Saturday in Quebec City

Today was actually a very slow day. We slept for the first time in a few days without having to get up at a certain time and rush around, so we decided it would be a downtime day. Although, I was woken quite early by a four year old German girl locked out of her room shrieking for her parents, but that's a whole other story :)

Today from the window you can see the mountains and the seaway much more clearly:

Morgan slept til noon Quebec time and even then, we didn't leave the hotel room until 1 p.m. We wandered up Côte de la Fabrique and watched some of the Normandin Soap Box Races. The street was lined with hay bales, with paramedics at the bottom, and people lining the very narrow sidewalks cheering. There were people with those long, loud, annoying sports horns, people screeching, people lustily yelling, and so many loudspeakers that Morgan-of-the-sensitive-ears couldn't wait to get out and didn't even want to try maple candy made in the snow:

I tried it; it was delicious, but I threw half of it away as the sugar content made my stomach lurch. That's unusual for me!

Because Old Quebec has narrow, winding roads and tall, stone/brick buildings, sound carries forever anyways. I thought the loudspeakers were a bit over the top! It looked like fun, like this group skiing race, but Morgan wouldn't stick around long enough to really check anything out, and I can't blame him. He had the same look on my face that I get when there are too many people around. Here's what the skiing looked like:

And the soap box route:

We finished our walk at the Chateau Frontenac. Morgan learned what hills are, ha ha ha! Here's one of the hills - he had to take breaks:

The Chateau Frontenac is quite the impressive building! I've seen many other CP and Fairmont properties but the scale of this was very intriguing. A person could very easily spend hours looking for the front desk should they decide to take a wander - or so it seems! Our tour guide was great and had lots of information that all ages in the tour could enjoy. Each person had to say where they were from and after the introductions, Morgan spoke for a few minutes with a couple from Pittsburgh. They asked what language we spoke in Saskatoon, and he told them English, but that Canada has two languages, but that not everyone speaks two languages. According to the guide, there are 618 rooms at the Chateau and each one is different. Wow. We did like the part where there are three third floors, due do a construction error resulting in an additional wing finishing construction four feet from where it was supposed to:

Fairy tale view of the roof from the tower portion:

The little courtyard to the right, that is at the same height as the roof of this portion of the building, is also an aviary with some 4000 bees in the summer; the hotel produces its own honey and grows its own herbs on this courtyard.

When we finished our tour, we went back to the Hotel for some swim time and then basically holed up in our room for a little nap, some Cash Cab on Discovery Channel in English, and some reading about New France from our history series. Morgan took it upon himself to then brave the language barrier and ask for the best poutine restaurant we could walk to, and he came back triumphant with the name "Ashton" which happens to be three doors up the hill. It was good, but as for the best, I will reserve judgment. It was hot though and he liked it (he's reacting to either the temperature or the squeakiness of the cheese lol):

What Morgan loves best:

He did say to me today "Do you know what is inhibiting about this trip?" Astonished by his use of the word "inhibiting" I asked "What?". His reply: "That there are no other kids to play with." While trips like this were never planned for just us for this very reason, I'm also a bit disappointed that no one from the Quebec homeschooling associations/groups that I contacted by email got back to me. If anyone knows anyone with kids about age ten that would like to come out to Carnavale to go tubing some evening, please let me know!