Before March my break my friend sent me a link to a Dealfind at Le Chantecler, a fancy (by my standards, which admittedly, are not fancy at all) hotel in St. Adèle, a small town in the Laurentians. For $119, it included a room with two double beds, two adult ski lift tickets to a nearby ski hill, two snow shoe or skate rentals, and two adult tickets to the breakfast buffet. And the best part- the kids stayed for free. My friend, whom I call my activity director because she reminds me before it is too late, was going and she thought it would be fun if we went together.
I agreed. We were going to get out of the city, by George! Back to nature! And trees! and snow that doesn’t look like it has been dumped into a large blender with rocks, and grime and dog poo! Fresh air! Exercise!
Here is the proof that we actually did leave the city, because I know you don’t believe me.
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| The Girls ready for their day of skiing |
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| Me of the mountain. Okay Me of the mole hill. |
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| J of the mole hill |
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| Us. Look! We are outside! |
Right about here we witnessed a horse buck its rider off and then run away down the path. The rider ended up in about hip-deep snow but was okay. The other horses were spooked as well. I think it might have been J’s too cool for school sunglasses…
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| Which way? Which way? |
After our hike, J and I went to play squash in the hotel raquetball court. We had never played before and wondered if our ball was faulty. The darn thing just wouldn’t bounce. We played for about an hour, finally getting the hang of it, and LOVING it! For J it was an aesthetic thing- he really like the sparse white walls with the ball marks echoing themselves all over. I just liked to hit things really hard.
The girls came back from their skiing and we went to our room to regroup. There was a line up for the pool (we weren’t the only ones who found the Dealfind) so we had a drink before going back down. When we arrived at the pool , there was hardly anyone there. It was wonderful- whirlpool, pool, sauna. Need I say more?
After our swim, the girls took one room and we took the other. They ordered room service and watched a movie, while we went down to the bar for food and drink. The food was nothing to write home about, and took ten years to get to us, but who cares? We had wine and Jamesons.
When we came to say good night to the girls, they were fast asleep.
The next day, the weather had plummeted by 15 degrees, so we took our time over a leisurely breakfast, eating about three times more than we usually do, just because we could.
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| Breakfast buffets are the bomb |
After breakfast, we forced the kids to walk on the lake with us. This felt very risky, as there were many sections that looked like they had already melted.We also risked the eternal displeasure of our children, for making them go outside when they didn’t want to. Needless to say, the experiment was short-lived.
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| Bouncy Castles are still fun even though we are cool teenagers (and one tweenager) |
Thank god for bouncy castles, one of the saving graces in the -20 weather.
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| The view of the lake from the hotel |
Still, it was beautiful. What more can you say?
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| Icicles off the side of the hotel window. |
The rest of the morning was spent swimming and playing raquet ball. We also played pool, table hockey. As our friends hadn’t used their snow shoe rental the day before and as they were statying another night. The last event before we had to go back to town was snowshoeing. J and I walked with them.
Now this also took a lot of cajoling. In fact, my oldest was on the verge of real anger with me. The pouts were palpable. Until she actually started padding around on the waist deep snow as if she was a light as a feather bird and then the smile was back.
And thus concludes our semi-outdoor adventure.
Lina Branter 