Tidbits

Sleepover at Ikea - Maybe this is the only way to get to the $1 early enough…
A ramen bath - Japanese spa with special baths resembling instant noodles. I wanna play!
Old age homes for dogs - 1) Old dogs don’t like to be abandoned at strange places. 2) Playing with young puppies will probably cause the older dogs to die faster due to exhaustion.
A remote-controlled pigeon - Oh the poor thing…
An article on a brilliant method of teaching grade schoolers about bats and rabies. I smell a lawsuit.
Will trade beer for Crumpler bags. Tempted by the beanbag and messenger bags…

Mont Ste Anne 2009

February 19, 2009, 10:04 pm

So took another ski holiday over the Valentine/Family Day long weekend. This time, we drove all the way to Quebec City. We left Friday morning and drove back Monday. Google map says it is 890 km from Waterloo and will take 9 hours to drive. I think we took longer than both ways. On the way there, we hit Montreal traffic, at 3:30 no less, and it took HOURS to get through it. Stop and go, stop and go. It was ridiculous. On the way back, we decided to just drive around Montreal, on back roads. Distance is a bit shorter overall, but you can only do 100 km/h max.

Someone else organized this trip. We rented a large 4 bedroom house that sleeps 12 close to the slopes. There was 9 of us, in three cars. And I think only six of us actually skied, and only four (ahem, us) skied for both days. The rest was just there for a road trip or something. We need to know more people like that, then it won’t be such a struggle trying to find enough people to fill a room for dcevent trips.

The weather again, was not on our side. When it rained here last week, it rained in Quebec too. Turned the city into a giant ice rink, practically. At least there was snow. Quebec has a LOT of snow, a little rain can’t melt it all like it did here. At least it wasn’t crazy cold either. Saturday was a really nice day actually, sunny and blue skies, around -10 or so. A bit icy near the top, but sort of manageable. We gave up on night skiing, however, because at the end of the day, when the sun goes down, all the surface snow has been scrapped off and all that’s left was ice. Sunday, the clouds rolled in and there was a light snow throughout the day. Ah, much more like what skiing weather should be like.

Ste Anne itself is a pretty decent resort, but we weren’t able to explore it completely due to the poor snow conditions. It had a section that’s only serviced by a T-bar. I don’t think I’ve been on a T-bar since I was learning to snowboard at Mount St Louis, which was on a bunny hill. Back then, I think we just held on with our arms and got pulled up. Not really a feasible option here, being rather steep. Instead, you just hook the bar behind your lead leg and have it pull you up that way. I wished I’d taken a video or a picture though, but I was too occupied trying to figure out how not to fall. I do find it amusing that when skiers fall on the T-bar, they move aside and ski back down. When snowboarder falls on the T-bar, they would hold on for dear life and let it drag them up the hill.

I think I need to invest in some volleyball kneepads after this trip. One knee is a very impressive purple and yellow colour right now.

We also did not realize that the Quebec Carnaval was on at the same time. In fact, it ended on the 15th, the Sunday. It actually caused some problems for us on Sat night. We made V Day dinner reservation at this rotating restaurant, but was unable to actually get to the place because the street it was on was blocked off for some parade thing. Needless to say, it means all surrounding streets was crowded and had zero parking. So we gave up and went back for hotpot. Good thing too. They bought so much food, we needed to have hotpot two nights in a row to finish it.

I haven’t been to Quebec City since middle school. I don’t think I ever realize how hilly the city is. It would be really nice to walk around it in the summer. In the winter, however, you live in fear of whether your snow tires are enough to get you up the icy-looking slopes. Walking around seem dangerous too.

I also realized that my last French class was more than 10 years ago, in Grade 9. Now all I could think of are Mandarin phrases.

I think this is the last major ski trip of the season. Probably a good thing. My skier’s tan got worse. Random people on the gondola would point and laugh at me. I feel like such a poser.

Photos on Facebook:
- Mont Ste Anne 2009
- Quebec City for Family Day