It's my girl's birthday today...

I can't believe she's eight years old. I woke up to see her dressed in her soirée gown, all beautiful.

Well, all I can say is that we had a real fun day today. We could say it really began around 1:30pm when we drove to Cinema Guzzo to watch the movie "Paranorman". We were a tad bit early so the kids got to play in the games. I can't tell you how much fun they had.

Next we went to watch the movie. Paranorman was really good..

In the small New England town of Blithe Hollow, a boy named Norman Babcock is able to speak with the dead including his late grandmother and various ghosts in town. Unfortunately, almost no one among the living believes his ability is genuine and he is ostracized by his family while being ridiculed and bullied by most of his peers for his seemingly strange habit of casually conversing with supposed ghosts.

After the movie we drove to get the next surprise of the day... Max! From the bus stop we went to Tamales to get food for the adults, and McDonalds for the kids. We had a great supper, and a fantastic birthday cake.

Sabrina got the present we've been hiding from her for a few months. A nice 32Gb iPod Touch.

She was quite happy (and poor Mathieu became really upset "I'm the only one without a phone"). It's a really cool device, even without the phone part. Sabrina was able to take the following pictures with her new computer:

I brought Max back to his place afterwards. It was a very pleasant trip.

Search Results: August 17 , 2012Montreal Downtown

Max Temp: 24.7 °C

Min Temp: 18.2 °C

Mean Temp: 21.4 °C

Precip Accumulation: 0 mm 

And then there was a pet...

Okay, not a pet yet, but yesterday we got an aquarium and today we completed the installation. We are now waiting for the water to warm up to add "a couple of hardy fish" to prep the tank for the next 7-14 days. I think we'll call these toughies Arnold and Silvester.

Now all I need is a miniature wooden galley replica and a bonzai tree to reach my full zen state....

Such a pretty day. Chardonnay Calera Mt. Harlan California 2010

We spent a lot of time in the pool, and it felt good. It's so good to be home. And to have some good wine, finally. Here's a 4*

Chardonnay Calera Mt. Harlan Californie 2010 Code SAQ : 11089944 CUP : 00745067 991440 Catégorie : Vin blanc Couleur : Blanc Nature : Vin tranquille Format : 750 ml

Prix : 34,25 $ Disponibilité SUCCURSALES

Fiche descriptive

Pays :
Etats-Unis
Région :
Californie
Sous région :
San Benito
Cépage :
Chardonnay
Fournisseur :
Calera Wine Co.
Pourcentage d'alcool :
13.9 %

On the road again

Nothing much to report. It was a long drive from Gaspé, slowed by construction, thousands of cyclists and a few very slow cars. We got back to a very clean home.

We ate lunch at the Bic

Second Day in Gaspé

Today was a slow day. We had probably the best restaurant experience for breakfast.

This is a really great place to have breakfast. Highly recommended. The rest of the day was spent doing practically nothing. While Suzanne and her mom were packing for tomorrow's trip, I took the kids to Pasbebiac to the play parc.

To the Beach; ISS

The one thing we do a lot when we go to Gaspé is to go to the Bonaventure beach. We stop at the lighthouse, climb it if we can, then go frolic in the water and look for starfish on Starfish Island.

The lighthouse

On top of the lighthouse. Behind is Bonaventure Beach

Before playing in the water

I'm the one with the arms in the air, with Sabrina and Mathieu, on Starfish Island

The most amazing thing happened that night. Suzanne's mom was away for the evening. The kids were sleeping. Suzanne and I decided on a whim to go on the balcony to look at an amazingly beautiful starry night. In Montreal we can only see a few stars. In Gaspé the sky is full.

That's when we saw a bright star (or planet, it didn't twinkle) move steadily across the sky. We realized it might have been the International Space Station (ISS) so I looked on the NASA website to see where it was right now. Lo and behold it was the ISS that passed right on top of us. Such an amazing site...

Driving to Gaspé; The day I almost lost a finger

Even if we left from Quebec city, it felt longer to get to Suzanne's mom then it usually does when we leave from Montreal.

On the Quebec bridge, on our way to Gaspé

But we got there, eventually. It was supper time when we made it.

