Bonjour from another cold (actually colder) day from Québec!
We are off to an early start with a 7:00 wake up from Madame. Instructions were to meet in the hotel lobby at 7:45 dressed as warm as humanly possible. Today was going to be a mostly outdoor day and wanted to make sure no one was caught red handed (literally because it was so cold your hands would turn red).
Chuck, our Québec tour guide, met us in the hotel lobby and we headed out for breakfast at a super chic breakfast restaurant called "Cosmos." Breakfast was delicious and Chuck told us that if we tried coming to the restaurant on a weekend...it would be near impossible to get in as they probably turnover 500 tables in one seating. After breakfast we boarded the bus and made our way 20 minutes outside of Québec to do our first activity of the day...dog sledding!
You could hear the barking of the nearly 300 dogs through the bus windows and you could hear some "awwww"s from the back of the bus at the thought of petting puppies later on. We de-bused where we met our dog sled helper, Jessica. She taught us the rules of the road of dog sledding including how to stop/slow down your team of pups, how to help run up hills with your team and how to not pass people, ever...or the dogs will want to play, sniff, or fight with their buddies. The trip thought the forest was quite picturesque with the occasional waft of something unpleasant but overall, it was an easy ride. Some of the dogs were treated not so wonderfully but when the chaperones were talking to Chuck, he informed us that these dogs are treated very well throughout the year and sometimes, their handlers need to show them who's alpha dog.
Directly after dog sledding, it was time to strap ourselves into our snowshoes and, well...go snowshoeing! Some students stayed behind because their feet were too cold...we warned you it was going to be frigid! The rest us made our way back into the forest to attempt putting on snowshoes. After about 10 minutes of struggling and helping one another out, we were finally ready to start snowshoeing. We quickly learned that some students didn't properly tighten their snowshoes and our large group quickly became scattered throughout the trail. I thought to myself, "eh, what's the big deal? If your snowshoe falls out, just take them off and keep walking." Too bad that's not how it works with 2+ feet of snow. The moment you put any weight on the snow, you fall waist high into the snow. When all was said and done, we made it through the (what seemed like an eternity) hike and made our way back to the bus. But not without first visiting the "chinots" or puppies.
It's like these kids have never seen a puppy before with how excited they got when they held the two puppies in the heated hut. They spent a good 10 minutes petting and holding and petting some more but it was finally time to head out for lunch. We boarded the bus and headed back into the city.
The students had 2.5 hours on their own in the fortified city of Old Québec to eat lunch and do some shopping. The chaperones made a B line to Chez AshTon, the best poutine place in all of Québec according to Chuck. Poutine is a Québec staple that has a bed of fries as the base, gravy poured on top and finished off with a whole bunch of fresh cheese curds. The best part about the cheese is the squeaking sound it makes when you chew on it. The volume of squeakiness depends on how fresh the cheese is and I can personally say that the cheese was deafening :).
Our bellies full and our bodies warm, we took to the streets to walk through the old city. We saw kids along the way eating a restaurants, enjoying chocolate and souvenir shopping for friends and family. It was almost time to meet up but first, the chaperones had to stop and get their dessert crepes, which are a definite must! Madame and Miss Sawyer ordered a flour crepe with sugar and lemon, while Miss Cassella had a flour crepe with raspberries and chocolate sauce. I had a flour crepe with chestnut spread and ice cream...SO GOOD.
We essentially rolled ourselves out the restaurant, up the hill and back to the bus. We arrived back to the hotel with strict orders to be back in the lobby at 5:45 to depart for dinner at the Sugar Shack.
5:45 and it was time to head out. The drive took us 20 minutes outside the city into more rural areas. We passed a ski resort on our way and Chuck informed us that for night passes, 7 days a week for all of the ski season was a whopping $99. What a steal! We arrived to the Sugar Shack where we were ushered into the souvenir shop for a quick history lesson on the discovery of maple syrup and it's different forms. The history says that a man was throwing an ax and missed his target but instead, hit a maple tree. The maple "water" started dripping out so the man gathered some of it, brought it back to the fire and boiled the water which then became maple syrup. We browsed the souvenir shop, bought some maple flavoured (see what I did there?) products for friends and family and then it was time for dinner.
We were seated in a large dining hall and there was traditional Québecois music being played by a gentleman surrounded by various instruments and microphones. It was definitely a fun, warm, inviting environment and the kids had no trouble settling in. The meal included food that the maple syrup workers would eat during that time period. Our first course was a bean/lentil soup with bread followed by the family style entreés: egg soufflé, baked beans, carved ham, pork grinds, fried potatoes, and sausage. There was also maple syrup on the table so I poured some over my food...not sure if that's what I was suppose to do, but I did it anyways. The food was delicious, the kids went up and did a line dance and then it was time for dessert! Crepes with maple syrup...I'm hoping you see a pattern here. So good! The dining started to clear and Chuck informed us it was time for "le deuxieme dessert" (the second dessert). We were brought outside and there were troughs of snow and tongue depressors. Maple syrup was poured into these troughs and we had to wait for 15 seconds for the syrup to congeal and then when it was time, we wound it around the tongue depressor for a delicious, sugary snack.
Back onto the bus and back to the hotel. We have a long, long day ahead of us tomorrow. Tubing - ice hotel - more tubing - lunch - possibly more tubing - dinner - winter carnaval - bed. Goodnight! KLAM
Click here for pictures/videos from the day!
