Montreal

We left Kingston early so that we could get up and settled in Montreal as AriAnders was flying in to stay with us for a few days.  Her flight was supposed to land at 9:30am but due to a medical emergency her plane was diverted to Toronto and she had to sit on the tarmac for four hours.  That gave us plenty of time to set up in the Montreal KOA South campground.

Bear loved watching the goats and chickens:

We finally picked her up at 2:00pm and drove to Old Montreal for lunch and a bit of exploring.

In the market we tasted some wine and spoke with Sam who told us of different restaurants that we needed to try.

We went to Olive, a panini place, and had a wonderful meal with a very tasty side dish of potato salad – tasted a lot like potato skins on ‘roids.

We journeyed to the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal to see the Aura.  This is where light unveils the richness of the Basilica heritage and it invites one to celebrate its beauty.

Absolutely beautiful display of lights and lasers to highlight all the niches contained within the architecture of the basilica’s nave.  I would have preferred a story woven into the light show with the music, but it was still stunning.

The next day we met one of Kat’s tennis teammates Patty Lambropoulos and her husband, George at “le Quarter general” which was very good!

Spent the rest of the afternoon exploring more of Montreal down by the river.  Ari and Kat climbed up the Sailors’ Memorial Clock Tower:

At the base of the clock tower Montreal has brought in sand to make a beach:

Although in this picture it seems deserted, on the other side of the clock tower there was a beach yoga class going on.  We headed back up into Old Montreal for a drink at Pub BreWskey because we liked the name:

While we were there, a family walked by and Ari called out to the dad – a colleague of hers from Highland Park High School!  It is a small world after all.

We had to try the poutine as it is supposed to be the official/unofficial food of Montreal.  What is poutine you may ask?  French fries covered in a brown gravy with squeaky cheese curds I would answer.  Dirty Dogs is the place to go:

We tried them three different ways:

I have to say that they aren’t bad!  Although a lot of taters – we choose to get the gravy on the side!

Dirty Dogs must be in the artsy area of Montreal for a lot of the surrounding buildings had artwork on the walls:

We headed back to the Busse Bus to let Bear out to play.

The next day we headed back to the waterfront (Quai Victoria) to test our skills on this adult-sized jungle gym:

After “playing” for a couple of hours and hitting some of the hardest trails we were somewhat exhausted.  I’m very proud of my girls for doing this activity!

We needed something to eat so we headed to the Jardin Nelson for lunch.  What a fabulous find!  Food and drinks were outstanding and the setting!

Outdoor seating nestled between two buildings and they kept the facade of the wall along the street:

They even had a couple of people playing instruments and singing.  Great fun!

Since we had seen Montreal from the street level we decided to head up to the Mt. Royal Chalet to see the city from above.  No buildings built in Montreal can be taller than Mont Royal.  Check out these pictures:

That night we headed out to see the fireworks.  Unbeknownst to us, Montreal has an international fireworks competition every year and we were lucky enough to be there on one of the nights.  Apparently there are eight countries vying for a firework crown and we were able to witness the Australian entry.

Lasted about 35 minutes – a far cry from the Niagara display.

It was nice to spend time with Ari – our last meal was very casual as we picnicked on the side of the road to watch the fireworks:

Had to get up early the next morning because Ari was trying to catch a flight that had some openings on it.  Good news is that she made the flight and was back in Chicago in a few hours.  It’s very nice that Ari has flight benefits due to her hubby – man, that will still take some time to sink in!

Thanks for visiting us, Ari – we had a blast!  Next time bring Matt along.