Our original plans were to go from Riviere-du-Loup to the Thousand Islands, but that is a long drive in one day. We decided to break up the trip by stopping at Quebec City. It is about 130 miles between Riviere-du-Loup and Quebec city and there were three rest stops along the way. We did not see any rest stops in the other Provinces we visited, but have seen four so far in Quebec. We were so excited, we stopped at two of them.
With a motor home and tow vehicle, we appreciate rest stops. Without them, we have difficulty finding places to stop along the way. The motor home and tow vehicle combination are too large to stop just anywhere. In fact, getting fuel has been very difficult in Canada. We usually go to the truck pumps in the U.S. because we have two fuel tanks and there is plenty of room at the pump. We cannot use the truck pumps in Canada because you need some kind of a card key. That means we have to figure out how to get to the pump that has diesel. At some stations, it is not possible. A few times, we have had to disconnect the two vehicle to do it. Often, we have to wait for awhile to get access to the only pump we can reach. Between the gas station difficulties and few rest stops in the other Provinces, traveling in Canada with a motor home can be difficult.
We are glad we stopped at Quebec City. There is an aquarium here and I went to it the first afternoon we arrived. Wow! I saw so many amazing animals and many of the fish were very big. I have seen some of these variety of fish in other aquariums but not as big as they were at the Quebec aquarium. It was very crowded though. Nevertheless, I enjoyed one of the exhibits so much, I went through the building twice.
Quebec city is on the other side of the river from us, so the next day we parked the car at the ferry terminal, boarded the ferry on foot, and traveled to Quebec city by boat. Dart was allowed. The city is beautiful. I have not seen anything quite like it. We roamed the streets for a bit and then decided to get lunch. I looked up pet friendly restaurants and only found one but I couldn’t locate it on the map. We gave up and decided to pick something and ask if we could sit at an outside table with the dog. We eventually made a choice and they were very accommodating. The name of the restaurant sounded familiar so I looked it up and it was the pet friendly restaurant listed on my search. Quebec is not a small city, so I think it is amazing that we randomly arrived at the pet friendly restaurant. We do not know if other restaurants would have also been accommodating. Just because they weren’t listed, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t allow dogs.
After we ate, we wandered the streets some more. I enjoyed all the original art work. There were numerous wonderful art galleries. I could spend the day going through them and it would be especially fun if my sister was with me. We came upon a street musician playing the saxophone and sat and listened for awhile. We later came upon a street musician playing the violin and enjoyed listening to him for awhile.
Since Dart wasn’t having as much fun as us, we returned. If it was just Regis and I, not only would we have stayed the whole day but we might have extended our stay in Quebec City because there is so much to see and do and so many places to eat!
