Jamaica 2025 Sandals Negril Day 2

 We woke up bright and early, partially thanks to the time difference. The weather was definitely not bright.  Second day with rain. People often freak when the weather forecast at this time of year in places like Jamaica, shows rain every day. It's usually short lived. I found in Florida, there was always a thunderstorm at 4pm, but here, it was much more random.

We still hadn't experienced the breakfast entertainment. I assume because of the rain, and because there were vinyl and canvas walls. There was a wait for the breakfast buffet, even though some sections of seats were totally empty. We were told to get our food and come back to the hostess stand. So then we're all waiting there with a plate of food that's getting cold. Doesn't make sense. Then the hostess seats you, turns over your water glass, but doesn't get the water. You have to wait for another person. It just takes too long. The food was okay, though some foods are strangely labelled..."boiled provisions"? They looked like potatoes. Fish wasn't always labelled as to what kind. There is a custom made omelet and egg stand, which is always good, and a custom smoothie maker which we didn't try. Lots of breakfast pastries and breads too. I don't normally eat breakfast, so I try to limit myself to just some proteins. The bacon was very overdone. The sausages were different every time we went up. The little round patties were good! 

We went and hung out at the beach for awhile, since it wasn't too hot and sunny. 

These people were finding starfish and other little creatures. I had read that the sea grass was an issue in the swimming areas, and it was. This isn't sea weed, it's small plants that make the bottom squishy, and things like starfish, sea urchins (we heard many horror stories), crabs, etc like to hide. One day we found two starfish and a good size conch in the swimming area.  Water shoes are recommended, and I'm so glad we took some. 

For lunch, we went to Sundowner. 

We had house salads, and Rob got the Burger 2.0 (he says it was really good). I had the ackee & callaloo pasta (picture above). It was my first time trying ackee and callaloo (which is mainly sautéed peppers I think). There was ackee items in the buffet, but I wanted to try it in a restaurant so it would be fresh and intentional. It was good. The texture is like a firm banana but the taste is quite mild. 

Not sure why Rob got room service. It's included with the Concierge (Club) Level. It's not like we were starving ever. 

At some point, we went to Club Sandals to enquire about the spa and excursion credits that were part of the sale we booked. It didn't show up on the app, so we weren't sure what to do. They couldn't find anything in their file, but would look into it. I made another request for robes.

We went back later, and they still couldn't figure it out. We had booked over the phone because we had questions--including if we got the free night for our anniversary, would we still get these credits. They assured us on the phone that we would. We had the booking confirmation but it didn't have anything on it about the credits. We found the actual Sandals sale email that showed what the bonuses were, and our booking date was the next day. They kept passing us off to another staff member. And then they do that thing where they're talking to you but then they're talking to someone else and you're just standing there like, are we done? One staff told Rob they could offer "some" credits, but not what was in the initial sale offer. He said no way. Eventually, Romaine, "The Fixer" got involved. He's head of hospitality or something like that. He said it's showing on his computer we have the credits, but it might take until the next day to show on the excursions and spa's computers. Okay.

Looking from the beach side, our room is on the top floor, second from the right (of the rooms that are fully in the picture). We had neighbours some of the time, but not every night.

The sunset view from the room. We didn't get to see this every night, because we usually go for dinner at 5:30. As always, there's a big issue with the camera steaming up when you go outside!

For dinner, we went to Brava.   I'm pretty sure I got the 7 Mile cocktail which was quite nice. This was the  Enselada de Manzana--Apple salad.  I got it partly because it was to have fennel in it, which Rob doesn't care for, so I don't cook with it at home. There was also supposed to be walnuts on it. Well, you can see in the picture--there's no fennel. They used cucumber, and the nuts were pine nuts. Still tasty, but would have preferred fennel. 

These are the Croquetas de Pollo (chicken logs), and Patatas Bravas, something we hadn't gotten to try in Spain. They were just roasted potatoes with some sauces. The chicken croquetas were described as "Chicken and bechamel fritters". I thought the bechamel would be a sauce over top. No, it's in with the chicken. This made the interior very soft and mushy, which I was fine with but Rob said no way. We were going to get the asparagus but they were out of it.  This seemed to happen frequently (being out of an ingredient or food. Even at one bar, they couldn't make the drink of the day because they hadn't been given the special ingredients).

