Canada/New England Cruise
5 July - 13 July 2013
Cast: Me (Eve aka Momma, 43) and Amina (DD, 16)
Seth and Rhys were taking a Boy Scout Northern Tier canoe expedition for 2 weeks and were not going to accompany us on this trip - it was our first "Girls Only" trip.
Thursday, 4 July 2013 and Friday, 5 July 2013 – Dallas, Quebec City
The trip to Quebec City via Dallas was straight-forward enough. We actually left Enid on the 4th of July to drive to Dallas but only after I spent about half an hour checking us in on Delta online. Even though I had requested seats when I bought the tickets, we were seated apart on the flight from Dallas to JFK. I had our boarding passes sent to our phones but then went back and looked at getting us re-seated. $25 per bag to check in and then another $39 per person to upgrade to economy plus so we could be seated together. It was all kinda fishy to me - pretty scam-like, really.
Amina drove us down to Dallas, observing the speed limit EXACTLY all the way down. It took over 5 hours including a navigation mishap just a few miles from the exit to get to my sister's house. The problem in Dallas is when you miss an exit, you have to drive at least 10 more miles to try and get back to where you need to go. We finally arrived at my sister's house around 5 pm. I only had to say something about her driving maybe half a dozen times. That was the most highway driving she had ever done and there were still a good number of issues that came up simply because she didn't have the experience yet.
We went out to dinner a little bit early to Chuy's which wasn't crowded at all given the holiday. The Southwest enchiladas were great but I could only finish half of it and saved the rest for tomorrow's breakfast. We returned back to Dee and Jason's house and hung out until around 9. The girls got in Amina's Prius and drove to Lake Dallas - mostly because the twins wanted to be in the car with Amina driving - and vice versa. At just after 9, we piled into the car and drove just across I-35E to watch the fireworks from one of the subdivisions. It was a pretty good fireworks show, the evening was cool enough, and we weren't eaten up by bugs while sitting in the parking lot of a closed shop. The girls spent a good chunk of the night trying to learn the "cup song" from the movie "Pitch Perfect" - what a racket they made.
The next morning, we ate leftovers for breakfast and were out the door at 8 am to head for the airport. Jason dropped us off after telling me about the total solar eclipse in 2017 and how I needed to plan our trip to enjoy it. The eclipse will last for 20 minutes and will occur around 12:30 pm CST in the northern states. It sounds like the makings of a fun trip.
On the way to JFK, I purchased each of us a wifi pass on the airplane - $14 each for a one day pass. It was kinda fun having internet access while on the flight. The speed was pretty darned good. The flight left Dallas a little late. We were just getting our boarding passes scanned when they sent passengers back from the boarding ramp because of a "maintenance issue". We waited about half an hour before getting to board.
We arrived into JFK at around 4 pm and were disappointed to see that we had arrived into terminal 2 - not terminal E as I had looked up online. I had scoped out a place for us to eat in terminal E called the Shake Shack but the restaurants in terminal 2 were beyond pitiful. We were told by a security guard that we were on a "domestic" flight to Canada and not an "international" flight which I thought was really funny.
So, we left terminal 2 to go and look for something to eat since we had about 2.5 hours - found terminal 5 where the best rated restaurants (sushi, italian, and tapas) were located but were turned away because we weren't Jet Blue passengers. What?? The only decent places to eat in JFK and we couldn't get in? That's crazy. So we made our way back to terminal 2 and settled for Wendy's. The good thing about terminal 2, though, is the abundance of seating that had outlets and complimentary ipad stations. We ate our dinner while playing hangman on the ipad.
The flight out of JFK was also delayed. I'm not sure how long we sat at the gate and then on the tarmac because I fell asleep - it was at least an hour and a half - we didn't leave until around 7:30. The explanation we were given: there was some mix-up which resulted in a "missing passenger" and it took them a really long time to sort it out. It was past 9:30 pm when we finally arrived into Quebec City. Customs was a breeze - very fast and we collected our bags, caught a taxi and paid the flat $34.25 to get to the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. Our taxi driver, from Morrocco, was very pleasant and had never been in the U.S. He told us his impression of the U.S. was of people who didn't work and had fun all the time. Ha!
My initial impression of Quebec City at night was a little surprising as we had been to Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto before. Quebec City is very different - the closest to being to a real foreign country while in Canada. As Toronto is like watching an English movie with French subtitles, Quebec City is like watching a French movie with English subtitles. There wasn't a single person we met who didn't speak at least some English but all of the stores, ads, signs, etc, were in French with very little English around. People were mostly friendly but there's definitely that distinct "snooty" French feel to the city.
We were dropped off in front of our hotel passing a ton of pedestrians along the way - apparently there was some sort of art festival going on right now and even though it was 10 pm, it was very crowded and alive with activity. We decided that even though it was late, we had to go out and walk around some after we checked in.
Compared to the airport and customs, check-in at the world famous Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac was a different story. Our suitcases were immediately taken by a bell man and we walked into the lobby and found what looked like the front desk just off to the right. There were 2 queues - one that had a small sign for the Fairmont President's Club and another that was unmarked. We naturally got into the unmarked queue. There was a check-in desk on the left and the President's Club desk on the right. The check-in desk to the left was empty. There were 2 gentlemen at the President's Club desk busy with patrons who seemed to alternate between speaking English and French. We waited patiently for someone to show up at the unmarked check-in desk while the people in the other queue were helped by the gentlemen at the President's Club desk.
After about 5 minutes, another couple joined us in our queue and I asked them to make sure they were also trying to check in. I understand that it's a little late but nobody showed up to check us in. I finally asked the staff member who had come over to the check-in desk and was busily emptying the garbage bins when someone would be by to check us in. 10 minutes had passed. He directed us to the other desk to check in but there was a constant stream of people in the other "President's Club" queue. It was really weird. Finally, Amina hopped the rope and stood in the other queue while I stayed in my queue. The couple behind us did the same. We were tired of being passed by people in the other queue. Finally, it was our turn and we were checked in. The staff member, of course, never questioned whether we were club members.
When I had booked the hotel, it was really by accident. I was tossing around the idea of staying at this beautiful hotel but it was very exensive and we were getting in so late and would have to check out the following morning to embark. I was looking at a package and entered my CC information to see what the total would be and - VOILA - I was booked. Oops. So we collected our "free" gift which was a cute stuffed animal wearing a jacket that said Aquarium du Quebec and branded on the back with the Fairmont logo.
Our room had 2 beds and was a typical European type room. We were greeted with a plate that had pieces of delicious nougat and dried orange peels along with a small bottle of locally made honey.
We snacked while waiting for our bags to arrive. The room wasn't really special but the bathroom had a lot of marble and, though small, was very nice. Internet via wifi was an additional $15 for 24 hours.
We got our luggage some 15 minutes or so later and decided to go out for a quick walk – maybe find something to snack on. We strolled by the large statue where a guy was doing a show in French and went over to the railing by the funicular to peek at the cruise terminal and were pleasantly surprised to see the Veendam was already docked. I had no idea that it was arriving the day before. We then walked around the block and had stopped at a restaurant serving some nice pizza but we were told that they didn't do “to go” so we abandoned that idea. I guess they didn't really want our business. We ended up getting some gelato at a small shop a block over from the hotel and made our way back to the hotel to turn in. I played some mafia wars for a little while and went to sleep. Amina skyped with Bryce until about 3 in the morning.
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