Late Autumn in Quebec

 One of the things people from the west and south of the US look forward to on a Canada-New England cruise is seeing the fall colours in the leaves along the St. Lawrence River. This is the final itinerary for Crystal this year, and, as they seem to pride themselves on being the last ship out of Quebec every year, most of the time the leaves have already fallen from the trees altogether. Fortunately for all of us, with the slightly warmer weather, there was still a lot of colour to see during our all day cruise up the river.

We had a double overnight stay in Quebec City as we arrived at 6:00 p.m. on Friday and departed at 2:00 on Sunday. We had decided to go for a walk in the old town rather than do any tours, mainly because this was our third visit to Quebec in 2 years and we had done the tours that were offered.

What we had forgotten was that most towns in Quebec observe a Hallowe'en tradition of having the young children shell out in the local shops on the Saturday before the big event. As a result, it was very busy all over Old Quebec with parents dressing up just as elaborately as some of the kids. We saw everything from magicians to princesses to even one guy dressed as a Hot Dog!

There were lots of fall and Hallowe'en 
decorations all over Old Quebec

These umbrellas seem to come
back every year for the summer

A view of the Chateau Frontenac and the
lovely colours

The Chateau lit up at night

Sunday morning was rather cold and windy, feeling like -3 degrees Celsius. We knew it would be cold and perhaps rainy here in Quebec, but didn't want to pack heavy clothing for just one day, so we elected to stay on board and wait for the 2:00 p.m. sailout.

Looking out the windows in the Crystal Cove, we could see some snow squalls on the river, and a check of my phone's weather app said there were flurries expected. Before we sailed we saw our first snow of the season.

We had moved up to Marketplace to grab some salad for lunch when we found ourselves in the midst of a snow squall. I ran back to our stateroom to grab my phone and get a few photos:

The open area at the back of our Deck. We couldn't even
see shore!

Blue sky and tiny hail stones.

The snow/hail almost looks like styrofoam
pellets on the outside of the window

The pool deck

Of course the Filipino crew as well as others from countries that don't get snow all had their cameras out to take videos to send home. And by the way, a lot of the colours we had seen on Friday's cruise to Quebec were already gone by Sunday because of the windy weather.

So, all in all a typical late fall day in Canada! Now we look forward to almost 3 full days at sea to reach Boston where the weather is supposed to be much nicer!