Month: August 2016

Today we arrived at the Saguenay Marine park. We set up the campsite and then headed out to explore. The Marine Park is very large and managed not only by Parks Canada but but Quebec Parks as well. We grabbed the brochure of the things in the area and inquired about some programs of interest. When we got out of the car we saw beluga whales in the river. This is the area just about where the Saguenay River and the St. Lawrence meet. The beluga like the warmth of the water and the calmness for raising their young.

We saw about 50 beluga including many babies.

The center had binoculars and spotting scopes you could use to get a better view of the whales.

It’s hard to see but the white dots in the water are the belugas.

We did some geocaching and learned more about white whales.

We were initiated into the Xplorer program and received our dogtags.

 

 

During our posts we mention the Parks Canada Xplorer program often. It is similar to the Junior Rangers we have at the US National Parks. The books typically ask to complete 3-5 activities. The boys do all the activities possible to get the most out of each site we visit. Below is the link to the program if you are interested.

http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/voyage-travel/xplorateurs-xplorers.aspx

So far this summer we have managed to visit 32 sties with the program and have about 10 more on the list to visit before our travels end.

The collection of dog tags. 

We arrived at the aquarium and were treated by vikings and a walrus.

Emmerson was SO excited to finally see a narwhal tusk up close. It was over 2 meters in length and looked like something magical! We learned that the tusk has a lot of nerves in it and can possible be used to detect temperature and pressure changes.

This lumpfish was ridiculous.

Sea raven

They have a moon jelly breeding area. It was neat to see all the 2 week old baby moon jellies.

What a setup!

In the reptile and amphibian section we saw the elusive Florida soft-shell turtle!

A Blue tongued skink.

A LOT of brittle stars!

Nautilus!

The tunnel tank was pretty amazing. The only sharks in the aquarium were bamboo sharks.

Outside there were seals, sea lions, walrus and polar bears!

The walrus was very entertaining. He was swimming laps and doing streamline pushoffs!

We stood here and watched a long time as he swam his laps.

A walrus family. The babies were ADORABLE!

They have two polar bears. We watched them play with their daily enrichment toys.

Then they went swimming. We raced to the windows to get a closer look.

The arctic foxes were super cute too.

We ended with the jellyfish tanks.

And the hippocamps, seahorses! They even had a leafy sea dragon, one of my favorite creatures!

We ran a few errands, did laundry and had a long swim in the pool (no rain) tonight.

We explored the Citadel of Quebec and the 5 point star fort. then we headed on foot through the city to Saint-Louis Fort and Chateaux. This was a very interesting site. First off, we could NOT find it! The map app indicated we were in the EXACT right place but NOTHING was there other than a boardwalk and some street performers.

Mom spotted a Parcs Canada employee and asked for help. Apparently the site was actually UNDER us! We were pointed towards the entrance and went down under the boardwalk. When the boardwalk was being constructed they found the remains of an old governors mansion. The site told about all the items that were excavated during the dig.

Hey look, we found the entrance!

We managed to join in a tour group and headed down to the excavation site.

Oddly the most artifacts were found in the latrines! People would accidentally drop things in the latrines. There was a lot of pottery, spoons and odd things they recovered.

Part of the excavation of the buildings.

More costumes? E was the chef and B was a soldier.

We got to try digging in the latrines ourselves. E found two spoons and lots of pottery shards. B found a bone, pottery and a weird looking stone.

We explored a little more of Old Town on foot.

Exhausted we hiked back across town to the car and headed for our 4th site of the day. The Cartier-Brebeuf National Historic Site. The site commemorates the period in 1535-1536 when Jacques Cartier and his shipmates wintered near the Iroquoian village of Stadacona.

It is really a large urban park with a lot of hidden jems.

We enjoyed campaign a tea made from Northern White Cedar. It was earthy tasting. We learned about the Iroquois First Nations and how they worked with the explorers of the time.

 

After 4 historic sites and many kilometers of walking we called it a day. We came back to the motorhome and went swimming. As we got int he pool it started to rain, and hasn’t stopped yet!

We were up and going early today. We dropped Dad at the airport again and he is traveling home and then on to DC for a few weeks.

We drove to Levis and voted the Levis Forts. It was a unique asymmetrical pentagon shaped fort. We dressed as soldiers and went off to explore the fort.

Soldier faces not angry children faces.

We learned a lot about the fort and the different armaments. Like other forts we have seen this trip there are no safe places. The fort was very well defended.

Busted! B was trying to sneak gun powder out. PRETEND.

Practicing drills. Not quite in sync.

After our exploring we earned another badge and headed out to the Fortifications of Quebec on the other side of the St. Lawrence. We parked the car in a pay lot and attacked the city of foot. Thank goodness for the map app on the phone. We found the fort in good time.

We explored the look out points on the old stone walls. Quebec City, Old Town, is the oldest fortified city in North America north of Mexico City!

Mom said it reminded her of Italy. The roads were tight and packed with shops and people.

Our XPlorer books walked us through the entire site. We learned about the foods, recreation, military and family activities during the 1750s. More costumes and weapons training.

We caught the end of an afternoon rifle training session.

We counted cannons and learned what each type was used for. We had to make a plan to defend the fort and show where we would place what type on cannon.

The city walls were really neat.

We pretended to bake bread in the bakers oven.

(Cont in next post)