We also got the Gambas al Ajillo-- Garlic shrimp with parsley, Scotch Bonnet and Brandy which were good, though a bit spicy, and the Calamares Fritos, crispy calamari with pickled onions and alioli (that's how it's spelled on the menu). Rob had one and said it was chewy. I had one and it was really good. Tried another, and it was chewy. Flavour was nice. The Carne a la Parilla--grilled flank steak, red pepper confit and green olive chimichurri was delicious (though there were some grisly bits). 

This is a dessert, the Ensaimada Mallorquina-- Mallorcan spiral pastry with Jamaican chocolate. While quite good, it was very rich and I couldn't finish it. I'm not sure if Rob got anything. I don't think so. 

After dinner, we would walk along the beach and the pathways. We'd talk to the security guards at either end too. It's a great resort for being able to take walks. It's not huge, but you have three options pretty much. The beach itself, the pathway between the beach and the buildings, and the pathway between the buildings and the fence. This one was used mostly by staff, or people going to the smoking area at the back of the Paradise building. You could also walk through each building, which is nice when it's raining. The buildings did not need key access.

We were starting to notice some maintenance issues. A lot of things were just looking a little rundown. Bathroom doors would have the locks replaced and they didn't try to make it look good. The pedestal sinks in this bathroom, the legs were all angled differently. Little details that most people don't notice, but they were starting to add up. We also didn't get our room cleaned and have a night turn down most nights. They just either never came, or came when we were there and getting ready to go out but then their shift would end so they couldn't come back. We asked again about the robes, and they still hadn't come. We even encountered a woman wrapped in a towel who opened her door and asked us if we had seen the maintenance people because she was mid-shower and the water stopped. When we were intially in the Club Sandals lounge to report about our water issue, another couple were in and were unhappy because their phone hadn't been working for 2 days so they couldn't order room service. 

The evening's entertainment was to start with a movie on the beach. Great! We were the only ones there to start, and then another couple came. It was "One Love" the Bob Marley movie. It was slated to run 7:30 to 8:30 and then there was a show in the buffet dining room stage at 9, so perfect timing, right?

Shortly after 8, wind gusts came and blew over the screen. We tried to upright it but couldn't. Rob was in the bathroom and missed it LOL. There was also lightning, which wasn't uncommon, so they opted to stop the movie. We asked if it'd was going to be shown again and they said no, there was a different one scheduled for later in the week. We asked how much longer was this movie, and the guy said there was about an hour left. Well! That would have interfered with the show!

The show was about Jamaica's history and culture. It started with a live, small band. They were good, but loud. It was actually a bit of a challenge to find seats that weren't an obstructed view with the big posts. As well, people were still eating dinner, so that felt weird.

Then the actual show started. The dancers and singers were really good, but the problem was, it was SO LOUD that it was actually hard to understand what was being sung or said. I plugged my ears, and that helped, but man. It did not need to be that loud. We noticed a lot of people moved, so eventually we did too. We went back to the bar, and it was still so loud it was hard to order at the bar. We went outside, to the pool deck, and that was a bit too quiet, but it made nice background music. I don't understand why stage techs think louder is better. They need to step out of their booths and go where the audience is.

We were a little hungry, so we popped by Perla. It had been storming pretty fierce since about 8:30, and the app said they opened at 10pm but they were totally shut down. We thought it was because of the rain, but they never seemed to be open late night when we'd check.

And that was day 2, Monday Oct 13. 

Jamaica 2025 Toronto to Montego Bay to Sandals Negril

 Note:  As I write this, Hurricane Melissa is about to make landfall on the southern coast of Jamaica. It will be devastating. This blog is entirely non-monetized, so I earn nothing from it that I could donate to Jamaica recovery. I encourage you to donate to the Red Cross, or The Sandals Foundation, or another organization of your choice. While they can't handle tourists, they'll need support more than other. 

We went back and forth with whether or not to get a "limo" or park at the airport. Last year, because we were going for 2.5 weeks, the "limo" was cheaper than parking. And it was nice! This year, we were having to leave home at 4:30am, and getting back at dinner time on a Sunday, so the drives wouldn't be too bad. However, my truck (2001 4Runner) broke down just before the trip and Rob didn't want to park his truck (2010 FJ Cruiser) at the airport. So we opted for Mr. Limo again. They are a local company that his family has used for years. This year, we even got the owner, Lori, as our driver. It was a quick and easy ride to the airport, and it's so nice to just get dropped off at departures and not have to find a parking space, then walk to the train, take the train, walk some more....

