Valentine's Day List

1. Roses at the Ice Hotel
2. LoveBot
3. Teuscher Valentine Truffles
4. Luzon Bleeding Heart Dove
5. I Heart ...
6. Heart's Content
7. Distillery Heart
8. Blue Whale Heart
9. Lovebirds
10. LOVE on the High Line

This is a list of things from our travels that remind us of Valentine's Day.  Love is in the air and maybe you will get an idea of what to get or do for your special someone this February 14th.

1 ) Roses at the Ice Hotel

Roses are a nice touch on Valentine's Day, but why not a wall of roses carved out of ice and lit up above your own private bed.  Sure it's below zero celcius in the room but the Hotel de Glace is a beautiful place.

2)  LoveBot

Around Toronto we have encountered LoveBot.  We have spotted him in several graffiti filled alleys.  He is just a little expressionless robot but he is filled with love.

3)  Teuscher Valentine Truffles

When it comes to cute truffle boxes, Teuscher is the best.  This Valentine's couple is a great gift for anyone who likes cute and chocolate.

4)  Luzon Bleeding Heart Dove

A Luzon Bleeding Heart Dove looks as if it has been stabbed in the chest. Don't worry it is alright. What looks like a wound is just part of its plumage used to attract a mate.

5)  I Heart...

As campaigns go, the I Love New York campaign has been very successful. The word love has been replaced by a heart.

 We also encountered the I Love Regina sign when we were in the capital city of Saskatchewan. You would probably have a hard time finding someone called New York, but if you know someone called Regina then this is where you should take them on Feb 14th.

6)  Heart's Content

To do something to your heart's content is to do it until you are completely satisfied.  It is also a small town in Newfoundland.  Perhaps your heart will be content in Heart's Content.

7)  Distillery Heart

As you enter Toronto's historic Distillery District you will see a heart that has sunk into the brick walkway.  A very popular spot to take photos with the one you love.  In fact, try as we might, we still couldn't take a photo without at least one person being inside the heart.

8)  Blue Whale Heart

The blue whale has the biggest heart of any living creature on earth.  We have a great love for blue whales.  Imagine one of these hearts filled with love.

9)  Lovebirds

Some more love comes in the form of lovebirds.  These three birds are Lutino Peach Faced Lovebirds at Bird Kingdom in Niagara Falls.  Lutino means they are albino so they have different colouring.  Being albino has absolutely no affect on their capacity to love.

10)  LOVE on the High Line

The High Line is a park created in New York City from old elevated train lines.  On one of our visits we found LOVE.  We hope that everyone finds love this Valentine's Day.

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Map of Our World

Toronto Zoo , Bird Kingdom
 Royal Ontario Museum , Heart's Content Cable Station , Hotel de Glace
Teuscher Toronto
The High Line , Distillery Heart , Regina City Hall , Laguardia Airport

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Post # 277

Montmorency Falls

Location: Quebec, Canada
Address:  5300 Boulevard Sainte-Anne
Date: Aug 2017
Website:  www.sepaq.com

  Montmorency Falls is one of the highest waterfalls in Canada.  It is the highest waterfall east of Alberta.  After visiting Quebec City we stopped for a visit on our way to Tadoussac.  We took a cable car up to the falls then crossed over the falls on a bridge and then descended hundreds of steps back down on the other side.  This allowed us to go full circle around this impressive sight.

  We purchased our tickets which allowed us to park our car, ride the cable car and stroll the grounds surrounding the falls.  The cable car whisked us up to the top in no time at all.

  After exiting the cable car we found ourselves at the base of the steps leading to Manoir Montmorency.

  Manoir Montmorency is a restaurant situated next to the falls and clinging close to the edge of the cliff.  After passing the restaurant you take a walkway to a bridge that goes across the falls.

  This bridge is where you experience the true force of the water as it passes beneath you and drops 84 metres.

The water from the Montmorency River flows to the edge of the falls.

  The water then prepares itself for the big drop as people admire it from above.

Then it falls.

All the way down.

  The water then continues on its way into the St. Lawrence River.   The day we visited the water levels were quite low which makes us wonder what the falls would have been like after a big rainfall.

