2026 – Canada

We spent pretty much the whole day walking around both lower and upper Old Québec with lots and lots of stairs. It’s such a gorgeous city with well preserved buildings and a very European/French feel. French is the primary language spoken here but it’s different enough from the French we know that we have a…

After a lazy morning and lunch we walked below the city walls then climbed 395 up to Plains of Abraham and Citadel. We wanted to spew time looking around but had to scoot back to our hotel to meet up with our private tour guide. He drove us out to the beautiful Montmorency Falls for…

Today we took a Secret Foodie Tour of Québec. Got some interesting Québec history, a lot of steps as well as poutine, maple taffy and duck carpaccio among other things. Afterwards we tried to burn off some of the calories with a walk to parliament and the citadel. The food won, though, and we decide…

We caught an early train to Montreal. So civilized with a business class lounge for check-in and waiting plus breakfast served at our seats. We dropped our bags at our hotel and headed out to a restaurant that specializes in poutine (30 variations). We took an Uber to the top of Mount Royal for the…

We spent several hours at the Montreal Botanical Garden and it was fantastic! One of the volunteers told us it ranks as one of the ten most important gardens in the world. (#1 is Kew Gardens.) It is definitely in my top ten! Afterwards we perused the stalls at the Jean-Talon market and drooled over…

After we enjoyed a last breakfast with our excellent travel companions, the Parsons, we headed to Burlington, Vermont, by bus. It was a smooth trip with the only wrinkle being a 45-minute delay at the border while one passenger got extra scrutiny from Customs and Immigration. We barely had time to pick up a rental…

Took a nice walk to Church Street Marketplace, a 4-block pedestrian area full of restaurants and fun shops. We perused menus and settled on the terrace of Leunigs for lunch. Afterwards, we walked down to the harbor on Lake Champlain then back to our charming hotel (The Blind Tiger, “a 14-room boutique bed and breakfast…

We got picked up at our hotel late morning by longtime friends (Austin, early ‘80s) Evi and Charlie who had moved to Burlington many years before. They treated us to “Champagne on Champlain”, a very nice brunch cruise. We stuffed ourselves on the buffet and had a great time catching up on each other’s lives.…

On our own for the first time is several weeks, we decided to drive to the charming ski town of Stowe, Vermont. The drive was beautiful, verdant green forests and (small) mountains. There were lots of opportunities to stop along the way but we chose Cold Hollow Cider Mill for a famous (and disappointing) apple…

We had an uneventful trip home through Charlotte, then disaster. How long to fix this mess? Oh, well. Trip over.