June 4, 2013 - Part 1

We set out this morning walking on the Terrasse Dufferin, to the right, and after a while it turned into La Promenade Des Gouverneurs, a rambling series of 310 wooden steps that lead along a cliff wall to Upper Town. 

This is the view from Upper Town - since this is the top of the 16-story tower of La Chateau Frontenac, you can see why it's named Upper Town.  :)

View of Lower Town from Upper Town

June 3, 2013 - Part 4

After getting settled in our room, we hit the town to do some looking around and grab a bite to eat.  This sign greeted us as soon as we stepped out of the hotel courtyard on Rue Ste-Louis. 

After a dinner of crepes stuffed with chicken and mushrooms, we headed back to the end of Rue Ste-Louis, where our hotel sits on the Terrasse Dufferin, a boardwalk that overlooks the St Lawrence River.

Note the cannons along the boardwalk.  :)

That's the city of Levis across the river.

 

It was hard to get a good shot of the hotel from the boardwalk because it was so close, 

but this is La Chateau Frontenac.

June 3, 2013 - Part 3

Our first glimpse of Quebec City from our hotel.

That's the St Lawrence River to the right.

 

The Ministere des Finances building, on the other side of Rue Ste-Louis.

Looking down on Rue du Tresor, which has parking spaces for horse drawn carriages.

June 3, 2013 - Part 2

I was surprised to learn we are only a couple of hours from the Canadian border.  

The Old Canada Road is a pretty drive, and the time flew by.

Making a run for the border.  

(sorry, I couldn't resist)

 Couldn't believe they let us in.  LOL

We expected the Canadian landscape to look like Maine,

and were surprised to see so much cleared land and farms just across the border.

Then we reckoned that what seems like wilderness area to us in the US

is prime real estate for those in more northern climes.  :)

June 3, 2013 - Part 1

We began our first trip to Canada this day.  Our first stop was in Jackman, the last Maine (and US) town on the Old Canada Road before the border.  Canada is just on the other side of those mountains.  :)

 We saw lots of logging trucks on this trip.

 The Jackman train station - I think this is the most well-preserved unused station I've ever seen.

Too bad we didn't see any moose.  :)

May 19, 2013

We watched the movie White Fang on this rainy Sunday afternoon and enjoyed it very much.  

Can you guess what Jed's favorite part was?  :D

May 17, 2013

 May 4, 2013

 May 6, 2013

 May 7, 2013

 May 8, 2013

 May 9, 2013

 May 10, 2013

 May 11, 2013

May 17, 2013

I think my bud-photographing project is completed - the leaves will only grow larger and more difficult to photograph at this point.  But I'm so glad I did this!  I love looking at the pics, taken nearly every day from April 10 to May 17, in a slide show...it's almost as fun as watching a flower bloom! 

May 16, 2013

Our last regular science class!  The next class will be a Jeopardy-style test of the entire year, so we're working hard to review all we've learned about flying creatures.  Today's class experiment was designed to demonstrate the difference in pitch caused by differences in length.  Any experiment that involves tapping on glasses of water with a pencil is sure to be a hit with boys...I didn't get a shot of the ensuing mayhem when they tried to do the experiment themselves.  :)

May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

May 5, 2013 - Part 2

Playing around with the focus again.

I wonder when I'll tire of this and move on to the next thing?  :)

May 5, 2013 - Part 1

We went letterboxing today for the first time this year...in fact, for the first time in an entire year.

I had almost forgotten how fun it is, and what beautiful places we find because of it.

Like this view from Moe's Mountain, overlooking the China Lake area.

Atop the mountain which once was owned by Moe (also known as Lowell Frank Thomas), there is a tiny cemetery housing his, and only his, grave.  Tracy was quite shocked to find that he shared a birthday with Moe, and that, ironically enough, Moe died one month prior to his 50th birthday...which Tracy will be celebrating this year himself.  He's convinced it's an omen that we found this place at this time.  Now he's trying to convince me that I should be extra nice to him, just in case he's down to his last month on this earth.  :D

Oddly enough, the tree behind Moe's gravestone is full of beads.  

We still haven't discovered the rhyme or reason for that.

The letterbox was a sweet find, with three handcarved stamps completing the design. 

May 4, 2013

April 29, 2013

April 30, 2013

 May 1, 2013

 May 2, 2013

May 3, 2013

Isn't it amazing what 5 days can do?!!!

May 2, 2013

 

Another exciting science class, thanks to Mrs. Smith!  The boys have been studying beetles, flies and bugs this week, and the purpose of today's experiment was to demonstrate how pond-skaters walk on water.  We weren't quite as successful at the technique as the insects are, but it was fun nonetheless. 

April 30, 2013

 

Mainers have an interesting habit of changing the sounds of vowels when they occur at the end of a word.  They change anything ending in "er" to sound like "ah."  Everyone is probably familiar with the name "Bah Hahbah," (instead of Bar Harbor) which sounds similar to a Bostonian accent.  What most folks probably don't know is that Mainers also change words ending in "a" to sound like "er."  As in, "Linder" instead of "Linda," "bananer" instead of "banana," etc.

I've wanted to try out the China Dine-ah since I first heard about it years ago, and Jed and I finally did just that for lunch today.  I got something that positively scandalized Tracy - beans and franks.  It's like ordering a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - who does that at a restaurant?  But let me tell you, it was outrageously good - homemade baked beans (not as sweet as in the south, but still good), two grilled hot dogs, and 2 sliced of brown bread, which I still haven't quite figured out but like very much (it's not just whole wheat bread, as the name implies).

What puzzles me is the name of the diner...I know it's cute to rhyme and all, but really, it should be The Chiner Dine-ah.  Now that's a name!  :)