From Vermont to New Hampshire

By accident of birth a person could be born on the east side or the west side of the Connecticut River, and thereby be a citizen of the arch conservative state of New Hampshire, or the funky liberal state of  Vermont. The geography is much the same, the drinking water is much the same, but the people turn out quite differently. In these polarized times I’d like to know more about how they get along. There might be some lessons here for the rest of us.

Vermont
Vermont has the distinction of having the smallest capital city in the nation. Montpelier is a tiny town with just 12,000 inhabitants. Nevertheless the state is home to some corporations known for their progressive policies. Ben & Jerry’s is one of these, and its original ice cream factory is close to Stowe (Sorry that we didn’t have time to visit). The Cabot cheese coop produces some fine cheddar, and is unusual in having a Department of Gratitude. This department has a mobile kitchen which gets deployed in locations where volunteers are helping clean up after a natural disaster.  Cabot volunteers serve other volunteers.

And then there is Green Mountain Coffee. This gourmet roast has a special relationship with Keurig coffee makers, but it is not what I thought. My assumption had been that Keurig is a German company that partnered with a little American company. Wrong. Keurig was started by a trio of MIT engineers, and the owner of Green Mountain Coffee invested in it and eventually bought it.   The company is now known as Keurig Green Mountain. It is a leader in sustainability programs and fair trade for coffee farmers.

New Hampshire
Our first stop in New Hampshire was in the town of Bath, population 1,077 as of 2010.  In 1790 this tiny town in New Hampshire had a population of 493, so it hasn’t grown much in 220 years.

The 35 in our group from England appreciated that the town was named for the first Earl of Bath. Most of them, and the two Americans, also appreciated that the town has a great ice cream shop.

Bath also has three covered bridges. What was the purpose of having a covered wooden bridge in the olden days?  It was not to protect people from the elements, or to look pretty in scenic shots when cameras were invented. The roofing was to protect the wooden elements of the bridge itself. Replacing a weathered roof is a rather simple job.  Rebuilding a rotting wooden bridge is something a community would rather not be forced to do.

We also learned that in the winter the local folk used to use horse drawn sleighs. They couldn’t cross through a covered bridge that was bare of snow, and so it was someone’s job to shovel snow onto the bridge. Now that we ride around in horseless carriages the job of shoveling snow onto bridges has become obsolete.

Folks in New Hampshire are proud that they were the first of the British  North American colonies to establish a government independent of Great Britain, and they did that in January, 1776. The state motto is famously, “Live Free or Die.”

As a conservative state that believes in keeping government from interfering in private lives, the government is kept small by having a restricted tax base. No income tax. No sales tax. Just property taxes to support schools and a few other necessary things.

We’ll be in New Hampshire only two more days. Will that be enough to get a pulse of the place?  Probably not.  But we’ll see.

Step Back and Zoom In

Yesterday our Great Rail Journey group of 35 people from U.K., plus two Americans had a walk-about with a photographer in the morning, and a walk-about with a naturalist in the afternoon. The photographer emphasized the importance of good lighting and composition, and encouraged us to have our subjects off center using “the rule of thirds.”  The most revelatory thing she said and demonstrated was”step back and zoom in.”

We stood on an overlook with a white-steepled church and a small stream in front of us.  We snapped pictures. They were blah. Then we stepped back to frame the view with green branches of a tree in the foreground. Better result. Then we stepped back further and zoomed in on the church, framed under the branches of the tree.  Wow.   A little tweaking post production with color balance produced a very fine result. I have reached a new skill level.

In the afternoon we went on a walk-about in the woods. The lower part was a forest of deciduous hardwoods.  Above that was a stand of evergreen hemlock.  Our guide pointed out claw marks on a birch tree. It could be considered graffiti left by a big black bear.

This morning we went swimming.  In an outdoor pool.  In Stowe, Vermont. In October.  The pool happened to be heated, but so was the air. Instead of having crisp fall temperatures what we have is unseasonable warmth. The trees are still green, with leaves productively clinging to the trees, instead of blushing red and falling to the ground.

