Tubing!

Hello. Today we went back to the carnival and changed hotels. At the carnival me and Mom went sledding with tubes and Mom laughed her butt off! and I went on the ice slide, it's good going down but it's ridiculous walking back up. The Chateau Frontenac is so cool. We went to a tunnel in the fortifications that even my cleets (made of metal) coudn't stay on the ice. I slid about 4 feet, it had a lot of ice. We also found the ice castle which was a big disappointment because we didn't get to do anything there was nothing to do in there so it was boring.

While exploring the city for the umpteenth time we were looking for a fake dagger for me we went to a medieval shop that had a lot of swordss and letter openers and I found a dagger that is pretty cool because it was from a medieval shop! and it's used for roleplaying. I can find my way around Old Quebec better than Mom can ha ha.

video!!!

Morgan

Monday Morning in Quebec City

Monday morning in Quebec City meant more snow and the promise of a gloomy day, which was too bad as we had a tour booked for la Côte de Beaupré. It also meant making sure the snow doesn't stay on the roofs to crash down on unwary passers-by - in this photo there is someone on the roof of the Pub St. Patrick shovelling snow off. He's on the far right of the building, holding onto a rope and bracing himself on a roof ladder, just in front of the little raised window. No harness in sight.

Our tour picked us up at the door of the hotel right at 12:45 so it was clever of us to be packed and ready and in the lobby at that time, even if we were actually on our way to the book store since we thought the tour left the hotel at 1:15. First stop, la Chute de Montmorency. It's very beautiful, even on a gloomy day! The falls are higher than Niagara, but not as wide. About 40,000 litres per second go over the falls in winter; it can double with extra runoff in the spring. This was our first view from the beginning of the walkway.

Along the walkway, we were able to see where the water seeps through the layers of rocks, likely even creating the layers to some extant. Then it freezes along the rockface. Morgan is looking up....

at the weird way these trees curve their trunks out into the open air before growing straight up. Any ideas?

I wish I could get video to post here! The falls were fantastic. They spray freezes into what is called a Sugar Loaf - and the colder and mistier it gets here, the larger the Sugar Loaf, which many people use for ice climbing. Pretty cool! Here are photos looking at the top of the falls, and then at the bottom of the falls, and then one of Morgan and I on the suspension bridge over the top of them:

We then went farther along Chemin du Roy and heard about the area's settlement history, which predates Quebec, and saw tons of neat little homes. We drove along the St. Lawrence almost the entire way. The whole area is full of old homes, stone root cellars from the 17th and 18th centuries, and sugar maples. We stopped Chez Marie; her home/business was built in 1652, the walls are original stonework and are really thick:

She makes fresh breads, maple products, etc, with the maple sugar/butter/syrop etc made from the sap collected from stands of sugar maples, which we could see across the road.

Then we stopped at a lovely little museum owned by a local family who creates art out of copper. The business was started by the patriarch of the family, who spent fifteen years (fifteen YEARS) depicting the life of Jesus in copper. He died in 1979 and his family, including his wife, have all become part of the business of making copper art. Their art is far more secular than his, but the skill is there. It was pretty amazing. The granddaughter gave us a demonstration of how it worked, and it seemed easy enough, until you realized you had to some some artistic talent ha ha:

Morgan and I both picked up souvenirs here (he's showing off his "bracer" in his blog post). I asked who in the family had made the pieces we purchased and the matriarch laughed and said she couldn't say, as they all work on various stages on all the items. Very talented family! You can see some examples of their work in the background.

After this we went on to the Basilica of Ste. Anne. It's very hard to convey the amazing work that has gone into this structure, which was paid for by donations from the people who attended the church. We went into a lovely large church area and I was pretty impressed....they even used beautiful plaster snowflakes to decorate the ceiling. Then, we went up some stairs through a non-descript side door, and found the Basilica and it quite literally took our breath away. You have to really admire the craftsmanship and grandeur of this building, and the photos can't do justice. To give your an idea of its scale, it seats about 2700 people:

It's so tall you can barely see the crosses on top of the spires in this photo. The window in the front is this one:

Every inch of the Basilica is covered in artwork depicting the life of saints; there is even a little area where people who feel they have been cured by Ste. Anne leave their crutches, walkers, etc. These two photos show only about forty percent of the inside of the building, looking to the front and to the back.

