September Canada Vacation

Monday, September 15, 2008
It’s vacationing with the Prestholdt’s once again. Originally, we were headed to New Orleans, LA ending up in Biloxi, Mississippi. However, when word came of Hurricane Ike, we decided last minute that it was time to change plans.
Tickets in hand, suitcases packed, we were ready to hit the airport. Mommy, Daddy and Jayden were enroute to St. Hippolyte, Canada. Even though it was only a 2 hour plane trip that we could’ve driven…
Jayden has another stamp in her passport. Customs was easy for Jayden as she makes people smile where ever she goes. Next, it was off to get our luggage…or so we thought. Everyone’s was accounted for, except for Jayden’s. Apparently, Jayden’s suitcase never made it out of Newark airport. It was detained. Can you imagine any reason why a 3 year old’s suitcase filled with toddler sized clothing, night time story book, toys, pooping medication and Annie (a stuffed kitty), would be detained?! After filling out the paperwork we headed to the rent-a-car location. Instead of just crossing the parking lot we had to take a shuttle 10 minutes off site to the car rental place. As if to add insult to injury…they did not have the car seat that I reserved…infact, they didn’t have one at all. We actually had to wait while the guy went to the store to buy one! Finally, we were off to our final destination. Our resort is located in a small village called St. Hippolyte, Canada. The resort is a quaint log cabin-style resort (Auberge du Lac Morency) with all the modern amenities you could ask for overlooking Lake Morency. Although cell phone reception is spotty, wireless internet access is very fast! It’s a beautiful location in the mountains.
We are still waiting for Jayden’s suitcase to arrive.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Finally, Jayden’s suitcase arrived this morning. We picked it up just before breakfast overlooking the lake.
After breakfast we decided to take a drive to a small town called St. Sauveur located 20 minutes North of our resort. Once in the town we stopped at a bank to exchange money into the local Canadian currency. The exchange rate is 1.0596$ to every US dollar.
The streets where lined by colorful boutiques and shops, including Saint Sauveur Church for which the town in named. On the way back to our resort, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up food. Our unit has a partial kitchen.
So far we’ve noticed some street signs and learning French: Rue=Street, Nord=North, Est=East, Ouest=West, Arret=Stop or Arrest to name a few.
(Jayden has been very hyperactive the past two days.) We had to remember that the unit of measurement is in kilometers and Liters.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
We had breakfast in our room today. We thought it would be interesting to see a bee farm. We took a ride to Intermiel in St-Benoit, Mirabel. Intermiel is a major apicultural farm which manages the production of approximately 3500 bee-hives. During the visit we experienced many aspects of honey production and fermentation, saw an actual live bee hive and even partook in Mead tasting.
Once back at the resort we went swimming for a couple hours.

Thursday, September 18, 2008
Slept in today. Our intention when we left our room was to visit Prevost Railway Station Le P’tit Train du Nord. Created from the amalgamation of former village of Shawbridge (named for William Shaw 1805-1894) who settled in township of Abergromby in 1847 and built the first bridge over Riviere du Nord. Somehow we couldn’t find it perhaps it was the difficulty reading the signs. We found ourselves driving through Saint Jerome and realized we went too far so we turned around. Again, passing through the town of Prevost, into Sainte Adele where we decided to stop and have lunch in a café’ called Vive.
Daddy remembered a Ben & Jerry’s in Saint Sauveur so we made a right into town for some ice cream before heading back to St. Hippolyte. What to our wondering eyes…was the very same Railway Station that we were trying to find earlier! We had completely passed it by! There’s always tomorrow.

