Montreal

We flew in Wednesday night, May 6 and had dinner downstairs at the Italian restaurant. The kids were very well behaved and made me proud.

Thursday, Bob worked all day and had dinner with the Averna folks. But before going to the office, Bob meet one of the Averna guys in the hotel and had breakfast there. They were still there when Colin, Nathan and I went to breakfast. Colin just stared and smiled so big at his dad.

After breakfast, I went out in search for groceries with the kids ... in the rain, in the borrowed stroller from the hotel. Turns out we forgot a stroller and Nathan is just not up for all the walking that we typically do on vacations just yet. Fortunately the hotel had a pink stroller that someone left and loaned it to us. I didn't mind it was pink. Neither did the kids. By the end of the weekend though I think I figured out why the stroller was left behind, it was not the best functioning stroller. But it was more functional than no stroller, so we were still grateful to have it.

The grocery store is located in a little downtown mall that had a fountain the the kids loved. We had to go to the top (4th) floor to get an aerial view of it. In the grocery store, Colin saw the croissants and had to get some. I'm thinking that's funny because when we were in Paris, Colin wouldn't eat anything from Paris. But apparently he has started eating croissants at school. Croissants were the main food for Colin during this trip.

After returning the to the hotel and packing the groceries, we went on a little adventure and checked out the pool on the top floor of the hotel. Lunch in the room, swimming in the pool, then back to the room where Colin watched cartoons in French. He didn't mind at all. Dinner in the room. All day the kids ate very well in the hotel room which is rare for them to eat good on a trip.

The next day, Friday May 7, the boys finally saw Bob. First time since breakfast the previous day. Bob asked Nathan what he saw in Montreal. Nathan's response, "Rain." We did a lot of walking in the rain the day before. Today while Bob was at work, I took the kids down to Olde Montreal and we saw some old railroad tracks that Colin thought were very cool. Of course, they had to walk along them.


Then we saw the Cirque du Soleil tents and the boys remembered them from Atlanta. I really would've like to see the show but it just didn't work out. I did take Colin and Nathan to see IMAX, Under the Sea 3D. Their first movie in a theatre. Colin loved it. Nathan not so much. Nathan thought it was scary especially when the big fish ate the little fish. I would turn Nathan's face into my chest and cover his ears when the movie started talking about the eating habits of the fish. Nathan did think that the sea lions were cute but didn't like the sharks. Maybe Nathan was a little young for this movie ... or any movie.

Friday night we went to an Irish pub for dinner where I shared a prime rib with Colin and Nathan. Once again they were so well behaved and got lots of attention. Then we got a babysitter which turned out to be our hotel maid. She didn't speak very much English but it worked out just fine. Bob and I checked out Brewtopia a brew pub. Never have I had such an awful beer! We actually left our half-finished beers on the bar. Our first clue should have been when I asked what was on cask and the bartender didn't even know that cask beer was not a style of beer. Then we went to another brewpub that was much better. At least it cleared my palate from the Strawberry Ale that I had at Brewtopia. Later that evening we were able to see Marc and Sylvie, friends of ours that live in Montreal that we met in Jamaica.

Saturday we took the kids to the BioDome and Montreal Tower. Then Bob and I went out to Diel du Soil, the most incredible brew pub in the world - 17 beers on tap where all of them (at least the ones we tried) were stellar beers!




Additional notes: Nathan made the comment, "In this world, I like Fruit Loops. In our world, I don't like Fruit Loops." He still refers to the places we go to as "other worlds". Too cute.

My facebook status included the following setiment, "Is it really eavesdropping if you don't understand teh language?" I just love listening to people talk in another language!