  After walking over the falls we crossed another smaller bridge and from the top of the hill we were treated to an excellent view of Quebec City.  Montmorency Falls are just a short drive north from the city.

  The next part of our journey took us down a series of steps built on grey slate rock.

From the stairs you could get a great view facing the falls.

  You could also get a great view of the zipliners racing past the brink of the falls.  We had seen the zipliners picking out their helmets and building up their courage inside Manoir Montmorency earlier.

  As we looked down into the mist a rainbow formed.

  Finally we reached the bottom of the stairs and ventured onto a platform covered in the mist from the crashing water.  

  In the winter this mist and spray forms what is called the Sugarloaf or Le Pain de Sucre.  It is created by the mist collecting and freezing to form a huge bump at the base of the falls. 

  We travelled along the edge of the grey slate slopes until we found ourselves back at the cable car station.  Our journey had now come fulll circle and we had admired the falls from every angle.

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Map of Our World
Montmorency Falls

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Post # 209

A Night In The Ice Hotel (Hotel de Glace)

Location: Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier, Quebec, Canada
Address:  1860 Boulevard Valcartier
Date: Feb 2010
Website: www.hoteldeglace-canada.com

  The Hotel de Glace or The Ice Hotel is located just north of Quebec City.  It is built out of snow and ice each December and tourists come to admire the beautifully carved rooms.  We blogged about these in a previous post.  Guests can start spending the night in January.  We spent a night in early February 2010.

  Quebec gets a lot of snow and gets very cold.  There was so much snow that a team of shovellers had to go to work clearing the roof of a nearby lodge.  As far as the cold, outside of the hotel it often drops below -25 Celcius.  Inside the hotel it is around -5 Celcius.  To spend a night here is a bit of a challenge.

  Just in case you need some real warming up, there is a lodge next to the Ice Hotel.  It is a regular structure with normal temperatures inside.  This is where we had lockers to keep our luggage, clothes  and toiletries  We also had trouble sleeping and visited this area a few times during the night.

 

  Our room was not one of the fancy rooms with carved sculptures inside, but a simple space for us to sleep.   The room was located down one of the long snowy hallways that got even harder to navigate in the middle of the night.

  The doorway is just a curtain which is part of the reason you keep your belongings in the lodge.   The bed is made from ice and wood and then covered with a fur.

    Aside from wearing thermal undergarments we were also given our special sleeping bags.  They were designed to keep you warm in extreme temperatures.  They had a double layer and a zipper inside so you could zip yourself up like you were in a cocoon.  They would cover over part of your face and then there was a hood to pull over your head to reduce skin exposure.  The only issue for one of us was that the biggest bag they had was still a little too short.  Any sort of kicking or stretching while you were sleeping and it would pull tight on the hood and you would wake up in a panic.  Fortunately you could unzip quickly to finish the stretch, but it made for a long night.

  The best part about spending the night in the Hotel de Glace was that once the busloads of tourists left we had the place pretty much to ourselves.  We headed to the Ice Bar.

 

  At the bar you could get a drink inside a glass made of ice.  We enjoyed a few of these and when we were done the bartender just threw them behind the bar.  The ice was specially formed so it would not stick to your face.  It did melt a bit as you sipped your beverage while dancing to the DJ.  The glasses also did some neat tricks when we slid them across the tables made of... what else but ice.

  Eventually even the bar had to close.  We went and did some more night time exploring.

    In a small open section there were washrooms and change rooms located in a small building.   We made a few visits here in the night due to the combination of the cold and the time spent at the bar earlier.

  If you were really brave you could run to one of the hot tubs and sit out under the stars.  We didn't see anyone brave enough to go for a dip that evening.

   Aside from a few drunken people that mumbled something at us, the only other person around in the middle of the night was a security guard near the main gate.

  There were torches allowing us to find our way back into the hallways that would lead us to our room once more.

  Eventually morning arrived and we packed up our gear and left our fantasy castle of ice.  We had a once in a lifetime experience and some great stories to tell.  The Ice Hotel is beautiful, but we were planning to get a better night's sleep at the Chateau Frontenac that evening.

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Map of Our World
Hotel de Glace

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Post # 203