Vacancy time... heading east

It's summer and that means our summer vacation is here.

We are heading east to Quebec City, the lower St-Laurence (southern side of St-Laurence river where it becomes the ocean), as far as Rimouski and Grand Metis, and then take a ferry across and visit the Charlevoix.

This is some of Québec's nicest scenery, and also some of the oldest settlements.

Here's a bit of the itinerary (enough ideas for three trips).

We are ready to leave on a vacation to the east of the province and the lower st-laurence: the south shore of the st-laurence past quebec until, say, Grand Metis or Matane, which is a 400 km stretch of maritime beauty. Then we might cross the st-laurence and come back via the charlevoix.

The schedule: Quebec city for a couple of nights, camping in the Kamouraska region (Seska, also the place for St-Andre/Kamouraska rock climbing, 160 km past quebec city), then a couple nights camping further east (trois pistoles like last year (quite satisfied with the camping there) or more east). Weather will dictate our exact plans.

Touristicalistic attractions include:

Quebec city:
-national art museum
-museum of civilization
-strolling the old city (both lower and upper)
-biking some of the many local bike paths, some newly built for last years 400th anniversary which should be very good)
-the giant outdoor multimedia show projected on a large numbers of grain silos in the port, which was created by Robert Lapage for last years 400th anniversary (a big hit)
-take the ferry to levis, and come back: a very great view of beautiful quebec city!)

Bas St-Laurent (lower st-laurence)
the maritime museum at Islet
Montmagny (where my coworker is from)
Cruise/tour of Grosse Ile which is where many irish immigrants died
Cute villages
Artisanal brasserie near camping and the climbing area of St-Andre
-museum of the region in La Pocatiere
-a look around La Pocatiere
-maritime things, maybe a kayak ride or another ferry or cruise
-a bike ride(s) with the wind pushing us
-Reford gardins/Jardin de Metis and the 10th garden competition (trés arty)
-lighthouse + empress of ireland (sunken ocean liner) museum + retired cdn-navy submarine tour at Point aux Peres in Rimouski
-Parc de Bic - nice maritime/islands scenic provincial parc
-regional museum at Rimouski
-and of course maritime food.

Charlevoix
If things go well, we will cross the st-laurence and see some of the Charlevoix, I'd like to see parc de la haute gorge de la riviere malbaie, which I have known about ever since the Pomme d'Or was climbed in 1980.

and... finally... we want to bike around the island of Ile-aux-Coude, which we did two years ago when we visited here for our first time.

So that's too much stuff for a week-long trip. But there's lots of good possibilities, both indoor and out, so we am sure we will have a nice vacation.

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Why are we visiting here and not some far-away exotic place? We have invitations for lots of great places (cdn rockies, switzerland/Italy, L.A. and west coast) so why are we staying close?

Three reasons:
quebec is beautiful and a great tourist destination
we haven't finished exploring this region
plane tickets? We don't need no stinkin' plane tickets!