Welcome to The North Pole

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Welcome to the North Pole! This is the greeting we were given by a jolly man with a white beard when we flew into Quebec yesterday - we weren't even in the airport yet - he was waiting for passengers as we got off the plane and started our walk down the "hallway" that leads into the airport! We then walked directly into the airport staring at a Café Starbucks which I was really in need of to simply stay awake for a couple more hours. Kamie was off to the restroom while I listened to Christmas music overhead, noticed the airport had a kids (and adults) area setup with The Grinch movie showing on a giant TV, and adjacent to that was a Lexus SUV wrapped in a big red bow. This small airport sang Christmas in every corner. It was a welcome feeling after the last two days.

Just to back up a bit... Tuesday was a tough day because I worked at 6am, for a whopping 90 minutes, and "worked" is being kind. Sorry buddy. Oh, nevermind… we don't have work buddies anymore... we're all ONE TEAM now. What a bunch of bullsh… Ohhh, nevermind. Let's move past work and on to our finally leaving WP and getting to St Louis around 6pm. We used DoorDash to get McAllister's delivered to our hotel room and it was free delivery with a $6 tip. Worth every penny, super quick, and hot food. I have been fighting some sort of virus since Sunday which has drained me so I was asleep before 9pm... but then I was up at 3am on Wednesday... shower, makeup, checkout and in the car at 4am. Eh. Our first flight left at 6am...and flight number two was in Minneapolis where the airport was clean, beautifully decorated for Christmas, tons of shops and phone chargers everywhere, restaurants on every corner, and beautiful views of the snow all over Minneapolis... but we were only in Minneapolis for a short bit before we were quickly whisked to Toronto airport.... and it is awful awful awful. 😞 Eh. I will never fly through Toronto airport again. No restaurants, we had to go through customs with two other flights coming in - one from India and one from Japan - and frankly friends, it was a mess. Asians always act like they don't understand you while they are cutting in line in front of you. It's the truth and they know it. So, after walking five miles, standing in line for an hour, and finally being cleared through customs... we had to go BACK THROUGH SECURITY and check-in to the airport to get our third and final CONNECTING flight! Are you freaking kidding me?! Never, in all our travels, have we had to do something so stupid. We were starving, exhausted, and generally unhappy campers. The only "good" part is we literally ended our maze at the "welcome to Toronto" doors where you enter the airport - so Kamie went outside and smoked a cigarette. So, that was unexpected for him. Long story short, we finally flew-in to Quebec yesterday evening on a small jet full of people mainly coming to see the Christmas markets... there were young ladies, older ladies, couples, etc. There was a group of ladies that all had on reindeer sweaters, another couple that had Santa Claus purses, etc. The plane was playing Christmas music... and then finally, as sunset fell and we were off the last flight of the day... we arrive in "The North Pole" aka Quebec.

We are staying at an iconic hotel. The Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. The hotel is simply amazing. The location is perfect. For the record, we are not paying the $600 per night the hotel was most recently asking for the rooms but rather, I got a beautiful deal on a very nice room in early May of this year. We joked we would get here and our room would be the size of a closet but no.. we have a standard room on the sixth floor with a beautiful view at night and all the amenities of a normal hotel room. There is an Olympic size pool & spa on our floor which I plan to take advantage of tomorrow and there is a Starbucks in the basement which I have already taken advantage of and plan to continue to visit a couple more times. The hallways are lined with Christmas trees and marble floors, there are pictures of the history of the hotel everywhere, and lots of interesting stores and restaurants in the hotel itself. It is an interesting place to visit for many people who aren't even staying here.

We had spaghetti alfredo and margharita pizza at a local pizzeria last night and we walked around the shops while it slowly snowed.

We slept-in today (9am is sleeping-in for me because that's like 8am Missouri time). Kamie slept longer while I showered, got ready, and snuck down to Starbucks. I woke him by feeding him a warm blueberry scone. We walked around today and it is below freezing here (28 F the last I checked) so we are back in the room warming up for a bit now. We are going back out in about 10 minutes and I'm taking my camera that takes good night pics. I'm also ready for a cup of hot gluehweine aka hot, spicy wine. Yummmm 😊

So, we are here. It is beautiful. I am finally feeling much better today. Quebec is like a Hallmark movie of Christmas events so we shall go enjoy some more...

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Photos

Snow
We left Missouri and there was snow in Minneapolis, Toronto, and Quebec - everywhere but MO

Comments

[dad]

WHAT
I had to read this twist you went through three checks and then befour you fly out jon gos out side and comes back in LOL

[Eeda and Jahn]

LOL
I know, right?! Ha