A Quick Canadian Getaway (part one)

In mid April the kids had two days off school and we all needed a little break so on Friday afternoon we hopped into the car and headed to Canada. 

We drove straight through with minimum breaks and crossed the Canadian border just after 8pm. Our first stop was Quebec City. Another two hours we were pulling up to the hotel, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. We were relieved to be out of the car.. we checked in and quickly fell into bed. 

This was our second time visiting Quebec City.. you can read about the first time here and we looked like this..

The goal of this little trip was to not have a goal.. to just roam and eat and enjoy. And so we did. We started off with breakfast at Les Trois Garcons.

and then as planned we wandered, stepped into shops and reminisced how teeny tiny D was the last time we were here..

and then we smelled the most delicious smell. POPCORN

We stepped into the wondrous Mary's Popcorn. So many yummy smells, so many different flavors. We ended up leaving with a bag to eat for now and two bags to take home. 

                   

check out this funny little dude

Here's a little now and then for you.. 13 years apart.

Plus two

M and I stopped for some coffee and H tried a maple sugar candy from a sugar shack.. the process was cool - video here the candy itself was way tooooo sweet. 

There were bouts of drizzling and it was a cool day.. we were getting hungry so we stopped by at Le Chic Shack. We ordered some really top notch chicken burgers and a poutine, because well how could we not.

I apologize to all Canadians, but the poutine was a miss. M and I had had it before so we already knew we were not fans but we wanted to the kids to formulate their own opinions.. well it was a massive thumbs down from them.

We walked to the fortifications.. the windy was picking up now.. and then stopped for coffee and sweets before heading back to the hotel.   

The famous Château Frontenac behind us. The impressive Château Frontenac is Québec City's most famous landmark. The luxurious hotel perched atop Cape Diamond since the late 19th century was designed to convey prestige in keeping with its Old Québec surroundings. It hosted the two Québec Conference (August 1943) and (September 1944) at which the Allies discussed Second World War strategies. Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Queen Elizabeth II have resided at the hotel. And it holds the Guinness World Record for being the "most photographed hotel in the world". In 1952, the Château Frontenac was transformed into a movie set for the Alfred Hitchcock's movie, I Confess.

We decided to take a break before dinner.. I took a nap while the boys went to the pool. 

While I was under the assumption that this was off season and I needn't worry about dinner reservations I was proven wrong. We called numerous restaurants but there was no availability anywhere.. it was the 45 min wait at lunch for burgers that had thrown me off. Finally we found a Portuguese restaurant that was able to fit us in. 

On our walk back to the hotel we stopped at Chocolats Flavoris.. a soft serve ice cream shop that then dipped the cone in hard chocolate.. oh my.. so good. 

The next morning we had breakfast at La Buche (the service here was amazing) before checking out and heading to our next destination. 

 

I thought I'd be able to fit our whole four day trip into one post but I think it's starting to run a little long so I'll split the next few days into another post. Thanks for stopping by. 

       

Etsy           Instagram           Twitter           Redbubble           Zazzle           Society6