By the way, don't keep you hand out the window when Suzanne is driving. She may close it by mistake and almost take your finger off.

update (2012/08/31) "It still hurts today"

Chutes Montmorency; Ile d'Orlean

We woke up today and had breakfast at Tutti Frutti. It was ok, but we did have a few issues with respect to peanut allergies.

Our goal this morning was to visit the Montmorency Falls. I remember seeing them when I was a kid but I didn't remember how spectacular they were. He're a blurb from wikipedia.

The Montmorency Falls (French: Chute Montmorency) are a large waterfall on the Montmorency River in Quebec, Canada.[1] The falls are located on the boundary between the borough of Beauport, Quebec City, and Boischatel, about 12 km from the heart of old Quebec City. The area surrounding the falls is protected within the Montmorency Falls Park (French: Parc de la Chute-Montmorency).
The falls, at 84 meters (275 ft) high, (and 150 feet wide) are the highest in the province of Quebec and 30 m (98 ft) higher than Niagara Falls. The basin at the foot of the falls is 17 m (56 ft) deep. The falls are at the mouth of the Montmorency River where it drops over the cliff shore into the Saint Lawrence River, opposite the western end of the Île d'Orleans. The falls were given this name in 1613 by Samuel de Champlain. He named them in honour of Henri II, duc de Montmorency, who served as viceroy of New France from 1620 until 1625.

Words cannot describe how beautiful it was. Even pictures cannot show how steep the walks were. Real cool. No problems with the kids or Suzanne either.

Almost at the top. The picture that made me realize that 187lbs is too much!

View of the Seaway

Top of the falls, from the suspended bridge

We've crossed the suspended bridge

Going down the steps

It's hard to appreciate how high and steep this is.

We stopped at some the halts to take a few breaks between our trek down.

After a wet stop at the bottom of the falls, we went back up to our car in an aerial tram.

From the waterfalls we had some Subway. It was the best meal we've had since the trip began.

Then it was time to drive to l'Ile d'Orlean. Thank you iPhone and Maps for getting us there easily. We drove around the island, visited the tower at the Eastern point, and stopped at two wineries.

Sabrina and I

It was less scary to be 300 feet up at the Falls then it was 50 feet on that tower.

It's a beautiful place to see. We bought some strawberries and some wine.

When we came back to Quebec we ate at St-Hubert. Then it was time to go to sleep.

Monarch Butterflies; Quebec City; Rotating Restaurant

We left early this morning for Quebec city, following the 132 to Three Rivers. Not far from Sorel we encountered thousands of Monarch butterflies, hitting at least 20-30 with the truck. They were literally everywhere. It was really cool and sad at the same time.

Once we got to Quebec city, it didn't take long for us to go walking. The older part of the city is five minutes away from our hotel.

Yes, a real canon

Entering the old part

You can see the funiculaire in the background. We took it, of course.

We also went to visit an archeological dig. Really cool. After a long walk we took a break...

A bit tired after all this walking

Then it was time for ice cream. We were able to find a place that had peanut-free ice cream, to Sabrina's great pleasure.

She doesn't get to enjoy soft ice cream very often

We decided to have supper at the Astral. For one thing, the reviews on yelp and opentable were pretty good. Foremost though it's a rotating restaurant on top of our hotel, with the view continually changing. We even had to take a glass elevator to get there.

In the glass elevator. Suzanne had "concerns"

One rotation every 90 minutes

We got to see the whole city

The food was definitely not good. The place would gain to go visit real restaurants in Montreal. Nevertheless we had a great time. Plus it's kinda fun to have supper in the hotel sometimes.

It's like my lips don't exists...

My poor girl just went to the dentist to get two huge baby teeth that just didn't want to fall, stopping the adult teeth to come out. We have a great doctor (dr. Mechanic) and it went real well. Still it's a bit hard to see your kid being worked on in any medical sense.

She did it like a pro. It's hard to believe that someone who's afraid of the kiddy roller-coaster at La Ronde can be so courageous when it comes to events like this.

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• T. ressentie : 33
• Vents : SO 19 km/h
• Rafales : 30 km/h
• Lever du soleil : 5:38
• Coucher du soleil : 20:21

• Humidité relative : 54%
• Pression : 100.88 kPa 
• Visibilité : 14 km
• Plafond : illimité