Travelog for: Quentin Ducky

I know I have completed my life mission to meet some pets.  But I got very brave with the resident cat here so I decided to rack up some extra credit.  Don’t worry, mum, Miss Kitty is too sleepy to be a danger to me.  Then we greeted a new TV who flew in from Germany.  She is a squirrel named Orkku Orava, very energetic and so much fun.  We shared some pecans with her.  The next day we took a walk along the piers and saw something that looked like a rocket launching; we found out it is a cruise ship.  Maybe I could stowaway; don’t know if it’s headed for Alaska or the Panama Canal. 

The weather is so nice, we are planning to take another ferry boat ride to a special destination. 

See ya,

Quentin Ducky

We took a nice day trip today over the Golden Gate Bridge to Rodeo Beach in The Marin Headlands which is part of The Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  Jeanne said the photos of me in the fir tree branches might work as Christmas cards.  So Happy Holidays, Everyone!! 

Your Quentin Ducky

Up Up and Away, again.

I decided to become a non-conformist
duck by flying north in October. 

See ya at a higher altitude.

Ducky

Hi Mum,

I arrived in Canada ! Today I was feeling very squeezed in what I guess was a mail box when eventually a helping hand put me on something much softer . Here I felt a burst of activity as if someone was trying to open my envelope .



As I came out I found a crowd of TVs looking at me: Sofia, Orpheus, sammino and Jujube who arrived today too...which might explain why that mailbox felt so crammed . Jujube and I  showed to the others  the lovely cards that our last hosts gave to us and then we started chatting and telling stories about our TV life .

Hi Mum,

Today I took my first visit to the mountains . As we left the car we were followed by light sleet, and the first glimpse of our surrounding wasn’t encouraging: dark clouds...



...and snow at high elevations. Well, not even that high, the whole upper part of Nakiska ski area seemed already ready for the winter season .



From a bit further up we saw Barrier Lake in the distance and even what looked to be some sunrays .



While in the direction that we wanted to take things were less encouraging. I was a bit concerned but smaug and sammino said that we had nothing to worry about. Even Sofia seemed quite relaxed .



Eventually we reached the top of the valley, from where we could see the surrounding mountains ...



....and the ridge that we just followed.



sammino suggested that we should have tried to reach that peak behind me , but smaug said that he didn’t want to be on that face if the weather turned ugly, so we just headed back home.

Hi Mum,

smaug suddenly disappeared and left us alone for almost two weeks (something that, as sammino explained to us, happens sort of frequently ). What was very disappointing is that he didn’t leave us very well supplied .



Anyway, by somehow rationing the chocolate , we made it. And when today he eventually reappeared, he even had a surprise for us: a parcel, maybe holding inside a new friend .



And, yes, it was a new guest: Cherry Lola , a nice Zebra from the US. And she brought to us a lovely card and some delicious sweets ....which got all the attention of our starving stomachs .

Hi Mum,

Guess what? Today smaug showed up with another TV-suspicious parcel. Of course we all gathered to see who was going to come out of it.



It was Cassiopeia, a nice turtle from Germany . She is one of the most experienced TV ever, so we didn’t really give her the chance to rest and we pinned her down all night to hear everything about her travelling .

Hi Mum,

It sure looked like being at the airport arrival lounge here this week . For the third time smaug came back with a parcel holding a new guest inside .



This time it was Sweetsy, a nice gingerbread man from Germany ! And he brought over some great gifts for us: a lovely “self-themed” card and some delicious German Christmas sweets ...which, of course, fuelled a long night of chatting .

Hi Mum,

Temperatures were in the freaking minus twenties over the week end , but sammino explained that it was a great chance for us to get acclimatised to the proper Canadian winter weather and he convinced smaug to take us for a short walk in the foothills . At least the sun was shining .



The trail was covered in snow, but just a couple of cm.



We stopped at this sign to check where we were: luckily we were not lost .



Eventually we reached the highest spot of our walk, where we had a great view of the mountains around us .





At this point we stopped to recover and sammino made appear a cup of boiling tea along with a well deserved bar of chocolate ....the best part of the day .

Hi Mum,

Today we said goodbye to Sofia and Orpheus who are ready to travel to their next hosts . They are both going to Germany...but using separate envelopes .

Hi Mum,

Today we went for a short hike in the foothills . As it often happens, we spent the first part of the day between the trees, but soon the view improved .



This ridge was very exposed to both sun and wind, so all the snow had disappeared ...



...but our way forward looked snowy enough .



Luckily TVs are lighter than humans and don’t sink so much into the snow, so, since the trail was well marked, we left smaug toiling up his way behind us and marched ahead following sammino .



Eventually we reached the summit ridge where the view was great. We could see the prairies and even Calgary far in the east ...



...and mountains everywhere else .

Hi Mum,

After a long time being very quiet (smaug was quite busy and, despite our best efforts to get his attention, we felt a bit invisible over the last few weeks ), today we had the first glimpse of hope of being active again . sammino left us for the day and came back with two guests....two deeply asleep guests .



As they woke up they introduced themselves as Landroval , a native Canadian eagle coming back for the holidays and Sigfrido, sammino’s delegate and representative in France .



They offered to us some lovely (and very appropriate) sweets that they collected while travelling here . But they also told us that they have even more interesting goodies hidden somewhere in their baggage, can’t wait to see that .

Hi Mum,

Merry Christmas !

This morning we found a lot of presents on the floor...



... but, since they didn’t seem to be for us , we focused our attention on some of the sweets that Landroval and Sigfrido brought from France and Italy .



Later we decided to burn some calories and went for a walk along the river.



That red bridge over there is a new pedestrian passage over the river which was supposed to be open almost 18 months ago ...and that hopefully will be open sometimes next year .



Back home we expected to have a turkey meal , but sammino said that he had organize and unconventional Christmas lunch based on his favourite local product...massively thick steaks !



After that, to be even more unconventional, we topped the meal with a lovely chocolate cake .



Well, eventually we were so full that we fell asleep...dreaming of more food, of course .

Hi Mum,

Today we went for a short trip near Calgary in the Elbow Valley. First we walked a bit along the Elbow River .




Moving on we reached the Elbow Falls and had a look at the falls from the upstream side...which looked a bit scary .



While the canyon immediately downstream was quite nice ....but freaking cold, so we just went back hiding in the car .

Hi Mum,

Today we explored a bit around Calgary . First we roamed around the streets looking at the skyline.




Then we entered a mall and stopped a bit to rest.



Those flags are for the Junior Hockey World Championship which is going on right now in Calgary.



Later we explored a bit the mall...



...and just before heading home we found this lovely curtain of lights ...it probably looks better without the daylight coming in from the glass roof .