Ok there was more than just shopping

 Last night we were all exhausted and one of my new friends suggested the one picture post from yesterday and I loved it so much I had to do it.  

So the majority of yesterday was spent on Île de Orléans, which the kids had jokingly called “food island” after Clare and Robin told them about it, and the name stuck.  I may not like the touristy gift shopping but this wasn’t really that.  We went to a bakery, a chocolate store (it sold chocolate, not made of chocolate just in case you weren’t sure). We went to a number of artisan/crafty type places, and finally the goat farm with amazing ice cream!  We also had maple slushies at a farm along that route somewhere.  

After about 7 hours on the island we headed over to Montmorency Falls, which, for those who weren’t with me last year, is actually taller than Niagara Falls.  Ironically, I think they spent as much time (if not more) looking at the baby falls along the walk.

Falls of all sizes explored, we sadly had to return to the hotel to pack and write a blog that had no writing in it.

Today was go home day.  Sad.  Lots of driving.  Not a lot of stories.  Bedtime.

Until my next adventure…

Whatever!

The Went Shopping

 

Whatever!

 

Wendake Magic

So Clare wrote all about this morning while we were back at the hotel having more “downtime” before another night activity, but now that we’ve done said night activity, it just needs to be changed (sorry Clare)

Our Wendake journey started last night, in a longhouse, learning the Wendat peoples’ creation story.  This morning we went to breakfast there and had indigenous inspired meals, followed by a visit to the fountain where you could listen to the creation story again in a different form.  Yes, some shopping happened, but most were done quickly and we returned to the hotel until after dinner.

The entire Wendake experience came full circle at Onhwa’ Lumina tonight, which was an amazing walk through the forest, with projection lights and music bringing to life not just the creation story, but the story and life of the Wendat people.  I wish I could describe it, but I can’t because THEY LEFT ME IN THE CAR!

Clare says words can’t describe it anyways, so enjoy the photos.

Whatever!

Uhhh We Went to Jail…

Yup, we were back into Old Quebec today, and first stop was the Morrin Center which was both a jail and a college (at different times).  It was the first jail of Quebec City and some of the cells have been preserved, so we had a great tour of them, and even got locked in the darkness briefly.  Cool, sad, and interesting all at once.

In the early 1800s it was turned into a college for the english speakers of the area.  We got to see the ballroom, old chemistry lab and the library.  Interestingly the library shelves have been preserved but they are filled with modern books and it serves as the only english library in the city.  It also runs independently from the city-run libraries.  While we were there, a children’s book club was happening.  

While some enjoyed the jail and others enjoyed the anachronism of a 200 year old desk still in use, with a computer sitting on top.  I myself enjoyed the singing - part of the tour included the balcony over the ballroom, and our guide told us it had amazing acoustics, and if anyone was a singer, they were welcome to test it out.  Nobody offered, so the tour continued.  However, when it was done my companions asked if we could go back and sing.  The guide was so eager, having offered over and over, every tour, and never had any takers.  Our Girl Guide group proudly sang “On My Honour” first, and then sang “Taps” in both english and french. The guide was right, it was amazing what six voices could produce (and she thanked us for letting her experience it too).  

After the tour we had some time for *cough* shopping before High Tea in the Chateau.  I got a new backpack!  For those who have been with me since the beginning you may remember my backpack and passport.  This isn’t quite as nice a backpack, but Clare says she might be able to fix it up a bit more.  Yay!  Some might ask if I now appreciate shopping trips.  Nope, I still don’t get it, but I get that you humans do and I’m willing to go along for the ride as long as I get to see the world… key word being WORLD, you know, like this Europe place I keep hearing about.  Oh, but I’ll likely never get tired of making fun of this crazy shopping habit you all have.

Bow tie curtesy of Squirrel

But I digress.  After filling in some time with shop wandering, we headed into the chateau where everyone changed into dressier clothes and headed to High Tea.  Yup, we went from a dark and dingy jail cell to drinking tea in the chateau. 

