5 Days Later

Bon jour! We are back from our wonderful vacation in Quebec City. I missed Jack immensely, just as I knew I would. But, on the flip side it was such a treat to fall in love with my hubby all over again. The escape from house selling and baby duty was a long time over due. It was also reassuring to know he was in good hands while we were away. Our trip was packed from departure until arrival home. Quebec is an amazing city with a quaint French feel. I felt that I was farther from home than I actually was. Here is a"journal" of our 5 day escape. I don't blame you if you cant make it all the way through...I just wanted to store it in Blog land while its fresh in my head for my own memories.

Day #1:

This was departure day. A flood of mixed emotions consumed me...missing Jack, the house, Cosby, did I pack right?, etc.,etc. We arrived at the airport on time and boarded with no problem. However, we sat on the runway for an entire hour supposedly due to weather. Yuck! We had a connecting flight to catch in Detroit and we were majorly stressing at this point. We finally took off and landed, of course, an hour late. We sprinted through the Detroit airport, which if you have ever been there is a VERY long sprint. The airport is designed like one long, on going, never ending tunnel. We finally arrived at our gate at 6:37, only to have missed our flight by 10 minutes. Such a bummer! Wouldn't you know that the next flight wasn't until 7 am the following morning. So much for my anticipated "sleeping in". So a few dinner vouchers and hotel voucher later, we were booked for tomorrow's flight and off to eat. Not quite what I expected for my first vacation dinner...Chilis Too in the airport...I don't recommend it. After dinner we headed down to baggage claim and guess what? No luggage. Are you kidding me? Both times that Clay and I have flown out of the country this has happened to me. By this time, I was so over tired and ready to end this day. After talking to the 'oh, so helpful' baggage service department we decided to wait in hopes that it might show in the next hour. So off to book our room at the airport hotel phone. The voucher offered us one night at the the Days Inn for $50. We opted out and booked our own room near the Airport. We got an overnight kit from the ticket desk and headed down the escalator to take one more hopeless look for our luggage and by the grace of God there it was spinning around the conveyor belt. It was like looking at heaven from the top of that escalator...woohoo! Maybe a night in Detroit wasn't going to be so bad after all. Well, at least maybe not as miserable.

Night one in Detroit...not exactly as planned. But a place to sleep at least.

Day#2:

Alas, we arrive in Quebec early afternoon and with luggage! We immediately checked into a beautiful French style castle called the Chateau De Frontenac. Everyone was so friendly and helpful which was a warm welcome from the airport drama. We headed out to get a quick bite to eat at an outdoor cafe and then met our guide for a walking tour of the city. Nothing like walking through a hilly city for 3 hours after spending an entire day on your feet running through airports. However, Mike, our guide was fabulous and showed us all of the ends and outs of the city. He covered everything from the history to the night life and he even threw a little French humor in there. That was $20 well spent. After exhausting our feet once again, we headed back to the Frontenac for a little rest and clean up. Night life...here we come! It was dinner and a concert for our first evening. Quebec was celebrating its 400 year anniversary complete with a giant music festival. Clay checked the schedule and to my luck (and I am being sarcastic), Stone Temple Pilots were playing. Lucky me! So we bought weekend passes and joined all of the rockers for an evening of music. I was pleasantly surprised when I recognized all but 3 songs. Clay, of course, enjoyed every minute of it which was great because it was his vacation too. So, it made the frigid outdoor temps and my lack of initial enthusiasm well worth it.

The Frontenac...quite a step up from our Detroit hotel, eh? The inside was amazing.

Mike, our walking tour guide. Note the umbrella, it was raining on and off during the tour.

A view of the city streets. I think it should be called quaint Quebec. It was adorable.

