Our Family Day Road Trip To Quebec City With Ford Canada
[masterslider id="3"]Growing up, Rob and I both made so many fantastic memories with our family on road trips. From the states to across Canada, we credit them to giving both of us the travel bug. We both believe strongly in how travel teaches you more than you would ever learn from school. We want our kids to feel the same about travel. With the kids now at a great age to start exploring, we thought 2018 is the perfect year to begin making memories of travel for our own family. Family Day is this upcoming weekend and we teamed up with Ford Canada to inspired you to get out on the road and start making memories too.Armed with a new Ford Explorer, we hit the road with all of Rob's family and drove to Quebec City. The drive from Nova Scotia was 10 hours straight, so we broke it up over 2 days with a sleep in Moncton at his brothers. The following day we left in the wee hours of the morning to make the remaining 7-hour drive. We even had time to stop and take the kids over the longest covered bridge in the world in Hartland, New Brunswick.By 2 pm, we arrived in Levis, Quebec to our 5 bedroom Airbnb, a mansion on the top of a hill with panoramic views of the St. Lawrence River (check it out here). We all settled in as a family of 11, enjoying being done the drive and excited for the days that will be following. You can watch Part 1 of our Vlog about the drive up HERE on our Youtube channel.The next day, we were all up bright and early due to the time change and excitement. We decided to take the ferry which was only about a 5min drive away straight over to Old Quebec (our first bad decision). The ferry was such a fun little trip for the kids and brought us right into downtown Old Quebec. But, we weren't prepared for the streets to not be groomed from the snow like the roads were. The city was beautiful, but Aubrey didn't have his winter boots on or snow pants and by lunchtime, he was soaked and frozen. Add that to it being the last weekend of carnival, there was an hour-long wait for anything to eat. We ended up giving up and hopping back on the ferry to bring Aubrey home to get changed and then take the Explorer back over on the bridge so that we could have a home base (a move I will now do on all road trips, with the trunk full of clean warm clothes and food).That night was a simple dinner and early to bed for everyone which was much needed.[masterslider id="4"]Our last Day in Quebec City was more about exploring the other great things that the city offers. We started the day off with a quiet morning and then drove to the Quebec Aquarium. Aubrey and Poppy are obsessed with the movie 'Finding Dory' and were excited to see the 'open ocean exhibit' where Dory is from. If you know anything about that movie, you will know what we mean. Aubrey was in heaven once we got there, with a smile beaming from ear to ear. They had two areas where you could touch sea creatures including an area to touch stingray as they swam by. He said that touching those were his favorite part of the whole trip. My favorite was seeing the polar bears.We next met up with Rob's brothers family. We all wanted to go see the Ice hotel and tubing, but the hefty price tag and insane lineups were a no go with there being 11 of us. Tony, My brother-in-law, somehow found a park in the middle of the city, made for locals, with not only tubing but skating, cross-country skiing and many more outdoor activities. We met there to go tubing and had so many laughs.That night, we celebrated my niece Emily's birthday with tacos, cake, and Netflix. It was the perfect end to the last night there.Monday morning came fast and it was time to pack up and hit the road. We all needed to be back to work on Tuesday so the 10-hour drive home would have to happen all in one go. We got comfortable in our Ford Explorer, armed with movies and food and began to plug away, stopping only for gas, food and to see the Falls at Grand Falls, New Brunswick. Too bad they were frozen. By 10 pm, 12.5 hours after we had left Quebec, we finally pulled into our driveway, tucked the kids into bed, and were happy to be home.Travelling with Kids is a lot of work, but now after 4 days of being home and finally catching up on sleep, it was so rewarding and we are already planning the next trip.As for our Ford Explorer, It was a great SUV as a family of 4 with bucket seats in the back and allowing a large trunk space. But, as a family of 5, was a very tight squeeze for this trip. We loved all the safety features that now come standard in a Ford, and the built-in DVD players were a lifesaver for us with Aubrey (though we wish the audio would have been able to be played over the sound system easier for poor Poppy). It was a bit hard on gas, taking almost double the amount that Rob's brothers SUV took, but in saying that, had a ton of power to help us get around during the winter roads. I would definitely recommend the 2018 Explorer for a family of 4, especially on a road trip!
What We Wore:
Katie Rose:
- Jacket c/o (also here)
- Boots(old) Similar Here
- Jeans c/o
- striped shirt c/o
- Leggings c/o
- Hat c/o
- Baby Carrier