We originally planned to attend the morning meditation session, but after our first day here, we opted to sleep in. It was an excellent decision!

Because I woke up with a splitting headache, along with a starved feeling, when we went for breakfast, I couldn’t eat much. It was a horrible feeling!  The good news is that once I had a cup of coffee and enough food to calm my body down, add in a follow-up nap – I am back to normal and feeling great.

Our Noon class today was billed as Yoga Dance. I didn’t know there was such an activity! Tracie and I had the best time. Everyone smiled and laughed through the class, we got our heart rate up and felt happy and relaxed when finished.  This is definitely an activity we can visualize doing with our grandkids. The music has to be fun and let the arms and hips flow! The movement reminded me of something you would visualize hippies doing in the 60’s. No drugs here, but you get the picture. Yoga Dance is described as the fusion of music with movement, is centuries old, but the concept has become increasingly popular in yoga beginning around 2007 following an increase in yoga festivals in the US. If you haven’t tried it yet, find a class and bring your inner child with you!

We had lunch with our new friend Melanie from Montreal. This is her second visit to the Monastere.  She is apparently enjoying our company because we have had all of our meals with her after our first encounter in class.  She is a social worker and loves to travel. We’ve been sharing travel stories and much more.  She leaves here Saturday and we check out the following day. Montreal just became a probability for a vacation destination!

Today we both ate the full meal offered so we were sure to get our calories in. I chose veal flank steak over a mash of root veggies. Prior to the main course, we were able to dish up soup and salads.  I’m telling you these people know how to make vegetables delicious! I even tried a beet and apple salad. I do not like beets, no I do not. They taste like dirt. This dish was sweetened with apples and although there was a hint of dirt, it was actually ok. I doubt I would make a whole recipe of this, but it was good for me to give it a try. There is hope for me after all!  

After lunch we each had appointments to keep. Tracie had a movement, breathing and posture session. I had a massage. Ahhhhh!

This experience has been so relaxing and special! I noticed today the music playing in the restaurant is very classical, calm and quiet. There are no noisy people here – we may be in the top tier in that regard and we’re not too bad… but somebody has to be!

The day literally flies by and it’s now time to participate in a tai chi class. While it wasn’t my favorite class, it was good to experience something I probably never would have on my own.

That done, its time for dinner. Soup and salad, tea and a small shot glass dessert.

The protein options today were deer meatballs, cod and an Indian vegetarian patty. I tried everything but the deer, added them to my broth and it was pretty good, That’s all I need tonight.

We asked Melanie about the use of wild game in the restaurant. She said its fairly common in this area of Canada, as well as Montreal. I personally don’t like the taste of wild game, but Tracie tried both the venison and deer and said they were very tasty!

Full, tired and satisfied with the world, we head to our room with Melanie leading the way up the stairs. It turns out she is in the room across the hall from us.  She doesn’t take the elevator so we walk the four flights of stairs together.  After all, this is a fitness quest!

We hop on our beds, break out the computers and catch up with today’s news, posts, comments and whatever social connections we have time for. We are actually trying NOT to spend much time on our electronic devices, but I choose to blog about this trip so there is that. Lights out!

#quebeccity