We didn't have to go to the ticket counter (uh, actually we did, but I sort of forgot, more later), and had no checked luggage, so off to security we went. We got through really quickly this time, neither of us got pulled for a luggage search, we didn't have to take off shoes either. We didn't really like the set up though. Each person gets a narrow area that's divided by panels. You get a bin, fill it, then put it on the conveyor in spots that fit the bin. This meant that those people closer to the x-ray machine had to wait for spots because they'd get filled by those near the entrance. As well, there wasn't room for a second bin on the counter, so you had to wait for the first one to go. This means your bins could be separated by quite a few other bins. As well, the man directing people to the different stations did not seem too awake LOL.

Our gate was basically right there, so to say we were early was an understatement. We even moved down a gate since there was a flight at our gate before ours. We debated about getting food. Rob voted for Subway. I didn't think I could handle a sub or salad at 6am. We ended up at the little "pub", you know the type....Fox and Fiddle, Tiger & Giraffe, Fern and Lily. It's a chain but I can't remember the name. We had a pub breakfast. Not terribly expensive (except the coffee seemed pricey) and the beans with Rob's meal were cold so they brought him some new, steaming hot, ones. Not busy at all. 

We got back to the gate and after sitting a bit, I noticed a faint smell of something burning--something chemically.  I'm pretty sensitive to smells, and no one else seemed to notice. I decided to go for a walk down by the duty free shops. As I was heading back I felt my watch vibrate and saw it said Gate Change. I was headed back anyway. Then I heard an announcement. When I got into the gate section, I could see our area had emptied and Rob was standing up, looking my way, on his phone. My watch wasn't vibrating, but I took my phone out and it was ringing. I didn't answer LOL. He was annoyed I hadn't answered his texts. It seemed my phone was still on Sleep mode. We started walking, I just followed a bunch of people but after a couple minutes Rob asked if I knew where I was going. No, but he hadn't said which way to go, nor stopped me, so....

We turned around, walked through the Duty Free shops to our new gate, which was in the same area as when we flew to Spain last year. It was actually quite a walk. I heard someone else mention fire, but I don't know if the smell and the gate change were connected.

Finally we could board. There were at least 15 people who needed wheelchairs, even though they hadn't had wheelchairs already. One older lady I noticed at the old gate, she was wearing two straw sunhats! It was obvious, a large black one with a smaller natural one on top. Funny! We were in zone 3 and when we scanned our boarding passes, Rob got "rejected". They had to validate his passport. Oh yeah! I thought cause the app still made him the boarding pass that it had accepted his passport, but apparently not.

I got a middle, and Rob got the aisle. It was mostly a smooth trip, some turbulence requiring seatbelts, but not bad. We got to Montego Bay though, and it was a HARD touchdown. Like, we jolted forward in our seats. We could see Lucy and Liam's Air Canada plane at the gate next to us. As we got off and headed through the corridor, we tried to see if we could see them at the gate, through the big windows, but no. They were already on the plane and sent us a picture of our plane LOL. 

We rolled down the long ramp and the Club Mobay representatives were at the bottom with their signs. We had been undecided on this but I had secretly bought the package! Our sign said "Happy Anniversary, Big R and Little T". I didn't even notice it at first cause I was looking for our last name LOL. I had forgotten what I requested! Our guide zig zagged us through lines and customs, super fast as we had no checked bags, and brought us out to the Sandals Lounge. She passed us off to a man who tagged our bags and said we had about 20 minutes for our ride.  

Here's where we experienced our first bit of Jamaican-isms. Every time we had to stop for something/someone, the guide would start talking to them and not tell us what was happening. Were we supposed to be part of that conversation? Who knew. We couldn't always tell who she was talking to; we felt like cargo. We just thought it was cause she knew everyone since she worked there, but it came up quite a few times in the week. 

