We rented an apartment with plenty of space and a kitchen - which I think is the absolute BEST way to travel with a family, and especially with two families. Having breakfast at "home" in our jammies, having multiple rooms, and being able to hang out in a common area after the kids go to bed just simply rocks.
We settled in at about 2:00 am (I think - it was really late) Friday morning and went to bed. Friday we woke up, had breakfast, and headed to the old part of Montreal. The kids did pretty great in the strollers (and looked pretty awesome, I might add...):
We grabbed lunch by the river and sat down in some green space to grub it up. And Bryan and Eden and I took a little walk down by the river to look at the boats:
But the highlight of Old Town for Eden was - without a doubt - the HORSIES! There were horse-drawn carriages EVERYWHERE and Eden was entralled with the horses. So when we walked by them she had to stop and say hello to every.single.horse:
After lunch (and HORSIES!) we walked around a bit, saw a couple of sites (which I was horrible about taking pictures of, mostly because toddler-wrangling proved a bit difficult) and then stopped for some ice cream outside the Notre Dame Bascilica:
(Mommies and strollers, including a belly shot for all you who have been asking)They had the perfect toddler-sized ice cream cones, which Eden LOVED:
And then she went into full-on "I-AM-TIRED-AND-NOT-IN-MY-COMFORT-ZONE-AND-WHATEVER-YOU-WANT-ME-TO-DO-I-DON'T-WANT-TO-DO-IT" mode, which looks a lot like this:
(This was a familiar sight on the trip...)And then we headed to the Bascilica:
Eden was in meltdown mode because at a very inopportune time a HORSIE! walked up to the building and she would.not.go.in., so we stayed outside and watched the horse have lunch, and then watched some construction work going on across the plaza. Eden swore they were making "SAND CASTLES" and loved watching the "BIG TRUCKS" dump dirt into big piles. It was fun to watch from her perspective.For dinner that night John drove Kelli and me to the main drag nearby while Bryan stayed with the little ones, and Kel and I found a cute looking little Italian restaurant. We were remarking about how family-friendly it looked, how maybe we could come back since it was so close to our apartment and eat in. WELL, it turns out the waitress who took our order understood much less English than she let on, an we ended up with an $80.00 bill for two pizzas and two pastas. And a TON of food. WAY more than we asked for. Oh, well. I guess that's what we get for not speaking any French!
The next day we took it easy in the morning, and then drove up to Mont Royal, which was amazing. Bryan carried Eden in the backpack all the way up (I think it's like 200 steps or something - it was a LOT but Bryan was a total trooper!):
And the view from the top was totally worth it:
(I swear we were having fun, despite our expressions...)And on the way back to the car, Eden stopped to smell some flowers (cutie!!):
And then after a nap, we headed to "the Plateau", the "trendy" (read: way too cool for us) area of the city. Bryan and John wanted to hit up some record stores, and we wanted to check out the "underground city" (a series of connected tunnels with shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. - some say you can live in Montreal and never go outside). It was pretty cool, but unfortunately we got there just as everything was closing (at 6:00? On a Saturday?):
After finally finding a family-friendly restaurant, we were beat, and headed home. On the way we passed an apartment building about two blocks from where we were staying which was surrounded by police cars. Made me a little nervous, but whatever. Then later, I fell asleep early and everyone else was watching the news (the only thing on TV in English at the time) and found out there'd been a shooting in the middle of the day - "no suspects" - yikes! I'm glad I didn't find out until after we got home!The next day, Sunday, checked out of the apartment and headed to the Plateau to hit up the record stores Bryan and John had wanted to see. It was raining and a little chilly, but that didn't stop us! They were in heaven. (I didn't get any pictures but it was - well - interesting). On the way home we stopped at a farm stand and grabbed some jam and apple butter (yum!) and Eden burned some energy while Quinn had his dinner in the car. Doesn't she look like a little country girl?
(By the way, the French-speaking shirt was purely coincidental).We stopped in Vermont for dinner, and got a halfway decent family picture at the restaurant, with my yummy baked ziti in the foreground:
So, all in all, other than a few (or maybe more than a few) toddler meltdowns, and the nasty rain, it was a pretty good trip. Great times, great friends, and great memories. Thank you Montreal!