After the Basilica we went on a tour to l'Ile d'Orleans which was very beautiful, I'd love to spend time there as it seems a little slice a heaven. My understanding is that it has been given some sort of protected status so there will never be additional construction that takes place there, only what currently exists. I took this photo of the snow falling; the flakes are that big.

Finally we got to see close up the ice of the St. Lawrence. This is what people used to walk across to access the island of Orleans before there was a bridge. The guide told us that the reason the houses in the older areas are white with red roofs (traditionally) is because they would dye the roofs red, using a mix of beef or pork blood and vegetable resins if they didn't have dye, so they would be able to see their homes in the white landscape. Crazy!

This morning we will swim one last time at the hotel here before we move to the Chateau Frontenac for our last three nights in Quebec City. We've really enjoyed out stay at the Hotel Manoir Victoria and recommend it, but we know we wouldn't be able to afford the regular rates here :) thanks expedia for finding us a deal! Same goes for the Chateau - gotta love the sales - we don't even care if our room faces a wall :) It'll give us a different perspective on the city once again.

Carol-Lynne

P.S. Here is what I am torturing Morgan with in the evenings when I am not struggling with internet crashes while posting photos. I let up last night when he told me, in a fit of frustration about having to do book learning, that Quebec was settled in the 1600s but that Jacques Cartier first came here in the 1500s, just to prove he knew something. Then we watched Auction House on Discovery and he saw a trade knife made with a bear jaw handle; he explained that he thought it might have been something traded between the local Indian population and the settlers and explorers. He thought it would get more money than expected at the auction because of its age - and it did. Learning happens everywhere you look; I'm glad he's been paying attention.

Quebec day four

Hello again! So today we went on a tour of Quebec that lasted 5 hours long! It was so cool we stopped at a copper museum, at a maple house and at the church of St. Anne and the Montmorency falls!!! They are taller than Niagara Falls!!! but not as wide as they are.

St. Anne church and basilica

rooster!!! gobble gobble gobble!!!!!!!!! on the floor as a painting. (in the basilica)

and then I got a bracer at the copper museum it's pretty cool. It's got a scorpion on it and it's hand made by the family who owns the place.

Morgan

Canoe Races over the St. Lawrence - Running Across the Ice!

Today we woke to snow, but it quickly turned to slush. I think we should have brought our rubber boots instead of our winter boots! It was a good thing we brought extra socks, extra mitts etc, as each day we are drying out the ones from the day before. If only my boots were water proof - after eight years, not much can water proof them anymore!

Morgan stayed up reading until long after I went to sleep last night - he started and finished his book even though I told him we had to get up and walking to our destination before noon (lazy bones). He grumbled, but he did finally get out of bed. We dressed in our winter gear and put his ski pants in the backpack, as we were heading to the edge of the St. Lawrence and had no idea what the weather might be like close to the frigid water. With map in hand (oriented properly today, thank you, front desk), we started off on our adventure. We had originally planned on having lunch at L'Astral (the revolving restaurant with a view) but discovered that it and our canoe races were at opposite ends of the old city. Another day!

We went downhill, then uphill, then downhill, then uphill. Morgan complained. I told him to get over it. He got grouchy, and I got obstinate that we weren't going to quit. Saskatoon is very easy to walk around in - it's level, for the most part, and the streets are very wide compared to here, and even the street signs are easy to see and at regular locations. We finally realized that street names are posted on buildings....the street names on the poles are directional only (ie. rue Saint-Paul this way). So, that realization made it much easier to find our destination. He was upset because it seemed like we were backtracking all the time, going in circles, and we couldn't see our destination. He is alarmed by the driving and street-crossing which seems to have different rules than home (ie what does a flashing green light mean? why are there no crosswalks?) However, we read the map, asked some locals, took some chances, and found our destination. We didn't feel so badly about having trouble with the tourist map when the locals couldn't figure it out either.

