A Whale of a Time....

Finally, Friday started out warm and sunny. I rushed onto the balcony at 7:00am just to savour the sun, the heat and that wonderful sense of a warm summer's day. I wasn't sure how long it would last and I needed to enjoy every blessed minute of it!! Ahh!!

Today was a day to go whale watching. We headed East again to Baie Sainte Catherine for a 10:30 departure on a whale watching ferry, which, for a king's ransom, took us out to the middle of the St. Lawrence, to spend a few hours looking for an elusive black fin or two and a few geysers of blow-hole spray.

Once you got used to where to look, the sights were quite amazing. Not as amazing as watching dolphins, though, who seem to be more interested in you, than you, with them. No whales avoid you - Ahab, I feel your pain - they stay well away from the boat and never surface in the same place twice. Still we had our cameras ready to snap anything that popped up, if and when it did.

About noon, the weather began to change. The wind came up and the rain started. I knew summer couldn't last. We finished the whale tour "below decks" which actually had plate glass windows and a great view of the surface of the water. In fact, I saw more whales down there than in the cold upstairs.

After the tour, we ate the sandwiches I had made for lunch, at a lookout spot along the highway. Pretty, but still inside the car, sheltered from the wind, the rain and the cold! Fortunately it wasn't a steady rain. The sun came out occasionally and once back at our apartment, we got on our bikes and rode over to Manoir Richelieu just to say we had been there. It was impressive, with lovely gardens, a stunning view of the river and lots of people "taking the air," now, that it was a little dryer.

There were, however, too many cars coming and going, which always makes me anxious, especially on a bike. Time to go "home," anyway, and have a nice dinner with some pasta, the cheeses, we had bought, and a slice or two of a gateau, I couldn't resist from the bakery where we buy our baguettes. The weather might have been "crummy," but the food was always very good. Maybe a poor climate forces you to look at other ways of enjoying yourself. Not sure, I've never thought of Greenland as a gourmand's paradise. Maybe they have ways of enjoying themselves other than eating. Then again some people really enjoy being miserable.

Have an enjoyable day!!