Bean's World

Saturday, June 24, 2006

The Long Awaited Quebec Trip Report - Monday, May 29, 2006



Monday

Mr. Bean asked if he could sleep in this day so I had no problem. What I was worried about, however, is a trend he has on the last day of a trip. Whenever it’s the last day of any trip where we’re driving, as soon as he wakes up, he wants to go. I’m not that way, I would like, if there is something else to see – to see it. And here, I wanted to go to the Montmorency waterfalls (which are supposed to be taller than Niagara Falls) before we left. But I was deathly afraid Mr. Bean, after sleeping late, was going to want to go straight home and miss the falls. He slept until about 9:30 am, and I was happy to find out he stilled wanted to go to the falls before the ride home.

So I had directions from Fodors, but I just wanted to make sure they were correct. So I went to the concierge and was shown the highway was not only right outside the hotel, but that it couldn’t be any quicker to get there! It was unbelievable how easy it was to get to the falls. I don’t even think it took 10 minutes and it was all on one road, pretty much. And it was weird, you’re driving on a highway, and all of a sudden on your left is a VERY tall waterfall.

Although the falls did appear extremely tall, because it is not as wide as Niagara Falls by a long shot, it just didn’t seem as amazing. Don’t get me wrong, they were beautiful and I’m so glad I saw them, but I give Niagara the win. It was hardly busy there at all – maybe because it was chillier than the past few days and cloudy. The park cost $8 Can to drive into the park. We then were able to buy the cable car tix ($6 Can one way, $8 round trip) and get on right away. Now, if cable cars scare you or you just are a masochist, they do have stairs going up the side of the falls – but let me tell you – they are VERY steep and at one portion get wet from the falls. I’m not a fan of stairs because I’m a klutz – I have fallen both up and down steps many, many times, and sometimes needing emergency room visits from it, so I wasn’t interest. Mr. Bean wanted to walk down them, but I said – no thanks, I don’t need to die today. And because it was chilly, I didn’t need a cold either. But I have to say the cable car was a bit nerve racking. I’ve been in them before, but this one was smaller and seemed to sway a WHOLE lot more. And, there is no employee on them with us – it’s just the tourists. Makes you wonder why there aren’t employees on them. But the cable car was a beautiful view and we got up in record time.

At the top, there is Manoir Montmorency, above the falls, which was opened in 1994, and has a restaurant right next to the falls, and a bar and gift store. It was very cute. I could totally see having a wedding reception there. We had a glass of wine and a café au lait at the outside seating area of the bar for $9 Can. The prices for the food were not bad either. It was nice to relax and people watch. While there, we noticed that there is a neighborhood of many houses near the falls. Could you imagine just taking for granted one of the tallest waterfalls because it’s your neighbor? Or being sick and tired of having to show guests to your home the waterfall?

After enjoying our beverages, we then walked over the falls which have a bridge over it you can use. That bridge is right over the breaking point of the top of the falls, i.e., where the falls start going over the ledge. Talk about a little scary. Especially once we read the history that the two previous bridges collapsed and over went the tourists. I’m not a big fan of tall bridges anyways but I have to admit the view was pretty. And I was proud of myself because I walked the whole way across the bridge twice. And it was here hubby and I got our first picture of together – pretty sad that we went the whole weekend without a picture together.
I have to admit there were two things I thought VERY interesting about the Falls. First, there were no employees guarding the bridge, the falls, whatever. In the U.S., there would have been at least 10 park employees watching the area to make sure that no Yahoos decided to get it into their head to jump into the river or whatever. Nope, here, the Canadian park employees decided we were smart enough to know that it wasn’t a good idea. Second, there was one park employee at the top and right next to the falls – selling alcohol in a little refreshment stand – never a good combination in my mind – alcohol and common sense. Once again, Canada decided we were smart enough to handle it on our own. Thanks Canada, for trusting my instincts.

After taking in the beautiful sights, we did the return trip on the cable car and left the park. We were there about 1 ½, 2 hours at most. It was great. We left about noon so we were expecting to get home about 5:30-6 p.m., a perfect amount of time. But it was not to be. Because the border crossing took over 2 hours, we didn’t get home until after 8 p.m. Talk about a long day. And boy were we ticked about the border crossing – the U.S. needs to get it’s act together. They have it so about 20 feet in front of the border, you all of a sudden go from six lanes to 4. And it caused A LOT of problems. We didn’t move for the longest time. We were going stir crazy. And of course, we found out after the fact that if we had taken the last exit in Canada before the main border crossing at the Northway, there was a MUCH smaller border crossing that is little known that we could have used and gotten through – now we know for next time.

All in all, an amazing trip and one we can’t wait to do again!

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