In between leaving and arriving at the river, we stopped for lunch at Piazzetta. I was so proud of Morgan for ordering his meal in French, and thanking the server politely in French each time she brought him something or filled his water glass.  He ordered a pepperoni and cheese pizza, and I had goat cheese on pita (so good). And, exciting I know, I managed to convey to her that the bathroom needed toilet paper, without reverting to charades. A good thing too!

The canoe races are ridiculously dangerous. A group of four, mostly men but some women, and a steersperson, jump in a giant canoe and row upstream on mostly open water for about two kilometers. Here they are going upstream; you have to see the video of the river to understand how strong the current is:

Then, they cross the river, and come back down the other side through the ice and more often than not, when they get stuck in the ice, they jump out and push the canoe across or through the ice, then jump back in and keep rowing. They cross the river again, go back upstream, back across, and back down through the ice. After two circuits a winner is declared. They don't wear life-jackets; there are no rescue boats on the water except two giant tug boats, and what we thought was a rescue helicopter turned out to be a news outlet. Here is a photo at a distance of the canoes in the ice (those six black dots in the ice are canoes, and the helicopter in the center is the tv helicopter):

And here is a closeup (sort of grainy, sorry). They are in fact pushing their canoes over the ice floes while running - every now and then they jump in when they get to open water, then jump out if they get stuck:

A very nice couple let us in next to the railing to watch. Morgan's spirits improved dramatically to actually see something other than having to walk endlessly; they loaned him binoculars (and he thanked them in French) and we chatted a fair amount mostly in English and with my French as a backup. They offered to take our photo:

We watched for about 45 minutes, then left to continue our day. My impressions of the St. Lawrence were of immense size and power - you just don't understand how big it is until you're beside it. Morgan figures it's about four times the width of the Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon. What's really interesting is that Quebec is built where the river narrows - it gets much wider, the farther towards the ocean it goes.

We happened to go by la Musée de la Civilisation which overlooks the river, and decided to go in. Okay, I decided to go in, and Morgan dragged his feet behind. We had planned it for later in the week, but we were there! I had high hopes for this museum and I expect if I'd been on my own I would have spent hours there, but there really wasn't much for kids to be interested in and it was very formal. The display about Quebec history was impressive to be sure, however the room is very dimly lit and it's very quiet. The display about the local Ameridian populations' histories was very impressive to an adult but again, not so much for kids. Plus the security guard followed us like we were stealing stuff (we were the only ones in the gallery). It was awkward, and I was glad that kids under 11 were free because they won't get much out of it.

The highlight was the interactive display about water. It was very neat and I highly recommend it. It involved images displayed on water curtains, interactive activities like pointing at the wall and making waves in the images, etc, and had quite a powerful message. Morgan left wanting to conserve water, and asking about poverty. It was shocking for him to read that some people spend four hours a day finding drinking water and carrying it to their home. No photos allowed in that display, but I did get one in a later gallery of a reproduction of a map from Samuel de Champlain (probably against the rules but the grouchy person didn't come at me with arms waving about "photos" til another gallery - I wasn't using a flash):

After the museum, we wandered along Dalhousie to see what we could see. We saw a lot that we are going to go back to see later in the week, including Place Royale, and I'm sure it will involve several trips up and down the Funiculaire, thus avoiding hiking the stairs to the upper city; Morgan thinks it's a capital invention:

In this picture you can clearly see the wall around the upper city, and how high up it is - that's the Chateau Frontenac at the top, and Morgan in the red jacket:

