It's Paris -- no wait it's Quebec

Our tour started out unfortunately early this morning -- tomorrow is even earlier -- blech -- and we had our "Grand Tour of Quebec". We had to walk down a ramp that was 45 degrees. This morning the temperature is 60 degrees for a high and winds of 30 MPH. But we have one day so we have to go. First of all we went to Place Royale which is old town Quebec. Man oh man did that city look French -- and it didn't hurt that all the signs were in French. While the guide (who was excellent by the way) told us the history I had seen a woman unfurling a scarf which would be PERFECT for my traveling hat.

We saw houses which have all the stairs on the outside. She said these were mother in law stairs because when it was winter and the stairs froze over the mother in law could not get down to the main house. Ha ha ha. :-) We saw the Notre Dame des Victoires which is an old church that they used in the movie Catch Me If You Can. Before I forget the fall colors here are SPECTACULAR. Bright orange and bright yellow with smatterings of bright red. Just jaw dropping.

Next we went to the Plains of Abraham. This is a lovely park where they have outdoor concerts in the summer and some history which I already forgot. Oh one thing I do remember is that Quebec means narrowing of the river which made Quebec the city it is today because it was such a marvelous strategic location. However, after the war narrative was over it is strategic unless you are British in which can you can just walk in and take over the place.

Then we went to Chateau Frontenac which is the hotel which was built by the Canadian Transcontinental Railway to entice people to take the train to Quebec. It is a city icon and if you have seen pictures of Quebec you have seen Chateau Frontenac -- it is the hotel that has all the copper on the top of the building. We had 30 minutes so I zoomed over to the souvenier shops and could not find that scarf anywhere. I was just despairing when Tom and I got to a lovely church and he started taking pictures and I said I'll just run over to that souvenier shop across the street and lo and behold they had the scarf! I'm sure the saleswoman thought I was crazy when I took the scarf off the hanger and stretched it around my head. But she sold it to me anyway. It is a lovely dark rich chocolate brown with metallic orange and yellow maple leaves -- could that be more appropriate for a trip to see the Fall colors? And it goes so super nicely with the hat. All it needs is Jennie's help to make a super cool bow. So now I'm all happy.

We go back to the bus and start off to see Ste. Anne de Beaupre Basilica. This is a truly lovely church. And best of all they let you take pictures. Tom took a picture of Mary and Joseph outside and she is really one of the most beautiful Marys I have ever seen. Young and beautiful and baby Jesus is a darling baby. Hopefully the pictures turn out. Inside you go around and they have little alcoves for various saints and important people in the history of the Basilica and Catholicism. Although the church seems to be rather non-denominational. Then we go downstairs to the I'm going to call it the crypt because that was not what she called it. It was like we had gone under the sea. And wouldn't you know we find an amazing replica of the Pieta downstairs in this area. Seems that when they took the original Pieta to New York they made a replica to keep in case something happened to the statue and wouldn't you know it they gave it to St. Anne's. (I did not know this but St. Anne was Mary's mother -- so Jesus's grandmother.) After this we went to lunch at Le Moulin de Saint-Laurent. We had delicious tomato soup and then Tom had the chicken breast and I had the poached salmon. Then they had a mango cake, raspberry cream and vanilla sponge cake with raspberry coulis.

Then we went to Montmorency Falls which is about 30 meters -- Dustin you do the math -- higher than Niagra Falls -- just not as wide. For this time of year it was still pretty impressive. Final observations: Quebec is a beautiful city -- very like Paris -- the scenery is beautiful. But the fall colors are the star. We are going to the Captain's reception now -- and then dinner -- and then probably bed. I'm exhausted from all the walking and on and off the bus. And Tom and I were up for about 2 hours last night -- not sure why. Tomorrow -- Saguenay

Au reservoir Montreal bonjour Quebe

Man today was tough. We woke up after a lovely 10 hour sleep in a beautiful elegant hotel. We went in to the XO Restaurant for breakfast. Because we had the gastronomique package everything was included and I had the eggs benedict with smoked salmon. Tom had the lox and bagels. The food was good – the service not so much.

