Welcome to my first day of freedom!  For those of you who either don’t know me, or haven’t read my “About Me” section on our site, I am currently pursuing my Master Degree in English and as of 7:00 last night I am officially FINISHED my first semester!  I wanted to throw open the window shutters like Scrooge this morning (Forgive me, I was taking a Dickens class) and I’m just basking in this freedom and irrepressible excitement.  That being said, I wanted to blog again since I’ve been neglectful in that department for a while.

Christmas is so close!  As an Eastern Pennsylvania resident I have been absolutely loving all the snow.  I love the outdoors, and I love cold weather.  It has never stopped me from doing anything, and that includes hiking!  I want to share with you the second half of my trip to Quebec, which was a trip to Mont Tremblant.  A little ski village about an hour and a half north of Montreal, Mont Tremblant is a picturesque little paradise.  It’s a huge tourist draw during ski season, but it’s possibly just as big a draw in Autumn, and I think when you see some of the pictures below, you will see why.

Doug and I stayed at a hotel called Ermitage Du Lac and we LOVED it.  We had a wonderful suite with a remote-controlled fire place, a kitchen, a giant bath tub, a sitting area, a little balcony, and a king sized bed.  Breakfast was included with our stay, as well as passes for unlimited gondola trips up the mountain, the staff was super friendly, and we were literally a one minute walk from the town center.  If you ever make the trek up to Mont. T., I highly recommend staying there!

Here’s the town from our drive in:

Our main reason for going to Mont Tremblant was to hike, but it of course goes without saying that we planned on eating well too!  Smoke’s Poutinerie was number one on the list.  It’s pretty much a one-man show, with several giant burners on a stove and huge vats of homemade gravy for the fries.  I got the traditional style poutine and Doug got vegetarian which had a hearty sauce made with mushrooms.  We loved it!

Another favorite was Tire Sur La Neige, or maple taffy on snow…you really can’t go into that part of Canada and not have any maple candy.  There was a giant barrel of shaved ice and the owner of the adorable little shop, The Sugar Shack, pours tracks of hot maple syrup and it freezes into a tantalizingly gooey taffy on the “snow” which you then peel off with a popsicle stick.  It was really the coolest thing.

The town has two levels to it, and you can walk up stairs to get from the bottom to the top, but there is also a gondola that will take you from one level to the other.  Both levels are filled to the max with little shops (Roots clothing, anyone?), boutiques, and restaurants.  You really can’t run out of things to see, even if you aren’t going there to hike.  But hiking was on our agenda.

We headed out early in the morning to beat the crowds and spent close to seven hours on the mountains.  It was some of the most amazing hiking we’ve done, and it was really rugged.  Lots of gigantic “puddles”, and even a steep incline of rocks with a thick rope tied around the tree at the top that we used to propel ourselves down.  The forest is very dense but the views we did get were absolutely breath-taking.

There’s not a lot that beats adventure; even if it’s in your own backyard, or our wonderful neighbor to the north, I always can’t wait for the next one!  Speaking of which, the day after New Years Doug and I will be heading back to Canada, this time the capital of Ottawa.  I can’t wait. :)

I hope everybody has a fantastic, safe, delicious, and above all a MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

~Lauren