Today’s adventures would include touring the world famous Château Frontenac, visiting a working military instillation, and walking the old walls of the city.  Château Frontenac is quite dramatic, in my opinion, particularly as it is perched high atop enormous cliffs rising above the swirling St. Lawrence River.  First, I learned the château was never really a château; rather it was built in 1893 as a grand hotel with more than 600 rooms on 18 floors.  During a tour we learned it was where Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King discussed their strategy for World War II.  I also found out it is where my grandmother-in-law’s parents spent their honeymoon in 1925.  I’ll bet it was grand!  Afterward Burk wanted to see the Citadel.  It is the oldest military building in Canada located on Cap Diamant.  I thought it was really neat for them to allow civilians access and also liked seeing both men and women in uniform.  We wandered our way around the ramparts and saw, among other things, a large boardwalk running between the cliffs and the Château Frontenac, old cannons, and the St. Louis Gate.  Just outside in the “newer” part of the city rock music was playing in the square, Québec flags were flying and they had big “400” numbers that lit up the night.

“We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore.  What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not.  Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.” ~ John Wesley Powell, U.S. soldier and explorer of the American West