A 3 Day Vacation

Have you ever been to a destination wedding close to where you live?  I would highly recommend that you push anyone you know who is getting married to do this!

This past weekend, my friend Jacqui got hitched in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Niagara is about 2 hours from where we live.  Since Ryan and I didn't get a vacation this year, we decided to take Friday off and make a weekend of it. 

Friday morning was nice and relaxing.  I think I slept until 7:30.  Whoa, I know!  We relaxed, had some coffee and headed down to my old University stomping grounds.  I love going to the St. Catharines/Niagara area because it still feels like home to me.  There is this amazing provincial park down there with a whole bunch of trails, so we went on a big hike.

This waterfalls was part of the hike.  Unfortunately, the water flow was pretty low so it wasn't one of the best that we have seen.

The hotel that we were staying in has a beautiful spa.  We spent all morning there on Saturday in their outdoor hot springs, getting a couples massage and we even ate our lunch down there.  It was very relaxing.

Then it was wedding time!  The wedding was really beautiful and the hotel did a great job.  And Jacqui looked amazing too!  It's so much fun to get everybody together to celebrate a marriage and I think that we all had a fantastic time.

 The one thing I sometimes miss at weddings?  Getting out on the dance floor to catch the bouquet.  I know, I know, what a weird thing to complain about.  So I stood on the sidelines and watched these girls fight for it.

 No wedding is complete without a picture of all of the girls.  It was such a fun weekend and I'm so happy that Jacqui chose this location and included us in the festivities. Congratulations Jacqui!

Note:  I just tried to edit out some of my exclamation marks.  I get pretty excited sometimes.

Waterfalls of Quebec

Ryan and I are big into waterfalls, so of course, we had to make a few stops while in Quebec. 

The first waterfalls, Montmorency Falls, is just outside the city and is basically on the side of the highway.  It's taller than Niagara, although not as wide.  We did the entire trail and walked the stairs to the bottom.  Then we realized we had to walk the 470 stairs back to the top.  Either that or take the Gondola for $20.  $20?  I don't think so.

It was very beautiful although very touristy.

After Montmorency falls, we drove around Ile D'Orleans, which is a large island in the middle of the St. Lawrence.  We stopped at a Chocolaterie which had ice cream.  I had a dark chocolate dipped cone, and let me tell ya, I am still dreaming about this delicious ice cream cone.  It's a good thing it's so far away....

We also stopped at a Chocolaterie which had ice cream.  I had a dark chocolate dipped cone, and let me tell ya, I am still dreaming about this delicious ice cream cone.  It's a good thing it's so far away....

It was impossible not to get chocolate on your face...just sayin'

We stayed for a couple of nights at Mont-Saint-Anne, and hiked Les Sept-Chutes the next day, which means Seven Waterfalls (for those of you who speak the same amount of French as my husband). It was an amazing hike up to the top. 

They also have a hydroelectric plant there.  At the top we were able to see the dam. 

From the dam down to the plant, they had this huge pipe that is full of water flowing through it.  The hydro plant controls the water pressure based on the hydro demand at any given time.

We also did a tour of the hydro plant.  It was built in the early 1900s and it took 300 men 3 years to build the entire system.  They then had men living on site to run the plant.  It is now run remotely and everything is automatic.  It was really interesting.

I love being somewhat active on our holidays, and so all of the walking and hiking on this trip definitely met that criteria!  It was pretty exhausting but everything we did was worth it.

Guess what, I'm not done talking about this trip yet.  Next week I will tell you about the "biggest" activity that we did.  (Then I'm done, I promise, maybe.)

Hunting Waterfalls

One of our favourite past times, is going to waterfalls.  This is why Ryan chose to propose at one.  With all of the renovations and the marriage and the winter, we hadn't been out to any lately.  So this Sunday we went out waterfall hunting.  We headed down to Hamilton, the waterfall capital of Ontario, with plans of seeing 3 waterfalls that we had never been to together.


First stop was Tiffany Falls.  It was really beautiful.

We have a waterfalls book that gives us directions, and it said that we could either drive to Washboard falls, or climb up the bank next to Tiffany falls to get to it. 

Washboard is one that I have always wanted to go to, it looks small, but really neat.  Here is what we could have seen:

This is the only picture that isn't mine and it was taken from here.

Ryan thought we should try the climb. 

Here is what we tried to climb:

So we got about halfway up, I only had one minor panic attack, and then Ryan decided it was too muddy to go any further.  So then I had to panic attack my way back down.  We tried to drive around to Washboard falls, but since the book was written, it has been blocked off as it's on private property.  So now we have to go back and attempt the climb again in drier weather.  Fantastic.  I'm looking forward to it. 

After that, we carried on to Sherman falls.  It was fairly close and just off the side of a road.  Good thing cause it was raining hardcore off and on and I didn't want to get caught in it.  This rain caused some water spots on my camera lense that I failed to notice.  Let's just say it wasn't exactly waterfall hunting weather.  Here is a helpful tip, waterfalls pictures are best when it is overcast, so that the sun doesn't reflect off the water.  Overcast is the key word, not raining/sleeting/hailing.  I also forgot my tripod, which was disappointing because my pictures could have been much better with it.  Oh well, apparently we have to go back anyways.  

After the waterfalls, we headed to Ikea!  It was a quick one item stop that I needed Ryan's truck to pick up.  But that is a post in itself!