Dahlia & Lance's Travels: October 2005

Bromont and Montreal, Quebec 14-19 Oct

Dear Friends and Family –

We have been in Quebec Province for five days and have had pretty much constant rain. We spent the weekend near Bromont, a small town about an hour east of Montreal in the beautiful condo of Richard and Laurence Pinsonnault, who we met on the Web and with whom we are doing a house exchange. (They will stay at our house in California in December). Because of the rain we only did a little touring in the area, where we went driving, antiquing and visited some nice restaurants. We also spent time sitting in front of the fireplace reading.

On Monday we drove to Montreal and have been staying in a very nice hotel suite that the Pinsonnault's also own in Old Montreal. The first day we took a three-hour Gray Line Bus tour to get an overview of the city. Yesterday we went walking through Old Montreal, to a museum about the history of the city, walked around the city and took the Metro subway to some shopping areas. Today Dahlia visited art museums while Lance stayed home and read. Montreal has been an interesting place but the rainy weather has put a damper on things.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to Quebec City and Friday we start back through New England, making our way to NYC on Monday.

- Cheers, Lance and Dahlia

Old and New in Montreal

View of Montreal in Mist

Olympic Stadium in Montreal

Covered Bridge Under Flood Conditions in Quebec

Country Road in Quebec

Fall Scene in Quebec Countryside

Update to Itinerary

Here is an update for the rest of our trip:

14-16 Oct Bromont, Quebec, Cercle des Cantons condos (http://www.cercledescantons.com)
17-20 Oct Montreal, Quebec, Saint-Sulpice Hotel (http://www.lesaintsulpice.com)
21-Oct Fri Durham, NH, home of Dahlia’s ex-boss Vin Dellova
22-Oct Sat Antrim, NH, mountain retreat of Dahlia’s cousin Leslie Zebrowitz
23-Oct Sun, East Providence, RI, home of Lance’s cousin John Riley
24-26 Oct New York, NY, apartment of Lance’s brother Dave
27 Oct Thu New Brunswick, NJ, home of Dave
28-Oct- Nov 4 Baltimore and Washington
5-Nov Sat Fly BWI/LAX United Airlines 307 lv. 7:00 pm av. 9:40 pm

We can be reached on our cell phones: Lance 818-486-4436, Dahlia 626-437-4649.

Our Week at Smuggler's Notch, VT

Despite the drizzle and mist we have spent a wonderful week here at Smuggler’s Notch Vermont. We can’t believe how fast the time has passed. We spent several days driving around absorbing the natural glory of the area, going to a farmer’s market and craft show. We also visited a granite quarry (Rock of Ages), Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory and the Shelburne Museum. (It was really well worth the visit http://www.shelburnemuseum.org/?flash=true). We took a nice bike ride along the river and today spent the whole day in an art class, half of it painting and the other sculpting. We both had a great time doing it.
The scenery around here in Northern Vermont is spectacular. There are ski lifts all around us as it is mainly a ski resort in the winter. The mountains, green meadows, streams, ponds, imposing rocky cliffs and the incredible tapestry of reds, golds and evergreens covering the hillsides just takes your breath away. Traffic is very light on these country lanes, but the fog and mist are sometimes a bit spooky, particularly in the evening hours. During the day, the fog provides a lovely milky backdrop to these beautiful slender birch and maple trees.

The time-share unit itself is great! It is probably not much smaller then our home and really well supplied and organized. It would be a fun place even in the summer when one can go bike riding, hiking swimming and canoeing. The nearest towns, Stowe and Burlington are very quaint and have many nice shops and restaurants, but Starbucks is a very rare sight in Vermont.
"Garmi", our trusty GPS "StreetPilot" has been a "godsend". It has directed us from one place to another and reducing the stress level of whoever has to navigate. We both really love it and think it was a very worthwhile acquisition.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Canada, this time to Quebec, where we’ll spend a few days at another ski resort and a few in Montreal on a house exchange at a fancy hotel in the heart of Montreal.
It has been raining today and threatens to rain for the foreseeable future, but if we were looking for sunshine we would stay in California.

Would the Photos be Complete without a Little Church?

This Looks Like Material for a Painting

Cute Adirondack Chairs at Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory

Typical Fall Leaves in Vermont

Old Barn

Typical Covered Bridge

Fall Leaves in Vermont

Top of Smuggler's Notch in the fog

Baltimore, Niagara Falls and Toronto to Vermont

We arrived in Baltimore Oct 1st. We got to briefly see all the kids, especially our newest granddaughter Kate (4 weeks old). We had a nice stay with Denise and on Sunday we all got together for a Chinese take-out lunch party.

On Monday morning we left Baltimore in a rental car headed for Niagara Falls intending to make and overnight stop in Pittsburgh, PA. We were enjoying the ride so much we decided to go straight through to Niagara Falls and spend two nights there. We got to see some foliage change in northern Pennsylvania. A highlight was a stop for lunch at a restaurant in Breezewood PA with a gift shop and a large section with books with titles like: "Best prayers for Diabetes", " The 100 most efficient prayers" and "Best 60 sec. Prayers".

We got to the Marriott hotel right at Niagara Falls at about 7:00 PM and lucked out to get a room with a peek view of the falls, and got to see a lovely sunrise over the river in the morning. (Having used Marriott Points the price was right too!) We spent all day Tuesday hiking around the falls from the Canadian to the US side and took the Maid of the Mist boat ride to see the falls up close and personal. The mist looked a lot like heavy fog and felt a lot like rain, despite the plastic ponchos we were wearing we got pretty soaked. The Niagara Falls were worthy of their listing among the wonders of the world. It was cool to see the almost permanent rainbows stretching across the falls when we saw them from the American side. (We found the Hotel clusters at the falls to be a real tourist trap with outrageous prices and would probably stay further away next time).
This is the first trip where we are using Lance’s new toy, the Garmin GPS StreetPilot. "Garmi" as we call "her" has proved to be a real asset. She guides us faithfully and calmly from point to point, and even helps us find all kinds of conveniences and attractions along the way. We are totally sold on it!

Wednesday we took a leisurely drive from Niagara Falls to Toronto along the northwestern side of Lake Ontario. We stopped in the quaint little town of Niagara-on-the-Lake and at an old (1854) steam powered waterworks at Hamilton. (Recommended by Garmi!). It was very interesting and fun and even Dahlia enjoyed it (Although she had her doubts.)

We finally arrived at Toronto toward the end of the day and after checking into our hotel we visited Dahlia's Cousin Paula, her husband Marty and Dahlia's 92 year old Aunt Halla. We spent Thursday with Paula and Halla and while Paula gave me a tour of Toronto, Dahlia chatted with her Aunt and heard about her experiences in Warsaw before the war, her escape to Russia and journey to Israel after the war. Halla is Dahlia’s last living relative born in Poland before the war. Dahlia recorded the conversation and it was much more meaningful after our recent trip to Warsaw. At the end of the day we all went to a wonderful Portuguese restaurant and said our good-byes.

Up until this time we had been having summer weather with temperatures in the 80’s, but the forecast was for a cold front moving in. With the cold front came pouring rain which started just as we were leaving Toronto for Vermont and followed us most of the day. We arrived at about 7:00 PM to our timeshare at Smuggler’s Notch, Vermont (a ski resort). Today (Saturday) it has been raining intermittently, but the leaves are incredibly intense in color and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. Our camera broke (could it be the intense colors?) so we had to find a Best Buy (again thanks to Garmi) and get a new one and stocked up with groceries. Tomorrow we start some serious explorations and leaf gazing.