Once we came up the Funiculaire (awesome, only $2 and saves a heck of a lot of energy), Morgan was able to lead me from the Chateau to our current hotel even though it involved some downhill twists, turns, forks, etc. Not surprisingly, he has a better head for direction and landmarks than I do :)

Tonight we spent $9 on supper at Ashton again, and are watching the Mythbusters marathon on Discovery Channel (in English!) which is Morgan's favourite. A few pages of New France and some Zombie Dice and it's time for bed. Tomorrow, we get to leave the city for the first time and I think Morgan will enjoy feeling space again. Coming from Saskatoon, it feels crowded here, and we always feel like we are salmon swimming upstream. In fact I often look to the other side of the street to see if maybe most people walk one way on each side of the street, but no; we just always seem to be wending our way through. I expect that will thin out during the week though!

Quebec day three

Hello we are tired again so whatever I said last time this time count it at this time as well. Today we went to the lower town to watch the canoe races and then on to the walk to the museum which was pretty boring. Then we walked to a elevater that took us up to the top of the wall where the hotels are so we went back to the hotel.

Nocturne Alley!!!!

Canoe Races!!!  It was cool they had no life jackets or anything they only had the jackets of their sponsor and they had to run acrosse the ice floes it was crazy!!!!!!!

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!

Quebec Second Day

Hello today we were tired so sorry if this isn't interesting. Today we had  a quiet day 'cause we were tired so today we went to a tour of the chatoue frantinak (Chateau Frontenac) and then we went for poutine if you have someone tell you poutine was made in Quebec and if you don't believe them you are so wrong it did and it's better than burger king's and hotter cheesier than burger king so if you think that you are so wrong! I'll write more tomorrow about my favourites. Bonne nuit!

Quebec City - first impressions

As Morgan says, our flight left at 6 a.m., which meant leaving the house at 4:30 a.m., and of course I was too worried about missing my alarm to sleep, so I had about an hour's worth of sleep last night. All our travel went remarably smoothly! Flights were on time, lots of time for the transfer in Toronto, no trouble getting a taxi just oustide the Quebec's Jean-Lesage Airport, and no trouble checking in (though we were a bit early and had to wait). The flights were sort of a blur of drifting in and out of consciousness. In the Toronto airport, as we had two hours to wait, we went over a few French phrases in a book I got for Morgan. It really hit home to him that he didn't understand the language while we were sitting in the departure gate waiting to board - 80% of the people around him were speaking French and he looked a bit panicked. He has called Quebec "a foreign country" several times now even though he knows it's part of Canada - but it must be how he is feeling! My French is passable and if I'm not making any headway, the people of Quebec City have so far been more than gracious in helping out!

I did rise from my plane-induced coma long enough to take this photo of one of the Great Lakes:

I thought it was cool. Morgan loved watching the plane descend through the clouds at Quebec City, it was like Harry Potter flying through the clouds in the movies.

Our taxi ride to the hotel was remarkably dangerous but we arrived intact and in record time :) One thing that struck us was that there are very few pickup trucks and full sized SUVs here; cars and small utility vehicles are the norm. From the airport to Vieux Quebec it looked much like any other city I have been to, but once in the older areas, it really is phenomenal. We are currently staying at the Hotel Manoir Victoria and this is the staircase:

I tipped the bellman extra. He schlepped four bags weighing a combined total of 99 pounds up those stairs at a jog - all in one trip. I couldn't do that job. The front desk were fabulous, set us up with the Carnavale effigies (event passes), gave us maps, directions, options, friendly smiles, promises to help with restaurants and other activities, and some great suggestions on travelling around the city. The best suggestion is to take the ecolobus - it's an electric bus that seats only 21 people, but it travels around and around the old part of the city every ten or fifteen minutes. It's only a dollar per person, and it drops us off at the hotel, and also a block from Carnavale (as well as other stops of course). I would recommend most cities look into this!