We didn't even get to go to the Club Mobay lounge, which apparently had actual food. I found out after doing the surveys that Club Mobay brings you directly to the Sandals lounge if you're going to a Sandals. Yes, we could have walked over to Club Mobay, but we thought we'd get food at the Sandals lounge.  At the Sandals Lounge, no one offered us anything. We used the bathroom and before Rob got out, our ride was ready. We were told we could grab some snacks for the ride--there were bags of peanuts and plantain chips, and cold water. We followed the man that had our bags, to a taxi-van. Again, he'd talk to people and kind of dismiss us. I was told to get in, but I was also trying to get my wallet out for a tip, and everything spilled, and the driver is saying "That's how they get paid" and I'm like yeah, I know, but my bank cards and ID are all over the floor and the door is open and....

We headed out of the airport, towards Negril. It wasn't too busy, but it's still a lot of traffic. She said on Friday nights it could take 4 hours to go across the city. She tried to teach us some Patois but we sucked. She was on her phone a lot--answering and making calls, texting, even Googling car models that Rob asked if they had there. We asked about the cell phone laws and she said there's heavy fines. There's also heavy fines for speeding, and not wearing a motobike helmet--as we saw a guy doing a wheelie, with no helmet, right in front of a police car!

We pulled up to the resort, and it's literally, right on the main road. Slide through the gate and there's the lobby. There were so many people/staff, it's a little overwhelming. Someone's handing you a cold towel, someone wants it back 30 seconds later, someone is taking your luggage somewhere, everyone is saying "Welcome Home", someone is guiding you, people are leaving...you interact with at least 5 people before being taken upstairs, by someone else, to the Club Sandals rooms (if you're concierge level). 

There's two Club Sandals rooms, one on either side of the staircase in the lobby. Not sure if there's a difference--they look the same. We were offered a glass of their signature cocktail--a turquoise colour sweet drink. There were pieces of fruit and some sweets or cookies, most times, when we went in. 

Here again, we experienced the "am I supposed to be included in this conversation they're having with a co-worker?" They would often switch from that conversation to talking to you but you're kind of zoned out by that point...

We were given a quick rundown on the features of concierge service.  They made some dinner reservations for us, but we noticed later that some details were missing on the cards, like date or time. Our rooms were ready so they took us down to the buffet. 

Rob's first piña colada!

Rum and Diet Coke for me. 

The buffet is "open air" which is ...interesting. We'd find out at breakfast just how interesting this is.

We went back up to the Club Sandals room (they hadn't told us what to do when finished eating) and had to wait a bit more. We got taken to our room then, Paradise building (building 5), 3rd floor, the "right" wing as you approach from the buffet. No elevator. Room 5314.  Or, as the Jamaicans say it, five, tree, one four.

View to the left

View to the right.

View from the entrance, but in a couple steps. This room has been updated--new floors (which they put right overtop the old floor so it's a little weird by the sliding doors. Most people won't notice, but Rob does). They painted the dark wood furniture. It's pleasant, but one reason we chose this resort was it had a traditional Caribbean feel in some of the buildings. They also did a poor job painting. They didn't even take the TV bracket off the wall, and they got paint on it. Of course, a detail like this doesn't affect the quality of your experience, but makes you wonder where else they're cutting corners. 

I always check the fire escape details when in a hotel. The map had us marked in the wrong room. It's indicating 5312, but we're 5314. Again, small detail, not affecting the quality of your stay, but it's still an important detail that should be accurate. 

What did we do next? Ooohh.  No, not what you're thinking. I used the bathroom. The toilet seemed a little weak, I had to flush twice. The hot water ran out mid handwash. Rob used it a few minutes later and it would not flush at all. Nor was there any water in the tap. 

Our "luxury included", high end, all-inclusive vacation did not include running water?!

We trotted back to the Club Sandals, and there were different staff. They phoned someone and told us it'd be about 45 minutes to get fixed. I mentioned that I thought robes were included. They said you had to ask for robes. So I said I'd like robes please. You'd think they'd bring them while the water is getting fixed, right? No. The robe saga would continue for three days. 

We went for a wonder, exploring for a bit. We stopped at the watersports and signed up for the glassbottom boat and snorkeling trips the next day.   Then we came back and got ready for dinner. The water was fixed, but no robes. 

This isn't my picture. 

Dinner was at 5:30 at Kimonos. The first thing Rob noticed was the patch jobs on the roof shingles. 

