Montreal

 Never having been to Quebec, we were very excited to experience all the "Frenchness" of the place.  The first thing we found that was different from Ontario?

 

Snow White brand pop.  It was the only thing in the gas station that we hadn't seen elsewhere, besides cheddar jalapeno Cheetos (but we'd already eaten a bag of Cheetos on the drive to Quebec, so having another bag so soon seemed just a little bit unhealthy). In case you're wondering, the pop - Orange and Cream Soda - tasted like all other pops.

But then we got to Montreal, and there were many things to take note of.  One thing we hadn't considered, however, was the age of the city.  This road was built in the late 1600s - how many roads in North America are that old?  NOT MANY.  We drove down it once and only made it about 3 blocks before turning off; it was so incredibly bumpy.

    

Most of our time was spent in Old Montreal, the part that contains many government buildings as well as beautiful architecture.  We already posted about the Notre-Dame Basilica but here's a photo featuring "the belly" taken in the square in front of the church.

The number one thing people told us to do while in Montreal was to eat, and did we ever eat!  I won't share all the photos of the food we ate but here are a few of our favorite things:

French Onion Soup - you already know we love it!  The ham, cheese & apple crepe I had at this restaurant was the best food we had on the trip

Except for perhaps the poutine.  This Quebecois dish is traditionally just French fries, cheese curds, and gravy.  We went to a poutinerie that is open 24/7 and has over 30 varieties on the menu, so we had to try a different variety as well.  I got La Reggae, which was the traditional topped with peppers, tomatoes, and guacamole, as lots of people were ordering it.  Delicious but we prefer the traditional - it's just so good there's no need to change it!

 

There are all kinds of rules about language and the use of it on signs, in stores, etc. in Quebec.  If you're interested, here's a short recent article about the language police.  So anyways, all signs are in French and possibly other languages.  BUT with the age of Montreal, and the stone construction of some of the buildings, you do see signs that are only in English.  The below - which really makes me curious of what used to be there - is an example of an old English-only sign!

One thing that Montreal is well-known for are its staircases.  There are two big neighborhoods in the city that have outdoor staircases that lead to the second floor - and sometimes the third.

No, these are not fire escapes.  These staircases
lead to the front doors of these apartments.

No one is really sure of why these staircases were built.  One theory is that residents didn't want to share their front doors and the then required inside area for a staircase, so the outdoor stairs allowed everyone to have their own.  Another is that at one point lot sizes were larger, thus requiring builders to set the homes farther back.  A staircase, however, could be built closer to the road, which then allowed the homes to have more space. 

Whatever the reason, they really are fun to see.  Some of the streets we walked on looked so crowded with all the wrought iron coming down from above, but others had so much character. 

Montreal was a fun place to go.  It was very European feeling, and had a lot of charm without it being fake.  No one seemed to mind that we didn't speak French.  

All in all, we'd be happy to go back :)

Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal

With all our travels, we've been in a lot of old churches.  Most are, "Wow, that's beautiful" and you move on.  The Basilica of Notre-Dame in Montreal, however, is not one of those.  It was breath-taking on the inside.

The outside is stone but the inside is all carved out of wood.  The wood has been painted with these beautiful deep colors.

The blue lights at the front just make the place feel majestic.  It made both of us immediately think of heaven and what it may look like.

This is the pulpit.  It didn't have a circular staircase like all others we've seen but rather the staircase twisted and turned around and the back.  How would you like to preach in that, Dad?

We had a half hour wait before our tour began, so there was plenty of time to practice our photography. 

Ottowa

As previously mentioned, John and I were gone for part of Millie's visit - we went on a babymoon!  This was the first time we'd been away from Helena together, and it was so good and looking back, so necessary.

 

We took Millie's car east, to Ottowa and then Montreal, two cities we'd never explored.  Of course any good car trip starts with an Iced Capp from Tim Horton's.

We got a little nervous about our navigation skills when we crossed the Mississippi River!  A quick check on the GPS told us we were still in Ontario, so we kept driving :) 

Ottowa is the capital of Canada, so a tour of Parliament was on our docket of things to do.

 

  

It was beautiful inside, as you'd expect.  The most beautiful part was the library, as the walls, the shelves, everything were wood with beautiful carvings all over.  It was the only part of the building saved from a fire in 1916, and I'm so glad it was saved.  (Sorry, no pictures were allowed!)

The main doors are flanked by a lion and a unicorn.  The architect had a sense of humor or I'm missing something, as I've never seen a unicorn with it's tongue hanging out in front of an incredibly important government building before!

We also visited the Royal Mint that afternoon.  One of John's side hobbies in the last year has been researching and learning all about the Gold Standard and such.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to see where the gold is refined and then made into bars, but John was allowed to hold one weighing 28 pounds (more than Helena!) - and worth $700,000 on that day.

Here are the three things we really took note of in the city of Ottowa:  1) There are statues everywhere, statues of government related things and then statues like these - different parts of trees with little kids' legs holding them up!  2) There are trails everywhere, making it a very accessible city for those who don't have cars.  3) The signs that are supposed to help us tourists are pretty horrible.  For example, we were following the tourist information site signs for 20 minutes, going back and forth past the site without knowing it!  Signs directed us to the place, saying three minutes this way, but there were no signs to show us that we were actually there  and needed to go inside (it was inside a mall).

Ottawa was a fun place to visit for the afternoon.  As we walked around, we chatted about how someday we'll take our kids to Washington D.C., but then we thought about our current life and realized we may be taking them to Ottowa instead!

Visit from Grandma/Mom/Millie

Last week we had a special visitor who is called many things, but in this sentence I'll just call her John's mom.  It was a bit of a strange visit, as John & I were gone in the middle of it, but it was still great.  On the days that we were all together, we definitely kept busy.

We spent lots of time outside in the nice weather.

We made our first trip this year to Riverdale Farm - a charming little farm in the middle of downtown Toronto.  It is a gem.  

During our last visit there, I learned that all donkeys have crosses on their backs!  Did you know that?  I had definitely never noticed that in all my time around donkeys.  The story is that the crosses are there as a reminder of Palm Sunday.

My favorite day was spent at Spencer Gorge Conservation Area, about an hour away from Toronto.  The park has two large waterfalls, easy dirt-pathed hikes to both falls, huge willow trees, lots of grass, and an old cobblestone bridge.

The bridge was simply charming.

It was such a GORGEOUS day!

We also had lots of fun playing inside.  One afternoon Grandma & Helena hosted a tea party for H's Mommy & Daddy!  Thanks so much for coming Grandma/Mom/Millie!