I had a good night of sleep last night. I kept the side window open, and Simon asked to open the skylight before bed, so it was nice & cool and as science tells us, we sleep better when it’s cold. I slept like a proverbial brick. As we all know, bricks do not sleep. They are notorious night owls.
Oma & Opa were up bright & early for breakfast and we joined them just after 7. Opa was very talkative this morning and hung out for a long time, or at least long versus my expectations. He is obviously a step behind what he once was, but he’s coming along surprisingly well. He seems mostly himself.
After breakfast, D sat outside with him while I played with the dog. This guy loves it here, and I guess when I say this guy, I could mean Opa or the Bear. Bear loves the freedom this places gives him. We leave him off leash all the time, since there are no cars. And he will chase down the ball 40,000 times in a row if you throw it. He was just full of boundless energy this morning.
Mid morning we run to the food store and pick up some things for the cottage. Back home we relax for 45 minutes then get the family machine geared up to go mountain biking, which is our goal of the day. The kids were in the hot tub and I spent a little time reading. But soon it was time to get everything together.
Today is another fabulous day outside.
The trails at Tremblant are a combination of fun/flowy features as well as technical terrain. There’s really a little bit of everything here and you can tell the trail builders really did everything they could to make the most of what they had to work with. There is quite literally something for everyone – from paved bike paths to (I am not kidding) Pinkbike-level drops that Zac was not even remotely interested in trying.
It’s a pretty cool place. That said, we would have been lost without Philippe as a guide. He knows what direction to do every trail. I have been here 4-5 times now and I still would have no real clue how to properly navigate it.
In all, we did 11 miles in 1.5 hours. The Strava link can be found here.
Back to the cottage for lunch and the 5 of us absolutely dive into anything & everything we can find. It’s sort of this gang of thieves scene in my head, since we are late and left to fend for ourselves. By the time we eat it’s just after 2:00, and we gobble up all sorts of meats, cheeses, breads, and whatever else comes across our radar.
D and I hop in the hot tub after lunch to soak up a bit of relaxation. The neighbor is bailing the hay they cut recently in anticipation of the rain tomorrow. We enjoy the hot tub and watch the hay rolls being constructed.
We then take a walk around the cottage property. The day is amazing, so it would be a waste to not enjoy it.
On the way we find some random couple on 1 of the beaches on the property who did not get there by boat (since they did not have a boat). It turns out there are from Montreal and we really have no idea how they would have gotten there, other than some really long hike of trespassing. Whatever, we leave them be in the end.
The walk was 2.5 miles in an hour. Usually we do this on the 4 wheeler in about 10 minutes. The Strava link can be found here.
Back at the cottage we make a cup of tea, which is fantastic. Then I take a shower, which is also fantastic. I lay down and read a bit, trying to make this like a vacation as much as possible. Before long it’s dinner time, which is sausage, potatoes, various roasted vegetables, and salad. Very hearty meal to hit the spot on a day full of activities.
The rest of the night winds down, and we relax as much as we can while the kids continue playing their half online, half real life version of Dungeons & Dragons. The house is quiet at night, as Bear is obliterated from running all day. It cools off and I anticipate another brick-like night of sleep.
Traveling Normandy 