We went to the Armament inside one of their urban national parks along the walls and the kids got to dress up for a quest/treasure hunt with tablet computers and swords as we walked along some of the walls of Old Quebec. We also took a picture for this virtual postcard against a green screen, though it seems like the screen wasn't edited out as much as we would have liked.
Walking on the wall.
Derek really loved having a sword.
He used it to attack imaginary "bad guys"...
...and real life sidewalk fountains/splash pads...
One of the pedestrian passageways through the walls.
Tanja with the Quebec Provincial Parliament building in the background.
Quebec is historically Catholic, so there are a lot of beautiful cathedrals throughout the province. This is one of several that we looked inside; I think it was the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre Dame de Quebec. We noticed that nearly all of the churches in Quebec Province are Notre Dame de something, so it got kind of confusing for us.
The Château Frontenac is one of the most recognized landmark buildings within the fortified old Quebec City - it is a very large historic railway hotel and is very photogenic.
It is surrounded by old cannons pointing out into the St. Lawrence River. Quebec is strategically located on the river and was important for providing protection against any enemy ships sailing further inland into Canada.
Underneath the Château Frontenac is a small museum exhibit of the archaeology of the old city along with some of the artifacts that they found as they were excavating. The kids loved digging in this sandbox full of pebbles looking for artifacts like old pottery shards. At first Tanja told Lydia to take off her shoes, and then we noticed that there were real broken pottery pieces in the pebbles, to simulate a 'real' excavation. The pottery fragments were very sharp. In the U.S. they would never have used real pottery fragments in a kids' exhibit - it would have been imitation plastic, with no sharp edges.
Our next day in Quebec City, we made a short trip to see some of the beautiful waterfalls nearby. First up was Montmorency Falls. We happened to be visiting during a strike of some of the workers supporting these falls, so we had to drive through them protesting and the falls did not have all the services (like a ski lift-style cable car) operating which we were disappointed in, but it also meant that we were able to go to the falls for free which sort of made up for it, but not really. These falls are nearly 100 feet taller than Niagara Falls and are very impressive.
Here are the girls running around near them.
Derek thought they were great.
Tanja captured this beautiful photo of a rainbow formed in the mist when the sun hit it just right.
There was a lot of driftwood that had made its way down the waterfall.
We noticed that people had been spelling names with the driftwood, so we decided that seemed like a fun activity. The kids really got into it finding the perfect logs to use for different parts of letters in their names. First is Lydia.
Then Derek.
And Karina.
We then drove up to the top of the falls, and after dealing with a lot of traffic because of the protesters, found a parking space and made our way down to the falls so we could walk across a long suspension bridge hanging over them. Karina and Lydia found a nice tree to rest on along the way.
Here are the driftwood names we worked on from the top of the falls (along with names of all the other people that had done the same thing). If you zoom in, you can see Karina, Lydia, and Derek's names written with logs.
Tanja at an overlook with the bridge and the falls in the background.
Looking out the other direction to the St. Lawrence River in the distance.
We made it across the bridge.
Then Lydia decided to be silly and put herself in jail behind a gate.
We next went to Canyon Sainte-Anne, home to more waterfalls and bridges. They also had several animal statues like this moose. We reminded the kids of the time they kissed a real moose in Norway and decided to recreate those pictures here.
We took a small hike through the canyon to look at the various waterfalls along the way.
Along the way, we saw several climbers along the cliffs anchored into the side of the cliff with a harness and carabiner. I think it looked fun, but sections of it seemed it would be very difficult and scary with the mist from the waterfalls making things extra slippery. We chose to passively participate from the sidelines and watch instead.
There were three suspension bridges going across the river and we made sure to cross each one.
We got our workout climbing up and down the stairs along the trail.
Our next day we went to the Citadelle, the oldest part of old Quebec, and a still functioning military installation along with the second official residence of the Canadian monarch (the Queen of England) as well as the Governor General of Canada. We rushed to get there early for the changing of the guard ceremony, and then took a picture with two of the guards and the local regiment's goat mascot.
Here's Karina at the Citadelle with the Château Frontenac in the background.
We explored more in the city, and found this splash pad along the waterfront that the kids loved playing in. They got so wet, but it felt good on a hot day.
Quebec has a very European feel, and in fact Quebec City and Montreal are often used in movies as substitute shooting locations for European cities. Wandering around the city streets with French being spoken everywhere and all these tightly packed buildings and narrow stone streets did feel like we had made our way across the Atlantic on a few occasions.
Our last major activity when we went to Quebec City was to go and visit Grosse Île. This island served as a Canadian immigration processing center in the 19th and early 20th centuries, similar to Ellis Island here in the U.S. To get there, we had to take a ferry boat. We were very excited when the captain came down to personally invite us to come into the wheelhouse so the kids could take turns steering. We got the personal invitation in English since all the other families with kids spoke French and the captain made a similar invitation to them over the loudspeaker, but we did feel special. The kids were very excited to drive the ferry, though I think the passengers might not have appreciated swerving back and forth as Derek and Lydia were a little overly aggressive with their steering. It was surprising that the captain actually let the kids spin the wheel and we could feel the ferry turning left and right.
Here's Derek concentrating very hard driving his "bad boy diver boat" (what he calls any boat/ship since that is what the "bad boy diver" used in the movie Finding Nemo).
Lydia took her turn too.
Karina did a fairly good job keeping us on course.
Once on the island, we had our choice of four different guided tours we could take, and could not explore on our own. Normally, we get concerned when we have to stay with a guide since it is hard to keep kids focused on the tour guide and to keep them quiet. We were extremely pleased with our guide on this trip and were lucky that our group consisted only of our family and the guide. It meant there was less pressure to keep Derek from being crazy on a 5 hour(!) guided tour. We chose the 'Village' tour, which focused on the village where all the workers for the island lived and worked. Our teenage guide did a fantastic job catering to the kids and keeping it interesting for them.
Here's Derek inside one of the old hospital rooms where immigrants would stay in quarantine after the long journey and try and recover. As you can imagine, with diseases like typhoid, cholera, and small pox to deal with at the time, being in the hospital wasn't a pleasant experience (though as medical science progressed, recovery rates improved).
Outside on the island.
Much of the island's history focuses on Irish immigrants who were fleeing the potato famine and came to Canada since it was less expensive than coming to the U.S. This had special interest to me since I have Irish immigrants in my family history that settled in Canada before moving on to the U.S., so it was enlightening and interesting to see the island where some of my ancestors must have come through so long ago. I think that the primary line of my Irish immigrant ancestors that came through Canada did it earlier than the worst of the potato famine, but I need to do more research to confirm that.
Here we are at a large Celtic cross monument dedicated to the Irish immigrants. Nearby the cross was an Irish cemetery where 5000 Irish immigrants were buried in mass graves during 1847, the worst year of the famine, because they arrived sick and died.
Looking out toward the village on Grosse Île.
I think I enjoyed our days in Quebec City and the surrounding countryside the most during our Canadian vacation this year.
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