Philip’s brother Jonathan has been going to language school in Quebec for the past year, learning French in preparation for his move to Africa to fly with MAF. We have wanted to go out to visit him but it never worked out with our schedules. So, now that Phil is done with his MBA and Jonathan is done with school, we decided to fly out there and then drive back to Seattle with him (since he had his car with him). This took 15 days traveling 4,326 miles through 14 states and 3 Canadian provinces, including 3 National Parks. Here are the highlights of our adventure.
June 26 – Seattle to Montreal
Today was pretty exhausting but went much more smoothly than expected. The highlight was walking across the tarmac to board our small turbo prop plane for the first leg to Vancouver. Liam loved that we got to walk right up to the plane.
June 27 – Montreal to Sherbrooke
After sleeping in and eating breakfast at the hotel, Jonathan came to pick us up and we drove 2 hours back to Sherebrooke where he has been living for the past year. That evening he took us on a walking tour of the city and then we had dinner at a small café on the main drag.
June 28 – Sherbrooke to Quebec City
In the morning we left early and drove 3 hours to Quebec City. Liam still refuses to sleep in the car which is getting frustrating. After a quick lunch we went to Parc de la Chute Montmorency, a park just outside of the city that featured a big waterfall. We took the trail out to the observation platform where we got soaked with the spray. It felt nice on such a hot day. Then we hiked the series of switchback staircases all they way to the top and crossed the large suspension bridge over the falls. By this time it was so hot that we decided to pay and take the gondola back down. It would have been easier to take the gondola up and hike down like most of the other people were doing, but of course we took the more challenging route.
In the evening we went into the city and met up with some friends of Jonathan’s who live in the city. We had dinner in a little pizzeria and then they gave us a historical tour of the city. It was great being with people who know they area. It is such a beautiful city and it reminds me so much of Paris.
As it got dark we made our way down to see the free Cirque du Soliel show which takes place on summer evenings under a freeway overpass. It was amazing!
June 29 – Quebec City to Sherbrooke
After breakfast at Tim Horton’s (a Canadian staple) we went for a swim at the hotel pool and then went back downtown to see parts of the city we hadn’t seen the night before. After seeing the historical government buildings we got caught in a flash rainstorm on the boardwalk so we ducked inside a tourist shop to stay dry. We let Liam pick out a souvenir. We looked at t-shirts, stuffed animals, hats, but he decided on a toy bus. He’s really into identifying anything with wheels lately. I have a feeling during our drives on this trip we will be hearing a lot of “ooh! bus! car! truck! motorcycle! bus! BIG truck!...”
After wandering around the city all afternoon we headed back to Sherbrook to clean up, buy groceries, and pack for our big road trip!
June 30 – Sherbrooke to Niagara Falls
After packing up every last inch of space in the Subaru we headed out early for the boarder. 8 hours later we made it to Niagara Falls and found a campground. We went down to the falls just as the sun was setting and walked around as the spray lit up with colored lights. It was hard to see much through the spray but it was still beautiful. Back at camp as we were going to sleep we noticed fireflies all around our tent! My dream! I have always wanted to see fireflies. We watched them for a while and then fell asleep as they twinkled around our tent.
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