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.

Quebec City!

We stayed at a hotel a little outside of the city to save some funds, but were glad to hear that it had a bus into old town so we didn't have to worry about street parking. We got up and caught the early bus as we knew we had a lot to of exploring to do.

Excited to be on the bus to old town!

First things first, when in French areas always have cappuccinos and chocolate breads. We found a highly rated local cafe, sat outside and soaked in the city sights and sounds.

French breakfast is a favorite

I loved this old car that advertised the
cafe we stopped into

It turned into a gorgeous, sunny day. So much so that I had to stop in a store and grab a hat because my scalp was burning!

The famous Fairmont Le Château Frontenac

Another view of their landmark hotel- please note
my new Canadian hat! When in Rome!

The place looked like it was straight out of a Disney film!

We walked all around the old town and then strolled up to their restaurant row area to grab a bite to eat for lunch. We'd always heard about Quebec's poutine so Jackson decided to give it a try. (Poutine is a dish originating from the Canadian province of Quebec, consisting of French fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy.)

Chicken and waffles poutine

Well, the good folks of Quebec know what's going on. Poutine was a huge hit with us. Jackson loved it more than me because he's bigger into french fries, but I was a fan, too! I did not expect to like the meshing of so many textures.

Knocking to get into the old city

Quebec City is known for being one of the last walled cities in the world. They love their wall and I see why. It was lovely.

Quaint city streets

We walked down to the waterfront and watched sailboats. As always.

The view of town from the waterfront

The entire town is obsessed with dipping its ice cream in melted chocolates and other assorted toppings. We kept seeing folks walking around with these amazing looking creations so we decided to partake. We were not disappointed.

A s'more ice cream cone.

A better look at this beauty. It was SO GOOD!!
And rich. It was also very rich.

The funniest part of riding the bus was making sure we were back in time for the final pick up of the night or else we'd have to Uber back. We are too cheap for that so we made it to the bus stop early and did some people watching. Quebec City is a certainly a beautiful place to spend a day wandering around!

The view from our bus stop.

Waiting on our ride like sunburned little kids!

We eventually got back to the hotel and hit the hot tub again. It was certainly our favorite part of the hotel's offerings!

White Mountains, NH

When we were mapping out this trip we realized that we'd managed to never spend time in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We looked into the area and it looked lovely so we decided to make it a stop on our way to Canada.

We got to town in the mid-afternoon, grabbed some lunch at a local cafe and then headed for a trail we'd heard about from the hotel clerk. He said it was easy, quick and had good views. Hotel clerks are liars, y'all! This was not easy or quick, but the view was lovely!

Starting out

Still smiling at this point...

Did the hotel clerk work for the mosquitos? They
loved my visit.

The views of the valley weren't bad, though!

We were on a big rock on top of the mountain looking down. Amazing.

Excited to have reached the top! 

See how many tries I have to take before
I get a decent photo? 

He enjoys himself immensely. 

The hike was a little strenuous on the way up, but not terrible. We just weren't in ideal shape. We probably stayed at the top a little bit longer than we should have soaking in the views of the valley. The sun was going to be going down soon and the trail was very shaded so it was going to be tricky foot placement if we didn't hurry. Well, we hurried and it still got REALLY dark back on the trail. This has never happened before, but it actually felt longer going DOWNHILL than it did climbing! I starting thinking we may end up camping out there with all of our supplies. What supplies? Oh, that's right, we had NOTHING. I prayed more than I'd ever prayed on a hike. I just wanted to safely reach that rental car.

Eventually, we did. I broke out into a praise song from my days at IWU.

SO RELIEVED

Note: It looks bright in the photo above because we are off the trail and out of the woods. The trail was very dark and full of roots that made every step matter. It was a great hike, but not one I'd ever do again at dusk. I'd also wear bug spray. 

We stayed in Lincoln, New Hampshire which is not a large town. We went to the local pizza place and were pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Truth be told that was a hard hike and we were really hungry, but it was good nonetheless. We took a little stroll around town after dinner (we'd clearly not gotten enough activity with the hike) and enjoyed meeting some fellow travelers.

Happy Camper!

The next day we decided to do a little more exploring of the area and its state park before heading to Canada. At the base of the beautiful waterfall at this site is a granite pothole 20 feet in diameter. It is believed to have been eroded 15,000 years ago while the North American ice sheet was melting. The Basin has been smoothed by small stones and sand, whirled around by the Pemigewasset River.

