The day after Santa’s Village, June 22, we stopped at the Mt Washington Cog Railway and took a ride to the top. It was cold. Grandma bought Heather and Corinne blankets at the top. Heather’s has bear ears and paws, Corinne’s has a moose snout and hooves.
Some clouds blew in while we were at the top which made for some interesting pictures.
We finished that day by driving down to Concord, NH and having dinner and ice cream at Arnie’s Place.
On the 23rd we road railbikes through the Concord woods which was lots of fun. Nice to be in the shade. We went out one direction, turned around, came back through the starting point out the other direction, and then turned around and came back.
Unlike the ones we rode in Fort Bragg, these were not electric so it was also more work and we made Heather start us off at one of the turn arounds to see if she could and she did!
The 23rd being our anniversary Jess and I went out to dinner after getting back to Cromwell. The girls stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa.
Before Jess and the girls got to CT I had asked for restaurant recommendations for our anniversary. For some reason, Erin was aware of a restaurant that had a whole area decked out as a totally-not-Harry-Potter-wink wizarding-world which sounded like something Jess would enjoy. So that’s where we went, Cava in Southington. It was fun.
Friday was spent getting packed and ready to head home which we did on Saturday. And that was our grand trip of 2022.
We debated whether to include this stop on our trip. We’ve taken the girls to Gilroy Gardens several times which targets the same age range and they seem to be aging out of it so we were concerned if they’d be interested. But it was good we went because they loved it.
I was impressed with how well kept the place was and all the employees were excited, high-energy types which really amped the girls up. It was a great day.
The girls loved the Elfabet game–finding and punching out each letter on their card. We rode just about every ride, we fed reindeer, the girls got nail rings from the blacksmith, we ate fair food. We even got the girls to go on the log flume at the end.
Corinne is much more of a thrill rider than Heather. She went on several rides all by herself and loved every minute of it.
The girls love swimming so we splurged and rented a cabana for the day. It was nice to have a place to stash stuff and sit in the shade while the girls played. They even both went on some of the big waterslides (like 30-ft tall) which was surprising.
An incredible pattern of clouds in the sky.
Our commemorative picture magnet of the Yule Log:
We spent the whole day at the park, open to close. So we spent another night at the Evergreen Motel right across the street and didn’t need to do any driving.
On the 20th we checked out of the hotel and (eventually, with some difficulty) walked down to the Plains of Abraham museum to pick up our “escape rally” wheelbarrow. It was an escape-room like experience built around the history of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
Our wheelbarrow contained various locked items and clues and we needed to travel throughout the park to find information to solve puzzles and learn about some of the people involved in the battle. It was fun, but we ran out of time to complete it and needed to get on the move, so we returned it only partially completed.
Our destination for the night was Jefferson, NH which was many hours away. So we took a short break in Stoke, QC at Miellerie Lune de Miel, or, the Honeymoon Honey House. Unfortunately they weren’t doing any tours at the time due to COVID issues, but we bought some honey and saw some alpacas.
Then it was back on the road and across the border at the Canaan, VT crossing. We stopped for pizza at House of Pizza in Colebrook, NH. And ended our day at the Evergreen Motel just across the street from Santa’s Village, where we’ll pick it up next time.
Both the 18th and the 19th were spent doing more walking around and looking at stuff.
It was a little rainy on the morning of the 18th, but it dried up eventually. We headed down to the Lower Town of Vieux Quebec and wandered about the area looking at shops (and eating popcorn) before ending up at the Museum of Civilization. We popped our heads in, saw that it wasn’t crowded and decided to grab lunch first.
So we walked a bit further and stopped for lunch at Le Buffet de L’Antiquaire. We got to teach the waitress a new word, “corndog,” which was on their menu, but apparently never ordered in English before. In French (at least in Quebec) it is “pogo.”
When we returned to the museum after lunch the line was almost out the door. We apparently arrived just in time to catch the tail end of a tour group or cruise ship or something because once we got through the line it was gone.
I almost managed the entire ticket-buying process at the museum in French, but got thrown for a loop at the end when she asked if we wanted to add on one of the special exhibits. I wasn’t ready for the question and didn’t understand and asked her to switch to English. So close.
