Vacations before retirement.... !( We are back, added a few pics)

[isawlogs]

  It does happen, Renée , my wife, is retiring as of September 13^th 2013, yep, a friday to boot. It is quite fitting though, as our first date was on a friday 13^th, we got married on a friday 13^th, and have had many other friday 13^th hapenings.  :D
  She had a month of accumulated vacation time coming to her and we are going to take a week or so and go camping by the St Laurence seaway at  Cap-Chat Qc, she just wants to be beside the salt water and collect sea shells, rocks and what ever washes up on shore that could be interesting.. Fine by me, I'll drive there, there's good fishing over that way. ;D
  We are leaving in the morning and will try to be back for her retirement on the 13^th   :D 
  I was told that the ''to do'' list is in the making while on this trip, she wants to take, I get the feeling the list will be long.     :D

  Here is the rig pinned and ready to go( only needs to be unplugged )

       

 

               

 

   We are bringing the laptop with us and we will try to post some pics as we go. Ya I have camera and batteries this time. 

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Dude! What a setup. Y'all need to head toward S.C. I have a POWER BOX you can hook up to for a visit.
Hope y'all have fun!

[drobertson]

All I can say is enjoy!  real happy for the both of you!  sounds like 13 is a good number for you!  kinda weird though,  I guess its just a number, but a good one for you two,   david

[WDH]

Marcell,

Take a couple of extra pads and pencils to take notes for all the new/old stuff that you will have to do or fix.

Here is a null hypothesis  - Retirement does not equal remodeling.  I havde proven it to be WRONG  :-\.

[thecfarm]

And away we go. Marcel,you all retired too? Enjoy,enjoy,enjoy.

[Magicman]

Congrats to Renée on the retirement and here is wishing you much fun and relaxation on the vacation time.   

[beenthere]

Enjoy your time away, Marcel.
And be quick to make up your own to-do list.

After all, she is the one retiring.   ;) ;D

[sprucebunny]

Have fun and Keep the shiny side up 

I'm betting there will be some lobster and ice cream involved   

[isawlogs]

 Ray,
  I ain't retired for saye, but... I had a work related accident back in sept. 1990 that left me with an allmost useless left arm. Was journeymen Ironworker with welding tickets. Make a long story short i was able to have my last physio rendez-vous in 1995, they where able to help me get use of my arm back, they did a super job. Downfall, that was the end of my Ironworkers career.  :-\  Brightside, I got me a mill to play with  ;D :D :D ( Renée is a physio.. but she stayed clear of the arm incident)  She took care of a broken leg ankle ten years earlier....  on a friday the 13^th 

[Mooseherder]

Congratulations Renee and Marcel.
Have a great vacation. 8)

[isawlogs]

 Now you know cheese, ice cream and lobster are on the menu. well for me, you all can substract the lobster for Renée.  :D

[pineywoods]

Hey congratulations. You could just keep on moving south, just about in time to attend the chickin crispin at Magicman's place. From there, it's just a short hop down to the cajun country, where you would be right at home...

[gspren]

Hey congratulations. You could just keep on moving south, just about in time to attend the chickin crispin at Magicman's place. From there, it's just a short hop down to the cajun country, where you would be right at home...

Park next to my camper and we can talk about how to travel some and enjoy retirement, we sure do.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

[sbishop]

Marcel...swing south when you are there..i'm only about 2 1/2hrs away...oh by the way the fishing has been terrible  :D HAAHAHAHA

Congrats!

[maple flats]

Congratulations on the retirement! I retired 14 yrs ago, but after 3 weeks I started driving school bus, then I started making maple syrup, then I bought a Peterson mill. Now I have less time than when I worked 70-80 hrs many weeks each year before I retired.
Joan and I also got married on a Friday the 13th, Friday October 13, 1967. It was not bad luck at all, but extremely good luck.

[customsawyer]

Congrats and safe travels.

[isawlogs]

 We made to the camp site in Cap-Chat at a little past 6 this evening, 800 or so kilometers later.

  We got settled in and are ready for a little something to eat. 

Pics for tomorow   
  I could throw a rock into the sea from my picnic table here... Waves crashing onto the shore is quite a diferent sound.. boy will I sleep well tonight. 

[sprucebunny]

Excellent ! Hope you get to hear some loons 

[samandothers]

Congrats to the misses and  you too for the anniversary!  Enjoy the time off and playing. 
With those sounds of lapping waves leading to sleep don't start sawing logs at night or Renee may not take kindly!

[Paul_H]

Looking forward to the pics,have a good trip mon ami.

[sandhills]

hope you both have a great time and can't wait to see the pics of all the fish  ;D. 

[terrifictimbersllc]

Yes, best wishes to both of you and tell us about the fishing!

[isawlogs]

   St Laurence seaway valley , just east of Quebec city Qc.

   

         

 

  It is getting wider, but one can still see the North Shore some.

 

  Fog rolled in as we where getting near Matane Qc. We where an hour away from our destination.

 

  Here the St Laurence is wide enough that one can not see the north shore. (Low tide this morning. )

 

  Weather this morning in Cap-Chat is great suny with a brease...   

