I'm not sure anyone knows what cold is until they have been somewhere like here...

Friday 30 April. We have arrived in Rimouski..... a small town (population 35,000) about 4 hours drive southeast of Quebec City (which is a very pretty place!!). We were a little shell shocked when we arrived.... contemplating whether we were going to survive here for 2 and a half months...... for one it was freezing cold..... 4 degrees is not the most pleasant of temperatures! At least the house we are renting is warm! We had a bit of a tour around the town today.... very small!! Our shop at the supermarket for a few things turned out to be a mega-shop instead..... found out how to say "I'm a tourist... can I have it for free?" in French - maybe I shouldn't tell you though...... its not really something you should say! haha! I think people would be kind of annoyed at you.

Saturday 1 May.  Quelle surprise!  We woke to a sunny day, and ended up in shorts and T-shirts as the day progressed.  We went to see Canyon des Portes de l'Enfer which means canyon from the gates of hell...... Its actaully a waterfall!! But unfortunately we got to the carpark and realised that the walk was 10km.... we didn't have enough time - as we were going to watch some swimming races that someone we knew was competing in - so we had a snowball fight with the leftover snow!!! That was a good alternative!! It turned out to be 15 degrees.... but it felt warmer than that!! Tomorrow is supposed to be 17 but we'll see.....

the first photo is of american sized servings.....where they give you everything too big.... there was no way we could finish these cokes!!! We also went to the aquarium... drew and I put our heads in this dome thing and had our photo taken...... They also had different types of animals like chinchillas (my favourite animal! seriously adorable) I may have got a bit excited!!

The architecture on this building was amazing!! you could just stare at it all day!!! It looked like it didn't belong in a city but in somewhere like Rome or Greece!!! It was called the Palace of Fine Arts!! There was a really nice short walk you could do around it!!! Unfortunately it was under construction so we couldn't go inside.....

ALCATRAZ.... INESCAPABLE! They call the top photo the hole where you go if you've been a bad prisoner..... The second photo is where some of the prisnors tried to escape.... they stole spoons and scraped the concrete to make the vent wider then they made fake heads put them in the bed and escaped.... no one knows whether they made it back to San Fran once they were out but we thought that they did....... The third photo is where some grenades hit the ground in what became known as the battle of alcatraz........ lots of people died..... when they were explaining that the sound FX were very gruesome (we did an audio tour) ..... they said that meal times were the most worrying time becasue the prisoners were ARMED with knives and forks..... apparently one guy was killed... gross....... to cut a long story short... it would be a horrible place to be!!

What have we been doing......

Yesterday we went for a walk through golden gate park...... it usually takes around 2 and a half hours but when you're tourists having a squabble over which way is the right way to go and the map isn't really helping (the park is bigger than you can imagine!!!!! It even has roads through it!) it takes you 4 hours..... but on the way through we saw squirels, moles and  a bison (like a buffalo) that didn't do much. So I suppose it was well worth it in the end!! On that same day we ended up taking a drive down to half moon bay to see seals and walk along the cliffs! we also bought live crabs from a boat at the marina!!! There was a crow following us and I bet it was coming to get Drew!! hehe!! After the end of that day we were seriously tired.....! Today was exciting.... after having breakfast in a teahouse we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge!!! It was so amazing!! On the other side we went to a beach (it was hot today!! 29 oC !!) and threw a ball around!!! Then we got to drive all the way back across!! the highways are so cool here!! the speed limit is 120kmph!! For dinner tonight we had spaghetti with this really nice sauce...... and we have a new way to test when our spaghetti is ready..... our host threw a strand of spaghetti against the wall...... if it sticks it's ready so in our case it was!!! We have also been to this really neat art museum!! it was massive...... it had some really original art in it!! There is also a guy here who is iconic/famous for jumping out of bushes in the city and scaring people...... we thought he was just a weirdo sitting by a rubbish bin but he jumped and out and gave mum a huge fright.... then we were told he was known for doing that!! entertainment kind of comes to you in this city.... when we were in a clothing store there was another guy doing a weird dance (in the middle of the store) to the music that was playing.. its quite funny watching everything/one!! Its so weird here catching trams and trains and the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car.... I never get used to that..... its a really strange city...... can't wait to see what else it shows us!!! =P

we found a candy shop... drew loved it.... naturallyThese are the trains!!! they go underground!!!!!!!!!They actually have yellow school buses here!!!!!!!!

The highway from the airport!

Part of the San Francisco!!!

Arriving at the airport we were greeted by about 6 of these.......

The Golden Gate Bridge!!!!