Most those on this tour signed up to see fall foliage. Ah well. It’s an interesting tour and a great group of people. We’re still having a good time.

Losing the Loonie, Toonie, and Poutine

View of Quebec Parliament from Hilton Hotel

We leave Canada tomorrow, and we’ll revert to the dull American dollar. The Canadian dollar doesn’t go as far as the U.S. dollar, getting only 80 cents on exchange, but it is more colorful. The dollar coin features a loon on one side, so it gets called a loonie. The two dollar coin could be called a two-nie, however toonie is the name it’s known by.

The larger denominations are banknotes in gorgeous colors and with clear plastic windows with silver representations of something important but unrecognizable to me. Counterfeiters have to be stumped by these high tech bills.

Ironically Canadian businesses don’t have to accept Canadian bills or coins. At least one quick food place is opening a store where cash will not be accepted. The young crowd that frequents that chain prefers to “tap the phone” or use a credit card.  Handling cash is a bother for everybody, it seems. Could an American restauranteur refuse to take American dollar bills?  I don’t think so!

At the moment we are in Québec, staying in a hotel very close to Old Town. On a tour this afternoon I was intrigued by several pieces of art, including a magnificent elephant by Salvador Dali. Another installation looked uninspired at first glance, yet it is the one that I will remember most. It was a tree, an ordinary tree that was perhaps 30 feet tall. It was planted in a sidewalk grate, and anyone rushing by wouldn’t have noticed what was unusual about it. If you stopped and looked at it, you might observe that it moved. As a matter of fact, it rotated slowly in a circle. The point of this installation is that preconceptions can interfere with perception.

Quebec is the birthplace of poutine, a dish I had to try. Some things sound good but don’t taste good. Others don’t sound good but they taste good. Poutine neither sounds good or tastes good.  I’ll describe it so that you can judge for yourself if it sounds good. You’ll have to take my word for it that this artery clogging dish is not something most people would order more than once.

Poutine is a large mess of French fries to which cheese curds are added in great quantity. A thin brown gravy is ladled on top. I can tell you that this dish was served in the White House at a state dinner when Obama was president. My guess is that the kitchen staff nearly rebelled when told to prepare this stuff. It was, however, something appropriate to serve to Justin Trudeau.

Goodbye, poutine. Goodbye, loonie. Goodbye, toonie. Tomorrow we’re traveling to the United States of America. 

Supper at the Sugar Shack

Our outing in the countryside of Quebec Province included a stop in the resort area of Mont Tremblant ended with supper at the Sugar Shack. Maple syrup was part of every course, starting with pea soup. It wasn’t absolutely necessary to put maple syrup in pea soup, but the locals do, so why not.  Then there was maple cured ham with baked eggs, a meat pie that thankfully didn’t taste sweet, and an assortment of pickle products to cut the overall sweetness. There were three desserts.  One was a pecan pie without the pecans, obviously made with maple syrup. Another was plain pancakes with as much maple syrup as you wanted, and the third was maple toffee rolled in artificial snow. For a diabetic this dinner was a challenge.

We learned a bit about how maple syrup is produced. Weather conditions have to be optimal, with freezing nights and warm days.  The tree you tap has to be at least 30 years old; over 100 is okay.  The French Canadian who was instructing us said that you have to find the front of the tree. I was puzzled by that because the tree we were looking at was as perfectly round as any other tree, and I didn’t see a front or back side. Well, if you stand facing the tree and the sun rises on your right and sets on your left, you are by definition looking at the front of the tree.  Otherwise known as the south side.

After being educated and fed it was time for music and dancing. The guitarist who played French Canadian folk songs also led us in contra dancing. A good time was had by all.

Tomorrow morning we get an early start on a train trip to Quebec.

Bonjour, Hi

You know you are in Montreal when you are greeted with “Bonjour, hi.”  To converse in French you  respond, “Bonjour.”  To converse in English you respond, “Hi.”

