Let's go in order:
Tuesday:
Work was routine - nothing jumping out at me as interesting. After work I had to do some laundry (sheets) so that Gwen had clean sheets to sleep on. I tried but was unsuccessful to get my photos to work better from the Grey Cup. I realized my problem, I forgot to format my SD card - the card had my apartment video recorded on it from my other camera so using a different camera apparently caused some card errors. Oh well, a few pictures worked out but not videos seem to work very well. A little disappointed but photos can only do so much justice to actually being there. It was a great experience and I have some photos to prove that I was actually there.
Had hockey Tuesday night - we lost another close one in the last minute.
Wednesday:
Had half a day of work - the other half was spent driving to Ottawa (2.25 hrs each way) and giving a guest lecture at Carleton University again. Gwen flew into Ottawa and I met up with her to pick up her bags. I then drove her downtown so she could check out the currency museum and then I made my way toward Little Italy where I was meeting James at 4:30 for dinner before the lecture at 6:00.
Before I made it to the restaurant Gwen already texted me saying she was done at the currency museum and was waiting for our friend Katie (the MC at our wedding) to finish work for the day so that they could hang out and grab dinner.
The lecture went well, again. There were some very good questions from the students and there were a few nodders in the crowd, but that is somewhat expected for a 4th year engineering evening course - I've been there, didn't nod off as much as these guys though...
After the lecture, I gave one of the students, Paul, a ride down town - Paul worked with us for an internship for 16 months ending back in September. It was good to see him and catch up. Afterwards, I went to Katie's apartment to pick up Gwen. I had a cup of mulberry apple (maybe?) tea and a quick visit with Katie. She seems to be enjoying her newfound career - law; she is a clerk for one of the Judge's at the Supreme Court (Gwen correct me if I'm wrong).
The drive home was relatively uneventful. Home at 12:30 and in bed by 1:00.
Thursday:
Up at 6:00 to make it to work for an inspection at 8 am. This was inspection 1 of 3 for the day. After the third inspection, I packed up and went home to be with Gwen and finish one final project quote for the day.
We went for dinner to a restaurant called Mirada and then went to see James Bond "Skyfall" (FINALLY - I've been waiting for weeks to go and see it...). Dinner was good and movie was great. We were 2 of 8 people in the theatre... I guess this is a benefit to waiting to go see the movie after it has been out in theatres for a few weeks.
We went to the early show (6:40) and were home by 10 which was good - I was pretty exhausted from the week so far.
Friday:
Work was work - Friday's are when everything seems to unravel. Luckily my inspection at 2:00 was cancelled so I packed up and got the h3ll out of Dodge. I got home at 3:30 or so and we packed up our stuff and head out of the big city of Montreal for the much smaller and quaint city of Quebec City.
We started our drive with a 1 hr battle through traffic on the 40 east to get off the Island of Montreal. Once off the island, traffic was relatively calm and smooth flowing.
Dinner was in Trois Rivieres which is basically the half way point to Quebec City. I wasn't sure how much English the waiter would know but he was pretty good. In fact, I was quite impressed with the amount of English that everyone spoke. I was warned that once you get off the Island and east of Montreal, it is French only, but this wasn't the case. Maybe it was because we were in the touristy part of QC...
After dinner, we stopped at Tim's and got a coffee and tea to go. The lady at Tim's spoke very good English and told us that she had to go all the way to Alberta to learn English because they didn't offer it in school. I would have thought Ontario or even Manitoba would be a closer option, but whatever floats your boat I guess.
An hour later and we were in Quebec City. We checked into our Hotel which was in Old Quebec and a short walk to pretty much anywhere of interest. We dropped off our bags and grabbed our cameras to head out and see the sites of Old Quebec at night. Here are a few pictures:
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| Can't seem to find the name of this building, but it is here |
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| Gwen With Jacques Cartier |
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| Chateau Frontenac |
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| Basse Ville (Lower Town) |
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| St. Lawerence River |
Afterwards, we went back to the hotel where Gwen watched curling and I fell asleep.
Saturday:
Woke up at 9:30, went for buffet breakfast at the hotel. Returned to the room. Gwen watched curling, I napped (yes, nap in the morning - getting caught up on my sleep). At about noon, we were ready to face the cold Quebec City weather. Cameras in tow, we exited the hotel to the brisk -14*C weather. We wandered up and down the many streets entering small shops to see what they had to offer.
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| Gwen's favourite electric bus |
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| A small church in Old Quebec |
We eventually made our way to the Citadel - the largest fortified area in North America which over looks the Plains of Abraham where General Wolfe and Montcalme both died during the battle on the Plains of Abraham between the British and French in 1759.
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| La Citadelle |
I could write lots on the 1 hour tour that we took through the Citadel which is an active military base. However, for those of you with a short attention span, here is the Coles Notes version:
- The Citadel is home to the Royal 22nd Regiment
- The Second Governor General's house is situated here
- Every day at noon they fire the Howitzer (using a blank) to signify remembrance for those lost in action
- The shape of the Citadel is such that you can fire anywhere inside the walls to defend against intruders instead of having long shots from opposites sides of a square
- The British built the Citadel in the 1800's to defend against the American's
- A large cannon at the highest (natural) point in Quebec City could fire a 600 lbs bullet 5 kms; they used to use this cannon to break the ice on the St. Lawerence to keep ship lanes open
- Quebec is Algonquin for "where the river narrows" - upstream the St. Lawerence is much wider and Quebec City is where the river narrows to the point of only a few hundred metres across
Here are some photos from the tour:
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| Outside the Citadel, Gwen with a Cannon |
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| A big gun - 600 lbs shell required 10 men to load |
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| Overlooking the Citdel |
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| Overlooking the Plains of Abraham |
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| Chateau Frontenac and Old Quebec from the Citdel |
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| Can still feel our face enough to smile |
After the tour we went to Pub L'Orsay mostly to warm up but curling was on, I think Gwen had alternate motives ;) After two pints, one cup of tea and the Women's Semi Final, we headed back out to the streets. We wandered around what appeared to be a farmers market, buying a Christmas gift. We then proceeded into a few more stores and then back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
Back into the streets, we went to Saint Alexandre Pub - an English pub. I had a pulled pork sandwich, Gwen had gluten free sausages. Afterwards, back to a few more stores (one of which was a 4 storey music store) and then to the hotel for... yep, you guessed it - more curling.
Sunday:
Slept in again and then breakfast. Afterwards, we packed up and left Quebec City at noon. Our plan today was to go to Carrefour Laval - a massive shopping centre which I'm pretty certain I already blogged about. More Christmas gifts bought and then we headed to Le Biftheque for dinner.
The first time Gwen and I came to Montreal in 2007, we stayed at the Four Points Sheraton right across from Le Biftheque. Since then, Le Biftheque looked like it was on its way out - not being maintained and then it looked to be closed for good.
This was not the case. They shut the restaurant down for renovations for the better part of a year. The restaurant opened back up about two weeks ago and boy did I miss it. Awesome steak! Gwen and prime rib and was quite happy with her meal as well.
After dinner and coffee/tea, we killed some more time (30 mins) just taking the long way to the airport, me showing Gwen the location of some other customers that I deal with. Then... dropped Gwen off at the airport for her return flight home to Winnipeg, without me.
So, as you can see, I was a little busy these last few days to blog. It was lots of fun to have my best friend out here with me for a few days to take in some new sites (and some old ones too ;) ).
Now to get ready for the next three weeks of work so that I can come home for Christmas!
Awesome! Thanks.
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