, and past the smallest border bridge between a house on a Canadian island with its boat shed on an American island.

The largest of the mansions is Boldt Castle built on what became a heart shaped island by George Boldt the manager of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel as a gift for his wife, who unfortunately died before its completion.  On her death work stopped and it was not until it was purchased by the Thousand Island Bridge Authority for $1 that it was restored and opened to the public.

We met Chris, Monica and Jeremy at Niagra on the Lake for a holiday weekend and then returned to the USA for Katharine’s graduation.

In May/June we returned to Canada to see Ottawa, Quebec, Taddoussac where the whales are and Arowhon Pines, a resort in the Algonquin National Park.

We spent the holiday weekend in Ottowa.  Victoria Day celebrates Queen Victoria’s birthday.  It is amazing how every Australian State and Canada have a Queen’s Birthday on a different date, but always on a Monday.  We toured Parliament and the excellent Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Next stop was Quebec with its still walled city, the beautiful Chateau de Frontenac and its Citadel, built after the French defeat in 1759 to prevent the same back door attack used by Wolfe to defeat Montcalm at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.  The Citadel is home to the Canadian 22e Regiment [the vingt-deuxieme or Van Doos] and we watched them rehearse for summer’s Changing of the Guard ceremony, and had a tour of the Quebec home of the Governor General.  We enjoyed the many fine French restaurants in Quebec City.  We had a fine lunch in the Quebec Parliament House dining room, now open to the public, but we think a still undiscovered treat.



Further North is Tadousac where we stayed in the historic Tadousac Hotel and on a bitterly cold and windy day went out into the Saguenay Bay to spot Beluga and Minke Whales.


We then moved to Arowhon Pines Lodge in the Algonquin National Park for several days of walking through the glacial lakes, followed with dinners in the lodge by a warm fire.



We finished by spending the night in Niagara Falls where we saw the falls from the Maid of the Mist and generally enjoyed being tourists.  From Niagara we returned to Washington then on to Brisbane to pick up our caravan from storage and move to our pit stop of choice at Mooloolaba.