Canada is officially bilingual and so federal matters are presented in two languages. Each province can decide what they want to do on the provincial level. Quebec recognizes French only; New Brunswick uses both French and English. The other eight are officially English speaking. Yet there is such a strong desire to be accommodating that official material might also be presented in Arabic or Mandarin or whatever language is spoken by a significant size minority group in the area.

Native English speakers amount to only 15 percent of the population of Montreal, but the tourism trade operates quite happily in English. There are over 40 festivals a year, with many free events. One intriguing one is an international pyromusical competition. Imagine night after night major shows over the St Lawrence River of fireworks displays set to music.

Montreal is also a university town, and in 2016 it was ranked No. 1 in the world, beating out Paris, which has been traditionally ranked first. Students like the way of life here.

We don’t have near enough time to do more than a sampling of Montreal. Tomorrow we’re on the move. 

A Surprise at Niagara Falls

View from the top of Niagara Falls

Today we had a day trip to Niagara Falls, with a refreshing stop at a winery on our way back to Toronto.  I had learned from my brother that the water dumped on Houston by Hurricane Harvey was the equivalent of 75 Niagara Falls for four straight days. Or maybe it was 57;  I’m vague on the details.  Let’s just say Nature is powerful and impressive.

I was surprised to learn that Man has the capability of turning off Niagara Falls, or at least partially closing the spigot — and does so every night, from midnight to 6:00 am. About half the water is diverted into ponds for producing hydroelectric power for both Canada and the United States. During the day tourists are treated to the full power of the thunderous falls.

On our way back to Toronto we stopped at a winery that specializes in producing one of the rarest of wines —ice wines. The grapes are harvested in January when they are frozen solid. Most regions that grow grapes never get that cold, and most places with cold winters can’t grow grapes. This region of Ontario is perfect for producing ice wine. But each grape yields just a teardrop amount of sweetness, a tenth of what grapes normally produce. We were told that it takes about 300 grapes to make a botttle of ordinary wine; about 3,000 grapes give up their lives to produce ice wine.

It was not a surprise to find out that ice wine is expensive. The best customers for it turn out to be sake drinkers. The rest of us might appreciate it to one extent or another. I’m happy with more ordinary wine.

Tomorrow we have a five-hour train trip to Montreal. We’ll get to see lots of countryside. 

Typical Tourist in Toronto

We started our day with a 3-hour city tour. Chatting with the guide during a coffee break I found out that the guide association in Toronto likes to look at the DC Guild of Professional Tour Guides Association website for inspiration. Since I am the person who designed the layout for the Guild website and am the editor of our e-newsletter, I can now say that my work is known internationally.

After our city tour we had free time for the rest of the day.  Slava and I went to Ripley’s Aquarium. A fabulous part of that is a moving sidewalk that takes visitors through a plexiglass tunnel in a saltwater tank.  You are surrounded by sharks and rays and lots of fascinating fish.

Our evening activity was dinner in Restaurant 360 high up the 1,000 ft. CN Tower. This was most likely the fanciest dinner on our trip. I had Newfoundland cod, served with glacial water shrimp, snow crab leg and partridge berries. We saw the sun set over Toronto as the the restaurant rotated 360 degrees.

We came down shortly before someone important came up. Prince Harry.  The prince is in town for the Invictus Games, an organization he started in 2014 for wounded military veterans. We have seen international teams around town at various times, and at the aquarium I talked with a British woman who came to support her paraplegic husband, a competitive swimmer.  The big buzz of the event was that just yesterday Prince Harry had appeared at the Invictus Games with Meghan Markle. The two have obviously been seen together many times, but in royal circles it’s a big deal to go public at an official event.  Meghan is now a resident of Toronto, and this is where she films her TV show “Suits.”  The prince took time from the Invictus Games to watch her rehearse yesterday.

The typical tourist in Toronto doesn’t see Prince Harry. I didn’t see him. That’s why I call myself a typical tourist.