The cocktail selection was sake based and I had a mojito. It was quite nice, if you like sake, and I think I do. I don't have much experience with it--just Gumbae on Resilient Lady. 

You get seated with other couples, there were 3 other couples, all from the US, here to celebrate anniversaries ranging from 5 to 58 years. 

Our chef was fun, I think his name might be Paul. Not a lot of fancy tricks, but I don't know...call me lame...I'd rather just have good food than watch egg juggling. The food was quite good, and plentiful. The menu can be found HERE.   I had the Kimonos Salad to start. It was nice, and not too big. Some restaurants make their salads huge and mostly lettuce, but this was not like that. The Emperor's Feast gets you a bit of everything, and there was plenty to go around. Sure, one of those whole steaks would be great, LOL, but with everything else, three steaks divided by 8 people was fine!  I believe I had the Mango Lassi for dessert. I don't normally try mango items but it sounded good. 

In case you're wondering why there's tables in one section, with no hibachi, it's because when it's busy, they move you out there to have dessert, or start you with appetizers there. 

Actually, I just checked my notes, and we went to Crema and I tried the Rum Raisin ice cream. It was really good. Tasted like real rum!

I have no details on what we did that night. We were really tired. This is one drawback to using an app for daily schedules. I would have to re-log in, and I don't even know if I could access the schedule now. Rob took some pictures of the display monitors but they're on his phone. 

Jamaica 2025

 We started cruising for our 10th wedding anniversary in 2007 (not blogged), and have done a variety:

Freedom of the Seas 2008   Allure of the Seas 2011 Independence of the Seas 2014

Equinox 2017   Symphony of the Seas 2019       Resilient Lady 2024

Wait....I thought we had gone on 8 cruises. That's only 7....but I don't see any missing!

We've talked for a long time about doing an all-inclusive. Technically, we did one in September 2023 when we went to Club Med Charlevoix (not blogged for some reason....oh yeah, immediately after I unexpectedly started working full time) for our 25th wedding anniversary. Rob has had a Sandals t-shirt for a long time.  Don't know where he got it; we think it became tie-dyed when the kids were doing that one summer. But it was worn out and he really wanted a new one and he really wanted to go to a Sandals.

Before we went, I actually mended some of the holes! Spoiler--he wore it on the trip and made a massive hole I refused to mend so he left it hidden in the room.

Like most of our trips now, he spent a lot of time researching. Our early trips, YouTube was still pretty young and vlogging wasn't popular so research was more person to person. Now, we could spend hours watching resort tours and comparisons in our basement. Every year, around March, Rob would begin the hunt, and the first question was always cruise or land? Land could be camping or AI. He would get all excited about AIs, but then we just didn't pick that--prices were high, the Caribbean is hot, etc.

Last year we were really close to booking Sandals, but a last minute look at cruise offers revealed the Virgin "Resilient Lady" deal and this time when he asked if he should book it, and I said "yes" (like most of the times he asks, because I just want him to book something), and he actually immediately booked it.

We started searching again this year. Rob wasn't thrilled with the cruise options. We started watching videos on AI again, mainly by Passport Pages  and Honeymoon Always. We were both drawn to the maturity of the Sandals Negril property, it's legendary beach, that it's not a party resort, and it has a traditional Caribbean feel. We're quite aware most vloggers receive compensation of some sort (even if they're just travel agents--they're not going to get work saying a resort is bad).  We watched dozens of comparison videos, grounds walk-through videos, and random videos on the resort.  I had notes on my phone, in notebooks, in my head.

I was getting their promotional emails, we learned about their different sales.  Finally, one sale in mid-July was announced.  It included a spa credit and an excursion credit. I had read conflicting reports on if you could combine sales and it seemed you could. We called the 1-800 number a few times to get clarification on some things, and they always pushed us to book then. Finally we called with one more question--could we stack the free night for having an anniversary, with the spa and excursion credits.  To get the free night, we'd have to get concierge category, which is the mid-price one and comes with extra services and benefits. We were told we could, so we went ahead and booked a "Paradise Beachfront Grande Luxe Club Level Room-HB".  

What does all that mean? Paradise is the building. It's the long building, running parallel to the beach, roughly in the middle of the resort. It's three stories, no elevator. Most of the rooms face the beach, but there are some that face "the garden" (and the highway). 

