Day trip from Quebec City

While we always enjoy exploring new cities, our true love is found in nature. We love to hit a good path and just hike. We spend so much of our time behind a screen that it is always so refreshing to just BE. All you have to worry about is foot placement, breathing, BEARS, SNAKES, and mosquitoes. The simple life.

As we made our way out of Quebec City we stopped at Saint-Anne-de-Beaupre which is just a small town with this enormous cathedral. It is literally like having an enormous church in Elwood or something. You’re driving and then BAM! Huge amazing church. Naturally, we stopped in to look around.

The cathedral 

The old church

They actually had a whole display of the passion of Christ built into the hills surrounding the church so we hiked along there and took in the sculptures. They were so well done that you really felt what Jesus was going through during that rough day.

The passion in sculptures

Looking back from the hills at the cathedral

A feel for how large that place really was!

Once we’d finished seeing the area (we did not get any photos inside the church because services were being held, but it was lovely), we headed to the Mont-Sainte-Anne ski resort to hike their trails.

Oh. Bears. Great.

This is not scenic! 

Still going...

Half-way!

The top. LAME. 

That as a mistake. The little old lady at the bottom of the hill suggested a certain hike because it was “scenic, easy and quick” which sounded ideal. This lady was a liar. First, it was all wooded so it was not really scenic in the typical sense. Also, it was over 3 miles up. QUICK? MA’AM. The view at the middle was lovely. Jackson kept offering to let me quit because it was a really rugged hike and my knee was screaming. He plays me like a fiddle, though, because when he wants it to be my idea to quit I’d rather die than give in. So on we went. Seven years later when we made it to the summit there was no view. It was seriously better from the middle. Bah. The way down was less than ideal, too. You walk down a ski run. You guys, these things are steep and keeping your bum knee stable is a real chore. Nine years later, we made it to the bottom and I was so happy to see our rental car waiting on us with supple leather seats.

Create your own poutine!

"I'm basically Canadian now!"

I made a minced meat with gravy and a "small"
side of poutine

Once we’d cleaned up and I’d counted by 16 (not kidding) mosquito bites from the day, we headed out to get dinner. There was a new restaurant in town called Poutineville (yep!) and it got rave reviews so we decided to give it a try. It was in a different part of town similar to Broad Ripple so once we found parking, did a fire drill so Jackson could parallel park  (I’ve lost the ability somewhere along the way?!) and then questioned why we were married (I get super annoyed when we cannot find parking and often think about quitting my entire life. Maybe I was meant to be actress?), we made it to the restaurant. It had gotten a bit chilly so we opted to eat inside and were not disappointed. It was excellent food at great prices. If we were local I have a feeling it would be on our tight rotation of establishments to visit.

We stopped in at a grocery store on the way home to get some supplies and it is always fascinating to see how different things are. We spent probably 45 minutes just wandering around and soaking it all in. I always think of Canada as an extension of the U.S. which is quite true in Toronto and Vancouver, but not true at all in the province of Quebec! We eventually grabbed some waters for the room and headed back to, naturally, hit the hot tub for a bit. Again, this was the real redeeming quality of this hotel.