Sabrina moved to Ottawa for school and I told her I’d go visit her while she’s there. I decided Winterlude would be a great time to visit her and we could go to Mont Tremblant since it’s only 2.5 hours away. Linda and her boyfriend, Mike joined me as well.

Day 1 – Saturday February 18, 2012

Our plan today was to hit up the Ottawa Winterlude festival and go skating on Rideau Canal. After our hearty homemade bacon and eggs breakfast, we headed to Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau, Quebec to the Snowflake Kingdom to try winter activities. We slid on the ice slides, tubed down a mini hill, snow skated and saw snow sculptures. It was a bit melted due to the warm weather but that didn’t damper our spirits.

The ice slides were the best! They were slippery and steep. You could go as a group or on the singles. Both of them were equally fun. Sabrina was determined to try snow skating so I decided to do it with her. It was tough! Very different from snowboarding. I wasn’t confident enough to go on the ramps… Not falling was tough enough.

We left the park and headed back to Ottawa for lunch. We ate at Ahora, a Mexican restaurant. My taco salad was delicious!

We were planning to go skating but the canal was closed due to the warmth. We were disappointed! Oh well, next time. Instead we did some shopping at the Byward market and Rideau Centre, followed with cupcakes and beavertails.

We walked towards confederation park to see the ice sculpture Gardens. En route, we stopped by parliament hill to see the buildings at night.

The ice sculpture gardens were melted and the sculptures were not as beautiful as they once were! I could only imagine how detailed they would have looked.

We walked to Khao Thai, which had some very good food. It hit the spot after a long day. I also introduced Mike and Linda to Thai Ice Tea, which they instantly became fans of.

We called it at night and prepared for a early Sunday morning.

Day 2 – Sunday February 19, 2012

We woke up at 5:00am and started making way to Mont Tremblant. The GPS route was horrible so we had to use google maps. Next time, we’ll just rely on the google maps on my phone. We arrive at 9am. Linda and Mike were gonna go tubing and the Scandinavian spa, while Sabrina and I were gonna hit the slopes.

We had to wait a lot in the lift lines but we definitely got the most of our full day 8:30 to 3:30 lift ticket. I think we got a total of 7 runs from 10-3:30 with a quick beavertails break in between.

The view from the summit was spectacular! Regardless of the crowd, the view of the other mountains and the lake were amazing and breathtaking. The snowy trees were also beautiful. The ski conditions were icey and some hills had mini moguls formed from other skiers tracks. Regardless, I loved it!!! The runs were long and fun.

Our first two runs were brutal! It was a very scenic green run called Nansen but was very flat at times. Too flat for snowboarding. It was exhausting because it was so long!

Our second run we decide to attempt a blue… We somehow ended up on this super flat area blue than led us to the other side of the mountain where no one was. It was even more exhausting! Our other runs were so much fun. I can’t wait to be back next year.

We met up with Linda and Mike afterwards and went on the soleil free gondola watch the sunset and checkout the casino. We had dinner at Fat Mardis followed by a quick stroll of the Mont Tremblant Village to see the nightlife.Very romantic.

Day 3 – Monday February 20, 2012

We started the morning at the French Baker for some pastries and coffee. It was good but not spectacular.

We wanted to go skating but sadly the canal was still closed so we planned to tour the Parliament Building instead. However, the tour tickets were two hours later so we just went inside and went up the peace tower. The view was different but nothing impressive. The interior architecture was nice though.

We picked up lunch at Shawarma Palace that was highly rated and it didn’t disappoint! The chicken plate was the food highlight of this trip. The combination of flavours from the meat, potatoes, rice, salad and sauce complimented each other very well.

We said our goodbyes to Sabrina and drove back to Toronto. Yet another perfect winter weekend getaway with great company.