Sept 8

We left Quebec City and followed the St. Lawrence east to Rimouski, QE (doesn’t sound remotely French to me!). 

Three local attractions are located together at Pointe-au-Pere: the lighthouse, a 1960s vintage submarine, and the Empress of Ireland (Canadian Pacific) memorial museum.

The submarine which was built for cold war era patrols never saw active combat was very well cleaned up, labeled and audio-narrated from the perspective of a submariner taking his young nephew for a tour.

We had never heard of the ship called the Empress of Ireland that sank 2 years after the Titanic in 1914.  It was struck by another ship shortly after it left Rimouski.  Most of the passengers died.  The museum has a number of artifacts that have been recovered from the ship that is a popular and dangerous dive site at the bottom of the St. Lawrence.

Last, we climbed the 128 steps and 2 ladders to the top of the lighthouse. The view across the St. Lawrence was worth it, and would have been ever better if it wasn’t raining off and on.  The original prism-ed lens from France is still there and with a kerosene light could be seen up to 45 km away.

Is there such a thing as too many sunset pictures? Not for us….this is at our campsite for our last night on the St. Lawrence. What a great way to say so long to this great river!