Our first experience at Carnavale was great! Morgan went tubing (four big sculpted runs):

Played human foosball (I've realized that the people of Quebec are tough - in this game they are tied to metal poles in subzero temperatures, with complete ice underfoot, strapped in with leather belts, no padding; they don't wear helmets to go tubing or go on the ice slide, nor on the zip line, nor skating):

And watched amazing fireworks set to live rock music:

We will be going back to check out the progress on the snow sculptures, really amazing. The ice sculptures weren't as grand as I thought, but that's okay - everything else has been fantastic! Morgan has had some great new experiences including traditional music, some Canadian history firsthand, and trying (and loving) his first Beaver Tail :)  :

And just because they are amazing, here are two photos from our hotel room. The first one shows  a ship moving through the St. Lawrence Seaway in the background, along with a mousy giant warehouse on the far left. The second is an art installation on that same crappy warehouse/port building by night. It's based on the Aurora Borealis and I wish I could post a video that shows how the colours dance across this normally non-descript giant building. The walls of the building are what looked like coloured water here:

And here is one just for the family. We miss Kim, the dog, the cat, and the house, but so far are having a great time :)

Carol-Lynne

Quebec Premier Jour

It was really early when we got on the plane at 6am we slept like rocks for most of the flight. Flying over Quebec was so cool it was like gliding on the clouds. When we got off we went to this awesome hotel that has great rooms and it's got a really big tv. Then we started to the carnivale that was so cool it really is the biggest in the world. I played human sized foosball and I was strapped to a big pole with other people to kick a ball. I didn't say much because I don't know French. Then on to the ferriswheel it was really high. The tubing that was very cool I swallowed snow it was so fast. Then the fireworks it was awesome with the music! fin.

A Change of Direction

After much thought and much hard work, our group of close to twenty students and teachers has dwindled (all for good reasons) down to two - my son Morgan and myself. We will be reposting the large trip for open participation for the summer of 2012 and we hope that by using this blog to document the excursion we leave for tomorrow, many of you will be encouraged to join us for next year and the big trip we had planned. It will be a lot of fun, and a fantastic learning experience, so email clmquintin@gmail.com or post here if you would like to be included in the planning for next year.

When we decided that the large trip simply couldn't go ahead without more families committed, Morgan and I put our heads together and thought of where we might go for this year's Kids' Trek expedition that would be less expensive than the large trip. I asked him where he wanted to go, and he replied "Somewhere where I can learn about a different culture." As we are in the midst of winter, and the winter blahs were getting to us, I put two and two together, and we decided on a week in Quebec City. Carnavale! Yay! Through expedia.ca we got a great deal on our flights and accommodations. We are (mostly) packed, and this was no small task since it included all our winter gear. We are going to spend a few days at Carnavale, the world's largest winter festival; packing for two for a week for both winter gear (including boots, ski pants, heavy jackets, etc), indoor clothes, bathing suits etc was difficult. Air Canada only allows one checked bag per person now before paying premiums, we crammed everything into two suitcases to check, and two backpacks to carry (and they aren't even heavy...yet...there's still tomorrow morning!).

We got Morgan his own photo id card from the Saskatchewan Government - looks like a driver's license, but it isn't - very cool! I recommend them - they are only ten dollars and are excellent photo id. He's very proud of it. On the language side, I'm brushing off my rusty French from high school (taught to me by a Swiss speaker) and my university grammar classes (taught to me by a Polish speaker) and hoping I can get by in la belle province. Morgan initially was keen on French but now he says it gives him a headache - but I'm sure he will pick up lots while we are there.

I won't give away too many secrets about what we are doing and where we are going; you will have to check back on this blog for photos and updates. We will be doing evening updates and as part of Morgan's educational endeavours for this journey, he will be blogging from his own account each night as well. For now, I have to be awake at 4 a.m. to "gently encourage" the boy to get out of bed and off to the airport; our flight leaves at 6 a.m. There will be more to read tomorrow evening!

Carol-Lynne