Mervat's "One Jacket Five Ways Challenge," #4 of 5: What I wore on vacation!

I just returned from a week-long roadtrip up to Québec City and Montréal in Québec Province, Canada! Actually, I've been home nearly a week, but who's counting?

As the lightest-weight of my three outerwear options, I brought the jacket that I'm using for Mervat's "One Jacket Five Ways" Challenge, so that's featured a few times in this post, but I thought it would be fun to go ahead and share what I wore throughout our travels.

Dinner on our first night in Montréal:


I know, you can't exactly see what I'm wearing, but it's the only picture of me from that day. My jeans are disguised by the bar. And it gives me a chance to show off my handsome spouse and traveling companion.

I own exactly one pair of shorts that aren't pajamas. I brought them along as a warm-weather alternative for some hiking we had planned for later in the week. At the last minute before leaving the hotel on Saturday morning to start our first full day in Montréal, I decided to change out of my jeans and into the shorts because it was the only day of our trip for which warm weather was predicted. Less than a block from our hotel, I completely regretted this decision because I felt like a slob. And of course I got picked to assist the hot guy in the kilt with his knife tricks and laying-on-a-bed-of-nails tricks.


My husband took at least ten photos of me in the act, and this is the most flattering shot. Needless to say, I will think twice before wearing them in public again for anything other than hiking, at least not with the Danskos. After Saturday, temperatures dropped, and remained unseasonably chilly for the duration of our trip.

On Sunday and Monday, we did much exploring on our bikes, which we had brought along in the rental car.


The cold weather, significantly colder than had been predicted, was a bit of a disappointment, because favorite items such as the black babydoll tunic beneath this grey sweater never really got to make an appearance.

The rain started on Tuesday, and did not abate until we came home. The view from the Olympic Tower wasn't very pretty, but the weather really kept the crowds at bay, so we had the obvservation deck almost entirely to ourselves for a while. This gave me the perfect opportunity to whip out the Sharpie and scratch paper that I had packed for just such an occasion, in order to ham it up for Mervat while wearing my challenge jacket.



That afternoon, we transitioned over to Québec City and one of the coolest hotels ever. Given the weather, I was severely underdressed when we went out for dinner that evening, but I was pleased to coordinate so nicely with our hotel room.


Wednesday, our only full day in Québec City, was the chilliest and wettest yet.



In reality, that jacket stayed zipped while we were out all day. I just cheated and unzipped it for the photos. Later that day in our hotel room, I was pleased to be much warmer and dryer.


We began the journey home on Thursday, crossing back into the U.S. that afternoon. Friday morning, as we were leaving the motor lodge where we had spent the night in upstate New York, it was finally warm and dry enough to wear the open-toed shoes that had been languishing sadly in my luggage.



A minor costume change was required for the short hike we had planned for partway through the rest of the drive back to Philly, and I happily did NOT wear the shorts again.



I'm resisting the temptation to post more photos and videos of our trip here, because it's all to be shared (when I finally finish all the posts I'm doing about it) on my friends/family blog, which you can find in my profile if you're feeling nosy, or if you would just like to learn more about Québec City and Montréal, which are awesome places to visit, by the way. Churches, drag queens, electronic picnics, museums, public bicycle-sharing, and of course lots of awesome food and great beer, are just a handful of the many awesome things you can look forward to if you ever make it to these two unique cities.

And I'm forgoing the usual listing of where everything I wore came from, except to say that I picked up the striped scarf on a trip to Argentina a few years ago, and I love it because it goes with just about everything.