Road Trip (Continued)

I just wanted to share a little more about our drive to Quebec City, hopefully we remember these details for the next time we visit.  Must remember to pack a lot of snacks.

For some reason when we went to Pennsylvania last fall we didn't think to bring snacks and the 5 hour drive seemed to drag.

As we crossed over into the province of Quebec we quickly remembered what their rest stops are like. They only have a few bathrooms and an outdoor picnic area.  There are no restaurants or gas stations.  If you need any of these services you have to get off the highway.  They also did not state how many km away the next rest stop is. We are honestly spoiled in Ontario with the Onroute service centers.

Our first stop once we passed threw Montreal was lunch  from St.  Hubert.

 

 I've been anxiously awaiting the day I could bite into one of their delicious club house sandwiches. It's been over three years! Once we went to order our lunch I was sadly disappointed when I noticed the club house sandwich was no longer on their menu board. We ordered wraps instead and figured they probably didn't have it at that location because it was an Express one ... Not to worry they should have it at other locations ... right?

The drive between Montreal and Quebec City is very boring.  Not much to look at as most of it is just greenery.  This stretch of the drive seems to always drag so much. This road trip we noticed a lot of camping trailers,  it was crazy.  We figure for every 10 vehicles we saw there was probably 1 camping trailer. You could tell we were definitely traveling during camping season.

As we neared the hotel we quickly located an SAQ and picked up some vinho (aka happy juice).

 

this location was opened 22hrs

I can not believe how nice it was not to have to worry about what was for dinner for a couple days.  I know for some I probably sound odd writing this, but it has gotten kind of difficult planning meals when you have a picky eater on your hands who refuses to try anything new and decides what he loves eating one week tastes yucky the following week and refuses to eat it.  Oh the joys of being a parent! Difficult and frustrating at times but so fulfilling and I would not trade it for the world.  As we approached our hotel Friday evening we could smell the smoky smell from the Archibald Microbrewery Restaurant. It smelled like yummy food was in the making.  It was another place on our to do list.  We decided ahead of time we wanted to try out this restaurant and Byron wanted to try their beer. I will leave this post for another day,  but I will say it is definitely worth a visit as it did not disappoint and the food was delicious and the service was good.

 

 

For this mini vacation we stayed here ...



Overall the hotel we stayed at was nice. It was clean,  the room was bright,  and it felt roomy which was really nice since I hung out there the majority of the day on Saturday while Byron was out taking in the sounds and sights of World Cup at MSA. I know it is sad but I even got some work done... the one problem of owning a laptop,  depending how you look at it. We were even able to get some discounts off some meals  with our "VIP CLUB" card from the hotel. The staff was friendly and changed over to English when we said we didn't speak French. Their bottled water was EXPENSIVE though ...

For this trip we decided to be practical and not spend a large fortune on our hotel room.  Initially when we started planning the trip we were planning on camping but quickly realized it would n0t work out as I was staying behind on the Saturday instead of going with Byron out to the mountain and if it was raining that would not be a very pleasant day. We talked about it and figured we could go with a room with a queen bed and a Jacuzzi tub was not worth the extra money. Lets just say we are spoiled at home with our King bed and quickly realized in future we MUST splurge the little bit of extra $$ for a King bed.

It was really nice to enjoy something as simple as a bubble bath while listening to music of my choice without any interruptions and a barking dog.  Bubble baths become a thing of the past once you have kids. At least that has been the case for me.

Breakfast was included each morning.

It was nothing fancy, but it kept our bellies full until lunch time. 

Once we arrived, we ordered in our usual Friday night dinner and enjoyed some wine with it (Portuguese style) ...

 

... and stayed in for the evening, which was really nice. We were exhausted. We usually ask at the front desk where to order pizza from, and usually it doesn't disappoint as the locals usually know best. This time, however,  it was a bit of a disappointment. They didn't cut our pizzas. Once we finally found cutlery and cut into it,  the pizza was difficult to eat as it was very flimsy and Byron's was really soggy {insert disappointed face}. Note to self ...  when we return to QC don't order from Normandin Pizza, very generous with toppings and tasted ok BUT not our style of pizza.

The next two weeks are extremely busy for us. I am not too sure how much time I will have to blog. But more posts will pop up sooner rather than later.