We made it to Quebec City - after battling a painful Friday rush hour traffic situation going through Montreal, At least an extra 1.5 hrs in the hot sun, stop and go. I was practicing my French swear words during that time.
So Quebec City is 400 years old - and you'd think in all that time, that they would have evolved into an English speaking province...
But seriously - I'm a firm believer in the "When in Rome.." philosophy, and i did a seek in the old brain for my Grade 9 French knowledge to see how far it would get me. (Mind you, this was French 9 in BC, which is probably about a Grade 2-3 French equivalent in every other province, except maybe Alberta)
So I walked into the hotel, everyone in front of us was speaking French, and when it was my turn, I go up with my "Bonjer! - Une resarvay-shun pour Robinson". She took about a 5 second look at me, and responded with, in a very thick French accent, "One moment please". - She was obviously not impressed with my attempt to use to the language.. She grabbed some paperwork, entirely in French, and said "Sign 'ere, 'ere, and 'ere". I did, and got my key - but then realized I have no idea what I just signed... Lets hope it wasn't a French contract for my soul.
We were starving - but concerned on how we would complete the process of ordering food with the Grade 9 French - and then like an epiphany, it came to me - the French word for "Poutine" is "Pountine!" - Not to mention we're also in the birthplace of this staple of the Canadian diet.
We hit he car, and found a drive-through close to the hotel with big pictures of pountine on the menu - I pulled in, and after a bunch of unrecognizable French words came out of the intercom - I proudly said, "Poutine, See Voo Play". A slew more of unrecognizable French words came out of the intercom and very confused with what to do next, i responded with "Large?"... Again, there was about a 5 second awkward silence, and I got the very thick French accented English phrase, "One moment please". - This time, the manager came on the intercom, and said "We don't understand what size poutine you would like?" - thinking quick - I said "Grand" and she said "What?" and I said, "The biggest one please". Thank god, that seemed to work - and we headed back to the hotel with the best poutine we've ever had.
Tomorrow is the final stretch and a 10hr drive to PEI and the old man's house!
It was a beautifully hot and sticky day in Ottawa, Ontario - and we walked around like tourists, stumbling into all sorts of different events. We saw the changing of the guards, some international buskers festival stuff, and lots and lots of federal tax dollars in action.
Big thanks to Perry, Sonja and the kids for their amazing Ottawa hospitality - all good things come to an end, and we headed out early Friday for the grand province of Quebec!
It's only a 30 minute drive from Canada's Wonderland to Downtown Toronto - so that was by far one of our shortest drives.
The night before, I have bought us the cheap cheap seats at the Blue Jays game - Keona wanted the fancy seats (i think mostly because the seats where colored pink in the seating guide) but I figured her first major league baseball game experience should be in the nose bleeds.
We got to Toronto about 3 hours before game time - so we went to the top of the CN Tower to kill time in the worlds highest observation deck. Top of the world baby!
We headed to the game after and got there about 1hr early - which tuned out to be a really good thing, it was "School Day" at the former SkyDome (now, the Rogers Center) - and Keona received a free Blue Jays back to school kit - With kit in hand we headed up the never ending path to our seats - unfortunately without a Sherpa to carry our stuff for the trek .
As we waited patiently in our seats, with tissues in our noses to slop the blood - a girl came over and asked if we'd like to win an upgrade... Confused, we said sure, and before we knew it - near the end of the first inning, we were presented with $100 tickets in exchange for our $9 tickets - our faces where up on the jumbo-tron (Canada's biggest TV screen) - and we waved to the crowd.
We headed down in special elevator, and found our seats, 9 rows behind home plate. (Funny how we get a fancy elevator down to the nice seats - but made us climb the mountain by foot for our previous seats). Keona ended up in the "pink" seats after all! Obviously karma for waiting in the Behemoth lineup for 1hr the day before!
