A Journal, with Pictures

Brother Mike, from Oregon, Joyce and I ( known by Joyce as the three musketeers) planned our almost annual flying vacation to New England and Canada. The primary objective is to help reduce the lobster, shellfish and seafood population. The plan was to fly to New Hampshire first to visit our friends the Yanofsky’s. Harold flies both fixed wing and helicopter, we looked forward to exploring New England from the air. We then planned to spend a day in Portland, Maine sight seeing and lobster eating, before heading to Canada.

On Thursday, September 22nd. our planned departure day the weather between Dayton and New Hampshire was thunderstorms, rain and low ceilings. Worse, the Maine coast was forecasting bad weather on Saturday our planned departure day from New Hampshire. We decided to wait and develop a plan B, which was to fly to Burlington, Vermont if New Hampshire didn’t improve. On Friday the weather had not changed, so plan C was to fly to Burlington on Saturday. The weather improved Saturday, with a forecast of ceilings getting better in Burlington during our flight. As we flew toward Vermont, we had a nice tail wind, but the ceilings stayed at 400 feet, with mist and rain at our destination. When we got to Syracuse, New York, we decided to land and did an instrument approach in to Syracuse to wait for the weather to improve. It never did, so we stayed overnight in Syracuse and developed plan D. Weather permitting we would fly to Bangor, Maine refuel and proceed on to Sydney, Nova Scotia which would put us back on our original schedule.

On Sunday, September 25th. we wait for the weather to improve at Bangor, Maine and get into the air around 10:00 AM. The two hour flight is mostly in the clear and we make an instrument approach, refuel and are off to Sydney Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton Island. The weather finally is improving as we go north and we have a very pleasant two plus hour flight to Sydney, which is about as far as you can go to the north east. We deal with cross winds on landing and then face the most difficult part of the journey, finding a tie down. It is municipal airport, with no tower. We call Sydney radio and get Charlottetown, on Prince Edward Island, who talks to a airport official in a pick-up truck who we can see. He directs us to a parking spot that has no tie down. We then track him down and after much mis-communication he shows us a field with some time downs. We move our bags to the airport using a wheel barrel that we borrow from a construction sight and it’s welcome to Sydney. We get our rental car and are off to our hotel. Time for dinner and we go to the Governors Place, that turns out to be a very good restaurant and we finally get our Lobster dinner. Turns out that Lobsters are out of season here, but they have some and we do the Prince Edward Island Mussels (lots) and Lobster, we are happy musketeers. The next morning its off to the Cabot Trail.

Day two Cape Breton Island

We have decide to drive the Cabot Trail and leave after breakfast. This is pretty much an all day trip and we have not done our homework but off we go. It about an hour and a half drive to get to the start of the trail, if you don’t take the ferry. We decide not to take the ferry because we don’t want to wait for it and think it won’t save that much time. The scenery is great and the weather is perfect so we play tourist, taking in the rugged coast line, the vistas and small settlements along the coast.

We finally get to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and stop for lunch at a sea food restaurant. Chowder, clams, fish and chips overlooking the coast, not bad. We then do some more touring until its time to head back. On the way we stop at the Keltic Lodge, which is a premier resort on the coast, with one of the top golf courses in Canada. If we ever want to get away from it all and cool our jets, this would be the place.

From the Keltic Lodge we head back and decide to take the ferry with some concerns, about how long of a wait and ride. We get to the ferry and it turns out to be no wait and its about a 1/4 mile ride and takes about five minutes. Back to Sydney and another fine dinner at the Governors Place and then get ready for our flight in the morning to New Glassgow.

September 27th, Tuesday, we leave Sydney for New Glassgow. Sydney is a funky little municipal airport as we previously described, however the people are very helpful getting us refueled and loaded up. We debated if we needed to refuel for the one hour flight, but in the end why not. We had a perfect VFR day and landed at the Trenton Airport, CYTN. We were met by our friends who we met in the Bahamas in January. We told them, never invite someone with an airplane to visit, because we will come. They were at the airport to greet us and took us to Marc and Shauna’s home for tea and to get re-acquainted. The three couples, Marc and Shauna, Wayne and Carmel and Howie and Marnie were all there. What a treat learning about their lives in New Glassgow, which includes a lot of traveling elsewhere. Marc is a Toyota dealer and loaned us a car and pointed us to our hotel and on to Pitou, Nova Scotia for a little sight seeing. We saw the renovated ship that brought the original Scottish settlers to Nova Scotia, the Hector, and the local fisherman’s museum. After our touring we met at Carmel’s Irish Pub, called the Docks. Carmel is from Ireland and she and Wayne out did themselves with fantastic appetizers and drinks. We then walked to the Bistro that Howie and Wayne formerly owned for dinner. We had a wonderful time with these fun people, who treated us to great food and unbelievable hospitality.

