Last weekend we visited Quebec City for my friend Scott's wedding. It was our first international trip for our little guy, and I'm happy to report all the travel went fairly smoothly, and we had a great time. 

Ben and I had been to Quebec City back in 2022, and had hit a lot of the big touristy things on that trip. So when planning this trip, I tried to focus on things that would be kid-friendly and ideally wouldn't be too repetitive from what we did on our first trip. 

The weather was way colder on this trip, so I considered a lot of indoor activities, and because my in-laws drove to meet us there, we had access to a car more easily than we did last time, which expanded our horizons. 

Our first day was a fairly long travel day. Even though both of our flights were short, they were both delayed and we had a pretty long layover in the Toronto airport. I was happy when we were finally able to check in to our condo for the weekend. 

We stayed at the Royal Dalhousie, and wow, I cannot recommend this place enough. 

I had booked a three-bedroom condo on the first level of the building. But when my in-laws checked in, the owners were worried it would be too loud for us with a little guy, so they moved us up to the second floor, into the biggest and most beautiful place I have ever stayed while traveling. 

Floor to ceiling windows lined the wall in the massive living area. The main bedroom suite I think may have been bigger than the entire top floor of our house in DC. Every detail was just stunningly gorgeous, and there was so much space. Little man had so much room to run around. He was in heaven. 

We grabbed dinner out on the Petit Champlain, tucked the little guy into bed, and then Ben and I met Scott and his parents and another one of our friends for a quick drink at one of the pubs. 

On Friday morning, we drove about 35 minutes outside the city to visit the Hotel de Glace. This place was wild. An entire hotel, with a bar, stage, dance floor, restaurant, and chapel all made out of snow and ice. People can actually book these rooms to stay over night, but sleeping on a bed made of ice in subzero temperatures does not sound like my idea of a good time. 

We enjoyed our visit though. The highlight of course being the giant ice slide in one of the rooms. This was on repeat for little man many many times. 

After we thawed out during nap time, we bundled up again for a short walk around the city before an early dinner. 

Saturday morning we woke up to howling wind gusts of 40 mph and temperatures barely creeping out of the teens. It sounded like a perfect museum morning. 

We went over to the Museum of Civilization, which we had heard great things about, but didn't get to our on first trip. This museum definitely lives up to the hype, and it was perfect for the kid and the adults in our group. 

We started on the lower level, which was basically a giant play area for kids. Little man crawled through tunnels and opened doors to find surprises in the walls. And down the hall they had a wrestling area to pair with their special exhibit on the history of wrestling. This area was fun for our guy, but the kids who were probably a year or two older were loving it even more. Laughter and shrieking as they tackled inflatable dummies and tried to catch each other in a ring. 

The wrestling exhibit for adults was also so much fun and a real throwback. I definitely watched WWF (now WWE) when I was a kid, so seeing all the old memorabilia, and the lifesize cutouts of the various wrestlers was really cool.

Our last stop in the museum was the exhibit on the history of Quebec. The animals and the various cars, boats and other modes of transportation were the favorites of this exhibit. 

We had the welcome reception for the wedding on Saturday night. I apparently took no pictures there, but my friend snapped this one of a bunch of our group at the afterparty. If the pub looks familiar, it's because it's the same place we went to Thursday night. 

Sunday was our last full day in Quebec. It was also wedding day and the nicest day of the whole trip, meaning it got into the 30s and the wind was more mild! Hooray. 

We bundled up and headed for the boardwalk toboggan first thing. Ben and I saw the set up the last time we were there, but it was too early in the season and wasn't open yet. So we were super excited to be able to ride it this time. 

Our sled really picked up some speed and we went flying all the way to the end of the track. 

We spent much of the rest of the morning strolling around town, popping in and out of little shops. It was nice to finally have pleasant enough weather that it was tolerable to be outside. 

We stopped in the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre Dame de Quebec, the only church outside Europe to have a Holy Door.

Our last stop of the morning was a small museum about how maple syrup is made. It was a tiny bit corny and a little bit cute and honestly only worth if it you have a kid who will get a kick out of the animated beaver family that explains the whole process. 

The museum is tiny and the whole thing probably took less than 15 minutes, but it was amusing. 

That night we had the wedding. 

I didn't take a single picture again, but Scott shared this one from their photographer. Scott and Katie didn't have a wedding party, so they hid their wedding rings under one of the chairs at the ceremony, and this is us looking to see if we were the lucky people to get to carry the rings up to them. I thought this was a fun and really cute idea. 

Then it was off to cocktail hour, dinner and dancing before collapsing into bed in our beautiful condo one last time. 

Monday morning we were up and headed back home. It was a great little trip. We were so glad we got to celebrate Scott and Katie and make a little vacation out of it with my in-laws. Quebec City is such a great place to visit. I'd go back again, and would 100% stay at the Royal Dalhousie again!