Tea was as fun as I remembered it to be.  Everyone got into the tasting of new teas and treats.  Some were liked, some were not, but trading happened and pretty much everything got eaten in the end.  Pretty cool way to do it.

N

Then came the boring bit for me.  Hotel time.  Something about people needing down time and the cleaning of clothes (especially uniforms).  Many had naps.  I just waited, because I heard there was another adventure on the horizon.

I sat around waiting, wondering if maybe I’d misheard, and then there was a mad scramble to get out the door at 9 pm!  We headed over to Wendake, the indigenous village we went to last year, for “Myths and Legends” storytelling in the longhouse.  We had an awesome storyteller, who truly pulled us into his stories and clearly loved telling them.  

Late night back.  Thankfully my sometimes faithful scribe Clare wrote most of this post while doing laundry earlier.   She is now eager to get to bed, so I guess that’s it for now.

Whatever!

Practicing French

First, it has been pointed out that I have failed to introduce my new companions…

Squirrel, Oak, Beetle, Salamander (aka Robin), Pine (in front)

Missed story from yesterday.  Most of my travel friends are currently enjoying practicing their French, to varying degrees of ability and success.  Robin is having more fun than last year as she’s been practicing ever since, and her confidence has grown, but occasionally she just doesn’t know a word, and in her determination to do it herself she will revert to actions and sounds.  The best example of this happened yesterday when we knew thunderstorms were in the forecast (zodiac will be cancelled for that) and she was trying to ask when they make a call about it, but she had no word for thunderstorm, so she made very dramatic hand movements and a CRRRSCH sound.  Everyone laughed but the woman got her meaning.  What we learned later, from Oak (who is fluent) is that the woman turned to her and said (in French) “don’t laugh at her, she’s trying” which is awesome!

Today provided many chances for everyone to practice their french, starting with the hotel breakfast.  It was not buffet style like I’ve seen in most hotels, but one chef who serves a fairly simple set of options, but she speaks very little english, so practice it was!  Starting with “room number” to which Robin proudly responded “105” (in french, excited that she understood the question and could answer).  The woman looked confused and said no.  There was a few minutes of confused broken english/french before Robin realized that she had given our Quebec City hotel room number, and this hotel had no 105.  Ahh room 2 made much more sense.  I just sat and giggled.  Maybe my favourite part of this trip is watching her try; she just seems to have so much fun, especially when she realizes her mistake had absolutely nothing to do with the language spoken!

We then headed off to the Marine Mammal Interpretation Center which is a fancy pants way of saying Whale Museum.  It’s small so we all estimated an hour to explore it.  Two hours later, we were very full with whale knowledge of all kinds.  It may not be big, but the staff were amazing and had so much knowledge.  Of course, the two hours did NOT include the time in the gift shop!

Finally we were on the road again, back down through the mountains toward Quebec City.  A brief stop was made for lunch at Subway where everyone got to practice their french once again.  Everything from bread and cheese choices to all the vegetable toppings.  Some did better than others, but we had a server who seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were!  You know, whenever Clare and Robin get around to taking me to Europe, I’m really gonna love watching them try different languages (*hint hint*)

Our last stop of the day was Sainte Anne de Beaupre (basilica), which we went to last year.  Beautiful inside and out.  Not much else to say really since even this little bear knows that some things just require respect. 

And then the humans decided they were done for the day.  Actually nothing else was planned on purpose (something about mountain driving being unpredictable) but it sounds way better when I complain that they just bailed on me.

Whatever!

🎶 Baby Beluga 🎶

The morning was spent driving to Tadoussac so we could let my new friends enjoy the wild ride on a zodiac boat to see whales.  We left early enough so that if there was construction, we’d still have lots of time to get to our boat tour on time.  The drive was uneventful so we got here early.  Guess what they did?  I bet you can’t guess?  Oh… I bet you can.  Yup, they went shopping.

