2014 - Vermont/Quebec City (summary)

All the way back to our early 2014 trip!

Driving, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, except the final drive which was straight from Quebec City, Quebec to Toronto, Ontario is roughly 8 hours.  Since every city we pass has been on the itinerary already, we just drove straight back with a pit stop for lunch.

Ottawa, Winterlude was awesome.  All things considered, I enjoyed my stay during winter time and I would come back again for this.  Best of all, it was FREE!  The accommodations were okay, not too far from the city centre (could have been slightly closer).

Montreal, I have been here a few times, during winter on a weekday, it is not quite what I remember it.  All the streets are pretty empty with everyone being at work. The accommodations were small, breakfast was unique.

Vermont, the shopping was decent, although the working hours seem really odd.  The outlet mall in Manchester was only open until 6:00pm, everyday.  The food was AMAZING!  We had no bad meals while we were here and they were fairly priced (roughly $10 for lunch, $20 for dinner).  Sugar Bush was a good choice recommended by my uncle.  I would go again, although I may try one of the other big mountains that they have here next time.  Accommodations were roomy and the included breakfasts were pretty good.

Quebec City, I would return just for the slide.  That thing is amazing.  The Carnaval was a bit of a disappointment due to the fact that Winterlude in Ottawa is free.  The cost is not high ($15), but the included festivities were very similar to Winterlude.  The food was pretty good here.  Accommodations were nice although a bit far from the city centre.

Highlights, Sugar Bush, Vermont food and Winterlude.

Disappointments, Carnaval I expected to be better than Winterlude.  There is nothing wrong with it, but I expected more since Winterlude was free.

Would I do this again, yes.  I might skip some parts next time, but overall, it was a nicely planned out trip.

2014 - Quebec City (Day 3)

Today is our second full day in Quebec City, which is also our last day before we head back home tomorrow.

This morning for breakfast we had a fruit salad, regular salad with polenta, and a mango/banana smoothie.  The breakfasts here have all been fantastic.

We decided today to do the Ice Hotel, see the Montmorency Falls, and wander Quebec if we had time.  We started with Montmorency Falls, with some troubles finding it on our GPS, we ended up at our destination and it is amazing (I think this may be better during winter than summer).

It is 275ft tall which is 98ft taller than Niagara Falls.  We were parked on the upper area of the falls, so we had to find a way down which is possible with a long long stair case.  This is a use at your risk staircase during the winter.  Some of it is really slippery.

It is worth it to see it down at the base.  The base is completely frozen and you can wander around all you like.  Due to how the falls is structure, the mist of the falls actually freezes into an ice bump.  It is hard to explain, so just look at the picture.

The hill in front of the falls is actually created from the mist of the falls as it freezes.  It is actually really cool.  You can just slide down all of these hills.  There are even some crazy people who do ice climbing in the area!  As you can see, I was enjoying climbing my mountain of an ice cube compared to the people in the back.

Very cool site.  Worth a visit in the winter if you can.  Next we went to the Ice Hotel.  The Ice Hotel is a relatively new attraction (about 15 years old), and is rebuilt every year.  I was pretty excited to see what it would be like when I compared it to the Bonhomme Ice Palace, but I was a little disappointed.  It is not that it is a boring and uninteresting site, it is just that it wasn't what I expected.  There are roughly 10 suites which are themed in the hotel, otherwise you get a generic room with no theme/decorations inside.  There is a chapel, a grand hall, an ice slide, and a bar.  All of which is pretty interesting.  I guess my disappointment was the fact that the hotel is not actually made of ice.  It is made of snow and ice.  So the building itself is not transparent (which in hindsight makes sense), but it is white and looks like a really big igloo.

Well, that's the end of this trip.  Tomorrow we drive back home!  Till next time!

2014 - Quebec City (Day 2)

Today, we explore Quebec City!

