Off to Quebec!!

As you can imagine, I have so many fabulous pictures of this trip. I could only choose a few of those. Here are some links to my online albums. If you have a problem accessing them, please let me know.
Album #1

Album #2

Album #3

I flew to Montreal on Tuesday morning, July 8th. I was so excited! I’ve been to Montreal before but never got a chance to sightsee. I was going to be able to spend a day and a half on my own sightseeing in Montreal and then when Stephen was done work on Thursday afternoon, we had the rest of the week to ourselves and he would be able to show me around the Montreal the rest of Thursday and all day Friday. Then we were planning on driving to Ottawa on Friday night to spend the weekend with Stephen’s parents.

I arrived in Montreal that afternoon, picked up a rental car and drove to meet Stephen at the hotel. He was with his 2 colleagues from Oldcastle's main office in Texas. Stephen took us downtown to Crescent Street for supper.

Wednesday morning after Stephen went to work, I made my way downtown for breakfast at a place I had seen when we were walking back to the car the night before. I spent the day exploring downtown on foot, mostly up and down St Catherine street. There was so much to see, I kept venturing off onto side streets to see buildings, parks or something else that I thought was fascinating. I promised Stephen I would wait for him before I ventured into Old Montreal so I didn't go that far south. The weather was great – it was really hot, very humid and poured all day long. We don’t get hot, humid rain like that in Calgary and I love it!












I met Stephen at Oldcastle Glass when he was done work that afternoon and we went to Baton Rouge for supper with a manager of the Montreal plant and the 2 guys from Texas.










On Thursday I stayed in my room and got room service for breakfast. I know I need a life, but I was very excited because I had never gotten room service before. That morning while Stephen was at work, I visited the Botanical Gardens near the Olympic Tower and the Biodome.
















Stephen called after lunch to let me know he was done his final meeting and he was taking the guys from Texas to have a quick drink downtown before they flew out. I met them there. They left to go to the airport and Stephen and I went back to the hotel so that Stephen could change out of his work clothes and we could go back downtown to have supper in Old Montreal.

We parked the car downtown and took the Metro to Old Montreal. We wandered through the streets of Old Montreal. The architecture is amazing! It felt like Europe! There are so many other beautiful churches and grand gov’t buildings. There were old stone houses and shops full of history and character. The cobblestone streets were full of cute restaurants with patios (or piazzas) on the sidewalk. The hosts and hostesses stood on the sidewalk beckoning tourists in. There were a lot of restaurant choices and we walked past many of them until I noticed a tunnel through one stone wall that led to a small enclosed courtyard filled with tables. The piazza of the restaurant was in the courtyard. The service was relaxed, the food was simple yet delicious and very French. I couldn’t have imagined a better place to eat in Old Montreal. After we finished our meal, we continued to explore. I was excited by everything I saw!























We finally left Old Montreal as it was getting dark and walked up Blvd St Laurent to see the activity of Montreal night life. Rue St Denis was partially closed for the Just For Laughs festival and other streets were closed for the Jazz Festival. We continued up to a street called Prince Arthur that is filled with great restaurants and lots of activity! Then we explored around the neighbourhoods of Mont Royal, looking at the architecture of the condos and townhouses. After hours of walking, we finally decided to call it a night and took the metro back to the car. Before driving back to the hotel, Stephen showed me where he had lived when he was in Montreal. It couldn’t have been a better evening!













Friday morning we woke up planning to go to Mount Royal and do some shopping of the unique stores in the area. Then we were going to tour around the downtown some more. As we were driving downtown, we started talking about the fact that Quebec City is only 2 hours away and we were so close to being there during their 400-year celebrations. So we decided to make the drive. Even though we had to meet Stephen’s ‘Uncle’ Phil in Montreal for a quick supper that night and were going go to Ottawa for the night, we could still get 4 or more hours to tour through Old Quebec and we couldn’t pass up the chance. (I loved Quebec City last time I was there, but I was there on a cool misty day in November and Stephen thought I should see it when its sunny, fully green and gorgeous!).

The drive was good. We got there just before lunch time. I love Quebec! It was very busy with tourists but I was still awed by it. It looked so different in the sunshine and it was so much fun to explore again. Everything is fascinating. The history and the beauty of the place amazes me. It was green and flowers were everywhere – even around the doors and shuttered windows, adding even more charm to the old stone houses. We walked for hours up and down the streets, past the Chateau Frontenac, by the water, up by the Citadel and Plains of Abraham! We had a great time! We left Quebec City in time to make it to Montreal for a quick visit and then on to Stephen's parents house in Ottawa.




























We had a great visit with Gerry and Debbie and Stephen's grandfather on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday night we flew back to Calgary. Our flight was delayed from Ottawa so while we were waiting to board, Stephen bought me a little friend to sit beside me on the plane.