I chose not to join them on the boat this year as I still have solid memories of just how wet I got last year (and them wringing me out and then using a hair dryer on me).  Turns out I could have gone.  They barely got wet at all.  *sigh*  All I can do now is report on what they told me, and share their photos.  As much as I’d like to pout and blame Clare, it was my choice so I’ll just deal.  What was not my choice however, was being left in the van AFTER their boating adventure, when they went for dinner at a restaurant who sources all their food locally, and had some very different things to try (not that I would know).

So, back to the boat… 

The staff who took the group photo said “I’ll stick you all between the cars as traffic cones” and that is why they are all laughing in the picture.  As for the boat trip itself, I’ve been told it was also very different from last year, besides the obvious not-getting-wet part.  The first thing they saw, after barely leaving the marina, were two pods of beluga whales.   The first was a pod of males, all bouncing along the surface.  Not long after they saw a pod of females with babies, which launched Robin into singing “Baby Beluga” (a children’s song by Raffi, and now insists I include a link for you all - whose blog is this exactly?)  https://youtu.be/mIBY-LQYkVA?feature=shared

They continued on further up the St. Lawrence River, but no whales to be seen (where we saw the humpback whales last year).  Instead they turned around and went up the Saguenay River into the fjord, where they saw minke whales up close, and then later harbour seals.  And finally, as they were rounding the point back into the marina, they saw a bunch of grey seals.  Pretty good haul of wild animal sightings if you ask me!

I’ve already bemoaned the fact that I missed dinner, but apparently it was very good.  

Whatever!

Tours. Tours. And more tours.

 It was another early start to get into old Quebec and to our first tour by 9:30.  But first, let me give you a quick idea of our hotel “suite” so you can appreciate just what a feat this was (and I will say it was pretty amazing to watch from my spot in the table). 

We have a two bedroom hotel room to that is not very big but does the job.  There is one bathroom for basically 6 grown humans and a small kitchenette with a bar fridge, stove sink and a itty-bitty bit of counter.  Yeah 6 of them were up, washed, dressed, had breakfast, made their lunches and packed their gear for the day by 8 am.  Impressive!

First tour - Chateau Frontenac, a tour we enjoyed last year.  Interestingly, the guides dress in a costume of a real historic character and then gives the tour from that character’s perspective.  So, while the history was the same, and the rooms we saw were the same, the stories and features shared were completely different.  Very cool!

We immediately went from inside the Chateau tour to the archeology tour under the terrace in front of the Chateau.  So… 

 last year I said there was never a castle here, it’s always been a hotel - well Frontenac has always been a hotel, but what it was built on top of was the burned out ruins of a castle (or what they called a castle at the time).  Cool. 

Apparently, two tours back to back is one tour too many for this group.  They all sat in a local park to eat lunch and enjoy some not-tours!  I waited patiently, well sort of.  I wanted more tours!

Finally… a new kind of tour - on a bus.  Well, I have done tours on buses before but not like this - you could listen to the tour and if you liked a stop you could get off and check it out, then get on another tour bus and keep going.  Clare says she’s done this before in Europe.  I reminded her that she still hasn’t taken me to Europe.  We moved on.  

We only got off once… to go to a chocolate museum.  Fun was had learning some stuff, but I think more fun was had in the shopping side of the building. Chocolate was bought.  Ice cream was bought.  Everyone seemed happy with this stop.  

We hopped back on the hop-on hop-off bus, which I suggested we literally hop like a bunny to get on, but Clare disliked my idea so much she didn’t even share it with the others.  Between you and me, I think they would have done it!   Anyhow, we rode it back to the Chateau, walked back down Crazy-Steep-Hill to the lower city where they went - you guessed it - shopping.  Always with the shopping!  Humans and their trinkets (I know, I say it every time but seriously guys… I just don’t get it).  

Ok rant over.  We found a great little place to eat right beside our last tour of the day and I had some yummy poutine (Robin shared, merci).   Oh and then we got to try a Quebec treat that I can’t remember the name of, but basically maple syrup on a stick.  You pour thick, hot maple syrup over snow, then as it cools, twist it onto a stick and eat.  Weird idea but all agreed it was quite yummy!

