Touring Montreal & Final Presentation

Sorry for the late post, had a late night. We got up in the morning and made our way into Montreal. The city is situated on an island, so you have to cross one of the many bridges to make it into the city. But, the drawback to the bridges if someone has car trouble, or a train passes on the other side of the bridge, then traffic gets extremely backed- both of which happened on the bridge on our commute. I can see that as a real challenge for living/working on an island.

When we got to downtown (centre-ville), we took a bus tour of the city. We had great tour guide- knowledgable and witty, oh, and perfectly bilingual, as in he used English idioms in his jokes. We visited all of the major parts of the city, including the Notre Dame Basilica, where we also got to walk around for 30 minutes, Old Town, the 1967 Expo cube apartments and sphere, the bus drove on the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, the local racetrack, and finally up to Mount Royal, the highest point on the island for a grand view. It was a great experience, especially for those of who are staying extra to get a big view of the city and find things to explore.

Lastly, we went to Botanical Garden, where all of the spring flowers were in full bloom. Montreal is a few weeks behind us in terms of weather, even though it has been unseasonably warm here, which is good for us. We spent several hours walking through the flower beds, trees, and even an insectarium. So beautiful, a must see if you ever make it to Montreal.

We were picked up at the Garden and taken to our final club meeting for the trip, meeting Rotary Club Riv-Sud at their meeting place in a restaurant. We watched their club meet, then ate a delicious dinner before presenting to the Club. By now, we can somewhat properly pronounce our words in French and the club was impressed we were able to give the presentation in French. After our presentation, we exchanged banners and they even had a small gift for all of us. It was a perfect way to have our last meeting, even though we are a little sad we won't be meeting anymore wonderful Rotarians here in Canada.

Thank you to all of the Rotarians who have made our stay possible: arranging vocational days for each of us, housing us, taking us from place to place, and overall treating us like family. It has been a great trip to teach us about Rotary, an organization most of us knew very little about prior to this trip. There are a lot of wonderful people in Rotary, and looking forward to the future.

And looking forward to this morning, where I have my last vocational day.

Travel Day to Trois Rivieres and arrived at our final destination in Montreal

On the road again

We left Chicoitimi in the morning for our next stop in Trois Rivieres, thanks to Michel and Marc for driving us to Quebec City to meet Olivier, one of 7790's Assistant District Governors and member of the Cap de la Madeleine Rotary Club. Luckily we were able to load up all our luggage in Olivier's van, it was close. A special thanks to Olivier, who drove us from Quebec City to Trois Rivieres, touring the city there, and then driving us all the way to Montreal before he drove back. A very long day for him.

We toured the Sanctuaire Notre Dame du Cap in Trois Rivieres, with our unofficial, but very knowledgable tour guide from the local Rotary Club. We even had a personal organ performance by the master organist for the basilica. After our tour, we went to downtown Trois Rivieres for a nice walk and a visit to a cafe.

Now we are with our last host families in Montreal, on the riv-sud (Southside). Cannot believe it is nearing the end of our trip, time flies when you're having fun!

3 Clubs for the Price of One

After our exciting day, we came back to La Maison du Seminaire to get ready for our presentation we gave tonight. It was to 3 clubs- Lac St. Jean, Chicoitimi, & Chicoitimi Nord (North). We had another wonderful supper, after which we gave our presentation. Then we gave them our banners from our hosting clubs. It was a great way to spend the evening!

An Outdoor Adventure at Parc Aventures Cap Jaseaux- Hiking (Climbing) the Via Ferrata

Today we had a pleasant (?) surprise of getting the opportunity of seeing the fjord. What we didn't know is that we would be rock climbing above the Saguenay River. It was a lot of fun and pushed some of us to our boundaries and beyond. So here are our pictures, enjoy!

Hiking to the Via Ferrata.

Ashley making her way across the
small gorge in the rock.

The Team hiking up to a ladder.

Rotarian Nicole joined us for the climb.
It was her first time there too.

Kitty and her guide, Gilles posing
in front of the gorgeous landscalpe.

Jessie descending the cliff.

Climbing across the face of the fjord.

Don't look down, too late...

Made it past the plank, time to scale again.

Kerry hanging out waiting her turn to climb up.

Fred, another Rotarian, hanging off the cable walk.

Trey making his way to the top.

The view at the end of our journey- beautiful.

3rd Vocational Day & A Trip to a World-renowned Taxidermist, then Chicoutimi

Spent the day with Francis, a part-time firefighter in Dolbeau-Mistissini. They staff 3 stations, with 2 engines, a quint, command post, and a water rescue boat. They respond from home and/or work during their duty week, of which they must perform 1 week per month. Once again, they are not responsible for medical calls since there is a private ambulance company in Quebec. They respond to about 200 calls per year and serve a large area.

After the team's respective vocational morning, we met at City Hall where we got to sign the "golden book," which marks all of the official visitors to the city. It was a great honor and something none of us have seen or done before.

Following lunch, we went to Bilodeau's, which is a taxidermist and fur shop in Normandin. This is a famous taxidermist renowned for the quality of their work- their furs and products have appeared in many movies, some special effects and props as well. We were able to take a tour of the facility and see some of the work being done. And we finally got to see a moose, even if it was stuffed...

Then, we made our way to the next stop in our great journey- Chicoutimi. We are staying a very lovely bed & breakfast called "La Maison du Seminaire." We ate a local dish called Tortiere, which is a meatpie with potatoes, and it was homemade. After dinner, we took a quick tour of the city. I'll get a picture of the beautiful house for y'all tomorrow.

Looking forward to what tomorrow brings!

Traveling Day to Rotary Club Dolbeau

After the closing ceremonies for District 7790's Conference, we piled into Club Dolbeau's cars for the 3 and half hour drive north to Lac St. Jean. On the way, there were a lot of beautiful vistas, half-frozen lakes, and massive evergreen forests. Also, there were a lot of signs advising drivers to watch out for moose.

Once we arrived to Carole's home, we gave our presentation to Club Dolbeau. The club meeting was very intimate, with Dolbeau being a small club and being in a house. Of course, everyone there was nice and very engaging. It just so happens that they have a member for each of us that closely correlates to our professions. Following our presentation, we exchanged club banners; there banner is gorgeous.

After the meeting, we all sat down to a delicious homecooked meal prepared by one of the club members. In addition, we were served 2 desserts- one being a homemade blueberry cheesecake which was amazing and the other a gift from our Team Leader Kitty Frazier for the team members since we were missing so many important events in the States ranging from Mother's Day (of course), wedding anniversary and several birthdays. Thank you Kitty for appreciating us and leading us on this wonderful journey!