Friday, September 03, 2010

On the go, flying — Six Word Saturday




"You! Cloud! Get back into line!"



Those words were sharply spoken by the cloud drill master to the little cloud that meandered out of formation.

We were flying Delta Airlines from Detroit to Quebec City, Canada when I spotted these clouds. They were all lined up in rows.

I asked our flight attendant if she knew who was in charge of getting these clouds all lined up and then of keeping them in line. She had been pretty rough with me, not even allowing me to read my hardback book on take off. And we had to get the laptops out of the seat back pockets. People all around us were doing those things but we weren't allowed to.

Can you believe this lady-drill-sergeant-like attendant actually smiled when I asked her that. And she didn't even get upset when I told her that I didn't know either.

That shows a problem that I have. When someone is upset with me I cannot just leave things be. I keep on relating as if I am friendly and generally we make peace.




These pictures were taken while we were flying over the Great Lakes. I don't know what lake it would be.

This plane in the picture we flew from Houston to Detroit. It was small but the one from Detroit to Quebec City was even smaller. Both had four seats in the row with an aisle in the middle. The one to Quebec City held only eighty passengers.




Here are our 'drive in' pictures. On the left we are coming in from the airport almost to A440 Freeway. There's a MacDonald's on the left. Middle we have reached Grande Allée which changes into Rue St. Louis when inside the old City. Once into the Old City our B&B street, Rue Sainte Ursule, was the second where we turned to the left.

On the right, still on Grande Allée, you can see regular gasoline was $2.059 Can/liter. In Montreal we found gas for $1.99 Can.
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Describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words.
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# posted by Jim : 9/03/2010 05:08:00 PM  14 comments

Thursday, September 02, 2010

We are back -- Did I find Green Grasshopper and Mr. Tin Man?

Views from our Quebec City, Canada, B&B bedroom (balcony)

We got in just after noon. We got our rental car, a 2010 Nissan Sentra with only 4812 Km on the speedo, and headed for our first night's stay.

We drove right through to our place. Afternoon traffic into the old city was mean. We parked right in front of the B&B Chez Marie-Claire on 62 rue Ste-Ursule Québec, Qc G1R 4E6.

I rang the doorbell and this young lady, , from Belgium met us. She carried our two heaviest suitcases (the other two were carry-ons) up the two flights of stairs. On the first floor we passed the opened parlor room complete with piano. We didn't have time to relax here at all.

Quebec City has the old walled city to the north and a modern older city outside the wall to the south.
And then there is a modern newer city further outside that comes with urban and suburban sprawl. Except for the signs being in French (and a sprinkling of English for the tourists) you would think you were in most any modern U.S. city.
The picture above is also taken from our balcony. To the right you can see it goes down abruptly to St. Jean (pronounced St. John) Street and beyond. We walked up that hill later, around midnight. There was also a funicular ride but we would take another day.

Since we hadn't eaten except for Diet Cokes, cookies, and pretzels on the planes we opted for an early supper.

This was at the Crazy Pig Restaurant (Le Cochon Dingue) in the lower level of the old city, down near the harbor. There was a half hour wait for an outside table so we took a 'no wait' table inside.

I was tempted to have mussels (moules) here as they looked very tempting. But Mrs. Jim has learned to cook these very well at home. Why here then?


Both of us ended up with a half rack of ribs. They were roasted in some sort of maple sugary sauce and were delicious. Each of had six ribs on our serving and then other vegetables. We were too full for desert.

The French fried sweet potato slices were wonderful and the salad (on the plate??) was fine too. Click on the picture to make it larger and again or on the little dingy bat in the lower left, whichever you have, to make it extra large.

We walked a lot and later that evening we went over to the harbor to see a 'Canadian history' movie that was free. The movie was projected onto a row of silos across the water. The animation for the movie was just wonderful. I am sorry but somehow I forgot to take pictures.

 We didn't have desert and no, we still didn't have room later for any of the delicious looking gelato.

We walked a lot that evening and I do have a few pictures for a later date. Our walk home was long, especially since we had to climb the hill that they call a 'mountain.'

Below are a couple of not-so-good pictures of the parlor in our B&B that we didn't use.



From the left, the funicular, typical down-below street walk near our restaurant (beneath the boutique Louis Jolliet souvenirs sign is the funicular entrance), and on the right, halfway down on top of the old city wall where they had built a walkway. Below and beyond the walkway is the old wall and remnants from the old, old, city.
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The funicular runs from the bottom of the bluff, although you can go lower still, to the top of the wall.

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Oh yes, Mr. Green Grasshopper?

Well, I did find him. And since I'm back here in Texas, obviously I didn't make a fortune selling him for scrap metal.

But I have a dental appointment and so I will have to tell you about that part about getting rid of him later.

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# posted by Jim : 9/02/2010 12:32:00 PM  6 comments

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