Before I go into Quebec City I thought I would mention that Vermont (at least the places that we went to) heavily favour locally acquired product.  Not to say that this is the reason, but every meal that we had while we were there was really good.

Quebec City, we learned from our hostess, can easily be done within one day.  If you have more time, you can explore the outskirts a bit too.  I was a bit skeptical when I heard this, so I guess we will see when go exploring!

The breakfast that was included this morning consisted of what I assume is different everyday.  Today we had a crepe with apple compote, iceberg lettuce salad and some bruschetta with feta and zucchini, all of which were really good.

The lower town of Quebec City reminds me of old Montreal or Unionville Markham.  It is a nice little area with unique little shops.  The upper area reminds me of the parliament hill area of Ottawa.  Both are worth a visit, how much time you spend there depends on what you like to do and see.

The slide area of the upper area is a must not miss area for me.  I think I could go down those slides forever.  It is called Terrasse Dufferin.  For $2.50, you can use the toboggan once which will go down an ice slide that supposedly can hit speeds of up to 90km/hr!

For lunch we stopped at Aux Anciens Canadien, it is a restaurant in the upper town of Montreal.  Between 12:30pm - 5:30pm, you get the following:

- glass of wine or beer
- appetizer
- main course
- dessert

All starting from $19.95!  The cost depends on what your main course is and if you want to change your appetizer (soup) to something else.  Good value!  While there, we noticed that some couples would just split one of these meals between them.  Here's my main course (grandma's treat):

Next stop, Carnaval!  This is just my opinion, but I feel that this is a really commercialized event.  $15 allows you to get in to see the Carnaval, which is an area that isn't as large as I thought it would be.  Compared to what I experienced in Winterlude, it would probably be roughly the same size.  You will also experience many similar things (slides, tube slides, ice sculptures, snow sculptures).  There is a parade that we were able to see which was okay (I realized that I am not into parades).  There were a few interesting things there, but I don't feel that it was worth the price of entry.  This is also due to how long the lines are.  After about 1 hour, we went into see Bonhomme's Ice Palace.  The outside of the structure is cool since it looks so big, but once inside, I found it pretty lackluster.  We waited about 1.5 hours for a sled ride, the ride itself was pretty fun, but I don't feel that it was worth the wait.  Even after you pay $15 for entry, they still charge you for some things.  A sleigh ride was $10, a dog sled ride was $10.  Mind you, you get to do some other things for free if you would wait, such as a ferris wheel or ice fishing (which is weird since you are fishing for tiny fish in a man-made pond.  Oh, interestingly enough, there were a bunch of people who were wandering around with plastic canes and I was really confused by this.  This cane was hollow and you were able to purchase alcohol and fill this cane!

We had dinner at Chez Ashton, which was recommended for it's poutine.  I wasn't too impressed with it, so I may be missing something here.

Tomorrow, more Quebec City wandering and to see the Ice Hotel!

2014 - Quebec City (Day 1)

Today is the drive up to Quebec City and to visit some places between if possible.  Due to the unexpected weather, we decided against going to Burlington today.  There was a fresh dump of snow last night which was estimated to be 6 inches.  Instead of doing Burlington, we decided to just go to Haskell Library.

Haskell Library was built before a time when the countries cared about how far away from the border buildings could be built.  This library happens to be built along the border.  Yes, half of the building is in USA and half of it is in Canada.  I actually found this area pretty weird since there is no actual border.  You are free to just into Canada and walk back to USA as you please.

The drive from Vermont was actually worse than expected.  There was a lot of snow everywhere and I wasn't familiar with her car, but we made it safely to Quebec City.  The hostess was gracious with providing us with a wealth of information on where to stay, what to do, and where to eat.

We had dinner at La Fabrique, which had both smoked meat and poutine.  Both of which I thought were great, although it may have to do with the fact that I haven't had either in a fairly long time.

And in order to work off the dinner, we found a park and had some fun in the snow.

Tomorrow, Quebec City!