Leaving Quebec and the Birthplace of my Grandfather, and Re-entering the US

 Sept 8-9, 2024

Woke to a gorgeous but very windy day. Drove to Quai des Pilotes to see if we could spot whales. We did see grey seals and a pod of harbor porpoises. 

And we watched this pilot boat pull alongside the transport ship so the pilot could  jumped onto the ladder and climb into the door on the side of the ship to then guide it out of the St Lawrence

Next stop along the Route des Baleines was Cap de Bon-Désir Interpretation and Observation Centre.This was the fog horn room for the lighthouse

Unfortunately it was too windy to spot any whales. Giant Blue whales often feed right off these rocks

Soon it was too windy (and it was cold!) to even be on the rocks and the rangers made everyone move back to the observation deck

This was a whale watching boat navigating the waves - no thanks!

Another ferry from Anse a l’Eau to Baie Ste Catherine

Sainte Anne de Beaupré

The citadel in Quebec City. We didn’t spend any time in QC, just enough to pick up a gift for a friend. This area deserves more time than we had to give so we decided to wait for another time to explore it. 

A church in Levis, Quebec on the south side of the Saint Lawrence and across from the library where we spent some time doing genealogy research. We went to the Costco in town to spend the night, after having to fill out a form for them - a first. 

The  next day we drove through the countryside on our way to the town my paternal grandfather was born in.  The colors are beginning to show.

Welcome to Saint Paul de Montminy, established in 1868

The congregation that baptized my grandfather, although the original structure burned down a few years later and this church was built in its stead. 

The parish cemetery and resting place of my relatives

My grandfather’s sister I believe

A wooden headstone behind the newer one

Houses that would have been there when my family lived here in the late 1800/early 1900’s

And on we go, heading south and enjoying the colors

Stanstead/Rock Island Québec border with the US. The house in the background is half in each country

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House was intentionally built on the border. Closed today, we will explore this unique structure tomorrow

Looking at the US

The sign says that access to the Haskell lands is forbidden and that you must stay in the sidewalk to enter the library

Stanstead South United Church 

We crossed the border into Derby Line VT, but not before being sent back to Quebec by a very nice border guard who told us what he thought would be the best way to dispose of our basil plant since the soil and roots could not come into the US. The Canadian border agent was not so nice and gave us a bit of a hard time about returning without paperwork from the US side, but eventually let us through. Unwilling to cut the plant off and then dispose of the soil, we accosted a woman in a pharmacy parking lot and foisted our plant and 2 tomatoes onto her before successfully reentering the US. We settled into the Walmart parking lot in Newport for the night and exhaustedly shared a dinner of a pint of Ben and Jerry’s