Quebec - Summer 2012 - Greenville, ME. for the first night

This past spring my sister Mary mentioned that she wanted to go to Quebec for a real tour instead of just driving up and back in a day from her in-law's house in Greenville, Maine.  I wanted to do something fun for my 50th birthday and recent graduation from the Master in Education Program at UNH.  So we decided to do a trip together and chose to go in June when the weather is a bit warmer in the upper latitudes.
For our trip we planned to take the first day as a drive up to Greenville, Maine and stay overnight there before heading to Quebec city.  We left on June 17th after Mark and I dropped the dogs off at the Greyhound Placement Service kennel in Dover for a week stay. (Mark figured it would be a good week to redo the hardwood floors in the house with both myself and the dogs away.)
The trip up the Maine Turnpike was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Greenville around 5 p.m. or so.  Mary's father-in-law lived in this house while he was growing up, after the family moved to Maine from New Brunswick.  His mother lived here until several years ago when she moved to a nursing home.  The house is a Sears-Roebuck kit house, one story with a very low ceiling in the basement due to the foundation being on a filled in swamp area.  The water table is very high and all of the heating equipment is suspended from the ceiling in the basement to avoid being destroyed in event of higher water.  A constantly running pump would be handy in this house along with some mildew extraction.

The House

After we arrived and turned on the water heater, we went to visit Mary's grandmother-in-law and uncle-in-law a few roads over.  Grandmother is going to be 91 years old this summer and is doing very well living in her own house with her son next door to check on her daily.  She was quite spry and talkative haven just arrived home from dinner and an ice cream with her son who is Mary's mother-in-law's brother.  (I had to keep the whole family organized in my head because both sides of her in-laws live in this town, these folks and the folks that owned the house above, her father-in-law's folks.)
We finished our visit and went to dinner at the Something Moose in town.  The food was very good, I would go here again, doesn't matter that I don't know the full name, it was one of only two or three restaurants on the main road in town.
With no television, radio or internet service, we spent the evening reading and talking then went to bed around 9:30 for an early start in the morning.
I was up early the next morning, June 18th, showered and then went out for a short walk while Mary got ready for the day.  I walked down to the waterfront and took a few pictures.  It was an overcast morning, cool with the feel of warming up to be humid later in the day.

This spot is only a five minute walk down to the main road from the House.

When I returned from my walk, Mary was up and getting ready for the day, I had breakfast and we packed up the car again to head north.  Before leaving Mary showed me the inside of the garage/workshop that is next to the house.  Her father-in-law's father used to make different carpentry things and reupholstered chairs too.  The red trim around the house and garage were made by her father-in-law in his wood shop class in high school.

I didn't get a good picture of the outside of the barn, but I got the Indianapolis (Indian Apple Us) thermometer on the front and some good shots of the chain that holds the walls together on the inside.  When the chain rusts through, this garage will fall pretty quickly.

The Chain in the center with Mary

The Chain above the styrofoam cooler on the left side of the garage

The Chain on the right side of the garage

The Indianapolis thermometer with a view of the open door and trim made by Mary's father-in-law

Once we closed up the garage, we hopped into the car and headed north.  Along the way we stopped at a scenic area along Moosehead Lake where you can catch a ferry to go out to one of the larger islands.  We took a few pictures here too.

The island across the lake is a geologists dream...

Facing the east, the clouds were just starting to clear to allow for sun reflection here.
The waves on the lake were pretty rough on this morning.

From here we stayed steady until we got to the border, we did see two moose on the way north, one small one that headed back into the woods and a larger one that seemed to be posing for pictures for the folks who had stopped near it.

At the border, the Canadian Border Patrol checked our passports, asked us the usual questions and told us to have a nice vacation.  What he didn't tell me was that I didn't sign my passport... And on to Quebec City we went, arriving around 3:30 p.m. to check into our hotel and begin our tour of the city...