The Jay's lost to Tampa 3-2, but i picked up the sweetest limited edition retro Blue Jays cap - stitched in yellow, instead of white - in honor of Caribana - the major annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival happening this weekend.
After the game, we made to my Uncle Perry's place 4hrs away in Ottawa - where we're being spoiled with hospitality. It feels good to not sleep in the car!
Canada's Wonderland was awesome - better than i remember it! But the highlight of the day, was definitely Canada's Longest, Tallest and Fastest roller coaster ever - the Behemoth!
A special thanks to Keona, who was 6" too short to get on, but still waited the hour with me in line so I could ride.
I snuck my camera on board, so I could film what it's like - but the g-forces where just too much for my little Fuji - and it shut itself off after 1min and 15 seconds into the 3 minute ride.
Have a watch as i climb the 230ft, and then drop at 75 degrees at a speed of 125km/h.
First off - I got to send a shout out to, John Perrin - Corporate Director of Sales & Marketing for The Marlborough Hotel. Thanks for the comment - and no disrespect comparing your hotel to cheap American Cigarettes.. It was a great stay - and the staff was very friendly - although they charged me $6.85 for a parking pass - but i stayed there on the weekend, and the weekend flat rate for parking is $2 if I didn't have the pass. Remind me to skip your discount parking pass next time!
Second - you may remember - i was looking for the "cool" in the Ontario - and it hit me like a bucket of water as soon as i hit Barrie, Ont. I realize now, its Southern Ontario - no offense Thunder Bay - your Lake Superior is... well.. superior - but I'm a big city guy, and when i found the $1.24/l gas, and 3-4 lane highway - there was no turning back. I love when people get angry if you're going below 120km/h in their lane.
Side note - Barrie, Ont. is officially the cheapest place I've gassed up this whole trip - I don't know if it's a timing thing or location thing - but the next closest was Edmonton, where it was $1.25 - and I figured they would be the cheapest, with all the oil fields and refineries I passed.
So we're shacked up for a 2 night stay at the Knight Inn, Toronto North - just 10 minutes from Canada's Wonderland! We got our discount tickets from the front desk - and we will ravage North America's greatest variety of roller coasters all day tomorrow!
Today's picture pays homage to something you don't see in BC, and it brought back some crazy memories for me growing up out here. At the end of the kids meal, the waitress brings out the "treasure chest" filled with cheap toys to choose from. The chest and toys have not changed in 20 years. God Bless Southern Ontario.
My good friend, and the best Barber in Vancouver, Farzad (that's in the history of Barbers - next time you're in Yaletown, get a cut and shave and see!), anyways - he told me about a special little town that he discovered when he traveled Toronto to Vancouver via Motorcycle. It was called Wawa, Ontario - and there was a general store there that had everything you could possibly imagine. I thought this place was between Kenora and Thunder Bay - so I figure I missed it - but on the way to Sault Ste. Marie today - I found it!
The place was incredible - you name it and they sold it, everything from Suckers with dead scorpions to Homemade Fudge to Nike's to Shotguns.
The full sized dead stuffed moose in front invites you in to this wonder of the world - and you're sure glad it did once your in! It also claims to have the best summer sausage in the world - I believe Farzad mentioned that to me too - and they were both right! Their secret is their 3 week smoking process, they say. I picked up 2lbs of this meat god-send for a mere $15
We also got to see the birthplace of Winnie-the-Poo on this leg of the trip. In White River, Ontario - he was a cub that was sold to a Canadian solider from Winnipeg, just before he left for Europe and WWI. Winnie ended up at the London Zoo, where author A.A. Milne used to take his son, Christoper Robin - You might remember seeing one of those "Part of our Canada Heritage" commercials that the CBC use to spam us with about this.
We're at a campsite just outside Sault Ste. Marie - (thanks again to Kelly's hookup) - It's another night of camping in the car. Tomorrow night we'll make it to Canada's Wonderland - and get ourselves setup to spend all day Tuesday there!
