Yes...We RETIRED and we made the initial February 8, 2008 trip but one was not enough...I suppose.  We drove our own car this time and headed out to see Paul, Torrie, Anthony and Audrey in Darien, Connecticut.  We stopped a couple of times on the way (Chattanooga, Tennessee and Newark, New Jersey).  After we arrived, we spent time enjoying the company and sharing a few of bottles of select wine.  That Saturday, we made a trip into the city (New Your City) and saw Jersey Boys.  Torrie procured some great tickets for us and we enjoyed it very much. 

We left Wednesday morning after the twins left for school...we made it to Quebec City that evening around 7:30 pm and had dinner at the Sheraton restaurant.  The next day we went into the old city of Quebec.  It was a very nice visit and there were lots of sights to be experienced.  We walked around a big area that afternoon and returned several hours later to schedule another tour to see Quebec City and the outlying areas.  We got the personal tour from a guy that grew up and studied the history of the area. 

The second half of the trip was to see the outlying areas like waterfalls, St. Anne Cathedral and much more with stops at Chez Maries, where a fourth generation of the family lives in old Cote-de-Beaupre, in a stone homestead built in 1652. The oven used to bake the bread is 150 years old.

We went to Montmorency Falls, which overlooks the St. Lawrence Seaway, and is 1 1/2 times higher than Niagara Falls.  Sunday, we left for Mt. Tremblant which is about 4.5 miles west of Quebec City or two hours north of Montreal. 

We got to our resort early afternoon and took a quick trip to the Mt. Tremblant Village and had a burger.  We spoke to some guys from Ottawa and found out that this was the last day to ski and the village was full of skiers (wearing shorts and t-shirts) since it was about 22 C or so (that is about 70 F).  Today we will go back to the village and walk around discovering cool stuff. 

We traveled around the countryside looking for a bottle of Italian Sangiovese DI Romagna wine (Umberto Cesari "Liano") everyone said was so good.  The day was beautiful so what the heck...It took us over a hundred miles and detoured from a road closure due to flooding of snow melt.  It was a true adventure through the back-country roads and finally to the wine store that still had three bottles of the wine... which we bought (after all that, I would have bought anything probably).  It turned out to be a very good wine but the story and memory getting there was almost as good. 

The rivers in Canada are very large and impressive.  I have to say the native language is French but the people there tried very hard to extend a friendly attitude to us.  Most of the people also spoke some English however occasionally we would find someone that just spoke French.  We definitely enjoyed the trip and eventually drove on home... two and a half weeks later.  Oh, yeah... if you are going on a trip like that; buy a GPS...they are a life saver.