Somehow we found our way back to the hotel, and it was time to check weather for tomorrows flight to Quebec City.

On September 28th. our wonderful hosts in New Glassgow took us to the Trenton airport for our departure to Quebec City. It was a good thing we refueled in Sydney, since they run out of fuel after putting only 5 gallons in our tank. It was clear and beautiful and after we said our goodbyes we lifted off, waggled our wings and headed for Quebec City. Most of the flight was clear, until we got to Quebec City, CYQB, where we did an instrument approach. Our cab driver was direct from the chamber of commerce and took us through the Saint Jeans gate into the walled city of Old Quebec. Old Quebec City is the only remaining walled city in North America. We checked into our quaint Vieux-Quebec (old Quebec) hotel then lunch at a crêpe restaurant then some sight seeing.

The hotel recommended a restaurant for dinner, so I trudged up the hill to check the menu and made a reservation. Trudging up hills is part of the Old Quebec City experience, and at the end of the first day may calves were complaining. That evening we had a superb dinner at restaurant La Cremaillere. We enjoyed French meal with, veal, excellent wine and a desert to die for, oo la la. It turns out the owner is Italian, oh well who cares.

Day Two Quebec City

We signed up for a walking tour that started from our hotel at 9:00 AM. Breakfast basket in the room was more than ample so we were ready for a walk. Sarah our guide, in period costume, did a very nice job of relating the history and pointing out the important sites. This gave an understanding of the history from the fur trading port beginning to the provincial capital of today. Quebec City, particularly the old walled city is very European and as someone said, its Europe without the jet lag. We soaked up history and enjoyed the sites before, guess what, lunch.

Time for lunch at a small French restaurant, then more touring of the city. We passed the giant hotel built by the Canadian Railroad, the Château Frontenac, the fort build to defend Quebec City against the Americans, we never came, and the provincial Parliament, that was flying an American flag, (they must have known we were coming). We made a pass through the old city Irish district, which has a special shopping street.

Outside the walls, Quebec City is a modern bustling place, but the old city has the charm. Dinner on our last evening in Quebec City was at an Italian restaurant near our hotel. Excellent with entertainment and the place was jumping. Back to the hotel, check weather for tomorrow and get ready for Montréal.

On Friday, September 3oth. we left Quebec City for the short one hour flight to Montréal. We climbed into overcast skies and were in and out of the clouds. We did an instrument approach into Saint Hubert airport, CYHU, and were soon on our way into the City. We checked into the nicest hotel of our trip, the Le Place D’Armes. We were off to a recommended lunch at a near by restaurant, which turned out to be delightful. We then did a walking tour of the waterfront area along the Saint Laurent river. We quickly came to realize that Montréal is a city of architectural contrasts of old and new. We visited the History Museum of Montréal which put not only the history but the architecture into perspective. It was cool, but without rain, we spent the afternoon working up an appetite and sight seeing.

We finished off our first day in Montréal with a fine meal at a nearby Mediterranean style restaurant that specialized in lamb.

A cappuccino at the hotel bar, that was really jumping, and we called in a day. Tomorrows weather forecast didn’t look that good, so we signed up for a bus tour of the city.

Day Two Montréal

Saturday dawned blustery and rainy so the bus tour turned out to be the right answer. We lucked out with a great driver/guide with a great sense of humor. He pointed out a McDonald’s as the American embassy and had a giant belly laugh at his own joke. The three hour tour was good and covered all the high lights including the site of the 1976 Olympics, Basilique Notre-Dame, Mount Royal that looks over the city and many other points of interest.

