Skirting The Boundary 08/05/19

Forillon National Park, Gaspe, Quebec, Canada

A fool find pleasure in evil conduct, but a man of understanding delights in wisdom.  ~ Proverbs 10:23

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR AUGUST FAMILY AND FRIENDS!  My Uncle Butch, our daughter-in-law Shena (the new mom!), my second cousin Emily, our sister-in-law Donna (married to Blaine’s brother, Bruce) and our nephew Adam!  May God bless each and every one of you in His own unique and loving way on your special day, and all throughout the year!

I’m considering firing my editor.  All this time, I’ve been spelling the name of this Park wrong, and he didn’t catch it. . . .  It’s supposed to be Forillon, NOT Forllion.  And we’ve been pronouncing it wrong too, which is probably why my editor didn’t catch it.  😊

Since Blaine had such a difficult time with the coach’s gps giving directions to our next stop, he decided we needed to take a drive today.  We didn’t go all the way there, but we did drive around the Park boundary so he could check out a road that leads across the river. . . . and take in the spectacular scenery visible along the road.

We also made a couple of stops along the way.  The first was a trail to a waterfall.  There were a couple of forks in the trail and we had to decide where we wanted to go.  There were several groups of people on the trail, so when we got to the fork to decide if we wanted to head to the falls or take a hike, we chose the hike.  Not a great decision, because the hike actually took us back around to very near the parking lot where we started and we had to hike to the waterfall all over again!  And just like most of the trails here, it wasn’t all that easy the first time!  But we did it.

Our drive took us to the Bon Ami (which we found out means “Good Friend”) area that we skipped the other day.  Gorgeous spot!  And we spent some time here gazing at the beauty and watching the shore birds who have homes in the cliffs here.

Then it was on to the lighthouse right on the edge of the Park boundary to the North.  We would’ve checked it out better, but they wanted to charge just to go through the gate!  Forget it.  We’ve seen many lighthouses.

We continued on around our plotted loop, enjoying the spectacular scenery, until we arrived in the “Big” town of Gaspe.  Well, it’s big for around here!  There’s a McDonalds AND a Tim Hortons!  With places like that, it’s a wonder the small café’s can stay in business.  We actually had a staff member turn us away from one restaurant we were considering for lunch, because we don’t drink coffee!  She was extremely friendly and even suggested a different restaurant further down the sidewalk, but still. . . . who turns away business??  Our little café lunch turned out to be at Tim Horton’s.  Sigh . . .  Not exactly the picture I had in mind when we left this morning . . . And my lunch wasn’t all that great either.  I was leaning towards their turkey panini, but as we waited to place our order, I saw a couple paninis come off the assembly line and they were just this side of burnt.  No thanks.  So at the last minute, I switched to one of those new ‘Beyond Beef’ burgers.  And all I’ll say about that is . . . that’s the last time I try ‘beyond beef’.  Essentially, it tastes like one of those vegan soy bean patties they like to pretend is just as good as beef.  It’s not.  And I don’t care what the ads or testimonies say, this tasted nothing like beef.  And it had a kinda green hue to it.  I finished it, but only because I was hungry and I hate to waste food.  Blaine’s sub was good at least.  We took most of the oregano seasoned fries home because they were extremely limp.  I’ll heat ‘em up and crisp ‘em in the toaster oven to go with tomorrow night’s dinner. : )

Up next, was a stop at the Jacques Cartier Monument.  Not what we were expecting to see, but it was nice.  We were expecting a large statue of the man, and several information boards.  Still, the cement engravings were good, and there were some interesting quotes on the backs of the monuments.

Our final stop of the day was back inside the Park at Fort Peninsula.  This place was pretty interesting.  It was built for WWII.  I’ll just let you read the information boards for information.  😊

This evening, we returned to what Blaine has dubbed as “Porcupine Hill” – the place we observed the porcupine the other day – and watched the sunset.  It was chilly, but the best place to watch, and seemingly the best night.  However, we’ve learned that sunsets here in Quebec don’t have the ‘afterglow’ that they do in other places.  The sun sets and it’s nice, but the sky doesn’t continue to put on a show once the sun dips below the horizon.

While we were waiting, we read the information board that was there, and discovered how the Park came to be.  It’s a bit of a sordid tale that we continued to learn about throughout the remainder of our week.  I’m going to include it in tomorrow’s post, since there wasn’t much to talk about.  😊

We returned home near dark, but still able to see well enough not to use headlights, and guess what was waiting for us at the end of our drive?  Our porcupine friend!  Or one of his friends.  They all look alike to us.  What a nice surprise!  He didn’t care that we drove up right beside him, or that we were standing there taking pictures.  Until, he suddenly seemed to take notice of Blaine.  Maybe it was the red shirt, maybe the click of his phone as he took pictures.  But whatever it was, it lifted it’s head in Blaine’s direction and stood stock-still.  And I watched as his quills ever so slowly began to rise.  And then he just lowered his quills, turned his head, walked away a few steps and began eating the clover once again.  Guess we didn’t pose much of a threat.  😊