Sunday
When I realized that we would be driving through a bunch of New Brunswick I was excited. I felt like we didn't see that much of New Brunswick. It felt like we were just on the way to Nova Scotia. I supposed this time we were just on the way to Quebec, but I could take it all in! I was also determined to see a covered bridge.
We saw warning signs for Moose all over the place, and I'm super thankful that we never actually saw a real one!
Sleeping children pics!! I'm not sure why it entertained me so much? The girls really were great. They took turns being in the way back. They listened to music, they slept.
I was super excited that the place where they make covered bridge chips, Hartland, is home to the longest covered bridge and it was on our route! (The actual factory that made the chips was one town over, but the factory burned down on March 1, 2024, they're rebuilding though)
We all walked from one side to the other and back. They had a gift shop with bathrooms, so we went to the bathroom and bought covered bridge chips of course!
In case you're wondering, Lobster Chips don't have any lobster, and according to Ken don't taste like lobster either.
We stopped for lunch just before crossing into Quebec. It felt like we were in Quebec though, everyone spoke French.
Ken got a donair - but it was a fast food donair and well, wasn't quite what he had hoped it would be.
We crossed into Quebec and back into the Eastern time zone at 4:30 p.m., repeating the hour!
The sky was really pretty, as was the drive generally.
It was a long drive!
We had to cross the St. Lawrence and then head back east to get to our hotel.
The mini cups might have melted into one big clump lol!
There was a pool but no one felt like swimming so we watched a movie all together and I blogged. We watched A Knight's Tale. It's a pretty cute movie. It had been a long time since I'd seen it. I wheeled the desk to a spot that I could watch the movie and blog. Ken thought it was pretty cute and took my pic.
Monday
I'd been to Quebec City once before with some YSA friends in 2000 I think. I need to see if I can find the pictures I took! I think I took pictures?! Ken and the girls had never been. Truth be told the girls were a little bit done before we set off to explore, and I thought I was done too, but once we were out seeing cool stuff, I was all in!
Kate didn't want to come out for breakfast - only downside of this hotel, breakfast was not included. The rest of us went to Cora's for breakfast and we used a little bit of French and a little English and figured it out.
After breakfast we went and picked up Kate and headed east to Montmorency Falls. It was about a 15 minute drive. I didn't realize that the falls are 30 m taller than Niagara Falls! They were quite a sight to behold.
This is us waiting in line to take the gondola up to the top instead of the stairs.
This is Manoir Montmorency. There was a restaurant, gift shop and bathrooms. I don't know anything about the history of the building, or if there is one.
The views were nice.
Kate, Fiona and I walked across the bridge, but Alice and Ken didn't want to walk across the bridge, so they didn't.
I wanted to explore more, but Kate said no lol so we walked back across the bridge to find Alice and Ken.
We realized afterwards that you could actually park at the top. Oh well.
The gondola ride was kind of cool.
We hopped back in the car and drove to back to Quebec City, specifically the old town. This is at an overlook in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham Park.
There's a citadel in Quebec City. We didn't go in this one either, but Fiona and I walked around a bit.
We found a spot to park and then we started walking! And then we walked a lot.
What is it about walled cities that are just so cool?!?!
When I took this pic Fiona said, "Mom you need to use this pic in your blog".
Kate was upset a lot today. I was so excited to walk around Quebec City it mostly didn't bug me, until I was done and spoke very plainly for a minute. Kate did apologize which I appreciated.
The girls got ice cream and Ken and I got drinks. I had a sparkling raspberry lemonade drink that was lovely, Ken had a really unfortunate spicy blueberry drink, it was gross.
We went into the cathedral and Ken and I walked around the little room all about Saint Laval. He sounds like an amazing man that did amazing things.
After the cathedral we started walking back towards the car, but not in a rush, and Ken spotted something in the window!
I should have taken a pic of François. I bought a glass pig and a stand for him and I can't even tell you how happy it made me! I'm still smiling! The had a glass blowing studio in the back of the store. The woman that helped me actually engraved his name into his butt. It was such a delightful experience, it made my already amazing day just epic.
I just loved being in Old Quebec City. It felt like I was walking around a living museum, like I was in Europe, like I was somewhere really special. Every street was as beautiful as the next.
This is the National Assembly of Quebec. It is such a beautiful building.
By this point in our walking tour Fiona and Kate had pretty much completely fallen apart. I'm thankful Alice wasn't a wreck too.
Not long after we got back to the car it started to pour. I was so thankful that it didn't rain on us when we were walking around. We got take-out Boston Pizza for the girls and dropped them off at the hotel. Ken made reservations for us at Julio Taqueria. Everything was gluten free and everything we ate was so delicious. I felt dumb about how un-useful my French is. The bartender/waitress gave us this whole spiel in French and instead of using the French I do have to ask her to repeat it slowly, I just said "merci". And then when we still weren't ready to order and she looked annoyed and asked us in English if we wanted an English menu I felt dumb and sad. However, she didn't stay annoyed and the food was amazing and I love being with my Ken, but man oh man are we just exhausted!
This doesn't really capture it, but the place was really cute on the inside with bright vibrant colours.
Tuesday
The next morning it was time to go home. I wasn't excited about the trip being over. I was already missing the East Coast, but we were all super excited about seeing Milo! I was going to include all of his doggy updates, but maybe I'll do a separate post. That would be easier lol.
The plan was to get drive thru Tim Horton's, McDonald's, gas at Shell and then DRIVE! The drive home was just over 7 hours.
Crossing back over the St. Lawrence at 8:48 am - the girls got ready quickly, they were super excited to see Milo!
Fiona's crazy motion sickness glasses that she wore pretty much constantly.
More sleeping kids.
And then we were back in Ontario!
We stopped in Kingston at a Wendy's for lunch, and Fiona visited Fazel Island.
This needs its own post! This laundry treasure.
Kate and I walked the dog.
Milo was happy to be back on his bench.
More trip laundry treasures.
I carried this granola bar with me in my purse for our entire trip and well, you can't tell from this picture but it was more pancake than granola bar and I threw it out when I got home.
There was a beautiful sunset and the girls willingly let me take us off course (we were going to Rexall to replace Alice's sleep mask that she accidentally left behind in PEI) to take a sunset pic. I love my girls!
This trip was beyond what I hoped it would be. It was amazing. We saw so much, we learned so much, we enjoyed being together so much. It was an incredible trip, one that I will be thankful for for years to come. I am thankful that we were able to have this beautiful and amazing holiday adventure, that everything went so smoothly, that we were safe, that we had great weather. The only thing I'd change, was to make it longer! It was amazing. Thank you to Ken who pretty much planned the whole thing. And thank you to Kate and Alice and Fiona, it was amazing experiencing all of this with you.
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