We capped off the day with a great meal at a restaurant called Joe Beef. Fresh oysters on the half shell, great fish and Mike had lobster, all in a place called Joe Beef. Montréal turned out to be a very interesting city with a rich history, a unique combination of old and new architecture and great food.

Time to check the weather and get ready for our flight home tomorrow.

On Sunday, October 2nd. we left Montréal in low overcast and climbed to six thousand feet on top of a cloud layer. The temperature was above freezing and we had a 30 plus knot tail wind. The forecast called for the freezing level to get down to our altitude near Toronto on our way to Detroit. We were in and out of the clouds and rain with temperatures dropping but never down to freezing. We broke out of the clouds about one hundred miles east of Detroit and landed with a gusty wind down the runway. Customs at KDET, Detroit City airport, was a pleasure and we refueled and were in the air within an hour. We experienced a 40 knot tail wind and cruised at around 200 knots over the ground landing in Dayton in less than an hour.

We flew eight legs on our trip, three of which were what we originally planned. We unfortunately had to miss New England this year due to bad weather, however we enjoyed Nova Scotia and Quebec. Although we didn’t get our quota of lobster this year, we know they will be waiting next year and maybe be a little bit bigger. Overall it was a good trip for the the Williamson Family three musketeers, and we are already starting to think about our next flying adventure.

Joyce and I flew to Vancover, BC on Tuesday July fifth for a seven day cruise up the Alaska inland passage. We spent the afternoon and evening in Vancover enjoying the scenery and watching the float planes take off and land through our hotel window. The next morning we saw our ship the Seven Sea’s Navigator coming into port from its last cruise. We boarded ship at noon and had lunch, which was the beginning of a series of fine meals and wine. The weather was perfect and in general we would experience good weather for the majority of our trip. We had a suite on the 9th deck with a balcony on the port side, which would give us a view of the coast as we sailed north. Our butler and housekeeper introduced themselves, made sure the bar was stocked with our favorites. They then made our dinner reservations at Prime 7, the small on board steak house. We went up to the top deck and took in the beauty of Vancover harbor as we set sail for Ketchican.

We arrive at our first destination Ketchikan, Alaska which is known as the salmon capital of world. Ketchikan originated as a salmon fishing and canning port and still has a big commercial fishing industry. The only access is by air or sea and averages 162 inches of precipitation per year. Ketchikan was a rough and tumble town in the early days and the former red light district, Creek Street, has been converted to tourist shops. Besides fishing, tourism is the main industry. This was my first stop last year when I flew to Alaska so I knew the lay of the land and decided to explore the surrounding area. We took a boat excursion to Misty Fjord which is a glaciated fjord, and lived up to its name, Misty. We saw wild life and beautiful scenery including a volcanic plug called Edgecomb Rock. When we returned,we toured Ketchkan, returned to the ship for cocktails, dinner and a show put on by the ships entertainers called “Viva La Viva”, which was very good. The ship left Ketchikan late afternoon to cruise overnight to Tracy Arm Fjord.

At dawn we arrived at Tracy Arm which is a 30 mile long narrow and deep fjord terminating at the Sawyer glacier. The scenery was spectacular with cliffs rising 4000 feet, winding toward the glacier. As often happens we encountered fog and ice near the glacier and had to turn around before we got to the face. We then headed for Juneau.

We docked at around one in the afternoon in at Juneau, Alaska’s state capital. We did a little sight seeing, including the famous Red Dog Saloon. At two thirty we were picked up by van and taken to a dock for a photo safari by land and sea. This turned out to be one of the high lights of our cruise. The objective was whale watching and we were rewarded by observing a phenomenon called “bubble feeding”.We spied a pod of 12 humpback whales cruising near the shore. They lifted their tails and dove and our guide said, it looks like they are bubble feeding for mackerel. In this process they dive below the school and surround the fish with a circle of bubbles, then they ascend with mouths open ingesting the fish finally exploding at the surface. We could hear the whales as they climbed and then they broke through the water right next to the boat. They continued the bubble feeding for another thirty minuets or so. We then made our way past sleeping sea lions back to the dock for our land photo op.

Bubble Feeding Humpback Whales!

We docked still excited about our whale experience and drove to the Mendenhall Glacier. We walked through a beautiful forest, past native medicinal plants, streams, and then came out to see the face of the glacier.