Friday, September 19, 2008 (Our Anniversary)
It’s tomorrow…We decided to try to have lunch at the same railway station we tried to find yesterday. We found it; however, they only had muffins since it’s not the high ski season yet. Instead we went to a pizzeria for lunch.
At 4pm there was a Billiards Tournament, however, Erik was the only one that showed up for it! Needless to say, it was cancelled.
To celebrate our 5th Anniversary, we had dinner reservations at the restaurant in the Resort. We had a full 3 course dinner. Afterwards, there was a campfire on the lake front.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
What an exciting trip we took today. Went to A la chocolaterie Marie-Claude in Sainte-Adele just off Route 117 Nord. Under the same roof was a café that we had lunch at (hot ham & cheese on a croissant). Although there weren’t tours running today, we had lots of fun sampling the mouth watering home made chocolates!
Afterwards, we headed back to the resort for some playing on the playground and swimming in the indoor heated pool.

Sunday, September 21, 2008
The day started out very iffy today. We intended to visit Les Fromagiers de la Table Ronde located in Sainte-Sophie. A family owned cheese house operated by generations of the Alary family. However, they were closed when we got there. Next, we headed to Fromagerie Mirabel located in Saint-Jerome. This was another family owned cheddar cheese house. They were open, but don’t conduct tours on the weekends. So...we decided to surprise Jayden with a treat. Route 327 Nord was very scenic through the small towns of Laurentides. You could really see how leaves are changing already. We finally made it to Mont Tremblant Village. Mont Tremblant is a huge ski resort and village. We took a small gondola ride to the other side of the village to a small shop called Univers Toutou. Jayden’s surprise, a build a bear Canadian style!
Just was we rounded the curve back to the resort, we were stopped in the road…how many people does it take to unhitch a trailer from a pickup? Apparently 3 Frenchman and a screaming toddler!

Monday, September 22, 2008
A quiet, relaxing day spent at the resort. (Jayden fell and hurt her hip after countless times of Mommy & Daddy telling her to stop jumping from bed to bed. Maybe now she will listen when we tell her not to do something because she will wind up getting hurt?! Whom ever said, “parents don’t know what they are talking about” must’ve been a child not yet injured!)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A wonderful tour of Quebec City was on the agenda for today. Yvon was our tour guide and driver for the day. Everyone gathered at the Activity Center and climbed into the vans. There were 22 of us including the tour guides. It was a 4 hour ride to Quebec City so we stopped half way for breakfast.
Our first stop was to Parc des Champs-de-Bataille, the battlefield of the French and English on St. Lawrence River. There was monument of Albert H. Grey. We passed parlement building and drove thru Le Citadelle; a stone fortress built after the first battle with the English. Next we had a tour of The Basilique-Cathedrale Notre-Dame. Our next tour was in Chateau Frontenac; a 5 star hotel that was the meeting place for Churchill, Roosevelt and Thatcher. The actual room was called the Rose Room for its rose color interior and vast scenic view of The Saint Lawrence River. Our guide for this tour was ‘Beatrice’ dressed in late 1900 dress. Jayden was very fond of her.
Finally, we walked through the quaint streets of Old Quebec City with it’s shops and café’s and Notre Dame des Victoires. This was the first stone church built in the city.
We finally returned back to resort at 11:30pm. It was a very long day for Jayden.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
A quite, relaxing day spent at the resort. Today was a warm and clear day that we chose to stay around the resort taking Jayden to the playground and swimming in the indoor pool.

Thursday, September 25, 2008
This morning I received notice that my father passed away peacefully in his sleep at 4:30am. With the help of my sister, Chrisann, funeral arrangements where executed. My brother, Chip, sent word to dad’s sisters via the Drennen’s.
Today was also the day our Montreal tour. We visited Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal, had a boat tour on Le Bateau Mouche au Vieux-Port of Montreal’s islands, Old Montreal, The Biodome and L’Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal. It was a nice day.
Yvon was our tour guide and driver for this day as well.

Friday, September 26, 2008
A quite, relaxing day spent at the resort. A bit on the chillier side however. It’s amazing who much the leaves on the tree have changed in just over 1.5 weeks. Beautiful landscape of reds, yellows and oranges!

Saturday, September 27, 2008
Time to travel back home. We returned the car and aimed for the airport. It’s raining for the first time in 2 weeks.