We went back up to the room and waited for noon to go to the cruise ship. Unfortunately we arrived after a huge bus full of cruisers arrived and our wait to go through Canadian and Regency security was huge. So we get on the ship and we wait and wait to check in at registration. Come to find out that if we had waited until 1 PM and then come over to check in it would have been a total walk on. Well nothing to be done about it now. We love Regency but there are a lot of really super snooty people. Before we set sail they have a life boat drill. Everyone has to bring their life jackets to the theater. I mentioned to one couple that we had done the Mediterranean with the Disney cruise line and she said oh well you’ll find Regency is much different (with a visible sneer). Unfortunately her husband managed to turn on his emergency light and could not figure out how to turn it off until Tom helped him out. So they had the sail away. No dancing, no show.

We had dinner tonight at Prime 7 which is their reservation only restaurant. I had so much crab I could not finish it but Tom had the bone in ribeye and he was able to finish up the crab. Once we got the air conditioning to work in the suite it was very pleasant but I do not know what it is about these super cold countries with their rooms that are completely hot. I told Tom given that most of the people on this cruise appear to be 70 so we may have no competition for the upper decks because of the cold. Well tomorrow is Quebec. We have to be up and ready for the tour at 8:30 which means we have to be showered and fed by then. So an early morning. And even though it is only 5:50 PM PST we are exhausted and are going to bed. Bon soir!

Bienvenue Montreal

This morning began at an unearthly hour of 3:15 AM. We had to be at the airport in order to catch our 6:20 AM flight and Brett (bless his heart) drove us there. Our big scare of the day came when I turned on my phone in the morning and it said that our flight was departing at 7:48 AM which would have made us miss our connection to Montreal. So we worried about that all the way to the airport.
We made our flight and eventually got to Minneapolis/St. Paul. We got off the plane in Concourse F and our connecting flight to Montreal was in Concourse C. I think it was 5 miles from Concourse F to Concourse C so we trudged along until we got to the gate for our flight. We were afraid our flight would not take off as there was lightening and rain and when that happened to us in New York we almost got a cancelled flight.
But we arrived here and went into Immigration and there were literally thousands of people in line for customs. We wove around and around like you do at Disneyland only there was no super fun ride at the end. So by the time we arrived at the immigration desk I was hot and sweaty and super grumpy.
We passed by such foreign sounding companies as Kraft, Armstrong, Kia, Howard Johnson, Hyatt, all extremely foreign sounding names.
After an hour we made it through customs and got a car to our hotel. We are staying at the Hotel Le St. James which is a converted bank building. This hotel is absolutely stunning. We are on the fifth floor and were upgraded to a junior suite and they told us that the fifth floor was the only one that was not completely renovated so we are actually staying in what was once an office in the bank. The room is gorgeous, the service has been impeccable but after all the traveling we were tired and reluctant to go to our dinner which was included as part of the gastronomic package we bought from this hotel.
Our dinner was one of the most fun meals we have ever had. The restaurant is in the business room of what was the bank. The moldings on the ceiling are absolutely amazing. We will try and take a picture tomorrow when it is not such romantic lighting. We had princess scallops with green tea emulsion, pineapple foam and juniper berries. The second course was olive oil poached salmon with enoki mushrooms and napa cabbage with crispy chicken skin and curry powder. The third course was beets with radicchio and red wine foam and figs with puffed rice. Our fourth course was foie gras with arugula puree, poached pears, brioche, pinenuts and rosemary. The fifth course was slow cooked beef with ansazi beans and carrots with tamarind rind. Then we had an extraordinary cheese place with five kinds of cheese. Our super nice server told us that out of the 100 best ranked cheeses in the world that Quebec has 25 of them. That’s high praise and it was well deserved because the cheese was absolutely magnificent. Then we had a pre-dessert of yuzu sorbet – I don’t know what that is but it was delicious – and it was in a raspberry sauce. Dessert was a red pepper ice cream (yes, it tasted just like red peppers) and hazelnut crumbs, hazelnut cake with celery puree and celery foam with chocolate and banana pudding. It was super super yummy. Lastly they served us truffles which were absolutely out of this world. I’m so full now I don’t know if I can sleep. Well, yes, I am sure I can.
Tomorrow – on to the cruise ship.

Month of Fun!!

OMG! I'm posting!!!! A miracle! And it's kinda long, but bear with me.

