What happens when you try to do everything in a day

If you're rich you can stay here... or just know someone who can get the friends and family rate ;)

Today was an interesting day because of a mistake I made in distance calculation. I fully expected to be able to drive from the Manoir Richelieu back to Quebec City, tour the city and then drive all the way to Ottawa by supper time. This was due to a mistake in thinking that Quebec City and Montreal are only an hour apart. This was after I had already driven that distance once and after consulting a map. Boy was I ever wrong about that!

However, to start let's talk about the Manoir because it was exquisite. As I said yesterday it's a really nice hotel in the Charlevoux region of Quebec. It was a former CP hotel that was billed as a resort within Canada. It has European influences but has a style that is distinctly Canadian. The hotel itself is a large manoir style with several pools, a gym, 3 Restaurants, trails and other amenities. It really is a special place, once you've been there you'll never quite find anything like it anywhere else. The really nice this is that it's just outside of Quebec City (By about an hour and a bit) so as long as you're not so far away as to be in BC or Newfoundland, it's probably cheaper to get there than to fly to a resort in Cuba or Switzerland or something.

After a quick dip in the pool yesterday around 9:30pm yesterday made me realize just how awesome a heated outdoor pool can be (The last time I was there was the middle of the summer, and a warm pool on a warm day is not the best idea) I decided to go back early in the morning. While I had to drag Geoff along that night, he was a outdoor pool convert this morning as well. After a quick workout at the onsite gym (They have just about everything at this hotel) I had a swim in the pool which reaffirmed the wonders a warm swim can do first thing on a chilly morning.

Then came breakfast, which is something that the Manoir does particularly well, with regards to one special item: Maple Butter Crepes. These things basically redefine how you look at any breakfast for the rest of your life. From that day that you enjoy the luxury of the Maple Butter Crepe it will become the gold standard for how you rate breakfasts in the future. It will no longer be 'oh man that breakfast was good' it will be 'well that breakfast was pretty good, but a Maple Butter Crepe would have made it brilliant.' For the buffet stock (Which is what I had) the crepe is rolled into a little tube that his held together by a generous slathering of Maple Butter and cooked under some sort of crust that adds to the deliciousness. You take 3-4 but you always come back for more (Don't worry they're actually quite small, only about 2-3 inches long). I personally could keep eating these things until I ran out of insulin in my body, and then I would still attempt to eat some more. Also the other stuff like the eggs and bacon were good too.

Before we left we went on a tour around the property. It was cold and rainy so it was a very short lived walk, however the property has some really nice trails so we attempted to make our way to one of them. We had the opportunity to look at the view over the St. Laurence River and see an interesting planetary display that had set up. You also got the best look at the hotel itself (This is from where I took the opening picture). Unfortunately the driving rain chased us back inside and we took our que to start our journey for the day, at this point it was about 10am.

I take a lot of water/land shots, what can I say it's most of what we see. Stop judging! You can't argue with this view though.

We got near Quebec City around 11:30am and there was this really neat Waterfall called the Chute Du Montmorency right off the highway. We both thought it would be a little lookout that had the waterfall to take a picture of and be on your way. We were wrong, but in a good way. In a detour that was only possible on a roadtrip with no set schedule, the Waterfall turned out to be a full fledged provincial park where you could take a trail or an ungodly amount of stairs to get to the top.

Dear god, the stairs!

However, before we tacked the stairs, there was a path that let us get right up to the base the waterfall (without getting dangerous). So we travelled over to that and got soaked, but not before I took this picture from near the base of the waterfall.

If there was some sort of interactive feature on the internet, a bucket of cold water would splash you in the face right now

After getting wet and cold, we decided it would be the best time to take the stairs the rest of the way up. Now these stairs, they felt like they went on forever. For a time it seemed like it was a Sisyphean labour and that I would never reach the top. Now for all of you who are reading this and saying "Now Ian, you lived on the first floor of an apartment and you worked in a library with only three floors, and it had an elevator: perhaps you just aren't used to this stair thing anymore." To those naysayers I want to list this fact: The Montmorency Waterfall is actually higher than the Niagara Falls! They just happen to be much skinnier than their southern cousin. So think about that for a second and then view this picture:

I AM the STAIRMASTER!

There was a path that took us to a bridge that was suspended over the top of the falls. From that point you could really see the volume of water that was flowing over the cliff there. I know I wouldn't want to be anyone caught up in that.

At least it didn't sway from side to side in a strong breeze

Wouldn't want to go over that part in a barrel

From the top you could turn around and walk back down the stairs in some sort of satisfactory victory lap. However, this very park also had a cable suspension gondola system. Although it had an admission, guess which stairmaster got to cable his way back down the cliff to the information centre in gondola style? That's right, this guy.

Your chariot awaits fine sir

As it turns out, the gondola was also the best spot for getting a picture of the whole waterfall in action. So it was not all about celebrating my amazing accomplishments

Nature in action

After that side adventure was finished up, it was already 12:45pm with a trip to Old Town still on the books. Everyone can probably see where this is going. By the time we found parking and were sufficiently informed of the local surroundings by the tourist information bureau, we were short on precious time. We were still able to see the Quebec National Assembly (which is a really impressive building) and make a short trek into old town. The QNA is a really impressive building because it's got 24 statues of 'persons of influence' on Quebec History whether they be English, French or Native. It was also designed in the same style as the Parliament buildings so they have that really impressive/imposing feel to them.

That's 'National' Assembly to you

After that it was just a short walk through the gates into the old town. For those who have never been, the original colony of Quebec was walled off and settled at the top of a steep cliff to discourage would be raiders/invaders in it's early history. As the city expanded, they kept the walls and over time they have become a national heritage site. They also separate the newer, modern Quebec City from it's historic, protected old town. We only had enough time to venture in and look around the citadel fort there, but I took this picture that I hope is representative of the area.

Did I mention it was raining the whole time? It was raining the WHOLE time

After all that it was about 2:30pm and we still had about five and a half hours to drive to Ottawa, where we were fortunately able to stay with Geoff's Aunt, who generously allowed us to stay the night and over the next night if we end up taking too much time exploring the Capital region. So the rest of the day was spent driving back through Montreal, which going through a second time ended up being not so bad after some heavy traffic before the tunnel, and then it was smooth sailing all the way to Ottawa. Suffice to say we are safe in Kanata (an outlying community) and winding down the day, although not starting the bulk of your driving until 2:30pm AFTER you've already had a pretty full day is a recipe for a long day.