Day #3

Our feet sorely needed a rest. So, we rented a car and drove about 15 minutes over to the Isle DE' Orleans. It felt like the French country side. Absolutely gorgeous with rolling fields, wineries and strawberry patches galore. We stopped at the information booth and rented a CD that gives you a tour of the island as you drive. Unfortunately, it expects you to go the speed limit and that didn't happen with Clay driving. So, we occasionally had to skip around. I still thought it was a very creative idea. We stopped at a famous little Chateau for lunch which took FOREVER. The French never seem to be in a hurry. The food and the atmosphere were great though. We followed that up with dessert at the the local Chocolaterie. We each ordered ice cream dipped in the thickest most delicious dark chocolate you have ever tasted. I would honestly compare it to Godiva, it was that good. About 4 bites and I was on chocolate overload though. We continued our drive around the island stopping at a historic home, a cheese shop, and a strawberry field. We even got out and picked our own batch of strawberries in the field. We filled the container about half way and then had to call it quits. Neither of us would make very good farmers. We left the island and still had a few hours with the car so we headed over to the Parc de la Chute Montmorency which is a giant waterfall. Again, gorgeous! And the last stop in the car was to the oldest Church in North America, Sainte Anne de Beaupre. It was incredible. We even bought a tiny statue of St Joseph to help us sell our house. I'll be burying it in the yard this week. After returning the car, we got ready for our evening out. We went to dinner at a truly authentic Canadian restaurant. I think the only thing on the menu was meat. Good thing neither of us are vegetarians. I had bison and pheasant and Clay had some meat pie thing with who knows what in it. We actually had to call the waitress over to point out the meats and what they were. It was good, but I don't think I ever want to eat that much meat in one sitting again. We stopped at a Canadian Pub on the way back home and listened to some great live French music. We couldn't understand a word and I think the musician realized it, so he threw in a few English tunes to pacify us. It was definitely a great day and night. I think my favorite of the whole trip.

Dessert at the Chocolaterie...I was about to bust out of those jeans at that point.

My first strawberry picking experience ever and possibly my last if it's up to Clay.

This is all we got...like I said, we wouldn't make very good farmers or pickers for that matter.

The gorgeous waterfall behind us. Look how far we are and we were still getting wet.

This picture doesn't do the church justice...it was beautiful. It reminded me of the cathedrals in Italy.

Day#4

This was suppose to be our hot air balloon ride day. When the concierge called the balloon people to schedule it, they said they couldn't guarantee the wind to be "right" today and we had to get there 3 hours before hand to prepare and it wasn't even a for sure deal. So, we opted out and decided to walk the city and take a boat ride over to a nearby port. It was an absolutely beautiful day. The first day that I could actually take my cardigan off...loved it! We walked the streets, had lunch, bought Jack a tee, and ate divine pastries at an outdoor pastry shop...yum yum! We boarded the boat in the late afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful scenery on all sides. Once we landed, we rented bikes at the port and cruised up the river on the bike path. I, of course, had a sun dress on, so pedaling was a bit of a challenge. Nothing I couldn't handle though. Although, Clay found it very humorous. All I needed was a basket on the front of my bike full of flowers and I would have looked like a true French lady. Night #4 was very mellow with dinner follwed by ice cream. By the way, did I mention I must have gained at least 5lbs on this trip? Dessert was a standard after every meal. Off to bed early because we were back to the dreaded airport on day #5.

More dessert...this time a chocolate eclair for Clay and a Raspberry Creme for me...more lbs...but, oh so good!

Our boat ride on a warm sunny day. Our hotel is right over my head in the background.

Biking along the St. Lawrence river, dress and all. The weather was fabulous...no cardigan for the first time.

Day#5

Yea! The day to see Jack...or so I thought. We ate breakfast at the Bistro in our hotel, which was the best english egg muffin I have ever had. It put McDonald's to shame. We checked out of the hotel and took a taxi to the Quebec airport. Everything was running smooth and we were on schedule to see Jack at 5:30 pm. UNTIL...we landed in Detroit. Of course, our flight home was delayed. And this time for 2 hours. Did I mention that I would be perfectly happy if I NEVER went back to the Detroit airport again? By this time, we knew every nook and cranny of that place, including all of the restaurants. No Chilis Too this time. We chose sandwiches and then returned to the gate only to find our flight delayed another 15 min. All that ran through my mind was, 'if we leave right now, I can see Jack for 20 min, 10 min 5 min (you name it depending the delay), before bed time". Unfortunately, my time ran out and we didn't get home until an hour and a half after J's bed time. Way too late to try to keep him up. We went in to his nursery and kissed our snoozing angel good night. I am not a morning person, but I could not wait to get up the next morning to see him. And when I did finally get to see him, I swear he had grown taller and had more hair. I squeezed him and kissed all over him. MMMM...love that baby!

The hotel bistro looked out over the boardwalk and the river. It was great people watching.