Day 10—Fairmont Richelieu

For my birthday, we spent the day hanging out in the Fairmont Richelieu—analogous to Asheville’s Grove Park Inn. I asked the boys what they wanted to do and we all agreed that staying put, enjoying the hotel and relaxing would be a welcome change from the sightseeing. It was a gorgeous day so we spent time enjoying the pools. We also played a challenging round of minigolf on holes that were maintained like real greens.

After getting all the sun we wanted we headed inside for an indoor games tournament: shuffleboard, pool, foosball, air hockey.

Then a late afternoon walk on a wooded 6km nature trail along the coast that was structured like the solar system. Each stop on the trail was a planet that could be found at proportional distances from the sun (the hotel). We were back in time to enjoy a great early dinner on the veranda.

Looks like our Asheville Hotels!

Contented!

Concluded the day with Oceans 12 (we’ve been watching heist movies this vacation). The boys and I weren’t tired afterward so we went to the lobby to read ourselves to sleep. Arthur’s been reading “Lemony Snicket: All the Wrong Questions,” Leo is into the “Smithsonian’s Timelines of Everything” and me E O Wilson’s “The Meaning of Human Existence”—a book that’s more interesting than his reputation as an ant biologist would lead you to believe. Unfortunately there was a chanson and early-80s sing along going on in the lobby so it wasn’t too relaxing. But it did lead to several cool conversations with the boys and was a charmingly French ending to my birthday.