2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 13

Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada to Val-David, Quebec, Canada

The Rundown: We woke up early (for us!) only to see that the luge was running and the activity center was open! We'd planned to go to Village du Pere Noel in Val-David, but Katie was dead set that we try the luge. She was so excited! Unfortunately, when we got down to the activity center it turned out that the activities were only open for private groups, namely a preschool that had rented the place for a while. Katie was SOOOOO mad! We decided to stick with our plan of visiting Santa and shortly set off for Val-David.

One of my friends on Trip Advisor recommended that we try a specific restaurant called Au Petit Poucet while we were in Val-David. Since the restaurant was scheduled to close at 4pm we decided to stop for lunch. We forgot to print directions to the place, but got extremely lucky and drove right past it on the main drag. We were so excited! We have REALLY missed our iPhones on this trip! It's so easy to just type in a restaurant name and get an address! It just isn't worth $15 per MB to check that kind of stuff...

Anyway, we tried the restaurant and loved it! My TA friend told me that it was the only restaurant in the area that served authentic Quebequois food, and we weren't disappointed. I had the meat pie, smoked ham, fried potatoes, some kind of pumpkin or squash dish and beans. David had a ham steak, french fries and the pumpkin/squash dish. It was all delicious! We were thrilled that we'd stopped in.

After lunch we realized that the Village du Pere Noel was directly behind our restaurant. We headed over there for the fun of the day. The girls were immediately enthralled by the huge Christmas tree in the middle of the swimming pool. The amusement park was a total throwback to 1950-something. It was kitchy, but it was amazing! We didn't bring a change of clothes, so we didn't get to swim, but there were plenty of other things to do. They rode the train, ran through the funhouse, slid down the huge slides, rode the zip-lines, climbed into the treehouses and got to meet Santa. I must say, Pere Noel was the most genuine, authentic Santa I've ever seen. He talked to the girls for probably 15-20 minutes about what they wanted for Christmas, the snacks he gets in other countries (such as sushi in Japan) and all sorts of stuff. They were mesmerized and totally believed him. It was awesome!

After three hours in the small amusement park David and I were worn out. Neither of the children wanted to leave, and Reese threw a HUGE fit, but we left about thirty minutes before closing time. It took us about forty minutes to get back to the hotel and Reese was asleep before we got back to the main highway. She was worn out, too. The ride home was pretty quiet!

High Points of the Day:
Katie: Meeting the REAL Santa.
Reese: Sliding on the huge slides.
Shannon: Finding a great place to keep the kids entertained.
David: Eating at Au Petit Poucet.

Low Points of the Day:
Katie: Not getting to ride the luge.
Reese: Leaving Village du Pere Noel.
Shannon: The kids' behavior at the restaurant.
David: Being happy that the bugs attacked so that we'd have an excuse to leave the Village.

Photos of the Day:






Miles: 110

Total miles: 2223


Expenses

•Hotel: $0

•Admission: $50 CAD (Santa's Village tickets)

•Breakfast: $0 (hotel breakfast)

•Lunch: $60.62 CAD (Au Petit Poucet)

•Dinner: $0 (Snacked in hotel room)

•Snacks: $0

•Miscellaneous: $0

•Gas: $0

Total for the day: $110.62 CAD

Total for the trip: $685.04 USD

Total for the trip: $582.63 CAD

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