Club Level means it's the middle level of service.  Also sometimes known as concierge level. The low level is called "Luxury" and the top is "Butler Elite".  Not the most helpful names as they use "luxury" in much of their advertising, and you can see, even in our booking, the word "luxe" is used. 

The HB might mean "honeymoon balcony".  In a Facebook group for this resort, that seems to be the consensus. It doesn't seem to indicate anything extra in regards to service, or amenities. The building has ground level beachfront walk outs, beachfront balcony, as well as the garden view rooms. 

We opted not to book our plane tickets with Sandals as they couldn't provide ANY info on the type of ticket it would be. I had also heard of people getting their flights changed multiple times and they weren't the "best" options.  We went with Westjet as we could save a few dollars with our daughter's work benefit program (like, $10 LOL). 

Interesting side note--that daughter, Lucy, was also looking at booking a trip with her boyfriend. We were both looking at options through Air Canada Vacations. She opted for Couples Tower Isle. Her flights were included (and valued at 1/3 of the price we paid), and she got a checked bag for each of them. By the time we decided on our vacation, the prices through the Air Canada sale had gone up a lot. Her trip seems to have been really, really good, and at quite a savings compared to ours.

We opted to book airport "limo" service with Mr Limo.  They are a long time local transportation company we've used before. It seemed like quite a luxury for a week's trip--it's more than parking when it's just a week vacation. However, it makes the vacation feel like it's starting the moment you leave your house. You get dropped off right at departures, and picked up at arrivals. I really didn't even need to take my coat. No looking for a parking spot, taking the terminal train, etc.

The next step was just to wait!

Mont Tremblant National Park Day 4, Roughing It in the Campground

 We got up and the power was still off. We're camping, what could be wrong with no power in the campground? We had the battery pack for the fridge and if we needed to charge it, we'd just go for a drive. We had a camp stove, and rechargeable lights. What could be wrong? I used to wilderness camp every summer!

Well. It's a weekend, at a very popular campground. Nearly every of the 98 sites and 5 cabins were in use. How many people?

Rob went to the comfort station. The bathrooms were locked. The handicapped bathroom couldn't be locked but had one of those "Closed for cleaning" bars across the door. He went in anyway. Someone had covered the bathroom in toilet paper. The toilet was filled of poop, and the floor had been urinated on. 

Okay, but what about outhouses? Surely there's outhouses? And a handpump for water? You know the old fashioned ones with the big handle? Nope.

There was ONE single outhouse for the entire campground. No water pumps. 

There could have been 400 people there! The outhouse was far enough that it warranted driving. We actually had to wait.

We drove to the registration building and they had no power too. We asked if there were more outhouses and they said no. We asked why and they said it wasn't warranted. What?! Seriously? There are winter activities in some parts of the park, I don't know about there, but only 1 outhouse?! I really hope they re-think this. Keep it locked up unless there's an emergency. Power outages are pretty frequent from what we hear. 

They also said there was no refunds because of the power outage. Somewhat understandable, but we had no potable (drinkable) water! (Well, we did have a 2L jug in the fridge, but we weren't using that to wash dishes). 

I did notice these meat sticks in the shop--these are from where we live! They had a generator running to keep the ice cream treats frozen but that was it. 

We went in to St Donat for gas and to charge the battery. The staff had said power was out "even in the town" but we found there was power there. Maybe they meant the tiny village just outside the park. I'm not sure what else we did in town.

We went for a walk to see what was at "Blue Jay Point".  It wasn't on the map but there was a sign.  We followed the sign but we didn't see anything except some rocks and tree saplings in an area that looked like maybe it used to be a fire pit and seating area.  We then went down the path near our campsite. The path isn't on the map but there's a symbol saying "Discovery Activities". The symbols and legend are so tiny, and it doesn't show exactly how to get there. Go down the path near the bike rack at the very back of the campground.

What do you think this was?

It's a nice little area. You can probably walk along the beach all the way. When we went to the beach the first time we walked back a LONG way along the beach and then the trail went into the trees a bit, but then we went uphill and came out at a campsite that is on the main road (42-52....the area where the outhouse is). 

