2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Cat in Window

Cats in windows make great shots.  I posted another one a while back from somewhere, but had no luck in finding it among the thousands of pics published.  Maybe when the index I'm working on is finished...

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Alleyway Labyrinth

We were led by the guide through a unique alleyway that is supposedly old as the ages.  I snapped away because of the patterns and angles, in wonder that people actually live here and daily get to walk through this labyrinth of history.

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Wall Piece with Found Edges

Not the artwork highlighted by the sign, but thought this wall piece would look good in Found Edges:

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Little Man Artwork

Most of the remainder of posts here will be taken on a guided tour.  We hired this company to meet us at a hotel, and of the six signed up to go with the group we were the only ones that showed up.  Thus, we were able to get a very personalized experience, and the very nice guide catered to exactly what we wanted to see (unique, weird, strange, not too many churches).

Using our list, the first thing he showed us was right across the street from the hotel where we met.  The yellow sign was one of many posted around the city, announcing an artwork that could be observed nearby.  Do we see from here what that artwork is? ...

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, More Perspectives of Flower Bouquet

Three more perspectives of same bouquet, with the last one catching the sunlight coming through our sliding glass doors...

2025 NE Cruise - Yellow Flower with Green Pistils

This would be one of my favorite pics of the entire trip.  September 5th is Chenjean's birthday and we were on the ship, so I arranged with the room service guy to get a bouquet of flowers delivered to the room so she'd see them when we returned from breakfast that day.  They managed to pull it off, for which we were grateful.

Two more perspectives of same below:

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Building with Green Roof

Had to wait a day to get the lighting acceptable for this pic, shot from our stateroom balcony.  Lots of buildings in Québec have green roofs like this...suppose they're made primarily of copper.

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Downtown Silhouette

A more complete silhouette of the school, at left, among other notable buildings in the downtown area.  The taller building to the right is a hotel, daylight pictures of which will be posted later.

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, High School Silhouette

Later on the Bigger Cahoona and I were able to capture this image of the same building and make it into a semi-silhouette.  Complete silhouette to be posted tomorrow...

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, High School Building

From our vantage point there on the dock, this is one of the first buildings that catches your eye.  Perched atop a hill in this large city, with a commanding view overlooking the town and harbor, one may reasonably assume that it's a grand government building of some kind, with offices for the mayor or even state governor.  Well, to our amazement we found out that it's a high school, which is government related I suppose...

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Factory Conveyor Belts

 

Liked the angles on whatever this is.  There's a highway going off to the right, so I included this structure in an 8-shot panorama that turned out fairly well, but those are too big to post or appreciate on a small screen.

And it's the panoramas that I like to do the most.  As soon as we get home from a trip, once the pictures are sorted, culled and categorized, the first thing I do in Photoshop is stitch together any panoramic series captured.  Could be because I'm a so-called "resolution head" and enjoy how much detail is preserved when zooming way in.

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Tall Building with Steam for Promotional Card

...but this is what I was holding out for.  When the wind blew the steam over sideways, knew the space underneath would be ideal for lettering on a promotional card.  The above is what I initially imagined, but while creating the card felt that the one below didn't look too bad either:

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Tall Building with Steam for Bookmark

As soon as I saw this guy with the steam coming out of those pipes I knew what I wanted to do with it.  This might be acceptable as a bookmark...

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Twin Silver Steeples

Many of these first posts from Québec were captured from the ship's Lido deck the first morning we docked there.

It was then that I met a woman talking into her phone shooting a travel video.  Travels and vlogs about it to make a living that she very much enjoys.  Must be nice in your older age to do such a thing...

2025 NE Cruise - Québec City, Two Cityscapes

Our final stop on this 10-day cruise was Québec City.  With a population of more than a half million (800k+ in the metro area), the opportunities for the Bigger Cahoona were vastly superior compared to the small towns visited thus far.  The above is a 2-shot panoramic cityscape captured as soon as we docked.  We stayed there for two nights, so was able to grab another cityscape the first morning with the iPhone 15 Pro Max just as the sun rose to highlight the buildings.  If you ask me, the pic below is the better one, and much less work to prepare for the blog:

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, 2-shot Panorama of Drained Shoreline

Just a couple more items of interest about the town of Saguenay - one is the presence of school buses, which were sequestered for use in transporting tourists from the ship to the various excursions out and about.  The other is the absence of water beyond the levees, where the family is walking (better seen when clicking the photo on a larger screen).  When Chenjean  and I got back from our walk through town, the tide had come in and the area was entirely covered with water.  We saw something similar in Alaska...the difference between low and high tides seems to be much greater in the northern latitudes.

..and this'll do it for posts from Saguenay.  Our next and final stop will be the much more photographically productive visit to Québec City.

