Trip Report! Days 7-8: Magog & Vermont

We left Quebec City bright and early to drive to Magog, which was on the way back toward Vermont.  Unfortunately I told Ben to go the wrong way on the highway and didn't notice for thirty kilometers, so it took us a little longer than expected to get there.  We finally arrived in the early afternoon and were starving, so we went straight to The Owl's Bread for lunch.  This was the only restaurant listed in the guidebooks for Magog so we figured it had to be good.

It was perfect. I got a roasted vegetable sandwich.

Ben got an open faced goat cheese sandwich.

And we both got the dessert of the day, which was lemon pie.

Once we were not starving, we went to check into the B&B, which was Au Manoir de la Rue Merry.  It sat up on a hill about a quarter mile from Magog's small downtown.

We had a little attic room which was nice and cozy.  At this point, however, Ben did say, "Do you think you can request that we not be on the top floor when you book these places in the future?"  Ha.  The stairs were always steep and carrying suitcases up three flights of stairs is not fun, I have to admit.

After check-in, we walked around the downtown area of Magog and over to Lake Memphramagog, which goes all the way to Vermont.  "All the way to Vermont" is not actually that impressive, because Vermont was less than 10 miles away.  

Magog, however, was thoroughly French, the Frenchiest place we went on the entire trip.  Most of the people we ran into spoke very little English (if any!) and everyone had a very strong French accent.

We saw a cat there.

We ate Mexican food at some random place on the main drag - I should have taken a picture, as my "spanish rice" was plain white rice with some peas mixed in.  Overall, the food was pretty good, although not authentic.

The next morning we drove a few miles to the Abbey of St.-Benoit-du-Lac, where their Gregorian chanting ceremonies are open to the public a few times a day.

It was a weird experience - it's hard to imagine the monks who live there going through the routine every day, living such a simple life in rural Quebec.  They probably don't even have Google!  Gosh!

They make blue cheese and apple cider at the abbey, as well as some honey and preserves, so we got a few things and had a little picnic just outside the grounds.

And then we got in the car and headed South toward the United States.  It was kind of a confusing trip through rural southern Quebec - our maps were less than stellar and sometimes the roads abruptly ended or turned to gravel.  We were relieved to finally reach the border, where we sat for a good 45 minutes for no reason we could discern, as there were only about 10 cars ahead of us.

Heading South through Vermont back toward Burlington, there were a lot of touristy sights and little stopoffs.  We decided to go to the Great Vermont Corn Maze, which turned out to be in the middle of absolutely nowhere down miles of gravel roads.  Thank goodness for Google Maps.

When we arrived at the Corn Maze we discovered that they stop letting people in at 3:00 because it takes between 2 and 3 hours to get through completely.  Naturally, it was 3:15.  We didn't feel super up for a 3 hour corn maze experience, anyway, so we just paid $5 to get into the petting zoo.

Baby cows!

Baby goats!

The goats were insanely friendly.

This sheep hated us, though.  He would not allow himself to be touched and kept giving us dirty looks.

Ben decided to play this weird miniature golf course they had.  I tried the first hole but got too bored.

The corn was ten feet tall at least!  I have never seen corn that tall that I remember.

On the way to our dinner reservation just outside Burlington, we got pulled over for speeding!!  44 in a 30!  Naturally we had no idea what the speed limit was and the policeman was sympathetic and only gave us a warning.  I took this picture of a Vermont cat while we were waiting for him to run our plates and such.

Official warning!

We had dinner at The Kitchen Table Bistro in Richmond, VT.

It was fantastic, but we were seated outside and it got dark too quickly to be able to take food pictures.  Coincidentally, our friends Art and Leanne were also in Vermont, visiting from Massachusetts, so we met up with them for dinner!  It was a great way to end the trip.

I must say, in closing, that I feel compelled to tell you all to avoid the Motel 6 in Burlington at all costs.  I hadn't realized until late in the game that our last weekend on vacation was also Labor Day weekend, and wasn't able to find anything decently priced in the area that would accept a one-night reservation.  I am generally not too choosy about hotels, but this place was extremely noisy, to the point where I had to go out and yell at drunk people in the middle of the night, and all the lighting in the room was insanely bright fluorescent.  It felt like we were in a bus station.  I wrote them a strongly worded email suggesting they gut and renovate the entire building.  I mean, seriously.  It was bad.

But, except for that, a great trip!  I recommend you all visit Quebec!