This is the star gazing bench. It would have been amazing to come down to star gaze. I laid down for awhile, but I did find it a bit awkward to get the right position. I'm so short and I didn't get lined up right, but with a blanket and maybe pillow, it'd be really comfy.

This was my view. Yeah, no stars. 

We headed back to the campsite and had lunch. Rob wasn't feeling well so I encouraged him to have a nap--something he usually does a lot when we road trip. I wanted to go for another walk and he didn't. So I went down the main trail, the Chutes-aux-Rats trail.

It was pretty easy walking, and there were quite a few other people out, especially close to the campground. There's a few benches and tables in nice spots along the trail. I even found another outhouse, but it was a 15 min walk from our campsite. 

Mushrooms are always fun to take pictures of. They don't move like flowers.

The signs indicated that the path to Chute-aux-Rats was closed. I had seen signs at the buildings but didn't really know what that was about. 

Shortly after I got back from my walk, around 3:30, the lights came back on! We wait about 15 minutes and went to wash our dishes. The washrooms stayed closed for awhile longer since they needed to be cleaned.

We had left them plugged in so we'd know when the power came on. We had been told 5:30, so we were excited it was earlier. 

We had another delicious dinner, trying to use up food. 

We were sitting at the fire in the evening, enjoying the peace and ....well...there was a large group down the hill with a lot of happy, excited kids. Almost every site was full.  Anyway, we moved the table over to the fire, and were just relaxing when suddenly I got startled by a voice beside me! It was a park ranger, walking site to site, to remind us to turn off the string lights when we go to bed. We had gotten in trouble in a Quebec park before because we had a bright light in our makeshift kitchen (Rob had fixed up the box trailer to have a sort of kitchen area at the end, complete with a large patio umbrella and fluorescent light fixture). I thought the string lights were pretty tame. They were low, dim, orange.  We had turned the lights off the other nights, so we figured this was just a routine walk about. She was friendly about it too. 

It was a somewhat early night since we were leaving pretty early in the morning, hopefully. 

Mont Tremblant National Park, Day 4, Diable Sector

I woke up in the morning, and Rob wasn't at the campsite. I quickly found him, enjoying the porch across the "street" LOL. 

Rob went to the registration building while I was doing morning stuff, and got the story about the road closure. The staff's English wasn't as good as the man the night before, but he gave him a park map and showed where the road was closed. It had just closed the month before after a bad storm, and they wouldn't get it fixed this summer. So, to go from the St Donat/Lac Provost sector to the Diable/Mt Tremblant sector, you have to leave the park and drive the long way around. However, after the drive the night before, I didn't that was too bad of an idea. I wasn't expecting the road through the park to be washboard gravel. Maybe when there's constant traffic on it, it's in better shape, but I thought it would at least be paved.

We decided to take the long route and see what we could find coming in from the other end. That's where the cool visitor centres are.

This is the one thing I really love at the Discovery Centre. It's a really nice place to go for souvenirs, snacks, or a comfy chair while it's raining. I picked up some souvenirs for myself and my mom, and some snacks made by local companies. I got a glow in the dark star chart that's more durable than the cardstock one I have that you can't see in the dark, and a t-shirt with a French saying ("time spent in the forest is not lost time"). I also bought a camp kitchen towel so I don't have to bring my home kitchen towels.

There are taxidermized animal displays that are cool to see. 

There's also a nice little dock on a lake. There were all these mid-sized fish. Looking at a poster later, my best guess was white striped sucker, but I'm not totally sure.

What a nice place to sit. That red-brown water is so iconic to me, it's what I knew growing up. The turquoise lakes of the Rockies were bizarre. Cool, but also...a little creepy. This is nostalgia. This is every summer of my childhood.

We left the Discovery Centre and almost immediately, I noticed a temporary sign on the road, indicating deer. Indeed, in a tiny meadow across from the Discovery Centre were a herd of deer having a nibble. When we had camped in the Lac Chat campground with the kids, there were deer everywhere. We didn't see any over at Lac Provost.

We headed back down the road to the first waterfall on the Diable River, Chutes Croches. We had taken the kids on these hikes when we had come before and they were not impressed with "hiking" except for the jerky I had made and brought. 

This was them when I told them there was a second hike and they weren't getting anymore jerky or fruit leather until after the hike.

We thought this tree was really cool. It looked burnt, and twisted.

