Audrey at the Aquarium

Our tradition is to bring the Grandkids out for an adventure rather than buy them a gift for their birthdays.  Grandchild #4   (aka the Beautiful Audrey Elisabeth) was celebrating Birthday #4, and Memere decided to take her to the Boston Aquarium!     

Audrey is happy to be finally here!

Audrey is a very quiet and thoughtful child.  She stood in front of each display and watched all the activity.  When she was ready, we moved on to the next thing.

We went outside to see the Sea Lions.  They were very frisky and playful, so Audrey watched them for a long time.

We went to the cafeteria for lunch and of course, Memere let her get whatever she wanted.   Mac and Cheese and Chocolate Milk!

And a great big M and M Cookie!

After that, we went downstairs to see the Manta Rays.   She hadn't been willing to put her hand in the water earlier in the day to touch the starfish or Sea Anenomes.   But she did reach in and pat the Manta Rays!

Pepere got a turn to try it too.   After seeing the Manta Rays, we went downstairs to see the sharks.  Surprisingly, the baby sharks were her favorite!  So much so that when we went to the Gift Shop for a special treat, she chose a stuffed shark!

On the way home, Pepere insisted we stop for ice cream.  Audrey chose "pink" ice cream in a cup, and Memere had Totally Turtle in a cone.   I offered Audrey a bit of my cone, and next thing you know, she was eating my cone!

A little ice cream on the nose is always funny!

As usual, Memere and Pepere enjoyed the adventure just as much as Audrey did!

Aquarium du Quebec

Our last stop on our trip to Quebec City was at the Aquarium du Quebec.  It's just south of the city, so we stopped on our way home.

They had a couple of different buildings, plus a huge outdoor area for some of the animals.  Plus a couple of cool sand castles!

The first building we went into had lots of beautiful jellies!

And some cute seahorses.

A tank where you could pat Manta Rays......although, as usual, they like to swim juuuuuuuuust out of reach!

Outside was a very active Polar Bear.  He loved his big plastic trash can, and cavorted around in the water playing with it.

They had a huge group of walruses.  There were two females and two babies in one tank, and a male in a separate tank.  They were very active as well, and put on quite a display of swimming and diving.  (the markings you see on their arms are just the way the sunlight came through the canopy!)

Mom and baby go for a swim together.

For some reason, they had an arctic fox.  Not really an animal you usually see in an aquarium.   This little fox is waiting for his food.

We were just in time to see the sea lion show.  Kind of funny to listen to the whole thing in French! Although the tricks the sea lions did were all the same!

Inside the second building they had a small tunnel you could walk through so the fish were swimming all around you.

It was a very nice little Aquarium and very well kept.  It was a fitting finale to our trip to Quebec!

Quebec City Food Tour

One of the fun things we did on our trip to Quebec City was to go on a walking Food Tour.

Our tour guide was Antoine - who was very funny.   He walked us around for almost three hours, and we stopped at seven different places.

First stop was "La Buche" which turned out to be our favorite place.  We ended out going back there that night for dinner.  I had a sample of their smoked salmon, and it was so delicious I got a smoked salmon salad for dinner that night.  Besides being covered with the smoked salmon, there was a poached egg and two slices of Canadian Maple Bacon on top!  Yum!!  

We were surprised to see the proprietor lining up shot glasses.  Turned out we also got liquor at almost every stop!  

 La Buche served us "Caribou" which is.......a sweet Quebecois alcoholic beverage composed of red wine, whiskey and maple syrup.

Hubby liked it so much he tried to find it in the US and could not.   Our "tasting" for this restaurant was a small piece of smoked salmon.

Our next stop was Tournebroche, which is the French word for "spit"...as in the spit the meat is turned on.  They figured Tournebroche was a nicer name for a restaurant than Spit!  We were served a some wine, and a crustini with Wild Boar Pate.   (tastes like pork)

Next was the Maple Store...with everything maple!  Candy, syrup, teas, coffees, etc.  They gave a short talk on the way Maple Syrup is produced, and gave us a taste of three or four different grades of syrup, as well as some Maple Ice Tea.

Our next stop was the "Snack Bar".   We had passed this on our record store search, and didn't realize they had an area out back with picnic tables.  Here we had some delicious Poutine!

Hubby thought they should have served us some beer with the Poutine, but he loved it!

Le Moine Enchanson was our next stop.  The story goes that the owner wanted to open a bar, but there were no liquor licenses available.  But he told if he opened a restaurant, he could serve liquor.  So his claim to fame is that, instead of pairing wine with the food, he pairs food with the wines.   (Same difference to me, but I am not a wine connoisseur.)   We  had a nice glass of wine and some Cod Fritters.  (which are tastier than they sound!) 

"Le Billig" was our final restaurant stop.   They served us another lovely wine with a delicious crepe.

And our Grand Finale was a stop at the Chocolate Shop!

We had a really wonderful time.....and still managed to find room to eat dinner that night!

Montmorency Falls and Sainte Anne de Beaupre

We started out our day at a nice little sidewalk cafe that served an amazing breakfast!  (I can't remember the name of it!)  Such a pleasure to eat outside in the beautiful morning sunshine.

And naturally, Hubby researched the addresses for a couple of used record stores.  He picked up a couple things at Musique Chez Sonny.

Then we hopped in the car to go visit Montmorency Falls just north of Quebec City.

Somehow, we figured out how to drive to the top, where you can access the falls.

If we'd parked at the bottom, we could have walked up these stairs.  We decided it would be more fun to walk down the stairs and then take the gondola back up.

The view from partway up.  There is a suspension bridge that goes across the falls at the top.

It's a long way down.  They claim that these falls are higher than the US Niagara Falls.

On the suspension bridge.  Not scary at all!

And a beautiful view

When you get to the top, you walk around the other side on a nice path to get to the stairs leading down.

At the bottom, we got close enough to be sprayed by the falls.

At this point, the dark clouds had moved in, and we were getting wet with rain as well as mist from the falls!

Thank goodness for the gondola ride back to the top!

After that, we drove a little further north to the Shrine to Sainte Anne de Beaupre.   When I told my Dad we were going to Quebec City, this is the first place he insisted we should go see.

The famous display of crutches, from people who were supposedly cured at the shrine.

On the return, we couldn't seem to get on the right road back to our hotel.....despite getting back on the highway and trying it a second time!

It's right there!!  But how do we get there from here??

We capped off our evening with another fine meal in Old Quebec City.  It was fun to try different restaurants.   This time, we went with an Irish pub-type place and sat inside because of the unsettled weather.  Not as much fun, and not as tasty, as the previous night.......but guess where we went for dessert?