honeymoon - day 4

Today was deceptively busy. At the end of the day, I sat down to review the day's digital pictures with a feeling that we'd taken things pretty quietly that day.

Man, was I wrong.

We started out walking down long the sled run outside of our hotel. While there, it turned out that we were just in time for the annual Boat Pushing Race.



Essentially, some crazy Québecois row out into the frozen waters of the St. Lawrence River in a canoe, row as far as they can until they reach the large sheets of ice that cover the bulk of the river, then jump out and push their canoes across the ice the rest of the way. I'd read about this in my 6th grade French book. What I hadn't grasped at the time was the scope of the "sport." It's a massive endeavor. Those guys are nuts.



After watching the weirdos in the river for a while, we took a stroll down the oldest commercial street in North America, browsed some of the shops, and spent way too much money on postage and postcards to send back to our families State-side. We strolled around Vieux-Québec for a few more hours taking lots of pictures along the way. There was the guy with the all-wooden marrionette puppet show busking for money.



There was the annual soapbox derby that we passed by along the way.



There was the skating rink in the middle of town where some passing tourist offered to take our picture. There was the kindly old wood-wooker who taught me how to play the spoons.



Eventually we headed back to the hotel and I passed out. Manda wandered around the hotel for a bit while I was zonked out on the bed. When I woke up, we headed out for some Canadian fast food - more poutine and some damn good hot dogs. One thing I've learned while we've been here is that the Canadians really know hot dogs. That and that it's really freakin' cold in Québec during the winter.