Sorry, I got distracted

This mega-storm Sandy had me distracted for the last couple of days. My word what a mess she's left behind.  I'm glad all my friends in the NYC, and East Coast area are safe and relatively unharmed.

Now, let's get back to our regularly scheduled vacation recap. Today's story...Corner Brook Newfoundland.

As you may know my boss, TOJ, has a Newfy - River.  Sweetest, most manipulative dog (at least to me) ever. So naturally my main goal in Corner Brook Newfoundland was to get a photo of a Newfoundland in Newfoundland. 

I was the first person to exit the boat for excursions (I can't help myself. I like to be in the front of lines. I position myself so I can bolt the moment they called our excursion.). Upon exiting the boat, there sitting waiting for us passengers were Flossie and Shawna. Local Newfoundland's in Newfoundland.  

Flossie is the one standing and Shawna is the one laying down. Such sweet girls.

I did not run over screaming "PUPPIES!!!" - okay maybe I did.  I took a quick shot of these two adorable pups. I swear I thought they were males because of how big the were. The human owner said she feeds them well. 

I ran into Shawna and her owner later in the day during my excursion. I introduced Shawna to P-Dot. She sniffed him then took a lick.

According to TOJ this is the famound Newfoundland Turtle pose.

About Corner Brook - not an overly exciting destination. In fact, I couldn't figure out why a cruise ship would even bother stopping there.  There's a paper mill, and that's about it. Sure, Captain Cook was there, but where wasn't he? Surely there were more interesting destinations in Newfoundland? 

Regardless of how boring Corner Brook was, it was by far one of my favorite excursions. I took the Corner Brook In Focus excursion. Designed for photographers and the tour guide was a local, experienced photographer.  The best part of this tour was her giving us direction about composition, lighting, etc.  I just loved it. 

There were about 4 "serious" photographers on this trip. On guy, I'll call him Gus, was determined to make it a competition between he and I.  All he wanted to do was ask me how many photos I had taken, and thought maybe we should post them online and compete over who got the best photo.  Whatever Gus. Step away. 

Side note: Gus also ended up on my excursion in Sydney.  He had a tri-pod and ALL his lens for that trip. He felt he had to share his knowledge with me by showing me his multiple lenses.

I did decide, however, to test a friends photographer theory.  His theory is that if a respected photographer takes a picture of dirt with other photographers around, the other photographers will then too take a photo of said dirt.  I have a photo of dirt and Gus now has a photo of dirt.  

The excursion took us to an old train. Which by itself wasn't that interesting.  Turns out Newfoundland, years ago, adopted an odd scale for their trains. So when they tried to connect the trains to the rest of the world, they wouldn't work. So there are no trains that go into Newfoundland.

After the train excursion, we stopped to visit their old friend the "Old Man in the Mountain."  It took me a bit to actually see the old man, but mostly because I wasn't looking for a small man, I was trying to make the entire mountain an "old man". Do you see it?

After visiting with the old man, we took off to see their "Heritage Pole". Which turns out is nothing more than a Canadian totem pole. The photos depicted are of historical people and stories.  Interesting? Not really, but I still found some good shots.  This particular stop was COLD!! The wind was whipping through this little valley and the rain started pouring down shortly after we got there.  Not the best circumstances for photography.

The next stop was a BEAUTIFUL, fully fall colored park.  We had about 30 minutes to wonder around this park and take photos of the beautiful fall folliage.  IT was magnificent.  It was reported that there were swans of Corner Brook on the pond on the other end of the park. I hoofed it all the way out there and only found seagulls.  The swans were most likely taking a nap somewhere warm.

The last stop before heading back to our ship was at the Captain Cook statue.  My knowledge of Captain Cook is fairly limited, and revolves around Hawaii, not Canada. Apparently he was quite the traveler.  According to our tour guide, his drawings of the area was so well done that many local fishermen still rely on the maps he drew.  I called Urban Legend on that, but maybe. I didn't see any fishermen to actually ask, so who knows.

That's our ship down there.

At the end of the day, Corner Brook was cold, wet and not overly interesting. I don't see it as a destination city anytime soon. 

