Last day in Quebec City

Wendy's conference was over last evening, so we took the chance to go out to dinner and wander the city for a while. Below is the view from our window in the evening (after most of the Blue Jays disaster game was over).

This was an interesting and colourful sight - seemed to be a war memorial.

The restaurant where we ate dinner was reported to be the oldest pizza restaurant in the city. We had a chicken and bacon pizza with a Caesar salad - ON TOP! Yes, the salad was piled on top the freshly baked pizza. Actually better than it sounds!

Halloween decorations are big here. This display went all out, with a cauldron, fake flames, and real steam.

The pumpkin was of good size as well.

Purple is the predominant colour used to light up most buildings at night. Here is the Chateaux Frontenac.

Our last full day was set aside for Wendy and I to sleep in then tour the Citadel. It is the main Fort and home to the 2nd Battalion of the Royal 22nd regiment (vingt deux; the Van Doos). Below is a shot taken in one of the museum areas with badges from military units across Canada.

Most of my photos were on my real camera, but here are a few from the tour.

This panorama will likely stick off the edge of the web page, but it shows a nice view of old Quebec.

This is their largest cannon but it is not the one they fired at noon.

We did stop in to visit a beautiful old cathedral. Gorgeous interior...

This picture of Wendy nicely combines 2 common themes from the trip. Here is Wendy eating maple cotton candy (really good stuff!) while watching a Blue Jays game!

Quebec city

Wendy and I are currently in Quebec city while Wendy attends a conference. We flew from YTZ (Billy Bishop airport / Toronto City Centre) on Porter airlines. 

Luckily, we took the GO train - there was a marathon on that completely closed the Lakeshore and caused traffic chaos. Everyone at the airport was upset and rushed (is that a Toronto thing...?) except us.

The new tunnel to the airport was very convenient and was quite a pleasant way to get there. Barely a 5 min walk on moving sidewalks. 

The flight was fast and the fall colours were beautiful as we arrived in Quebec. On leaving the airport it started to snow! Winter seems closer here than at home. 

View from our hotel

Wendy with her poster

Dinner at the Parmesan

Night scene

On my first day of exploration, I tracked down a geocache. This one is a cannonball that supposedly landed here during the war of 1759. The tree grew around it and it is still where it landed. 

First geocache I found in Quebec 

The shopping was typically touristy, with some fashion I don't really get...

This is not far from our hotel, so I had to take a picture for our friend Penny who finds many such art pieces around Toronto.

Today I walked around the Plains of Abraham. This is one of the Martello towers overlooking the river.

Martello tower

 Here is a selfie showing some of the fall colours.

I went into the Musée national des beaux-art du Quebec and spent several hours wandering the collections. The Fernand Leduc exposition confirmed that I really don't resonate with modern art very well. The piece below didn't do anything for me.

This one, appearing like a plain white canvas was actually more intriguing when you got closer. It has a very subtle graphic pattern that has been painted over with white such that you can only see from very close. Clever, but not something I would use to decorate around.

Not just white! 

 Part of the museum is in an old prison.  Here are some cells.

From inside a cell

The Jean-Paul Riopelle exposition was interesting, but not really my style either.

This one was complex and included sand and cinders in the composition. I was captivated by this piece for quite a while.

Ok, he lost me on the point to this piece...

There was a turret that you could ascend and it housed some wood art by David Moore. Beautiful gallery setting and interesting sculptures in wood.

View from turret 

This piece, "the penalty" by Alfred Laliberte, struck a chord with me for some reason. It looked to me like it represented a painful burden.

I was most impressed by the decorative stained glass treatment for the fire cabinets.

I'll post some more pictures in the coming days as these are only ones taken with my phone. I have hundreds more on my real camera.

October is more normal...

September was relatively benign as months go and things are starting to get back to normal. One major change is that Adam has grown a beard!

The crabapple tree has provided a nutritious snack for the many deer in our area. They will even come across the street to have their fill when people are standing on the driveway! We know... we watched it happening. Our house might be the most photographed on the street as people routinely stop to take pictures of our lawn ornaments.

Maddy sure likes the fall. She now likes to stick her head out the window to smell what is going by. 

We took a trip on the Thanksgiving weekend to have supper with Carrie, Ken, and family. Here are a few shots. 

Sandbox time with Laura! 

The beard was a hit with Jacob

To go with Parker's blue tongue from August

The parents get a moment to relax while cousin Parker reads the story

A rare snuggle! 

September was a nice break from the summer

Thankfully, not much happened in September. Everything nicely slowed down as we got things back under control for another school year. Here are some of the highlights.

Parker started Grade 10 this year, this time at the single location of Dundas Valley Secondary School. Last year he was located at the east campus (formerly Parkside High), but the west campus (formerly Highland) was renovated and opened just in time for the new school year. They didn't have enough desks and chairs for everyone for several weeks, but they seem to have sorted that out now. We think that this picture of Parker is likely the very first one since Adam started school that actually required an umbrella. I will have to look back at our old photos to see whether that is true.

Grade 10!

I did get some fabric and had some foam cut (the store where I bought it cut it all in 5 minutes!). The chairs are now much more comfortable and don't look quite so late 80s pastel pink/green. This fabric has some metallic gold in it as well as shiny brown. Wonder how long it will be until someone cringes at the choice of fabric like we did with the chairs' previous incarnation? The fabric I removed wasn't the original, so I can only guess what it might have been!

2 leaves can be added to make this a huge table

We had Mel and Murray's dog Abby stay for a sleepover while they were away. She fit right in and learned all the proper places to sit to watch the action.

Parker got his full braces this month. He'll have them for a few years. He also had a couple of bite guards attached inside so his lower teeth don't knock off the braces from the inside.

We got the opportunity to do another leg on the Bruce Trail hike with Terry and Theresa. Here we are near the starting point of the leg (close to Pen Centre shopping mall). We ended at Brock University.

The Bruce Trail hike was on a perfect weather day - here is some of the early fall colour that we noted.

Maddy has been watching a lot of Blue Jays games recently, so her eyes were getting a little strained. You can just see how tired she is after cheering for several hours...

See you next with October!