My daughter Nekoda decided she wanted to go to Montreal for the summer to dance. Since neither my wife nor daughter had ever been there before I thought it would be a great idea for us to fly out there for the weekend to see the sights together, and then my wife and I would leave Nekoda there for her dancing and fly back home. It would be a whirlwind weekend. When I was a student I worked in Ottawa for a year and my company did occasional trips, and some of these I went on: skiing in Vermont, skiing in Lake Placid NY, and to Montreal to see the sights and a hockey game in the old Forum. However, I skipped the trip to Quebec City. I was a student and money was probably the reason I did not go, but I regretted not going on that trip. Now 36 years later I had a second chance to go to Quebec City. We would fly into Montreal, drive to Quebec City for the day (a 3 hour drive), and then back to Montreal and spend the next day touring around that city.
First I will talk about Montreal briefly. Sunday was a rainy day but we had a very enjoyable time walking around old Montreal. We saw a number of cathedrals (2 in Quebec City, 3 in Montreal) but one of them stood out: The Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal (built in 1824). Without a doubt it is the most magnificent thing I have ever seen in my life. My wife and daughter agreed although they said they saw a couple in Spain that were equal to it. It was so incredibly beautiful and I could feel God’s presence in the church for certain. I admit I didn’t like that we had to pay $16 each to go inside (it should be by donation in my opinion), but nonetheless I think (and you may not agree) but my thoughts are that whoever built the church did it all for God’s glory and they did it to the absolute best of their ability. Not that He needs it but God deserves our best. I think of the song “I played my drums for Him, I played my best for Him”. That is how I feel whenever I play drums in church. I always try to play my best (for God). To me, this cathedral exemplified this.
Anyway, back to Quebec City. Our flight was an overnight and we arrived in Montreal early on Saturday morning. There was no leg room for me on the plane and I just could not could not could not get my legs into a comfortable position. I got maybe a few minutes of sleep. We picked up our rental car and found a fantastic place for breakfast near the airport. I had a lot of coffee but it is a 3 hour drive and I did not make it. I had to pull over for a 10 minute power nap. That refreshed me enough to drive the rest of the way to Quebec City. All the signs in Quebec are in French, they do not bother with English at all (even though it is an official language). That does not concern me because I can read the signs (for the most part). One thing did bug me, though: Quebec drivers are absolutely the rudest drivers in the world (at least out of all those that I have seen). I remember knowing this fact from my student days but I had forgotten. Almost all of them drive too fast. If you think Californians drive too fast, Quebec drivers are worse. They are extremely impatient. If you are driving too slow (even if you are not driving slow, but too slow for them), they will tailgate you and honk their horn at you. I can’t even tell you how many times I was honked at. Get out of my way, Yankee! (how do you say that in French?)
We arrived in Quebec City around noon, found a fantastic pizza place for lunch, and walked around the old city. It is a very beautiful city and I am so glad we made this trip even though it was a lot to handle on such a short weekend. It was 36 years in the making and it was worth it all.
Of course the trip would not be complete without a waterfall. Quebec City has a few of them but we only had time to visit Montmorency Falls. Montmorency Falls is a magnificent waterfall and is 253 ft. high. It is a popular park and you do have to pay to enter. We arrived in the late afternoon. I thought of taking a nap first but there were clouds in the area and I thought I could take my photos right away. It is a fairly long walk from the parking area up to the waterfall so I left my wife and daughter in the car (to nap) and I ran up the path to the bottom of the falls. I made it and was able to take pictures while clouds shaded out the sun. I spent some time enjoying the waterfall then walked back to the car. Now it was my wife and daughter’s turn to go up to the waterfall. While they did that I was able to take an awesome nap. It was perfect. Now I had the energy to drive back to Montreal. We got to our hotel around 9:30PM very tired and had a great sleep. It was a whirlwind and amazing weekend trip to Quebec, Canada.