We are off to an early start with a 7:00 wake up from Madame. Instructions were to meet in the hotel lobby at 7:45 dressed as warm as humanly possible. Today was going to be a mostly outdoor day and wanted to make sure no one was caught red handed (literally because it was so cold your hands would turn red).
Chuck, our Québec tour guide, met us in the hotel lobby and we headed out for breakfast at a super chic breakfast restaurant called "Cosmos." Breakfast was delicious and Chuck told us that if we tried coming to the restaurant on a weekend...it would be near impossible to get in as they probably turnover 500 tables in one seating. After breakfast we boarded the bus and made our way 20 minutes outside of Québec to do our first activity of the day...dog sledding!
You could hear the barking of the nearly 300 dogs through the bus windows and you could hear some "awwww"s from the back of the bus at the thought of petting puppies later on. We de-bused where we met our dog sled helper, Jessica. She taught us the rules of the road of dog sledding including how to stop/slow down your team of pups, how to help run up hills with your team and how to not pass people, ever...or the dogs will want to play, sniff, or fight with their buddies. The trip thought the forest was quite picturesque with the occasional waft of something unpleasant but overall, it was an easy ride. Some of the dogs were treated not so wonderfully but when the chaperones were talking to Chuck, he informed us that these dogs are treated very well throughout the year and sometimes, their handlers need to show them who's alpha dog.
Directly after dog sledding, it was time to strap ourselves into our snowshoes and, well...go snowshoeing! Some students stayed behind because their feet were too cold...we warned you it was going to be frigid! The rest us made our way back into the forest to attempt putting on snowshoes. After about 10 minutes of struggling and helping one another out, we were finally ready to start snowshoeing. We quickly learned that some students didn't properly tighten their snowshoes and our large group quickly became scattered throughout the trail. I thought to myself, "eh, what's the big deal? If your snowshoe falls out, just take them off and keep walking." Too bad that's not how it works with 2+ feet of snow. The moment you put any weight on the snow, you fall waist high into the snow. When all was said and done, we made it through the (what seemed like an eternity) hike and made our way back to the bus. But not without first visiting the "chinots" or puppies.
It's like these kids have never seen a puppy before with how excited they got when they held the two puppies in the heated hut. They spent a good 10 minutes petting and holding and petting some more but it was finally time to head out for lunch. We boarded the bus and headed back into the city.
The students had 2.5 hours on their own in the fortified city of Old Québec to eat lunch and do some shopping. The chaperones made a B line to Chez AshTon, the best poutine place in all of Québec according to Chuck. Poutine is a Québec staple that has a bed of fries as the base, gravy poured on top and finished off with a whole bunch of fresh cheese curds. The best part about the cheese is the squeaking sound it makes when you chew on it. The volume of squeakiness depends on how fresh the cheese is and I can personally say that the cheese was deafening :).
Our bellies full and our bodies warm, we took to the streets to walk through the old city. We saw kids along the way eating a restaurants, enjoying chocolate and souvenir shopping for friends and family. It was almost time to meet up but first, the chaperones had to stop and get their dessert crepes, which are a definite must! Madame and Miss Sawyer ordered a flour crepe with sugar and lemon, while Miss Cassella had a flour crepe with raspberries and chocolate sauce. I had a flour crepe with chestnut spread and ice cream...SO GOOD.
We essentially rolled ourselves out the restaurant, up the hill and back to the bus. We arrived back to the hotel with strict orders to be back in the lobby at 5:45 to depart for dinner at the Sugar Shack.
5:45 and it was time to head out. The drive took us 20 minutes outside the city into more rural areas. We passed a ski resort on our way and Chuck informed us that for night passes, 7 days a week for all of the ski season was a whopping $99. What a steal! We arrived to the Sugar Shack where we were ushered into the souvenir shop for a quick history lesson on the discovery of maple syrup and it's different forms. The history says that a man was throwing an ax and missed his target but instead, hit a maple tree. The maple "water" started dripping out so the man gathered some of it, brought it back to the fire and boiled the water which then became maple syrup. We browsed the souvenir shop, bought some maple flavoured (see what I did there?) products for friends and family and then it was time for dinner.
We were seated in a large dining hall and there was traditional Québecois music being played by a gentleman surrounded by various instruments and microphones. It was definitely a fun, warm, inviting environment and the kids had no trouble settling in. The meal included food that the maple syrup workers would eat during that time period. Our first course was a bean/lentil soup with bread followed by the family style entreés: egg soufflé, baked beans, carved ham, pork grinds, fried potatoes, and sausage. There was also maple syrup on the table so I poured some over my food...not sure if that's what I was suppose to do, but I did it anyways. The food was delicious, the kids went up and did a line dance and then it was time for dessert! Crepes with maple syrup...I'm hoping you see a pattern here. So good! The dining started to clear and Chuck informed us it was time for "le deuxieme dessert" (the second dessert). We were brought outside and there were troughs of snow and tongue depressors. Maple syrup was poured into these troughs and we had to wait for 15 seconds for the syrup to congeal and then when it was time, we wound it around the tongue depressor for a delicious, sugary snack.
Back onto the bus and back to the hotel. We have a long, long day ahead of us tomorrow. Tubing - ice hotel - more tubing - lunch - possibly more tubing - dinner - winter carnaval - bed. Goodnight! KLAM
Click here for pictures/videos from the day!