Q is for Québec City, and my first visit to Eastern Canada in 1983, and my second in 1985. I went on a French exchange trip to Edmundston, NB in grade 10, where all the kids took pity on us Western Canadians and spoke to us in English. We had a day trip to Québec City, where all the signs are in French, and there are buildings made of stone, which was impressive to an Alberta girl from a city celebrating its 75th Anniversary. Even more impressive was the dessert cart in the café where several of us went with the Spanish teacher. It was a cart of beauty.
Two years later, when I had moved to Bethlehem, PA, my friend Ruth from Edmonton, and I planned a trip to meet in Montréal, and then travel to Québec City to stay with her aunt, and check out the city. The Château Frontenac is on a cape, rising above the city, and overlooks the St. Lawrence River. I didn’t know what a dormer was called, but I loved the windows with topped with miniature towers.
Ruth took this photo of me in front the Bonhomme, mascot of the winter Carnavale which is an observance of Mardi Gras. Note my hair had grown out from an accidental buzzcut(maybe a more common occurance in the 1980’s than in other eras), the asymmetrical ruffle on my tshirt, and the very stylish velcro fastened powder blue runners(as I called them in Canada). Ruth wrote a caption on the back of the photo: Typical Tourist.
That Chateau looks breathtaking! I haven’t been to Canada but would like to visit Toronto one day…and maybe also Vancouver.
Vancouver is a cool city, and you can also take the ferry over to Victoria.
Funny to see you in short hair! And, oh, yes, the 80’s had some hairdos!
You look so different with short hair! I, too, love the dormers, but the dessert cart probably would have hogged up all my attention.
Mary – I didn’t even know my hair was as curly as it was because I had my hair short so much of the time.
Snowcatcher – The dessert cart definitely had the lion’s share of my attention.