 

Quebec City, part duex

It makes more sense to use "duex" in this title than the last. Quebec City residents speak French. And frankly, I felt like I was dropped into a little French village. It was such a wonderful little city.  Loved just about everything about it.

What didn't I love? Well, the not being able to communicate with cab drivers for one.  But alas, that was only a couple of rides, and didn't really hurt that much. 

As I mentioned before, the MomUnit, SL SIL and I took a quick city tour on the first day. Then day two, I took a tour similar to the first one, only it went out to a waterfall in addition to seeing the city.  The advantage of seeing the city twice from a tour bus is that day two I could sit on the other side of the bus to get photos. 

 

Quebec City is broken into two distinct parts; Old Quebec and modern Quebec. The old Quebec section is separated by a wall that was built several hundreds of years ago.  In fact it's North America's only remaining fortified city. 

"Inside the wall", as they say, all the buildings are considered historic landmarks.  None of the businesses inside the wall can use modern signage and neon.  McDonald's for example, while "inside the wall", only has a small, somewhat non-descript golden arches on the wall outside the restaurant. 

Chateau Frontenac is, by far, the most famous landmark of the city. It sits high atop a hill and overlooks the St. Lawrence river.  While it's name makes it sound like it’s a castle its really a hotel. A ritzy fritzy hotel used by those dignitary types and wealthy who can afford the price.

Though now a hotel, it was once the home of the British colonial governors of Lower Canada and Quebec.  The Chateau is named after the Count of Frontenac who was governor of the colony of New France in 1672.  Churchill and Roosevelt sat in the chateau and discussed WWII strategy.

The other, and to me the most interesting, attraction in Quebec City is Ristorante il Teatro. 

OMG...some of the best Italian food I've had in a very long time.  Jack's cousin had been and recommended the restaurant. Since we had a night to spend in Quebec we decided to give it a try. Despite the crazy cab chaos of getting us there (our cabbies didn't speak English and non of us spoke French.

That table in the corner was where we sat.  The walls are decorated with plates that have been signed by famous, mostly famous French, celebrities.  We saw Celine Dion's plate, and Tom Jone's plate.

Horrible yellow glow.  I didn't change my white balance. So while the photo doesn't look good the food was spectacular. Some of the best cabonara I've had since TASIS.

The last thing I saw/did in Quebec City was a trip out to Montmorency Falls. Spectacular waterfall with a ton of water dropping over the cliff.  The falls are 272ft tall - which make them 98 ft taller than Niagara Falls. They are, as you can tell, narrower than Niagara and while impressive I'm sure it doesn't compare. Still, they are pretty impressive.  The Montmorency water is what feeds the falls as it empties into the St. Lawrence. 

It was windy, as usual, at the falls and P-Dot almost went over the rail when a big gust of wind came through.  There's a lovely boardwalk that leads you back to the falls to get a better look. High above the falls is a suspension bridge, which I chose to not go across.  Across the river I saw a long staircase leading down to an observation deck.  My first thought was, "What a view that would be." Followed by, "Oh hell all those stairs back up. No thanks." 

So if you ever find yourself in Nova Scotia, plan a trip to Quebec City. I promise you it will not disappoint.

Halifax, part deux

Halifax, Nova Scotia was our first official stop on the cruise.  I briefly discussed Halifax, but wanted to go into more detail about what I actually did there. 

 

The MomUnit and I took the "Shutterbug's Dream" excursion.  This excursion was described as a trip to all the important, scenic and interesting sites of Halifax that any photographer would want to capture. 

 

As a photographer I have to say two things. First, while some of the sites were in fact interesting, photograph-er-ly speaking, they were boring. And secondly, to do real magic with photographs you need more time than each stopped allowed. 

 

Still it was fun and informative. Halifax, as a whole, is an interesting place. 

 

Our first stop on this "Shutterbug's Dream" excursion was the citadel.  The excursion description says that you stop and visit the citadel.  Turns out we just park right out side it at a little scenic pull out where the tour guide tells you that behind you is the citadel, which you can't see because it's strategically buried.  But right in front of you is the Halifax Old Town Clock.  Oooh….ahhh…. It was designed and created to keep the garrison and the town people punctual and has done so since 1803.

