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Sunday, August 24, 2014

Canada Highlights Part Two

Or in other words, whales, local eats and relaxation.

One of the things that was on my list of must-do's for this trip was whale watching. We had been doing research on Quebec for nearly two months before we went, and all the guidebooks said that the St. Lawrence river is one of the best places for seeing whales. Our trouble in figuring out how to fit this into our trip was that we didn't have a car, and the whale watching place was nearly 300 miles from Quebec city in a place called Tadoussac. Well, when we found the tour that would take us to Montmorency falls and st. Anne de Beaupre cathedral, I saw that they also did a whale watching trip. We were in the Provo library at the time, and I nearly dropped my guidebook out of excitement. I did get some nasty looks because I was a little more vocally enthused than is appropriate at a library, but I didn't even care. We were going to get to go whale watching! 


On the bus. It only took 4 hours...


The tide was out when we got there. 


On the whale cruise ship. We actually paid for and were planning on taking the Zodiac cruise, which would have been a little speed boat close to the water, but because I was pregnant, the tour guide wouldn't let us go. Too much choppy water he said. 


Us and 700 others on the ship. It was still pretty awesome. And it got cold fast! 


Looking back at the coast, there was a big storm rolling in, turns out it was better to be on the ship--we stayed a little dryer. 


I have to brag. I was the first one to spot the whale spout. That puffy cloud between the heads is a humpback whale spout. 


I'm not sure if this video will work. Or which video it is, but it's a good one. 


Another whale, just below the zodiac boat. That sky makes it look like night time. It was 2 pm. 


Then the mist came in and we couldnt see anything! Plus it rained. I was loving every minute. 


I think this is the video where the whale dives. We saw 2 humpback whales, a school of  25 belugas, a minke whale and a fin whale. 


Boating into the fjords of Saguenay. They were stunning. 


Look at that view! 



The little town of Tadoussac. 


The bus. 


Off sails the ship into the mist for another tour. 


That night we finally got Poutine for dinner (with burgers too) Poutine is the classic dish of Quebec--french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. The place we got it from looked sketchy, and honestly we were a little let down, but we only paid $3.00 for the poutine, so we weren't expecting much. 


This place was awesome, it's an old cathedral turned into a second hand bookstore. All those boxes are FILLED with books. I bought Harry Potter in french. I still haven't started it...



This is one of those cute shops that you have to take pictures of for no good reason other than it's different from everything we normally see. A soap store. 





We spent the last three days with a couple who were renting out their spare bedroom. This couple was so much fun. They are both 26 and have been married for a year. They gave us great recommendations on places to eat and we stayed up late chatting with them every night. 



This little restaurant was one of those local places. They had old board games and a retro version of nintendo and tetris on game consoles next to the tables. We spent the evening (maybe 3 hours) at this place playing chutes and ladders, enjoying our meal (Jared had a white pasta and I had a beef stuffed cabbage roll with sweet potatoes on top ) and classic French Canadian maple sugar cake dessert. It was one of our favorite evenings. 



This dessert counter we found the day before we left at a local patisserie. The line was out the door when we went at lunch time, and we went back a little later. We ended up going to this counter three times since we got one thing to split and it was so good, we had to keep going back. That chocolate pear ganache torte above was the first thing we got. Mmmmm tasty. 


All said and done, Jared and I had an amazing trip and we were so sad to come back to Utah/go back to our old routine. It was a much needed retreat, and we felt like the combination of city, wilderness and city again was a good one. We saw some amazing things, and eventually (after about a week) felt like we were able to feel like we were in a different country. We took lots of notes so anyone who wants to go to Quebec, let us know and we will give you the scoop! 




1 comment:

  1. I couldn't figure out where to post this, but A. You are the cutest pregnant girl. B. This trip looks like SO MUCH FUN and now Quebec is atop my list. C. I freaking miss you guys!

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