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Helicopter

Always a huge fan of aviation, we stopped and watched whenever this guy was taking off or coming in for a landing.  After seeing my interest, Chenjean shocked me by asking if I wanted to go up for a ride.  Always enamored with watching helicopters, but never being comfortable in one, I declined.  Besides, the cropped-in portion of this image below reveals a cramped cabin which would not guarantee that I would get a front seat for the best views:

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Radiant Flowers with Yellow Rings

Unlike what is seen in this recent post, the other flowers and leaves in the background here have been desaturated of their color.  Original wider view below:

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Little Pink Florettes

 

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Peek-a-Boo Steeple Shot

Lots of trees, so lots of peek-a-boo shots.  There was a cross at the top of this steeple, but it didn't look just right so was removed.

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Purple and White Flower

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Black Flower Petals

It's interesting to observe that there are leaves - as seen in this post from earlier in the cruise - and flower petals that are black.  I'm not a botanist, but think it's safe to assume that this is to enable the plants to absorb more heat in the colder climes of Canada.  Photographically they're more of a challenge to capture with the Bigger Cahoona's middling lens, but think this one turned out all right.

Emerging bud of similar (though not black) species below:

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Gossiping Girls

Some younger folks in place to enhance the immersive experience.  They were minding the store in the background.  The sign's in French, but think it must have something to do with blueberries.

Speaking of French, suppose that's what the girls are speaking since French is considered a first language in Québec and English a second...

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Log-sawing Activity

As for unique experiences, the tourists were encouraged to take part in this activity and work the saw.

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Tourist Trap of Another Kind

Hmmm...what could this be?  Evidently the citizenry gets really involved in greeting the hordes pouring out from the ship to look for adventure and unique experiences.  As can be seen, the townspeople are dressed in period costumes, forming a circle that at first looks innocent enough.

Then the circle moves to wrap around the knot of unsuspecting tourists eager to take pictures:

Ah - it's a trap!  The circle soon completely envelops any tourist foolish enough to stick around long enough.  What happens next was too horrifying to imagine; I turned away so as not be be exposed to such things on our happy little vacation.  What's worse, if you'll look closely, it's obvious that some from the ship defected and decided to join those trapping the tourists...

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Wider View of Town

This wider view of the town reveals some strange goings-on dockside...

2025 NE Cruise - Saguenay, Townscape with Hospital

After visiting Charlottetown the boat went over the top of New Brunswick, down the St Lawrence River, then up the Saguenay River to finally dock at Saguenay City, another small town to walk around in and look at things.  To be fair, there were loads of excursions available, but almost all of them involved a long bus ride somewhere, then a long bus ride back, so we opted to just walk around and take in the sights of this charming little Canadian town.

After docking, the first thing that caught my eye was the impressive building atop the bluff.  I thought, "Wow, what a neat place...maybe we could stay there sometime on a future visit."  Well, hopefully not, because it turned out to be a regional hospital instead of a hotel.

A closer look below:

2025 NE Cruise - Charlottetown, Cutest Little Tugboat in the World

Taken with the iPhone camera, could not resist capturing a pic of the cutest little tugboat in the world.  There were several of these buzzing around, attaching the ship's ropes onto dockside bollards.

2025 NE Cruise - Charlottetown, Scarecrow Kites

Found these kites to be interesting, as they are supposed to serve as scarecrows to keep "other" birds away.  Another one was installed on the roof of a nearby shoreside building, per below:

2025 NE Cruise - Charlottetown, Mansion

Another colorful structure blending well with its surroundings.  Think this was an old house converted into a museum.

Cropped-in shot of same below:

2025 NE Cruise - Charlottetown, Colorful Houses

We saw a church, but unfortunately were unable to enter because some service was going on.  Didn't bother me too much, though, because the front steps afforded this view of some colorful houses across the street.  Wonder what rules were in place to ensure the awesome color coordination seen here and in the shot below.  Both of these places were in peaceful, out-of-the-way neighborhoods, so the colors weren't there just for the benefit of tourists offloading at the ship terminal; seems to be just part of the culture.

2025 NE Cruise - Charlottetown, Low-flying Military Plane from Below

Must've been a military base nearby, as this plane was low with flaps still configured for takeoff after the landing gear was retracted.

2025 NE Cruise - Charlottetown, Peek-a-Boo Shot of Steeples

Once on the ground I was able to snatch this Peek-a-Boo shot of the steeples at St Dunstan's.

After "hitting the trail" we determined this to be just another little town to walk around in and look at things.  Wasn't too difficult, as it was so small; in just a couple of hours we covered nearly everything there.  Thus, like in Sydney, there aren't too many pictures to post.