Cruising In the Province of Quebec 2022

While Randy was trying to get comfortable in quarantine on the ship the rest of us went on with our excursions. There really wasn’t anything we could do for him.

Randy is watching what’s missing on the ship cams. The crew delivered his meals and surprised him with afternoon tea each day.

We entered the province of Quebec and the rest of us left for our excursion into Baie-Comeau.

Baie-Comeau was established in 1936 by American Robert McCormick.

He named the town in honor of Napoleon-Alexandre Comeau, a Quebec Naturalist. Both men are remembered with murals on town buildings.

McCormick’s intent was to acquire black spruce for his newspaper, The Chicago Tribune. The deep port near Baie-Comeau never freezes so he also constructed a paper mill, a hydroelectric power plant and the McCormick Dam to generate electricity.

In most reports McCormick took care of his workers with homes, churches and bilingual schools. The town infrastructure was built to modern standards with electricity, indoor plumbing and telephones.He promoted work life balance and sponsored fun activities for the community.

Former Canada Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was born in Baie-Comeau.

After a day of touring, Cindy, Darrel and I went to visit Randy. He could come out on his balcony and we could talk from the deck below.

The next morning Darrel and Cindy and I went on an excursion into the town and region of Saguenay, also in Quebec.

We were told the area once belonged to ALCOA but they got into trouble due to price fixing. They were required to dispose of some assets including the area of Saguenay.

Nativity scenes from all around the world are on display as a tourist attraction. This one is from the Inuit.

The Ha! Ha! Pyramid was built as a monument to commemorate the Saguenay flood in 1996. The pyramid, named after the nearby river, originated as a form of therapy to help residents recover. It is made of 3,000 yield signs because the French word to yield is very similar to the word to help each other.

Nearly 95 percent of those who live in the Saguenay region speak only French. There are lots of small remote villages in a land of 16, 000 lakes.

The area has 900 feet deep fjords and 900 feet high cliffs. The southernmost fjord in the northern hemisphere is in Saguenay.

The US ski team trains here in the spring when the snow is gone in Vermont.

The Saguenay river goes for 100 miles before depositing into the St. Lawrence River. The first 40 miles are fresh water and then it shifts to salt water due to tides. As a result, there are both fresh and salt water species living in the Saguenay River.

It was nice to get out and walk in nature! Poor Randy is left on-board.

There are lots of whales in St Lawrence river. Some beluga whales move into the Saguenay River during the summer. To keep them safe, there are speed limits and a limit on motors on the waterways. Some areas are considered a beluga nursery.

We passed another evening on board and visited Randy again from the deck below.

The last day was spent cruising the St. Lawrence River towards Quebec City.

The St. Lawrence River’s headwaters flow from Lake Ontario. The river connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean and forms part of the international boundary between Canada and the United States.