It’s our last full day on the ship. They call it disembarking. I call it, kicking us off the boat! Grab your stuff and git! (Texas drawl implied) We are packing up this morning most of our stuff. We will make many trial and error corrections in the way we make things fit. We are scheduled to disembark at 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning and take a charter bus to the airport. From there we get our rental car picked up. It’s a process, but we have it under control. We will spend two nights in Quebec City near the Old Town in a nice hotel. We have a lot planned for the city. Our estimated drive distance is around 3,300 miles or 5,500 kilometers and approximately 50-55 hours of pure driving time from Quebec City to touch the Pacific Ocean in Vancouver Canada.

We got our grub on at the buffet. Finally got an omelette, well half of one. Heather said there was no line so she ordered ham, cheese, and peppers. She likes me sometimes and shared.

We walked the plank and the whole town met us as we arrived. They had circus 🤡 performers and people dressed in old historical costumes. Was quite a welcoming experience.

Our bus driver speaks fluent French and English. His name is Gil. He has a heavy Chicago accent and I believe he might be a mafia enforcer. And introducing our guide, a true catholic bilingual speaker named Dominique. Wow, she was funny and sure seemed to like trashing our bus driver. He just told her she couldn’t stand in front of the white line. Anywho, so proud of her history and knowledge of growing up in the mandatory providence of Quebec Canada. Where all students start with French and in second grade take English as a second language. Her heavy French accent and loss for her translations made for a comical experience.

She told of the location of a Catholic Church in Seaguenay, Canada. Domonique said there was, a how you say, a house with ladies who were not nice. “A brothel”, someone helped her along. Anyway, there is now a Catholic Church there. A priest saw the house, bought the land and had it torn down. The church was erected on the purchased land. Well, Dominique said that her Grandfather attended that church. She doesn’t think her Grandfather ever visited the brothel, but can’t say for sure. He had 21 children by 3 different wives!

Our first stop was a glass blowing demonstration of a famous local artist named Giuseppe Benedetto and his apprentice. It was cool! The two created a whale on a pedestal. His works are truly amazing.

Our second stop was a local cheese factory named Boivin which is family owned and has another location that produces Swiss cheese in Quebec City. They guided us to an upstairs room overlooking the production floor of the plant. They planned on showing us a movie. The movie wouldn’t play after many attempts and our guide Dominique read from a script with her scrambled English. The young lady giving us the tour was so embarrassed. Poor thing, it was her first day! We got samples of the cheese they produce including the Swiss cheese! Cheddar, cheese curds, twisted cheese, and gluten free white cheese. Very tasty! 😋

Our final stop was the best of all. A working Alpaca Farm. The owners both retired decided he like farming and raising and she loved people so this was the thing to do. He was a French speaking Australian.

Heather and I fell in love with the alpacas. We wanted to bring a couple of them home. They are very friendly and skittish animals that thrive in a social hierarchy. We fed them crabapples and a feed mixture. I had very slimy hands after helping them get their grub on. Heather says they are so sweet. She wanted to hug them. Alpaca fur is hyper allergic and so soft. The owner of the farm is the spitting image of a true Crocodile Dundee! He spoke mainly French and little English. He liked my hat. I said I liked his hat. I have an Australian Cover like his that you can roll up and pocket it you need to. Difference is my hat is no where used or worn as his cover is. Very nice people. His wife gave us a warm welcome speech on the bus and split us into smaller groups.

We were having a great time and wished we had more time to spend at this beautiful 80 acres farm. By Canadian law the can have up to 30 alpacas based on the amount of land. They have 28 with 2 new males.

We returned to the cruise ship with plenty of time to spare. Heather and I struggled but managed to get all of our things packed for the transfer off of the ship.

Dinner was yep! The Crown Grill! The know and love us. “Michael you need more lobster?” our waiter Andrew asked. Only the lobster bisque please. Way too much food and the attentive service. Our filet mignon always cooked to perfection. Heather is spoiled on the peppercorn sauce as am I. We had a great window seat. The view spectacular. As we ordered dessert there was a couple seated next to us with the greatest Irish accent. I kindly asked if they had a good day and the conversation started. They are from Ireland, both retired and the sweetest older couple. She was glad we spoke to them as were us. We introduced ourselves to Christine and Robby. We spoke of my last name and how my ancestors immigrated from Ireland. They know quite a few Reeds back home. Heather talked about Dad and his Scottish ancestors and how he adores anything Celtic. Including a love for the bagpipes.

Christine told us that her son was about 7 when he wanted to learn to play the bagpipes. His hands were too small but they got him a chanter which features finger holes placed closer together than standard pipes. He took lessons and she drove him each week to practice. His hands eventually grew where he could actually play a normal size bagpipe. He plays professional and did many world competitions. He played in a championship competition in Scotland with 500 bagpipes playing. We wished them safe travels and they reciprocated. A very happy couple enjoying meeting new people and again thanked us for sharing our time as well.

Winding down this last night, we picked up some discounted T-shirts and our gratis pictures from the photo gallery. We said our goodbyes to being pampered from our room steward Benito who is from India. He’s worked on Princess ships for over 22 years and is very good at taking care of his passengers.

Fact: There are no Canadian Geese! They are however Canada goose and they can live in the United States because “Canada” acts as a noun modifier indicating the type of bird rather than an adjective implying ownership or nationality. Thank you Dominique for sharing.