After the museum we stopped at a few shops along rue du Petit Champlain. I bought a small wooden moose carved at a wood-working shop where we also got a short tour of the building and workshop.
Then we went back up to the upper town via the Funiculaire to the hotel to collect Dad (who opted to not walk around in the rain after discovering a hole in his shoe) and had dinner at a pizza restaurant.
On the 19th we started by attempting a walking-tour game Mom had on her phone, but it was more interested in gamification than we were so after following it to a few stops we made up our own plans. We ended up back on rue Saint-Jean and had some crepes at Au Petit Coin Breton. They didn’t have room for 6 though so Mom and Dad agreed to do something else. Which was too bad because c’était très délicieuse.
Jess became enamored of a backpack she saw in a shop and would return in the evening to buy it when we returned to the area after dinner for more crepes (at a different créperie).
On our way back to the hotel to rest for a bit we had some gelato and stopped in the Notre Dame Basilica-Cathedral and discovered they were holding crypt tours. So we arranged to meet Mom & Dad there after a rest to take the tour.
Before the tour, I popped back down to the lower town to buy a print of a painting of rue du Petit Champlain that I liked after seeing it on the previous day’s wanderings.
We went back down to rue du Petit Champlain to finish wandering the areas we hadn’t yet seen and bought some fudge and chocolates at a chocolatier. And then back up the Funiculaire for Father’s Day dinner at the Chic Shack burger restaurant.
Perhaps my favorite picture from Quebec taken on our way back to the hotel after dessert crepes:
On June 17th we checked out of Hotel Le President in Sherbrooke and had breakfast at a little cafe nearby, Cora’s Dejeuners. It was very good and an excellent way to start our first full day in Canada.
After our petit dejeuner, we loaded back in the van to complete our drive to Quebec City. Without a thunderstorm, and traveling mainly on uncrowded highways, driving was pleasantly uneventful. We made our first stop in Quebec at the Aquarium.
We saw the jellyfish, visited the touch pool, and watched the seals and the walruses and the polar bears. There was a room set up in a circle with projectors shining all around to produce an immersive experience. Corinne was awed and proceeded to dance with the videos.
At the gift shop Corinne selected her souvenir for the trip: A stuffed stingray which she promptly named Maple in honor of Canada.
If you hadn’t noticed already, Heather is of the age where crossing your eyes for every picture is the height of comedy. So, that’s why her eyes are crossed in many of the pictures, including the one above in front of the sand sculpture.
After wrapping up at the aquarium the real challenge began. Get into old Quebec and to our hotel. Driving on highways is fine, but navigating an old city in a foreign language with sometimes unusual traffic signals was stressful. But we made it and parked the van at the hotel and didn’t use it again until we left, exactly as planned.
Hotel Terrasse Dufferin is adjacent to the U.S. Consulate which I partly selected on the assumption that it was probably not a bad area. And I was right consulate or not, but the consulate did have a guard outside at all times which would certainly discourage any trouble. It’s a very small, old-world feeling hotel, which set the atmosphere for exploring Vieux Quebec.
Our room looked out over the St. Lawrence River and on our first night there was a fireworks show on the far shore (for reasons unknown). Mom and Dad stayed on the ground floor and, unfortunately, did not get a river view.
We dropped our stuff and then set off to do a little evening exploring. Just outside our hotel was Chateau Frontenac (which claims to be the most photographed hotel in the world and I definitely helped with my shutter). It would have been fun to stay there, but one night cost as much as our entire stay where we were. So some sacrifices had to be made.
We wandered about down to and along one of the main tourist streets (rue Saint-Jean). We visited a bookstore and I eventually mustered the nerve to ask an employee for a recommendation for a few sci-fi books written in French by French or Canadian authors. I had considered getting a book I already knew in French, but decided it would be more interesting to access something unavailable to me in English. I ended up with 4 books which I hope to be capable of reading before too long.
Finally we stopped for dinner in a boulangerie/patisserie (bakery/pastry shop) we found, La Paillard. And there are few more enjoyable dinners than one made of bread and pastries from a boulangerie/patisserie.
