Mommy writing: Craig and I took our first big trip since having kids and went to Quebec City, Canada for our 10 year anniversary, my 35th and his 40th. It was my favorite city I've ever visited... being the oldest city in North America, it is beautifully preserved, clean, walkable to almost everywhere, large parks, tons of beautiful nature, history, arts, culture and amazing food!
Here we are at the Kansas City airport after finding out our flight was delayed and we were going to miss our connection in Toronto. We were lucky enough to catch the last flight out of Toronto to make it into Quebec City last Tuesday night. We flew standby and if we hadn't been able to get on, they told us we couldn't get out until 4:30pm the next day. We were so thankful to get into Quebec the night we were supposed to and not lose a day there!
Walking around and exploring the oldest part of the city on our first morning.
Breakfast at Couchon Dingue (Crazy Pig)
Chateau Frontenac in background
Our first day we decided to rent bikes from our hotel and ride out to the Montmorency Falls... waterfalls taller than Niagara Falls.
On the way, we stopped at a very cute and pretty large farmers market to get fruit, a baguette, freshly sliced salami, cheese and almond croissants for a picnic.
We finally made it to the falls. We think it was about a 12 mile ride. We rode a gondola to the top of the falls and then walked over the suspension bridge over the falls.
A picnic lunch in the park, well deserved after our long ride.
That evening, we rode the Funiculaire to the upper part of the village and checked out the Chateau Frontenac, which is a grand castle/hotel.
We had a drink in the swanky bar at the Chateau and listened to some wonderful live music. I had a leachy martini... a new favorite drink!
Walking to dinner
Fantastic dinner at Chez Boulay
We spent Thursday roaming around the city, did a little run, had coffee and pastries at our favorite bakery, Paillard. We bought a piece of art and did some more exploring. We had dinner at Patente et Machin, a small little bistro off the beaten path that our awesome concierge had recommended. Then we went to an amazing show/festival in the streets, where there were different musical and theatrical performances going on. One show was very reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil, but it was in a parking garage. It was phenomenal.
On Friday, we rented a car and drove around the nearby island, Ile d'Orleans. It is a small island with lots of local farmers and little stands, small wineries, a brewery, chocolate shop and small bakery. It was very charming.
We had lunch at the local brewery and the picture below was our view from the terrace where we were sitting.
That night we did a pub crawl to a couple pubs in the village and then ended the night with a drink in our hotel lobby bar, which was a really cool place.
Our last day we spent exploring parts of the city we hadn't seen yet. We took a 3 or more hour walk through an enormous park and only covered about half of the park.
On our long walk... we also climbed down 395 stairs and went back up them as well. We didn't realize how many stairs there were when we started!
After our long walk, we showered and went for some gelato at Madame GG's.
Our last night we had dinner at Panache, a renowned Quebec City restaurant, which was actually located at our amazing hotel.
Nightcaps and cheers to an amazing trip!!!
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