Displaced Beachbums

All Favorite Man wanted for Father’s Day was a trip to Quebec City. Favorite Girl and I were dragging our feet because the thought of a 7 hour drive for a 2 night stay exhausted us just thinking about it.  As the weekend got closer and we reviewed the calendar, we realized just how few weekends we have left to travel with FM before his deployment. We decided he deserved a fun getaway weekend.

FM had Friday off so FG and I took half days off of work and school. It’s an easy 6.5 hour drive to Quebec City with the only hiccup being Montreal’s hideous traffic. Unfortunately, we drove through Montreal during rush hour. We didn’t get to our hotel, the beautiful Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac in Old Town, until 9 pm but that didn’t stop us from taking time to take a quick walk about and have a bite to eat.  It was a great way to start off the visit.

Our hotel was truly a delight and I was especially thrilled I found such a good deal through Travelocity. Hopefully I’ll get a similar deal next time we visit because I can’t imagine staying any where else.  Definitely spoiled us.

Happy Father’s Day to Favorite Man and it’s safe to say, FG and I are very glad we made the trip. Much more on Quebec City in the coming days. For now, I’ve got to do laundry and get ready for another week at work…

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Even though it’s only 17 degrees this morning, I feel spring is in the air. We’ve actually had very mild weather this month. Favorite Man was away for three and a half weeks and it didn’t snow once so I can’t complain.

Since spring is here, I’m looking forward to spring break which is coming up soon. I actually had a trip planned but the timing isn’t working out and now I’ve waited too long and the price of the flights have gone up.  Now I’m waiting for those “last minute” deals to start popping up. I took a quick look at hotel rates in the Caribbean but it’s still high season ~ way too expensive for us.

I then looked at heading up to Quebec City which is where FM has wanted to go since we moved here. Don’t think I can bring myself to head further north when it’s still not warm enough here. 

Is any one else going on a spring break trip?

HAPPY SPRING!!

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Teaser Tuesdays asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

This is from page 197 of The School of Essential Ingredientsby Erica Bauermeister:

So when she finally did see the man who had once been her lover —- at her son’s high school graduation, her daughter laughing and pointing at her brother who was crossing the podium with just the slightest hop to  his step — it was with the kind of longing we experience for something we never really intended to have in the first place. An older sister’s boyfriend.

The story is about a cooking class which meets every Monday.  I’m only half way through the book so far but I’m enjoying it a lot. It’s well written and it follows the lives of Lillian, the teacher and the eight students in the cooking class. They’ve come to learn to cook but learn so much more. The food and cooking descriptions are superb and just a bit mouthwatering and you feel like you’re right there.

Thanks to Lisa at Books on the Brain for sending me this warm and comforting book.

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We enjoyed our 2nd trip to Ottawa even more than the first time. They really know how to make the most of the snow and cold. We recommend a visit there any time of year.  Favorite Girl is not known for wearing the appropriate warm clothing necessary to stay warm and her gloves weren’t warm enough for the bitter cold so I had her to wear my “huge” but, oh so warm, ski gloves.  It was so cold there, I got no argument from her.

Here are a few photos to wrap-up the visit:

Ice Sculpture in no fear of melting…

Favorite Girl skating on the Frozen Rideau Canal

She went about 2 kilometers on the ice…

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We decided to drive from Ottawa to Mont Tremblant for a day of skiing…or in my case, a day of enjoying the resort town. I’m a “snow-weather skier” which means I only ski when there is powder, preferable fresh powder. I was nineteen when I first attempted to ski and, for years after that, I only skied in Jackson, Wyoming where there is nothing but powder, talk about spoiled! Unfortunately, Mont Tremblant hasn’t had new snow for awhile so it was only Favorite Girl and Man who took to the slopes. They’ll ski in ANY type of weather or temperatures.

As for Tremblant, it’s BEAUTIFUL. The town itself is nestled at the bottom of the mountain with plenty of hotels, shops, restaurants and bars. Of course, there were lots of beautiful people to look at while I waited for FM and FG. Ski resorts are always filled with good looking people and, being in French-speaking Quebec, it seemed like we were back at a Europen ski town.  We’d been warned that not many people spoke English in Tremblant and I started having flashbacks of my attempts to communicate while we visited France. Me speaking French is not a pretty sight. My “Bonjour” must be OK though because I said it upon entering a shop and then the shopkeeper would ask “Parlez-vous francais o anglais?” And thankfully their English was leap years ahead of my french speaking abilities. I did give the “Merci” a try as I left each shop which brought a smile to their faces. They were probably thinking “thank goodness she didn’t torture us with any more lousy french.”  FM said “Bonjour” when we went for lunch and the host immediately launched in English which didn’t make FM happy since he took French in high school.

As for the skiers, it was a great day to spend on the slopes. Sun shined all day and, although it was a little cold (18 degrees), it was worth it. There were more than a few icy spots so it was just as well I go.  Mini-holidays such as this makes it easier to tolerate the cold, snowy winters or, in other words, we’re trying to “Embrace the Cold.”

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We’re back in Ottawa for the weekend. We visited last May when Favorite Man ran the Ottawa Marathon. It’s a fun city with lots to do and plenty of restaurants. Even though we had plenty to choose from, we drove right to the center of town and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe which is one of FG’s favorite. Tonight we’ll try something new.

We’re staying at the new, hip and pet-friendly Hotel Indigo. Even though we didn’t bring our pets, it’s a great place to stay.  FG now wants a wall paper mural like the one in our room (it’s a blue sweater):

The hotel prints a Haiku on a lot of their paper items (coasters, notepads, in-room menu) such as this one in both French & English:
FROST WHITE WINTER MORN    UN MATIN D’HIVER
A MOMENT FROZEN IN TIME   TEMPS GELE POUR UN MOMENT
LIKE ICE IN YOUR GLASS        COMME LA GLACE PARFAITE

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