Summer fun in Maine and Downieville

As we head into the last two weekend trips of the summer, I'm playing catch-up.  Here are some highlights of Nimue's fun with grandparents this summer:

A new kite in Maine

Life in the pond to watch

included frogs (pictured), snakes, fish, and a mink.

We also found some frogs in the woods

hiked, laughed,

and climbed rocks.

Gran definitely enjoys her woods!

Shifting gears to Downieville, Nimue got to walk Linda's friend BJ's dog Rama

while Chad and I scoped out a new dirt road route in the high country.

We also hiked up the river to a hidden swimming hole and watched the hot, tired mountain bikers go by  on the trail above while we enjoyed the nice cool river.  You can't see this swimming hole from the trail, but we could see up to them.  Local knowledge is good!

More sightseeing and silliness

The last batch of Quebec photos, I promise...

Zoom in to spot Nimue in the longhouse at the Huron site in Wendake:

She was right under the canoe.

Later, she pretended to be an inukshuk

Lest you think Nimue was the only mimic in the bunch, here's Chad:

Nimue responds to parental goofiness by trying (and failing) to re-orient the cannon toward us.

A little bit of rain was not a problem.

We climbed the remains of an old mill along the Jacques-Cartier River.

Nimue played with dried-out mud

and we discovered a road lined with old bread-baking outbuildings.  If you look closely, you see that this one was built in 1652.

Chad and I rode by Montmorency Falls, where I noted that it looked to be about the same size as Snoqualmie Falls (default from my youth of what a waterfall should be).   

When I got home, I looked up the stats:

Montmorency Falls: 84 meters tall, 46 meters wide

Snoqualmie Falls: 82 meters tall, 28 meters wide

so my eyes and memory are not so bad.

Some nights Nimue was all to ready to go to bed,

 and some nights she wasn't!

Things one does at forts in Quebec

One of the things we enjoyed exploring while in Quebec were the star-shaped forts along the St.Lawrence, built back in the 1800's when the locals were worried about pesky Americans invading.  These fortifications were never used, but line the river in the region.

While we were in Quebec City, we took a guided tour of the Citadelle and Museum of the Royal 22^e Régiment of the Canadian Forces.  Our tour guide was informative, funny, and clearly serious about the  national pride in the Royal 22^e Régiment, who still are quartered on the site.  

We enjoyed the view,

learned about the buildings,

cannons, (this one looked like a bug to me),

and the people.

For all the national pride, there was still room for touristic silliness.

 

 

The goat, Batisse the 12th, is the mascot of the Royal 22^e Régiment, was not out for all to see the day we were there, much to Nimue's dismay, so we had to make due with the pictures.

Nimue also spent some time exploring the ramparts leading up to the fort.

They warned one of the obvious, but didn't bother with fences to save people from their own stupidity. We thought the graphic was funny.

We also stopped by Fort #1 in Levis.  Here, we enjoyed a self-guided tour, and explored the ramparts looking back across the river toward Quebec City.

Bill and Faith check out the cannon.

Ma and Ni climb yet another set of stairs with tired legs

and Nimue figured out what one ought to do with a nice grassy slope in the sunshine.

When we got back to the bikes where they were locked to the fence, we discovered that the lawn had been mowed around them, leaving sticky green bits of plant matter everywhere. Not a recipe for Chad happiness, but at least it didn't affect the function in any way -- merely made the bikes a little bit dirtier. Better to be pelted with grass than cannonballs, I say.

Cycling surfaces in Quebec

During our bike trip, we encountered a variety of surfaces on which to ride.  By and large, it was pretty good -- the Route Verte is generally well-routed along a combination of rail-trail conversions, quiet roads, and separated bike paths.  Here is a taste:

Many delightful gravel rail-trail conversions, either flat or very gently graded, often running through the woods or next to rivers (or both).  These are friendly to all and were my favorite :)

Some of these trails were paved, or as in this case, in the process of being paved

An occasional dirt road, haring off into the farmland.  This one wasn't on the map, but had a sign indicating that it was going the way we wanted to go, so we followed it, hoping for a shortcut to bypass a busy road in town.  I'm not sure it was any shorter, but it did bypass town, so we dubbed it an "interesting cut".

Most of the route was well-signed

 and had occasional interesting trail furniture to navigate through.

We went over a couple of bridges with narrow bike lanes going in the general vicinity of Quebec City

 including a bike-and-ped-only suspension bridge

 and also got to ride a bike trail under the bridge on our approach into Old Town.

Chad and I took a cute little ferry over the river at one point on our big ride day together.  More bikes than cars on this one!

And, of course, I picked a road with an egregious grade to get up to the hotel after getting off the ferry. (I did hop off for a bit, mostly because he likes to climb at a much faster cadence than I do on the steep stuff.)  These things just find me.

Kid home again

My somewhat bedraggled kid came home from camp

with a dragon on her arm.

She had lots of fun and did many farm chores, which she may or may not choose to write about, and seems to be bigger that when she left.

While she was gone, I racked up a total of 36,000 vertical feet climbed on foot and/or mountain bike in 11 days, finishing all the trails in the open space district for the year,

fixed everything that had piled up on the sewing table,

went out to dinner several times and up to the symphony with Chad,

and finished making the apricot liqueur that has been soaking for a month.