We're home!

Zack and I have both arrived home safely!

It sounds like Zack's trip to Glacier National Park was fantastic. There was an encounter with a baby and momma bear. Luckily there was no bear-human contact! He got to scratch a baby mountain goat behind the ears. And he peed off the side of a mountain. Too funny!

My trip to Quebec City was incredible! We ate, shopped, drank, ate, laughed, walked, marveled, drank, ate, wandered, and drank some more. I'm in the process of uploading, tagging and organizing all my photos. Check http://www.flickr.com/chrislannan. They're in the 2009 Canada folder.


I did find a yarn shop. Lovely stuff! I bought yarn for a shawl and the pattern is in French. Nothing like a challenge! But what a great souvenir. I'll post the yarn and info to Ravelry in the coming days. As you can imagine I have a lot of stuff to go through...as in L-A-U-N-D-R-Y.

There are also a lot of stories that need telling. I'll call it the "what you need to know when you go to Canada" series. It's some good stuff!

Other quick news--look for class info from the Haus of Yarn. I'll be teaching a couple classes this fall. Finishing, intarsia and ear flap hats. I haven't worked out the details yet. Visit their website and sign up for the newsletter. I'm just a bit excited!!

Strike? This is not good!

So. This morning I got an e-mail from ViaRail saying that our train from Quebec to Montreal on Saturday has been canceled. Great.

We spent most of the day trying to figure out alternate transportation. No rental cars available. Bus schedules all in French. We had no choice but to venture down to the train station and get the scoop. This is all because of a pending strike. If the train folks don't reach an agreement by noon tomorrow, all rail travel is canceled (but they will happily refund the price of our ticket). If they do reach an agreement, then there's no problem. So we asked the girl at the ticket counter what she thought would happen. She thinks they'll strike and pointed us in the direction of the bus counter.

The lady at the bus counter assured us that they can get us to Montreal in case of a rail strike. We inquired about what happens when the bus sells out. Here's a concept, they just pull up another bus. It sounds like we're covered. I'd much rather take the train, but at this point I'll settle for any mode of transportation to Montreal.

Dog sled anyone?

If you're curious about our situation, here's the website for via rail:
http://www.viarail.ca/en/update/quebec-montreal-quebec

A bientot!

Bon Jour!

P1010005
Originally uploaded by KnittyBits

Hello from Canada!

This was the view from our hotel in Montreal. The Basilique-Cathedrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde et Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur. We didn't have much time to explore the city, but I'm glad we had a chance to see the inside of this cathedral. It was breathtaking!

We arrived in Quebec City yesterday (by train!) and explored a bit of the town last night. With all this walking I'm probably going to have to buy another pair of walking shoes.

I was surprised at the amount of activity on a Sunday night. Nearly all the stores were open and people were everywhere. The language thing isn't really a thing. Most people greet you with "bon jour hi" and if you answer with "bon jour" you receive a flurry of French. If you respond with "hi" they flip the switch and it's all in English. I'd love to be able to do that!

The weather is absolutely perfect! Yesterday our cab driver told us that "for the last 20 days is nothing but the rains."

I'm not sure what adventures we'll stumble across today. Becky is at the convention center trying to iron out something to do with her exhibit booth so I'm on my own for a bit. I can see an intriguing looking neighborhood from my hotel window, so I may go explore for a bit.

A bientot!


(p.s. I'll try to post my photos to www.flickr.com/chrislannan each night.)