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We moved to Ohio in late summer of 1987.   The fall colors that year were outstanding, just beautiful!   Almost every year since, we have chased fall colors in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.   In some cases we were successful, other times we were either too early or too late.   With New England and Canada reputed to have the best Autumn scenic beauty, we set out to do it right.   After research on the internet and email to the tourist experts in Québec, we set early to mid-October as the best time for travel.   Deposit had been made in 2003 for another cruise with Princess so it was simply a matter of making the reservations.   With all travel arrangements made, Mieko and Charles departed October 11, 2004, for Montréal, Canada, where we would board the Regal Princess.

This web site is photograph intensive.   That generally means that there are files over 100 Kb that may cause those using a dial up connection to wonder why so slow.   On this page and others that follow are photograph thumbnails.   Clicking on the thumbnail will bring up another page showing a larger view of that thumbnail.   To return to the page of thumbnails, click on your browser Back icon or click on the button below the photograph that is titled “Home This Section”. The “Back” and “Next” buttons below the photographs will take you to the previous and next photograph in the presentation, respectively.   This results in sort of a slide show of images.   The viewer may either read all on the sectional pages (or none of it) and click through the photographs or go back and forth from written material to photos.   If you have read this far, there are links on the page for Halifax and St. John to outside web sites that give a very interesting accounts of a past event in each of these two cities.   Hopefully, you will enjoy these photographs.   We had a good time on the trip and developing this presentation.

After an easy flight through Newark, New Jersey, we arrived at Montréal and was met by the Princess people.   Security was tight during the check in for boarding the ship.   It was just like at the airport; all bags scanned and everyone had to pass through the metal detectors.   Once clear of security, the usual welcoming photographs were taken.   Once on board, finding the stateroom was first order of business.   However, it was several hours before our bags were delivered and it seems that the security efforts delayed everyone's bags. The Regal Princess is a much smaller than the previously sailed ships. It's capacity is about 200-250 passengers fewer than the Coral or Sea Princess.   The biggest difference in facilities or features are only one dining room, one theater and the buffet on the upper most deck is smaller.   It seemed to us that the ship was older but it is in excellent shape.

Montréal

The flag above on the left is the Montréal city flag.   Is is composed of the lys, the rose, the shamrock (trefoil) and the thistle representing respectively the French, the English, the Irish and the Scots of Montreal. The cross is emblematic of the Christian motives and principles which governed the founders of the city.   On the right is the flag of the Québec province.   Québec is one of the ten Canadian provinces.   The fleurs-de-lis represent the symbol of France's royalty occupying the four quarters created by a white cross.

Montréal is located on an island in the Saint Lawrence River and was founded by the French in the 1500's.   It remained strictly a French community until 1760 when it was overtaken by the British.   However, perhaps in defiance of the British, it remains pretty much French today.   All road signs and most commercial signs was written in French with English secondary where necessary.   Knowing French would certainly be a benefit for a traveler to this city but not necessity.

Montréal, of course, is a very old city with lot of history and character.   However, it is also very modern.   It was home to the 1967 Expo and all it's trappings.   Our purpose though was the fall colors.   For that we traveled to the Laurentian Mountains, which as far as mountains go, were not very mountainous.   The colors, on the other hand, were at their peak.   The first stop was in a small and interesting town of Saint Sauveur, French for Savior.   We were able to walk the street and visit some shops and eateries.   The church is the center of the little town and in its setting was very nice.

From Saint Sauveur we traveled on to Lac McDonald to take a beautiful boat tour of the lake and surrounding shores.   After the boat trip, I over heard another tourist say that he was going crazy.   Every colorful tree that he saw he felt was one that had to be captured with his camera for memory of the trip.   He went on to say that he must have several hundred photos of trees!   We took a lot of tree photos but restraint was employed.

The Laurentian Mountains in the winter is a big ski resort.   One could imagine how it must look in the winter all covered with snow.   There were many very nice and architecturally pleasing homes around the lake.

The below is Habitat '67, a housing structure built for Expo '67.   It was located just across from where our ship was tied.   It is now apartments and must be an interesting place to live.

Back on board by the appointed time, the Regal Princess pulled in its lines and we started down the Saint Lawrence River for Quebéc.   Out on deck we got our last look at Montréal.

Next port call, Québec.