Nous Sommes Arrivees a Quebec

Bonjour mes amis, we have arrived in Quebec City, Canada. Neither of us have ever been to Quebec, so while perhaps not as exotic as Peru or Croatia, it is nonetheless an international destination that not many people are visiting. For one, it isn't that easy to get to. If you were driving, it would be quite an undertaking to get there from the United States, or even if you drove from Montreal. You'd be spending at least six hours in the car. Flying isn't much better with most of the flights being short domestic hops to other cities in Canada. The only flight to anywhere in the U.S. is on a 50-seat E-145 that connects Quebec to Newark twice a day. From cold and rainy weather in New Jersey, we transitioned to beautiful, sunny weather in Quebec. After a 20 minute ride into town, we arrived at our hotel in the old city.

After taking in our surroundings for a bit, we stopped at a casual restaurant for some poutine, which is is to Quebec as cheese is to Wisconsin. It was a very hearty snack for us, which consisted of very largely cut potatoes, generous amounts of gravy, and what seemed like half a pound of cheese curds mixed in for good measure. It was tasty, but gave me gas.

As we walked around more into the late afternoon, it became clear that things close early and the tour groups that had been occupying the open squares and cobblestone streets had disappeared. This was nice, as tour groups are just the worst. There's nothing worse than almost being run over by a horse pulling a carriage because you had to walk in the street to avoid 40 slow-moving tourists following a blue flag somewhere ahead on the sidewalk.

As night descended on the town, the temperature came down a little bit, but it was still comfortable. The trees were still budding, which seems to indicate that winter has only just finished here. On queue, there are now dozens of ongoing public works projects that did sully picture taking a bit as it made it challenging to avoid getting a giant orange cone or construction vehicle in the shot. And on that note, on our way into town, there was a dump-truck strike going on. This demonstrates to me that the Quebecois have really embraced their French heritage in all areas.

The following morning, Nicole and I had crepes for breakfast and did a small amount of shopping- primarily to find an ornament for our very international christmas tree. The temperature was a bit cooler today, but considering that the leaves have yet to repopulate the vast majority of tree branches here, it could be a lot worse.

I later had a ham and cheese croissant for lunch when we discovered that our flight to Newark had been delayed three hours. Newark is the worst.

On the plus side, people were changing planes in Newark and were looking for different connections and half the plane jumped ship to an Air Canada flight to Toronto instead. This opened up seats for Nicole and I instead of having to stress about the 1 seat that was listed as available this morning.

It was interesting to spend some time in Quebec and I was a bit surprised to see the extent of French-speaking. I knew that it is the primary spoken language of the region, but it was still a bit confusing to see road signs, menus, and newspapers all in french. It would be easy to forget we were in Canada except for the plentiful maple leaf flags waving every 50 ft. For those looking for a European experience without leaving North America, I recommend Quebec. Merci pour lire mon blogue. A bientot.

Brooklyn Chic

 Going back as far as college, I had heard of this mythical place called "Brooklyn," where young folk with tight pants and handlebar mustaches went to the farmers market to buy hand-made candles and soap on their way to the Whole Foods. And yet, despite its reputation as being the ultimate in hip and chic, I had never felt the need to enter its warm thrift store jacket embrace.

That all changed when I had almost ten days off in a row and Nicole thought we should try something different if we went to New York, and perhaps not go to Manhattan for once. I also had a friend from college who now lived in Williamsburg, so it was a fine excuse to cross over into this strange new world.

After some lunch and stimulating conversation, we embarked on a walk searching for filming locations from a TV show called "Younger," that Nicole and I enjoy watching. Brooklyn is basically a character in the show about a woman in her 40s who pretends to be in her 20s to get a job in the publishing industry. The temperature was tricky -- cold and then warm from one block to the next. We felt that people were also on top of us while we tried to walk. I guess we are just two slow California kids out of their element. That being said, it was a lot calmer than Manhattan.

Eventually we hopped on a ferry and took it to Dumbo, or essentially where the Brooklyn Bridge is. I wanted to get some pictures of Manhattan considering I've previously been too close to it, and having that bit of separation across the river might afford some good photography. We walked along the river a bit trying to find a good vantage point when the clouds started rolling in.

Later on it started to rain and this cleared out all the obnoxious kids trying to do obnoxious selfies doing obnoxious things, so I could do some photos without getting someone's crotch in my picture. It was greatly appreciated.









And all the pictures in this blog are just the ones from my cellphone. How about them apples? Apples that are farm-fresh, organic, and grown on a co-op no doubt.