A Quick Trip to Quebec...

Or not! Try 12 hours in the car! We headed to Mont Tremblant for some spring break skiing. It was a super long car ride, but well worth it once we got there! We road-tripped with our good friends Jon and Tina. Let me tell you, 12 hours in a car is the true friendship test and those two totally pass every time!

Gil found a condo on an app called Airbnb and it ended up being the perfect place. Close to the mountain, cute, and way cheaper than staying in a hotel.

The mountain was beautiful and the views were amazing. The first day of skiing was a little rough for me because I was breaking in a new pair of ski boots and as I said many times that day, my feet felt like they were in a silent prison. I had to stop a couple of hours early while everyone else kept skiing. However, day 2 and 3 of skiing were much more comfortable and so much fun.

Sunday and Monday were better skiing days because it was less crowded than Saturday, too. There was a Red Bull competition going on so it was a little crazy busy the first day. Skiing was so much more fun when it was less crowded (haha, Tina).

Monday was the best ski day because the temperature had dropped, which made the snow way more ski-able. It practically felt like we had the mountain to ourselves this day and we had considered not skiing that day. Glad we decided to go out!

On the way home, we took the scenic route and drove by the 1000 islands , which was pretty cool. As you can imagine, it was a bunch of islands. It was interesting to see houses built on them. I can't really imagine living on an actual tiny island.

We also took a quick ferry trip across to Ottawa, which was kinda fun. In typical Sue fashion, I had an awkward moment when I put the car window down to pay, realized we didn't need to pay yet, awkwardly said "Hi!" to the attendant, and then put my window back up. Strange looks ensued from said attendant. 

We got home on Tuesday night and picked Laila up from daycare on Wednesday. She has done nothing but sleep deeply for several days now. My favorite. 

And after some very cold temps in Canada, I am happy to say that it is finally starting to seem like spring around Michigan. 

I have aqua shoes to prove it!

Now hurry up warm weather!

Spring Break Lovin'...

I feel like we just got done with mid-winter break and I'm already looking forward to spring break! I have a feeling that the rest of the school year will fly by after spring break is over.

So, spring break. I think we will be heading here...

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Canada ski vacation...here we come!

UP! Adventure: Day 3 Tahquamenon Falls

On the third day of our trip, we headed over to Tahquamenon Falls.

First we walked around and took pictures of the falls. There were a lot of stairs!!

 Then we went for a hike. It was such a hot day!

Laila was pretty hot by the end of the hike, so we headed down by the water.

 I was surprised to see so many people playing in the water near some very fast moving parts of the river and near some of the falls. We personally had no desire to die a watery death...so we found a calm spot in the river where Laila could cool off.

 After Tahquamenon, we headed to Sault Ste Marie, where we spent our last night. Yes, it was a whirlwind UP trip.

We didn't have any grand plans for Sault Ste Marie, but wanted to cut off some of our driving time for the following day. We got dinner at West Pier Drive In (which we read had some great burgers) and went down by the Locks to eat. After that, we just walked around and got ice cream and then headed back to our hotel for the night. This was fine with us, because we were exhausted by this point!

In the morning, we headed back home. We were only in the UP for a few days, but with all the driving we were ready to get home. Can't wait for our next trip!

UP! Adventure: Day Two Pictured Rocks

I've always heard that the Pictured Rocks are amazing and I often see the Pure Michigan billboards showing the kayakers around Pictured Rocks. So we knew we wanted to head to Munising for one of our days in the UP.

There were some trails and places in Pictured Rocks National Park that did not allow dogs, so we had to plan around Laila a little more on this day. We just looked at the park webpage for dog friendly locations. We started out the day by checking out Munising Falls.

After that, we went to Miner's Castle. Gorgeous! The water color was Caribbean. 

 After Miner's Castle, we headed to Miner's Beach. This was such a fun part of the day. Laila was a swimming machine. I wish we had grabbed a video of her swimming because it was so cute. She basically fetched a stick out of the water for about an hour. The beach wasn't very crowded and we headed further down, away from people so we didn't have to worry about our dog bugging anyone.  I did take a few shots of Laila at the beach on my phone.

We knew we wanted to do the boat tour of the Pictured Rocks, so Gil figured it would be smart to have Laila exhaust herself swimming beforehand (smart man!). Pictured Rock Cruises offered free pet kennels for people traveling with pets. So Laila took a little nap while we went on the boat. It was about a three hour tour (name that show) because we took the slightly extended trip out to Spray Falls.

Disclaimer: If you do not want to see a bunch of rock pictures, stop reading now!

The Pictured Rocks were really amazing and beautiful. If you ever do the trip, make sure to sit on the right side of the boat for great pictures. The crew was pretty entertaining, the narration was funny, but they gave a lot of cool facts about the rocks as well. 

Ok, here come the rock pictures (we took about a million)...

Spray Falls 

Lighthouse on Grand Island

The boat tour was super touristy, of course, but worth it. There's no other way to see the rocks like that. Now I want to camp at Pictured Rocks. It would be so amazing. During the boat tour, we saw some people high up on the rocks who were hiking and a few people swimming. Maybe next summer??