Le Vol Vers le Québec: Entr'acte

Once safely arrived in Quebec and well-fed at Le Bistro M, we made our way to the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired rental home in hyphen-rich Saint-Paul-D'Abbotsford. The homeowners claim it to be FLW-designed, but the collective jury is out on that point and the place looked to me more like the Brady Bunch house than anything else. But it was a large living space available at a reasonable rate for hosting nine members of our far flung family from Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, and New York for "SurnameFest".

While there, The Bear took frequent advantage of the exquisite indoor pool. We enjoyed injury free miniature-golf; fantastic, chaotic group-prepared meals; a family photo shoot with a professional photographer in downtown Montreal's World Trade Center during which time we somehow managed not to get kicked out; shamefully excessive consumption of Vernors; a visit to an alpaca farm, supposedly the largest in Canada; a trip to the resort town of Bromont where we ogled the chocolate and ate the flowers; and a tour/tasting at the Michel Jordoin Cidrerie (what, Michael Jordan makes hard cider?!). In Quebec, there is no distinction made between "cider" and "hard cider"; it is all assumed to be hard.

So, here's a greatly abridged pictorial summary of our week in Quebec:

The trees in the front of the house were absolutely magnificent.

The indoor pool / humidity generator.

Looking toward the main entrance.

I'd heard that there were moose in Canada, but this was not what I was expecting.

Not a camera trick. The house was freakishly long.

Typical dinner motif: Vernors and wackiness.

Completely out of stock on Pearsons, as it turned out.

NONE CAN RESIST THE MESMERIZING POWER OF ICE CREAM JONATHAN!

One of these people would emerge a hole-in-one champion!

Awkward putt #1. Not the hole-in-one champion.

Montreal World Trade Center elevator selfie. Photo by Lisa...er...Pam...er...I don't know...

A portion of the Berlin Wall in the World Trade Center.

Someone just could not keep her finger out of the fountain.

Makeup! Wardrobe! Hair!

Decompressing after being photographed way too many times.

Two-dimensional chocolatiers in Bromont.

Made from chocolate. Too high on the wall for The Bear to reach.

The Bear spent the rest of the afternoon randomly shouting "SCHWING!" and getting a lot of laughs without knowing why.

Because Quebec.

Lunch in Bromont.

The fresh-squeezed apple juice was amazing.

The five stages of flower eating. Stage 1: denial.

Stage 2: bargaining.

Stage 3: moment of truth.

Stage 4: moment of regret.

Stage 5: acceptance and chewing.

The Bear ordered this magnificent tarte au citron to go...

I'm not gonna lie, there were tears, but it still tasted good.

When you hang out with famous knitters, you do things like visit alpaca farms.

The Bear won the staring contest with this alpaca.

Because alpacas make funny faces.

Not all the ciders were alcoholic! Cheers!