 

  The Renée with Balou out treasure hunting this morning!!!

 

 

[sandhills]

Beautiful Marcel, keep 'em coming.  By the way, I didn't see any pictures of fish yet?  :D

[WDH]

He must have ate em all. 

[isawlogs]

 No... :-\  High winds here can't get out to play in da water... Had to take the ( how do you call the roll-up tarp on this outfit) down .. wind was about to make a sail with it     60 kilometer winds sure make interesting waves..

[Paul_H]

Awning

[samandothers]

WOW! Wonderful pictures!  I sit here giving thanks that my bride married me 31 years ago today.  8) 8)
Thank you for sharing pictures of your outing!  Good things we have better taste than our wives or we may not be so happy today!   :D
Anyway thank you for the look at that area and the beautiful environment you are blessed with.

[isawlogs]

  Went today to try my hand at catching a sea trout.. sea rocks and algae are slippery if any of you want to know ..  :

   

 

  We brought one of the labs with us, Balou, he just can't be without me..... (good to be loved )  ;D

   

 

  Did I mention that there is a windmill farm here, and it has the biggest vertical shaft windmill in the world....

   

 

[WDH]

I would try a different bait  :D.

Beautiful pics of the  Seaway. 

I went to Quebec City twice.  Parlez-vous francais?

[Magicman]

Ouch !!!   

We took the ferry across the St. Lawrence.  Very enjoyable.  When it came time to order lunch we had everything full but our mouths.  I just pointed to something on the menu, but Pat was not so brave.  She finally went back into the kitchen and found what she wanted to order.  (Smart lady)

[WDH]

J'aime les pommes frites.

[isawlogs]

  I prefer my apples in a pie.  ;D  :P      ( pommes de terre, Danny)  ;)

[Mooseherder]

J'aime le Poutines. digin_2 (pomme de terre avec fromage et gravy)

[WDH]

J'aime les pommes de terre  ;D.

[pep]

Hey marcel

I know what it's like to be married to a physio.  Their famous words are "you have to stretch"

Cheers
Pep

Enjoy the camping

[bandmiller2]

Marcel,its important for retired couples to have their own hobbies and intrests,too much togatherness leads to overmanagement and problems.Enjoy your trip mate,thats a beautiful area. Frank C.

[thecfarm]

All but one picture  :(   looks good. Enjoy the vacation.

[moosehunter]

Marcel,
Enjoy your vacation and keep those pics coming. Beautiful country! It is also good that you keep your bride tied to Balou so as she does not get lost!

[isawlogs]

  A litle drive through the Chic-Choc mountains, a salmon river, a pool, shadows are salmon and Mount Albert where a herd of caribou live

Edit: it is abert and not St-Albert

    

 



 



 



 

Plateau where the caribou roam, none where seen.....( elevation of plateau is above tree line. )



 



  



 



 

[isawlogs]

 Taken at Mont-Sainte-Anne, typical of litle town and the colours.

 



 

[isawlogs]

Port of Cap-au-Renard on the Sainte Laurence.

 



 

[sprucebunny]

Great pictures  8) Thanks !

It's hillier than I imagined. How far are the Mtns. from the St. Laurence ?

[WDH]

Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures.

[isawlogs]

  Only a few kilometers from here, you start uphill allmost from the shore. Mont St-Albert is only maybe fifty kilometers from Cap-Chat. Its in a national park, we drove into the park for a while then took a few forestry roads back. Was a nice ride, glad we came with the pick-up.

[isawlogs]

  Fly fishing... no fish yet, but very relaxing, and quite frankly, don't real care if I do catch one or not....     

 

[customsawyer]

Great pics. Thanks for sharing that beautiful country.

[samandothers]

Beautiful! Thanks for taking time to share!

[ibseeker]

Beautiful area, what a great place to vacation. Another place to add to the list.

I'm enjoying your posts, thanks for sharing it with us.

[OneWithWood]

Sounds like a fine trip.  It is good Renee is getting some rest before she retires  :D

[isawlogs]

 I am thinking that I is he whom needs the rest.   :-\   :D

[m wood]

wow Marcel, nice country, good times, that water is too clear.  You and Renee enjoy that time
mark

[isawlogs]

 We are back from the trip and I will try to get a few more pics up.

We did see a lot of birds along the way.

 

The sea brings in things every night, the morning walk was always fun.



 

We had the camping almost to ourselves most of the time. 



 

[isawlogs]

  You can't drive along the shore without seeing these along the way.
   

 

 

 

  Typical of shoreline towns. This one I really like how the church, school and cemetery sit atop a cliff. Had I had a school with that view...

 

 

[isawlogs]

  We did a little loop up in the Chic-Choc mountains, saw two bears but the co-pilote was not quick enough for the pics.... this is looking back out to sea, you can see it in the ''V'' of the valley.

 

A local fisherman unloading his catch, we where not alowed any closer, I am pretty sure he was unloading shrimp.

 

Wind mill farms, quite a few where seen.

 

[isawlogs]

 
A side tripe into the forest roads looking at the Chi-Chocs.

 

  our last night at Cap-Chat..  Realy could not be any prettyier...

