Hello from Quebec (Magog) - 2
Sunday, March 13, 2005
So I am cheating a little, I am already back in Toronto, writing
this little summary of the second half of our trip to Quebec.
While we didn't ski on Wednesday because it was too friggen
cold, we did have a beautiful day of sunshine on Thursday,
albeit a little on the cool side (about minus 15 Celsius...).
Well, it was certainly a perfect day to go skiing on Thursday
and we chose to go to Jay Peak in Vermont, just south of the
Quebec border. It took us about an hour to drive to Jay Peak
from Magog and getting through the US border was very quick. And
the US border officials were very friendly and even cracked some
jokes with us.
Jay Peak is the largest ski resort in the area. We had skied
Mount Orford (1770 feet vertical drop), Owl's Head (1770 feet
vertical drop as well) earlier in the week, but Jay Peak clocks
in at 2153 feet in vertical drop. It feels like a real mountain,
with the rocky outcrop on the highest peak and an aerial tram
(or gondola) that ferries skiers up to the highest point.
But we did notice Jay Peak was a fair bit pricier than the ski
resorts in Quebec. We had paid Can$34 for a half day at Orford,
Can$15 (!) at Owl's Head (the Tuesday and Wednesday full-day
special, regular half-day rates are Can$26). Jay Peak came in at
US$42 for a half day or US$56 for a full day. Good thing was
they were willing to accept Canadian dollars at par as long as
we paid in cash, but even so the price differential was
substantial.
On the other hand, Jay Peak offers by far the highest elevation
as well as the largest number of runs with 75 trails. We had a
great day at Jay, we truly enjoyed all the blue and single black
diamond runs although we are not daring to touch the double
black diamond runs yet. It was a fabulous day and we had a
gorgeous view over the Appalachian mountains set against a
brilliant blue sky.
Friday morning was the second time we saw sun and I decided to
drive to Sherbrooke and do a little photo safari. Sherbrooke is
a rather picturesque city of about 100,000 people or so and it
has a beautiful cathedral, city hall and various other rather
amazing architectural jewels. Driving back on Highway 10 I came
over a hill and at one point I was able to see all 3 major ski
mountains (Mt. Orford, Owl's Nest and Jay Peak) at the same
time, even though the latter two were about 30 or even 50
kilometers away. That panorama was amazing.
Of course the snow drifted back in in the afternoon and rather
than to go skiing we decided to play a late afternoon game of
tennis at the Centre Sportif de Memphremagog. In the evening we
had a beautiful dinner at a great little Italian spot on the
main street of Magog: "La Piazetta" where we both had one of the
best meals in a long time.
Despite my self-professed bent of adventure, I am admittedly a
culinary wuss and on Friday I decided to be daring and order
escargot (okay, snails) with garlic, camembert and basil. It was
truly one of the must succulently delicious meals I ever had,
despite ingesting a slightly chewy rendition of mollusks.
Saturday we got our stuff ready and started the drive home,
naturally surrounded by snowfall, as we had experienced most of
the week. Funny enough, just after the Quebec/Ontario border the
clouds started to clear up and we had a clear blue sky all the
way home. It took us 7 hours door to door and 657 kilometers.
And it was worth every minute. This was a really nice, relaxing
vacation.