I have had a wonderful month! It started the last weekend of July, technically, but we'll just move past that. It started with going to visit family in Arizona. The reasons were this awesome guy just returned from his mission to Jamaica and this wonderful lady got a year older! (And yes, I totally stole pics from their facebook pages cuz I didn't have any pics from the trip)



We had lots of fun talking, swimming, pelting people with nerf darts, eating mini bundt cakes, and all that jazz. Also, it was nice to surprise them with how much weight my mom and I had lost since we last saw them. Seeing as I had been dieting up til we left, I wasn't used to eating the way I was and spent most of the trip kinda nauseated, but it was well worth it.

The next weekend (Thursday - Sunday), I drove up to see my bro and his family in St. George. It was great to see them - it is definitely worth the drive. It was both relaxing and tiring. On Friday, Chiemi and I got pedicures (in which I chose a color that matches my car, incidentally - makes me happy) and then later that night the whole family got in front of the TV and exercised! It was a hard workout but very fun and cute to watch the kids come do it with us.

The next day Kyla, Dustin and I went swimming for a couple hours. That night I was introduced the the exciting and very hard world that is rock climbing. It was a fun experience and I'm glad I had the chance. The girls were amazing, zipping up and down the walls. Needless to say, though, I went home the next day sore from head to toe. Ouch. I was sad to leave, but life moves on, unfortunately.

Next up is a cute picture for you of Gwen when I babysat at some point in the next 2 weeks and cutie Cami just for kicks:



The last weekend (again Thurs- Sun), my parents and Brett and his family got to go spend down in a cottage on the beach at Crystal Cove!!! It was SO beautiful and relaxing and fun. OR as my mom called it - freakin' awesome!! I drove up with Kellie and the girls and this is the view I had on the way:



We didn't really do anything in particular, just relaxed and ate yummy food and enjoyed good company. Going to sleep with the waves whooshing away was a nice experience.

Unfortunately, the week after arriving home from that joy, school started. Bleh. On the plus side, though, this is my last semester! I am overjoyed about that. I'm on a countdown now - only 14 weeks left of school now!


The weekend after that, Dustin and Chiemi came out to visit for mom's birthday. They had an unfortunate time getting here but it was great to see them again so soon.

And this past weekend ends my wonderful summer adventures with my mom and I doing....8 hour NINJA TRAINING!!! She found out about it through living social - they apparently put on "adventures" and this is the one they are doing at the moment.

We started out or training learning some self defense for 2 hours, which was fun and very interesting/informative. I know how to overpower someone now and I can stop someone if they take a punch at me. My collarbone area is a bit tender from the training but not too bad thankfully. And my elbow is a bit sore from doing elbow strikes.

Next we had a sushi lunch, which was pretty good. After lunch we moved on to 2 hours of parkour. Man, is that stuff cool! But man am I sore ALL OVER!! My thighs are killing me - it hurts to sit, to stand, to move. I did manage to not do too terribly bad at it for my first time. This guy is awesome at parkour (Dustin showed him to me) - I only managed to look vaguely like that (I suggest watching the 2010 one too). :P



We had to jump over these tables that were about waist height. I sucked at the ones where I had to jump straight at them but I was pretty good at the one's where I jumped sideways. Here's proof I sucked at jumping forward (my other shin has a light bruise too):



And the last 2 hours or so, we learned escapology. We learned that tying someone up in rope is very difficult and it's very easy to get out of - takes like 10 times longer to tie them up than for them to get out. We also learned how to pick handcuff locks with bobby pins - both attached in front to us and behind our backs. This is pretty difficult for me to do, but it is manageable.

So that was my exciting month. Now it's time to get down to work. Ah well. :\

Sad but true . . .

Our Perfect Pool

The pool turned out even better than we hoped. Here is the detail of the stairs.

Here is a picture of the color of the pool.

Here's an overall picture including the new patio area.

Tom took Arwen and Kyla out via Skype and they gave the new pool two very enthusiastic thumbs up. In fact if they had access to the car keys they would have been on their way here now.

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

Last night we got home to this. This is Tom's bathroom (aka master bathroom).

This used to be our washer and dryer.

This is the brown bathroom.

This is the view from the entryway (somehow I managed to block out the washer, the refrigerator, and the microwave stand).

In fact, we can't even sit down. Man I hope that they are finished today.