 

 

Our next stop were at the Halifax Public Gardens.  Beautiful grounds, really. They'd be even more beautiful in the spring. In October? Not so much. The tour guide did, however, point out the wash room and said it would be the easiest one to visit for the rest of the trip.  Mind you we still had 2 hours left of this trip. 

We glided through the public gardens with no time to stop and try to set up some sort of shot.  Still, as the tour guide rambled on about how beautiful the gardens were in the spring, I managed a few nice shots.

This fountain intrigued me. Not because of the fountain itself, but because of the little cherubs on the fountain. I took a close up of one of the cherubs and it wasn't until I was reviewing my photos later that I realized there was something really off about this little boy.  

Our next stop was, by far, the one I was most looking forward to seeing, Peggy's Cove.  This place just screamed photographer mecca. It's rugged beauty made me want to spend hours there shooting the rocks, the waves, the houses, the fishing boats, etc.  Instead I got 30 minutes.  10 of which were spent trying to get through the one and only gift shop opened to see if I could get a post card. I gave up and scrambled to get some photos.

The Peggy's Cove Lighthouse is probably the most interesting tourist item to shoot.  Tons of people around so it was hard to get any shots without people.  Still, it was breath-taking all the same.

 

The wind blew like a crazy person on the shore.  I was afraid to bring P-Dot out at all since I was sure she'd be blown away. 

 

 

The MomUnit wanted coffee and so decided to stand in line for coffee and a hot chocolate for me. As she did that, I booked down the street a bit to see if there was anything interesting to shoot where some of the fishing boats were mored. Again, very little time to even think about what I was shooting.  Still, I think some of these turned out pretty good. 

 

P-Dot got trapped like a lobster.

Something tells me they have wave issues.



And something tells me that visitors don't heed their warnings.

Halifax is known for two very interesting things, 1) a HUGE explosion in 1917 that destroyed most of the city and 2) many Titanic passengers are buried here. 

 

First the explosion.

 

They say it's one of the most renowned part of Nova Scotia history.  December 6, 1917 was a devastating day in Nova Scotia history and, for a very long time, the largest explosion in the world.  Along the Halifax waterfront is where this accident happened.  A French ship called the Mont Blac arrived in Halifax without time to enter the harbor.  They dropped anchor and were to sail in early the next morning.  Another ship called the Imo was simultaneously preparing to pull up it's anchor and sail that same morning.  The Mont Blac was fully loaded with explosive cargo. The two vessels experience mixed directional signals and collided.  The Mont Blac was left to drift and ultimately drifted into the harbor and somehow a spark ignited the explosives and destroyed most of the Halifax waterfront, killing 2000 men, women, and children and almost 10,000 injured. The explosion covered almost 400 acres of land. 

 

Interesting little Halifax tidbit. 

 

Now on to the Titanic. According to our tour guide, Halifax is one of the many cities that heard the SOS.  They dispatched vessels for recovery.  It took many of the ships 3 days to get to the Titanic.  The first to arrive picked up survivors. The other two were on a strictly recovery mission.  

 

As the bodies came into the morgue, the coroner did a good job keeping records.  He basically wrote descriptions and numbered each body.  Many bodies were claimed by family members and brought to be buried in their family plots. About 10 were buried in the Jewish cemetery. The remaining, unclaimed, were buried in one cemetery. The tombstones had the date of the death, April 15, 1912, and the body number.  Some bodies were later claimed, but the families opted to leave them buried where they were. 

 

There's one small child that was never claimed.  Through the years DNA technology has found who he belongs to, but then further technology dismisses it.  Two families were led to believe this was one of their relatives. Finally, the commission that does this type of thing decided to just leave this child unclaimed to avoid any further pain for families.

 

 After the cemetery we were going to some "old warehouses" in Halifax. As a photographer I was thinking, "cool maybe some fun shots there." Instead the "old warehouses" was code for shopping center. I should have know.  

 

The MomUnit and I weaved our way through the shops.  We stumbled onto a funny T-shirt that I wish I would have bought. 

 

 

 

So that was Halifax. Interesting, but not a place I feel I ever need to go back to.