We continued up the road to Chute du Diable. 

This was the kids back in 2016! No wonder people thought Megan and Lucy were twins. Now, Megan is 4" taller than Lucy!

This rock face at the look out (we think the upper level) provided a fun mini photo shoot back then. This time, there was a couple sitting on the bench so we didn't want to intrude, and I made Rob pose on a nearby rock face instead.

On our walk back (it's really not a hike, but also, the family carrying a stroller probably wouldn't consider it a "walk"), I saw something run across the path ahead of us. I thought at first it was a squirrel, but its body was too long.

It ran back across the path and I realized it was a mink!! Although my mom has had some around her pond, I'd never seen one! This picture below was the best I could do.

The loon being fed, and the mink, were two of my best moments from this trip!

We were ready for lunch and didn't really know where to go. We'd see a sign with a picnic table, but didn't know how far in, and they weren't on the map. So we decided that at the next campground, we'd pull in and find an empty spot and have a quick picnic. The crazy thing is, there were this little campgrounds all along the road, but they weren't marked on the map! Some of the campgrounds were, but not the one we stopped at.

We kept it quick. All I could think of was when we tried to find our campsite in the municipal campground in Grand Falls, NB. It was the only vacant site, and the site we thought it was, had a couple eating dinner at the table. Awkward!!

We continued up the road and cam to Camping du Lac-Escalier. We had to wait 5 min for the staff member to return from his break. At the entrance to this campground, the road that continued on was barricaded. We asked just how "impossible" was it to continue. He spoke good English, but was struggling. He said "like, Mission Impossible."  He also said that he hadn't actually seen the damage. We asked if we could walk to it and he didn't know. So we decided to walk.

We set a limit of 10 min and then we'd turn around. We went about 12 minutes because we both have the curse of  "just to the next bend".  We didn't make it there and have no idea of how much further it would be.  It was a nice walk though. As you can see, there is traffic on the road. We were told they weren't going to repair it until the spring, so what's going on? We could see the barricade had been moved aside and Rob asked me to move it for him but I refused LOL.

Basically, it says you can be kicked out if you go past!

We had to admit defeat. I said I'd do some detective work when we got home and see if I could find pictures. Unfortunately, even a request to Sepaq hasn't yielded anything. They just said it was closed for safety and they appreciate us respecting the closure. 

On the way back, we stopped at the Lac Monroe visitor centre for firewood. The map said there was "ready to eat" food here but all we saw was grocery and snack items.  Prices weren't too bad, even for the camping items like one burner stoves and even Starfrit frying pans. 

For firewood, you get two pieces of twine, and you choose your own wood and stack it in this contraption. 

The pictures make it look much bigger than it is!

Rob of course tried to stack it as high as possible. The first try, the twine was not in the right place so he had to stack it again. It was hard to tie the knot with barely any twine tails. And, it did fall apart on the way to the truck!

On the way back, we stopped at the IGA in St Donat. It's a great store! Lots of Quebec food options, and the deli, cheese, and desserts looked great! One thing we picked up was a ready to bake pizza, which we cooked on the BBQ. We even got a dessert which was a lovely treat while camping.

We had some trouble lighting the fire. We didn't have a lot of cardboard or paper, and we didn't want to turn too much of the firewood into kindling! We did find a few small sticks in the campsite and on the road, but we won't go into the forested parts to get wood. Plus, much of it was wet from the rain earlier.

Although we spent a lot of time in the truck, we managed quite a few steps this day too!

It was quite cool, and we were tired, so we opted to skip a shower and just do the dishes and our teeth. As we finished up, it started POURING. The wash up station is covered, but not closed in. A man pulled up and asked if there was anyone in the lady's washroom. I asked if it was his wife and kid, they were in the shower when I went in.

Then, before they came out, the power went out!!! I'm sure there was emergency lighting, but man, imagine being in the shower with a young kid and the power goes out! They had taken lights with them because it was already dark, but wow.

We got back to our site and it was already quite wet! Our tent was still dry. Rob hooked the fridge up to the battery pack and we went to bed, because it was already 9:45. We did get up later to go to the bathroom, and the power was still out. We used the handicapped washroom and there was no emergency light. The water barely flushed, and the door couldn't be locked. There was no water in the taps.

Surely the power would come back on soon?