Quebec City day 1 (sort of)

We arrived in the city about 7:30 so it's hard to call this day one in the Quebec City but since that is the destination of this trip the title shall remain. Besides this is my blog so I can call it what I want!

We left Media at a little after 6AM. Our first stop was WaWa for Dave's coffee. 476 N to Route 1 to 95 to 206 in New Jersey. We waved to Meg at the Clinton turn off and stopped in Hillsborough for breakfast at IHOP. We typically try to eat places we can't do at home but the time had come and traffic was thick so it seemed like a good idea. Traffic did ease up some by the time we were finished.

We continued onto 287 through New Jersey and onto 87 in New York where we would spend the next several hours. After a pit stop on 87 we switched drivers (Dave took over) and I took a sort of nap in the car. The trip through New York was more or less uneventful. It took about 40 minutes to get through customs (despite our best guess we picked the slow lane, of course!)

Just before the border it started raining and continued to rain hard through Montreal and beyond. The forecast (according the radio station we were listening to) was calling for cold temperatures over night and possibly snow flurries. It just occurred to me though that the radio station was out of Vermont so it has nothing to do with the weather here. It is cool though and very windy.

About 10 minutes out side of Quebec City it stopped raining. It looks like it was probably a really nice day! Hopefully that will remain the case for the weekend. I have a lot of meetings but Dave can go out and in the evenings we will have time to stroll the city together.

But back to the trip to get here .We stopped in Drummondville for dinner. All the billboards pointed to things in Drummondville so it sounded like a safe bet. We pulled into Mike's Restaurant. It turned out to be Italian and pretty good .The hostess pegged us right away and asked us if we wanted english menus. We said yes please. Poor thing had to go digging for them. Our waitress apologized that her English was not very good - but actually it was - and we managed just fine.

We arrived in Quebec City and I was stunned at how old it is. I suppose I knew it but hadn't really thought about it. Our directions to this point were great but the directions to get into the hotel were..... to put it bluntly... sucky. We took several turns around some narrow streets before stopping to ask the valet park how to get to the self park. Apparantly that's what they want you to do. The entrance we had passed twice.. it has a closed door and it opens when you approach. Kind of "Get Smart" like.... lol.

Once in the room and unpacked we decided to do a little exploring to find the registration site for the morning. We didn't get here in time to register for the conference tonight. So almost literally over the river and through the woods we went. We are in the Delta Quebec hotel which is attached to the Quebec Convention center by way of an underground walkway. Underground means.... yup, an elevator. I looked for stairs but couldn't find any and the elevator is not a friendly one *sigh*.

We managed to get over to the CC (convention center) and then continued on to the Hilton (all without going outside) and found the registration set up. I figure we need to leave the room by 7:00 to get there by 7:30... ok 7:15 at least.

It's time for some downtime. Dave is watching hockey as I type (appropos in Canada don't you think?). He is also flipping channels and found Everybody Loves Raymond in French!

I took some pictures but you'll have to wait till I get home for those. That way I'll have time to post and caption.