Day 3
We had breakfast at “Le petit Chateau” which is attached to our hotel. From there we struck out for the Aquarium. We were pleasantly surprised at the aquarium. It is located right on a cliff above the St. Lawrence. I expected a main building, and a few standard pieces of play equipment outside, and was wowed to find things very different.
They have done a really nice job of making gravel paths wandering through alpine like flower beds. There were quite a few large sand sculptures along the paths as well. Lots of rock everywhere (it was a cliff top), and they really worked with the topography to create amphitheatre like seating for people in front of the Sea Lion enclosure, and the polar bear enclosure. You had no problem seeing at all. We caught the last part of the sea lion show, and got to go up quite close to them.
Massive animals, and what the heck are those thick whiskers for?? Will have to wikkipedia that.
After we trotted over to wait for the polar bear feeding, and boy am I glad we did. It was the highlight of my day. We sat again on this theatre style seating, and got a place where we could see the polar bears both above and below the water.
The keepers where up high on a cat walk, where they tossed food down to the bears “Eddie” and “Frances”. I am only sorry that most of the show was in French, and my french is well not so good. Suffice it to say it was amazing, and seeing the bear underwater and watching it manouver was super super cool.
This all didn’t impress our youngest…he was more interested in his bottle. Don’t you just love his retro cowboy bib?
After this I didn’t hold out much hope for the actual aquarium building, and again I was pleasantly surprised! It was not a big building, but they have jam packed all sorts of kid-friendly displays and activities in there. The first thing R did was get a fishing rod and “Fished” in this mini lake.
Grandpa would have been proud, and she was so delighted to catch a fish…she even got to keep the fish she caught! Then we went around to the displays, very well done, all with fake ‘stone’ right beside all the tanks so the little ones could get super close.
Upstairs there were more displays, and also a huge coastal room where kids could touch pretty much anything in the tanks. R had a great time here, so did daddy. Past this were jellies, large seahorses and more tanks of tropical fish.
The piece de resistance was a huge “pacific ocean” tank. On the second floor we walked around the top of the circular tank. There was a school of fish swimming in the large circle, but when you looked closer, and down, you saw that the tank went all the way down to the main floor. On the main floor there was a tunnel you could walk through so the fish in this giant tank swam over you. Very cool.
I should also mention the whole place was clean (important to me!) and loaded with little seating areas for families for lunches, had microwaves available, and lots of picnic tables scattered throughout the park. Very impressive. The bathrooms also had everything (sinks and soap) at kid height. The cafeteria was small but decorated in the ocean theme, and I must say the ‘ham and cheese” wrap was amazing, made with brie cheese, and toasted to perfection! Ah, those French.
I was prepared to spend the rest of the afternoon at the playground and splash pad, but again was I ever in for a pleasant surprise! Coming out of the back of the main building, they had terraces built into the cliff, and each terrace had a large pit of wood chips, and some sort of activity made out of wood (balance beam, rope climb, zip line etc). You were surrounded by this beautiful forest, and had all these lovely activities to go between. R had a grand time. We spent quite a while there. Here are pictures from her on all sorts of the play equipment.
From there we went back up to the cliff top and there was an AMAZING playground. So much stuff to climb, and a large section for smaller kids too. Next to it was also the splash pad (which always makes R happy). Dividing up all this playground equipment were flower beds, grassy spaces and picnic tables. It was just a delight. I so wish we lived closer, I’d by a seasons pass in a heartbeat. Suffice it to say, if you are ever in Quebec, make sure you see the Aquarium.
We were dog tired by the time we got to the hotel,
but of course R went for a swim yet before supper. We ate in this snazzy little Italian joint where they had a huge wood burning oven for pizza. I had a pizza with tomatos, basil and mozzarella and boy was it every good. J was restless during our meal, so we decided to let him munch on the super hard crusts of the baguette. He really enjoyed that, and it kept him occupied for the whole meal. After supper we took a Calesh ride around the old City. You know, things are never quite what you expect when you have kids. Somehow I forgot to tell R that the driver would also be talking to us and telling us about the sites. Between her chatter, and J’s blowing raspberries, I really didn’t catch much of the tour explanations. Oh well. It was still fun, and R was thrilled that the horse’s name was Belle. Once back the room we discovered R had one Gummi bears as a prize for her “Miss Lightnin’ McQueen” picture!