 

 

[isawlogs]

 The very last morning was the only morning I could actualy put a fly on the line and try to catch a trout where we where camped, it was the only time of the seven days we where there that it was not gusty winds.... So me and Balou went out and put a fly in the water, and tried not to slip and fall and get cut up again .... :

 

   Me

 

  Renée. The co-pilote (Ya can blame her for a few pics and also for the none pics of the bears,, )  ;D     ;D

 

[isawlogs]

  All in all we did a little over 3000 kilometers on this trip. Had a great time, saw some awsome scenery , mountains that really impressed me and shoreline that is breath taking to look at.
  Rocks covered with algae are slippery... very slippery.
  truck takes 25$/hour to pull trailer.
  Having a place that is dry and warm to crash when camping is priceless.
  Having a wet dog coming along ... not so much.
  Would I do it again..... ya dam right I would  8) 8) 8)  ( the dog would be along too )

[sprucebunny]

Thanks for the great pictures and congratulations to Renee on her retirement  8) 8)  8)

[isawlogs]

 I will tell her Joan, did I tell you that the retirement thing is going to be short lived.. like three days ... Her boss called and asked if she could continue the project she was working on before retirering. Renée has a meeting with them on monday to workout the return to work or the rehiring paperwork. So, so much for retirement fun, she only took time off to plan my next year :D :D   :

[Roxie]

Beautiful pictures!  Glad you are both home safe.   

[samandothers]

Great pictures!   Seems she is good a managing things like your projects and her future!  :D

She is in the drivers seat!

[Banjo picker]

Thanks for taking us along for the ride Marcel.... and we didn't even get you wet... just sayin    may be we can go next time too.... Banjo

[fishpharmer]

Glad you had a good time Marcel!  Thanks for the nice pics.  8)

[sandhills]

Thanks for all the beautiful pictures and glad all three of you had a great trip!

[SwampDonkey]

Marcel, you said at one point in your trip you were at Matane. Was that the Matane over by Rimouski or was you that far east? If so, there is the old George Stephen fishing lodge over by there, they now call the Reford Gardens. His niece made the place into flower gardens. George Stephen was one of the rail roaders of the 19th C., one of them old Scotch Quebers as Peter Newman would say. ;)

Anyway, looks like a great vacation with wife and dog. Those towns remind me of many trips I have made up around the St Lawrence, both shores. ;D If ya want birds, there's always Perce's Rock. ;D

I had a couple uncles who would fly from Matane into northern Quebec to do surveying.

[customsawyer]

That sure looks like some country I would like to ride my Harley through. Thanks for sharing.

[Chuck White]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Marcel!

[isawlogs]

 Swampdonkey, yes it is the same Matane, we where east of that.( about 2 hours east) If you follow the south shore of the St Laurence to the point where it widens out thats pretty well where we was camped at and made that our base camp. We took daily road trips from there into the interior and made our way back to camp by the sea shore.

[drobertson]

Looks like you guys had a blast! beautiful country for sure,  thanks for sharing,,  david

[thecfarm]

It's good to go and good to come back home. Like the lighthouse pictures. I use to collect lighthouse postcards,just the ones in the USA. Lots of lighthouses and even more postcards of lighthouses. A small fortune can be spent on them things.  ;D 

[doctorb]

A wonderful set of vaca pics!  Loved the journey.  Congrats!

[SwampDonkey]

I couldn't remember the place of the caribou. But now that I think about it  :, it would be about the only spot (on the Gaspe Peninsula) that they are on the south shore.  I've been all the way around the Gaspe a couple times. My grandfather would go up there a few times to fish salmon. I drove him around on his last trip there in 1991, just a road trip. By the spring of 1993 he went blind. He always took trips to Rivier De Loup as well as there was a Bay store there. Nostalgic more than anything for him and nice country with clean rest areas and parks. The last time I was up to see things was in 2011, came across on the ferry from the north shore, coming from St Alma, Le Bae, Chicoutimi on the Saguiney R. That place is interesting, farm fields as flat as prairie out in the middle of mountains and Boreal forest. And around the lake and the river a different forest type like along the St Lawrence because of the hardwoods. It's like your driving in mountains now, and boom flat farms all the sudden. You wouldn't expect it. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

PBS will once in awhile have a short show on Maine light houses, kinda a fly by video of all the lighthouses.

They closed them all up here and let them go to pot or fall down. There is one that the Moncton high school kids run in the summer at a place called Cape Enrage. Have a soup and sandwich counter. Some go to rock climb. It's at a remote area, nothing around there and you wouldn't really know if the land along the road was private or public.

[Magicman]

Thanks Marcel for taking us along on your trip.  Beautiful pictures.   

[thecfarm]

Swampdonkey,here in Maine a few was brought as private sales. Can only see them by water or air now. Some was brought by The Lighthouse group and still open to the public. This was big deal about 10-15 years ago when the lighthouses were being closed down.

[SwampDonkey]

There's not much conservancy money in these parts. So, at most there might be a couple abandoned rail road cars or station houses kept up and a couple light houses maybe. And that depends on government funding mostly. There's not much from private interests going into such things. Could pretty much say noth'n unless it's fund raising suppers or fair days.