Franconia Notch State Park's Basin

Obviously Jackson had to get in

It was gorgeous 

After we hiked around for a bit, we got on the road to Canada. We knew this would be our long haul day and just buckled up, put on a good podcast (Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History) and got miles under our belts. We hit one gnarly rainstorm that slowed us down, but otherwise had no major issues. The border crossing was a little slower than normal just due to volume, but the Canadian folks were friendly as always.

Trying a local joint for dinner

We made it to our new home for the next couple of days, Quebec City, and headed out to find some dinner. We went to St. Hubert which was a very popular restaurant. I had no idea why. It was just not good food and it was pretty pricey, but we made it. We knew that this was the French part of Canada, but erroneously assumed that everyone would speak English, too. NOPE. It was VERY French and we were lucky to get a waitress who knew a little English. We were amazed that we were only like an hour from the border and the language barrier was so intense.

Jackson powering through a questionable
rib with odd BBQ sauce

We had spent a lot of time driving so we hit the hot tub at the hotel and retired early. We have a big day of exploring old town on the schedule for today!

Back to Boston

They say you cannot look back, only forward, but sometimes revisiting where you've come from is fun, too. We did just that on a return to Boston. We'd not been back in quite a few years so it was really fun to visit. 

We love staying at the Intercontinental Boston because it is in such a great location and it is one of the nicest hotels ever. We even upgraded to get club level access so we had access to free drinks, free food and an excellent breakfast each day. You know that such a splurge is unlike Jackson so I had to really enjoy this luxury. HA! 

We flew out early on Friday morning and Jackson needed to be on a few work calls right when we got to the hotel so I settled into my robe and soaked in the city views.

Made myself right at home in the
Intercontinental Boston's robe :)

The view of my old office building from our hotel

Once Jackson finished with work for the day, we headed down to our old neighborhood, Seaport, to get lunch and check out all of the new developments.Legal Seafoods is one of my favorite restaurants in the world so we went there for a late lunch and it did not disappoint! 

lunch date at Legal Seafoods--YUM!

LOBSTER BISQUE.

Legit crabcakes. I miss this place!

We strolled around the waterfront and just enjoyed the lovely late Summer day.

How handsome is this guy?

Petefish.

We took a small break (our flight was super early) and then headed back out for a night of exploring the North End (Little Italy). We love just meandering through the streets without a destination in mind.

Checking out the sailboats.

I love the old part of town so much

We walked all around, did a little shopping and then retired for the evening. I love nothing more than a walking lifestyle especially on vacation! 

The ICB knows how to do breakfast!!

We got around and had a delicious breakfast before heading out for the day. Somehow Jackson had never been on a whale-watching trip so we got tickets and headed out on a bright, sunny Saturday morning. I've been a big fan of humpback whales since I did a report on them in sixth grade so I was jazzed, too!

I love this view! Ah, Boston will always have a piece of my heart!

It was REALLY chilly out on
the open seas

Jackson's hair never gets messed up?!

We had such good luck on this trip. As soon as we got to the "hotspot" there were about eight whales swimming around and putting on a show. The hour we spent out hanging out with them went by so quickly!

SUCCESS!!!

This whale even greeted us with a fin wave!

This gives a feel for how huge these animals really are

I was really excited because the seas were a little rough that day and a lot of people on the boat felt awful, but I was not one of them! Woo hoo! I'm finally getting my sea legs!

Now THAT is a treat!

We were excited to see our favorite dessert truck, Cookie Monstah, was still in business and since we'd missed lunch while out seeing the whales we decided we could share a treat from there. It was just as delicious as I remembered and I regretted sharing. Ha!

We decided to go over to see Cambridge that evening as we'd not spent much time there. We are cheap so we decided to take the "T" (subway) over. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake as there were big delays, but we just chilled and enjoyed the evening since we had no real plans.

Waiting on a delayed train

I was delighted to see that the smart folks of Harvard had added a Shake Shack to the town's culinary offerings. I absolutely love that place and it is spreading all over the country, but not to Indiana yet!

Shake Shack!!!!! 

It is always fun to walk around a campus so we soaked in the college kid vibes before grabbing another T back to the hotel for the evening.

One last amazing breakfast

We slept in, enjoyed one last gourmet breakfast and then went back to the airport to grab a rental car to start the roadtrip portion of this journey. Parking in Boston is about $72 a night so it made no sense to get a car on Friday. One of the best parts of staying near Seaport is that you're close to the airport, too, so everything is just so quick and easy. That is a big deal in Boston where nothing is quick or easy normally! 

We loved spending time in our old temporary home!