Happy Spring!

Happy Spring?  Today is the first day of Spring, but it doesn't quite feel like it yet - the wind chill never got out of the 20's here today and we're expecting a dusting of snow overnight. I guess this weather would have felt positively tropical to us when we were in Quebec City. Speaking of Quebec, here are a few photos of our last days on our trip!

The day before we left, it snowed throughout the day, probably about 6 to 8 inches total. It was pretty, but it was difficult to push the stroller around!  We paid a visit to the visitor center at the Plains of Abraham for a really neat history lesson on the struggles and battles between the French and the British to gain control of Quebec City and the Province.

After our history lesson, we rented a couple of bucket sleds so we could pull the kids around Battlefields Park. In the summer the park has plenty of places for activities such as jogging, biking, and picnic-ing. In the winter there are several trails dedicated to cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and sledding!

We pulled the kids around for a little bit, but then Clare decided she didn't want to wear her gloves anymore and that she wanted to be picked up. So we took a little rest on a bench and soon had an explanation for her sudden fit of crankiness - naptime!

While Clare snoozed, Sean got busy clearing off some park benches while Thom John explored the area a little more.

Snowbeard!

After lunch, we took a tour of the Parliament Building:

I didn't get any good photos inside the building since we had a wardrobe change and a snack emergency, but it was a nice tour - short and sweet.  After that we passed an outdoor skating rink and decided to try out some ice skating. The boys rented skates and a helmet for Sean and hit the ice:

Sean's Number One Fan cheered him on with pride:

The City Ramparts - the only remaining city walls in North America left North of Mexico:

After all that fun in the snow, we went back to our hotel and packed up to head back home the next day. Before hitting I-87 South towards home, we thought we would check out the Hotel de Glace - the Ice Hotel. And lucky us, it was opening day!

It was really cold!

Neat ice sculptures in the Hotel's lobby:

Checking out one of the bedrooms - the bedframes are made of ice and there's a little mattress on top with fur blankets. Guests at the hotel are also given a space-age sleeping bag for extra warmth :-)

 

When we were done looking around the Ice Hotel, we sampled a Quebecoise treat - tire d'érable, or maple taffy.  A man poured out a nice long line of pure maple syrup on a clean block of snow and we rolled it up on a popsicle stick.

The kids thought it was pretty darn good!

After we'd had our fill of maple taffy, we got in the car for the long drive back home. We had a really nice trip to La Belle Province, but we were happy to be home again.

Observatoire de la Capitale

Another fun (and indoors!) stop on our trip in Quebec City was the Capitol Observatory. We took an elevator up to the 31st Floor of the Marie-Guyart Building to get a 360* view of the City from 221 meters (725 feet) up. 

We started off in the cozy lounge area:

The St. Lawrence River:

The observatory also had really neat exhibits about the history and culture of Quebec City, the Province, and Canada:

There were 3D television displays, too!

The Citadel:

Chateau Frontenac:

I asked the kids to hold still and sit nicely so I could snap a cute picture of them in the Sixties-inspired decor:

Quebec City

Our first day in Quebec City was sunny and cold - very cold! Still, we bundled the kids up into the stroller and headed out on a tour of the Upper Town and Lower Town.  

We stopped into the Musee de la Civilisation and learned about the history of the Quebec Province. There was also a "hands-on" exhibit about the Earth which the kids really enjoyed, complete with an earthquake demonstration that Sean thought was pretty wild.  After the museum, we ventured back out into the cold and explored the Lower Town's winding streets. We were starting to get super-cold, so we high-tailed it over to the funicular to take us back up to the Upper Town.

Bundled up tight!

Going up up UP in the funicular

Back up at the Upper Town - looking out over the St. Lawrence River:

The Chateau Frontenac - where Churchill and FDR once met to discuss strategy for WWII - is now a very fancy hotel and one of the most prominent buildings in the Quebec skyline.

We took a break from sightseeing for some winter fun - a giant sledding track made of ice!

Sean took a turn with Daddy:

And Sean went down with Mommy, too!

The next day, all four of us went down the sled - Sean loved it but Clare seemed a little uncertain. Boy, the Quebecois really know how to have fun in the winter!