Quebec 1

Bonjour from Quebec city! We arrived not long ago and found our B&B without any problems. We ended up with a room in a small place within the walls of Old Quebec. It's GORGEOUS. Total fluke how we ended up here--we thought we had a room in one place, but turns out they could only accomodate us the first couple of nights. I frantically emailed a dozen other places (mind you, this is all taking place last week, just a few days before we left). Every place I emailed came back with the same response: no room at the inn. We thought we were screwed until this place wrote and said they could house us the entire 4 nights, and for a reasonable price. I wasn't sure about it, but on the map, it looked like it was in a nice place. Well, NICE doesn't begin to describe it. It's not the Ritz, but for a B&B, it's pretty amazing! We're on the 3rd floor in a nice, spacious room with a private bath and a balcony. The balcony alone is worth it!! The view is incredible and we couldn't be happier. Not sure how we got so lucky as to find this place, but thankfully, I could take care of it all in French.

Going back to yesterday, we had a great last day in Montreal. We had breakfast at a cool little restaurant a few blocks from the hotel (we ate there again this morning before leaving town). We then drove to the botanical gardens in Montreal. They were nice--pretty much what you'd expect from a botanical garden. I got a bunch of neat pictures. Inside the area was the Insectarium. I don't really care about insects, but I walked in to the building hoping for A/C (there was none). It was still kind of cool to see. After a few hours in the whole garden area, we left and stopped at a grocery store for food for the night. We got back to the hotel and decided to go up to the rooftop pool. The weather hadn't really been too great the whole time we were there, and yesterday seemed sunny and much warmer. We got up there, found some chaise lounges, and stretched out in the sun. Unfortunately, a gaggle of giggling teenagers were in the pool and really ruined the whole atmosphere. I got into the water once (feeling warm from the sun), but after laying back down, I couldn't get warm again. There was such a breeze that I froze my patootie off! So we headed back down to the room where we spent the evening watching TV and playing Yahtzee. This is our favorite pasttime on vacation--all we need are dice and a pen so I can draw up the score sheets on whatever paper I can find. ☺ Really fun! We have tournaments and for the most part, we're even as far as number of wins. Do we think they make Yahtzee for the Wii? That might prompt us to buy one!

We left this morning and drove to Quebec city. Paul's napping right now (it's about 2pm QC time) and eventually, we'll head out to see the sights around our hotel. We had to pay for the B&B in cash, so we're almost out of that, but thankfully most places take credit cards. We'll be here until Sunday, then head out early to Niagara Falls. I'm not desperate to see the falls, but Paul really wants to, so we'll go. We'll end up staying somewhere that night (we're not sure yet where), then head back to St. Charles on Monday (probably arriving late).

More later!!