The Manley/Coleman Family

Weight = 23 pounds
Height = 31 inches
Head Circumference = 47 cm

🙂

In Quebec City, we stayed in the famous and glorious Chateau Frontenac. Perfect timing as well: inbetween the high tourist seasons, so it was fairly uninhabited, but also wonderfully decked out for the holidays.

The view from our room:

We walked down Rue Saint Louis to the famous Citidel.

For dinner that night, we went to a creperie. Reeve wouldn’t eat anything. Just one refusal after the next. But we had mentioned to the waiter that Reeve adores blueberries. So the waiter took some “bluets” out of the freezer and presented them to Reeve, who then instantaneously decided that he was hungry again. It was disastrously messy, but fun. And the waiter got a big tip for his fast thinking!

The next day we wandered down the narrowest street in North America: Rue du Petite Champlain. Perfectly decorated for the holidays. We saw some murals, lots of historical sights, and a museum that day.

One more family portrait in front of our hotel, the Chateau Frontenac.

The pool was so successful in Montreal, we had to try the one in Quebec City:

A shop owner gave Reeve a balloon to play with.

Reeve found the train ride back to Montreal exhausting, so he took a good long nap before we left for the airport.

And daddy knows how to burn off Reeve’s energy before having to sit on a plane for several hours: he found a cart that Reeve could push around. And around. And around.

We had many frequent flyer miles saved up that we had intended on using on a huge trip around the world. But then we had a kid. So we thought, well, time for Plan B! So instead we used the miles to celebrate our anniversary, have an excuse to get a passport for Reeve, and go somewhere international yet close by. So we went north to Canada! Everyone gave us grief for going north in December, but it turned out that Canada was warmer and sunnier then Chicago that week. And Quebec City is so much like Old Europe, it was perfect.

We split our visit between Montreal and Quebec City. So we’ll split Reeve’s Canadian experiences into two posts.

Not wanting to lose Reeve in a large crowd, yet let him burn off energy, we bought him one of those leash/backpacks. We swore we’d never do this, and yet here we are. Needless to say, it didn’t really work well, so it became more of just Elmo on a leash.

The hotel in Montreal where we stayed was the Queen Elizabeth, which is also famous for hosting John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their 1969 “Bed In for Peace.” One of the hotel employees was nice enough to let us see the room (which is available for a much higher price then the other rooms, of course). It has many incredible photos of the Bed In.

There’s nothing Reeve doesn’t like more than being naked and having control of an electronic device, like a remote control.

He’s also big into climbing stairs. The Museé de Beaux Arts provided him with the perfect and very long staircase for his stair-climbing pleasure. And mom and dad got to see some great exhibits too.

One afternoon after a round of sightseeing, Reeve was done with being carted around the city. So we relaxed in the kiddie pool for some fun.

The next day we stopped in to a small cafe in a very old building to have lunch. It was one of the best lunches we’d ever had, and they had a very nice christmas display on their more-then-2-feet-thick windowsill.

On the way back from lunch, we got a family photo taken at the artist’s alley.

On our final morning, with limited time, we decided to trek out to the Olympic Park, where the 1976 games were held. They have a very cool Biosphere with amazing animals. Reeve was transfixed.

But all that animal-watching can tire a guy out. He passed out in the train station on our way to Quebec City.