The End of the Rainbow

Day two of my vacation started with stair climbing, but not in the gym…

But first, I ate pastries.

If there’s any time to eat dessert for breakfast, it’s when visiting a country with fresh-baked French pastries…

Matt and I split these beauties along with coffee on the drive out of the city to the Montmorency Waterfalls.

It was pouring on the drive over, but the rained suddenly stopped when we arrived.  I wasn’t quite prepared for the cold temperatures and windy conditions, but I warmed up once we got moving.

I’m a tad bit afraid of heights these days, but this bridge didn’t seem to bother me because it didn’t sway or rock.

We climbed down 40o stairs to see the view from the bottom…

and had a lot of fun with the camera!

[Please ignore my trainers + skinnys]

Then, we walked all the way back up.  On the way, I turned around to get one last look at the falls and noticed one of the clearest rainbows I’ve ever seen!!!

The person at the end of the rainbow is posing for the next Skittles commercial.

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We took a detour to the Île d’Orléans (an island across the river from the city) on the way home from the waterfalls and noticed a little sign for a winery.  We had planned on going back to the hotel for a workout, but decided we couldn’t turn down a chance to taste wine and that it was much more important than exercise.

I’m so glad we stopped because the view was breathtaking and the wines were very unique.

I didn’t care for the basic whites, but the ice wine and dessert varieties were all incredible. We came home with a sweet blend of white wine and maple.  It’s supposed to be good over ice cream or with a strong bleu cheese…can’t wait to sip this on a special occasion!!!!

We headed back to the city and found nourishment in the form of sandwiches (chicken salad and veggie) on more crusty french bread…

with apricot ale of course!  I loved sipping on this, but it was more like a fizzy fruit drink than a beer.

I can’t resist desserts when there are bakeries with fresh treats in the windows of every street.  Matt and I split this nutty torte and loved it! The crust was only slightly sweet – more like a shortbread than a pie crust – so it didn’t taste as rich as a lot of American desserts.

After lunch, we strolled around the Parliament area and then over to the Citadelle on the river.  Everything is so gorgeous here!

After a quick rest, we headed back out to a little brew pub in a newer part of the city.

They had four beers on tap, so naturally we tried all four.

The first two were the coriander wheat beer and the British red ale.  Both were delicious.  I was impressed with the wheat beer because it wasn’t your typical citrus summer beer – it was a great hybrid of a fruity wheat beer and a golden Belgian ale.

The next two beers were the summer seasonal and a pale ale.  I loved the pale ale because it wasn’t as hoppy as some, but I really didn’t care for the summer seasonal.  It had a smoky flavor to it and it made me think of cigarettes:(

Nothing like beer tasting with a bit of cheese…

We got wind that there was a FREE Cirque du Soleil show (I’m not sure why, I guess because it originated in Quebec City?), so we high-tailed it to the other side of the city to get a good view.  This was my first time seeing Cirque du Soleil and all of the acts were fascinating…

After 60 minutes of standing, we were exhausted and didn’t even have the energy to search for food.  We quickly found a pizza place and scarfed down this artichoke, sun-dried tomato, ham, mushroom, and goat cheese pizza.

All pizza tastes better with beer.  This was another Belle Gueule, but the dark brew this time.  It was better than the blonde, but still lacked any interesting flavor.

My day was amazing, but tiring, so after a failed attempt to get dessert crepes, I went to bed and slept like a rock.