Ghost walk was our final tour of the day, an exploration of lower Quebec and it’s not so beautiful past, sharing true stories of punishments, executions and more.  Interesting, but not quite my cup of tea.  Now I know :)

We have now been in town for just over 13 hours, been stuffed full of history, yummy food and sunshine.   Even I’m feeling a bit done.  

Whatever!

Bienvenue Québec

 …pas de toilettes…

Guys, let me just say, I LOVE my new friends already.  I was really worried I’d have no stories, but they did not disappoint!

As I said yesterday, the day started very early with the hope that we could avoid the worst of rush hour traffic through Toronto.  We knew we wouldn’t miss it completely, there was still hope.  Sadly, two accidents in Toronto and then some messed construction around Montreal turned an 8.5 hour drive into a 12 hour adventure!  Thankfully my two favourite drivers did an excellent job and we got here safe.  Yay!

Oh did you know… there’s this music app that you can create joint playlists and then play off anyone’s device?  Once it was started, everyone started adding songs to it, and by at last check, the list has well over 14 hours of music on it now.  No need to switch devices to get some else’s songs to play through the car… I’m just a bear, but sometimes even I think technology is cool.

All along the plan had been to stop at the Quebec welcome centre just after we cross into the province.  We stopped there last year, and thought it was a good place to stop for lunch and walk around a bit.  However we were met with signs on the doors telling us the bathrooms were out of order (the whole place had no power) and what nearest exit had some.  Welcome to Quebec! (pa de toilettes … without toilets) 🤣

Ok, so the trip was pretty uneventful as 12 hour drives go, but my new friends had access to maps and markers and to use them however they wanted (ie they could mark off how far along the drive they’d gone etc).  Well they went to town, and we have a very fun recording of the events of the day.  I shall share now because they have done a better job than anything I can say!

It might be hard to read, so let me enlighten you:

- some guy flipped off some geese on York Rd

- Robin falling asleep -> stay awake queue of songs!! Energy energy energy!

- we have to pee

- pee success

- everyone is asleep zzz

- still sleeping (3/6 asleep)

- all the raisins have been saved!  Good job Robin!

- 11:15 am

- we have car snackies

- we’re getting there

- doing the grocery list

- done grocery list!

- almost in Quebec

-  Quebec na pas de toilettes!! :(

- Quebec has no toilettes! (No idea why the French was on the Ontario map and English on the Quebec map, but mine is not to question why, oh wait it totally is!)

- we got McDs 

- Dam! (We saw a dam)

- struggling with the headphones (help!)  (van headphones for DVD player)

- we got the DVD going :)

- Oak fell asleep

- they have awoken

- Treasure Island done, Iron Giant begun (movies)

- water plus pee (the essentials)

- beginning to go crayzee 

- so close… pls …

- oh my gosh we’re so close

- bridge (pont)

- bouncy castle! :o

- We made it!

Nothing more to say here…

Whatever!

We are going back people!

Anyone remember the story behind this rain poncho, er I mean flag?  If not, it’s from our trip to Quebec City last year, when we had a lot of fun collecting info for a Girl Guide trip this year!  Well the time has come, and I’m all in (sadly my banshee from our Florida trip is not coming, but I have enjoyed flying on it ever since February).

I’m guessing I’ll have a few new readers along for the ride (since I know Clare is sharing this with parents) so “Hi to new and old!”  And a reminder that there should be a link or a place on this page somewhere for you to put your email in and get these straight to your inbox.  Isn’t technology cool?

Warning, this isn’t a typical travel blog.  Sometimes I leave out the travel bits and vent about my human companions that aren’t always mindful of little me.  However, I have noticed that my Girl Guide friends have always taken care of me, so here’s hoping this new group will too!

We leave tomorrow morning, bright and early (like 5:30 to meet kids at 5:45)  Anyone want to lay bets about how many of them fall asleep in the car before we get out of Guelph?

We are driving all the way to Quebec City tomorrow, so lots of driving and not a lot of doing, but you know I can always find a story in my travels.  So here’s to the next seven days of exploring - some will be a repeat of last year, some will be new, and all will be with my new friends!

Let’s go!

Whatever