Old City Montreal

After visiting the Montreal Tower and Biodome, we took the Metro to Old Town (Vieux-Montreal).

 

We sought refuge from the cold in the Montreal Science Centre at the Old Port.  Since it was close to closing time, we just wandered around the free exhibits - like this invention that had lights, sounds, and buttons for the kids to push:

After getting toasty, we walked up to the Place D'Armes to see Notre Dame Basilica: 

Dedicated in 1829, the church was the largest in North America and remained so for almost fifty years.

We paused a minute to admire Montreal's awesome snow removal techniques - a giant tractor blowing snow into a series of dump trucks.  Where do the dump trucks take the snow? In a nutshell, all the snow is taken to quarries to pile up and melt. :-)

Then we went inside to admire the Basilica's interior - we were able to catch the sound and light show, which was really interesting. The show provided a comprehensive history of not only the Basilica, but of Canada and Montreal, as well - with beautiful music and snazzy lighting. Sean sat with Daddy through the whole show, but Clare needed to move around - so we hung near the back and looked at the nativity and the "nice Baby!" in the manger.

The Altar

The organ

The pretty ceiling

After the show, we hit the streets in search of dinner near our hotel. On our way back, we realized we were staying very close to the Bell Center - the home of the Montreal Canadiennes! We took a minute to admire Maurice "The Rocket" Richard's statue:

Then we went to go get dinner; we ended up at a great crepe place! The kids played a little "peeky-boo" while we waited for the crepes to come out of the kitchen:

Sean was delighted to have a "pancake with syrup!" for dinner and to nibble on Daddy's "pancake with chocolate!" dinner as well. Clare liked our crepe - apples, craisins, and yummy cheese!

Bon Appetit!

 



A Couple of Things

Clare's been talking up a storm lately. Her new favorite phrase is, "I do!" As in, "I can do it!" And this week, she's been asking, "tee-shoo? tee-shoo?"since she has a little cold right now.

Sean likes to tell us all the things he wants to do "when I grow up and get bigger and then I'm in charge of YOU!" He usually brings this up around bathtime, bedtime, or when it's time to go to school.

A couple of random snaps:

Batman and his pet bat got into the dress-up box this weekend

Sean "cheese-ing" in his Sonic hat - it makes him run really fast! :-)

Biodome and Montreal Tower

Our first morning in Montreal, we took a trip to the Olympic Park to see the Biodome and the Montreal Tower.  Coming out of the Metro, we got our first taste of Montreal's stellar snow-removal efforts - they really know how to handle their snow up there :-)

 

Our first stop and the first of many welcome respites from the cold was the Biodome. Its permanent exhibit is made up of four distinct climate zones - first up was the Laurentian forest with lots of forest-dwelling animals such as this friendly little otter:

and a North American Porcupine sitting in a tree:

and this little Canadian lynx (or kitty cat, as Clare called him):

yup, that's a big ol' beehive in the foreground - yikes!

After the forest, we visited the Gulf of St. Lawrence section which mimics the gulf's fridgid estuary:

The kids loved the view (we're like scuba divers! said Sean) and they waved their little hands off at all the fishies (or beeshees, as Clare says):

Next we visited the Labrador Coast and the Sub-Antartic Islands:

Best egg ever!

"Hi buhrdee! Hiiiii!"

Last up was the tropical rainforest. We looked at colorful birds, exotic fishies (beeshees), and crocodiles!

When we were done exploring the different climates and seeing all the animals, we took the Sooy babies over to the kids' play area, which had a great big jungle gym, a play kitchen, and a play veterinarian office.  After we'd had our fill of playing, we went next door to the Montreal Tower, the tallest inclined tower in the world! 

We took a funicular up the 266 meters (~872 feet) to the top for beautiful views of snowy Montreal:

Cheese!

  After the tower, we rode the metro to Old Montreal for a visit to Notre Dame Basilica ...

Thursday

The day started a little after 4am when Clare woke up calling "Mommy! Up? Mommeeeee! Up?" She didn't nod off again until nearly 6! By then it was time to get up and out the door ... only to find that a road adjacent to ours was closed, so there was a looooooong line of traffic on our street. When Thom John and the kids came out the front door for school, Sean exclaimed, "a parade of cars and trucks! What a lovely surprise!"

 

Clare had a rough morning at school - her teacher said she seemed tired.  Hmmm ... I wonder why? Later in the day, she tripped and bumped her head, leaving Clare with a nasty scrape on her forehead. 

 

 

 

And Sean was running on the playground and ran right into one of his buddies, leaving him with a full-on shiner under his right eye!

Despite the shiner, Sean was his normal chatty self tonight.  On the way home, he told me that he can't wait until he grows up and then he will drive and "Mommy sits in the back seat of the car and you can take a nap, Mommy ... and eat cookies!"  Yay!  Later, he told me all about his teacher being absent this week "She went on bacation at the beach. It's a different beach than our beach because there are tigers and a merry-go-round."

 

Then he asked me about the Green Goblin (he had recently opened a packet of Spiderman stickers) - "Who's this guy? He flies on a board? He lives in New York? Does he come to New Jersey? Will he come to my house and get in my room and try to take my animals away?" I told him no - I won't allow it. Green Goblins are not allowed in the house - just like cats (I tell him cats are not allowed so he doesn't leave the door open for our neighbors' outdoor cat to come in). And then Sean said, "Hey! Mommy! Did you know? Cats have babies that are called kitties and they are so so so cute! Did you know that?"

YOU'RE cute, Seanybear!!

 



Bonne Annee!

Happy 2013!We're back from a trip to French Canada - we spent a few nights each in the cities of Montreal and Quebec. Before leaving, I wanted to set up a bunch of posts about additional Christmas trips - an adventure in Historic Smithville, a train ride with Santa, and a summary of our Christmas weekend doings, but we ran out of time - there is a lot of stuff to pack when taking two toddlers on a long trip!

We started out on December 27, during a pretty bad rainstorm that turned into snow at the New Jersey-New York border. This storm ended up dumping almost two feet of snow on Montreal, which made for difficult driving but a fun and winter-y trip.

Pretty much the standard view as we drove through Adirondack State Park - luckily the roads were better plowed once we got to Plattsburgh!

We spent a few days in exploring Montreal while keeping bundled up against the cold. On New Year's Eve, we went to the Old Port to play in the snow and watch fireworks:

Snow Angels!

Daddy helping the kids make snowballs

 



Sean pretending to sleep during our New Year's Eve dinner

All bundled up!

 

On New Year's Day, we drove up to Quebec City and had a good time walking around the Old City while trying not to get too frozen since we were visiting during a major cold snap. One day the temperature was one degree Farenheit with a wind chill of minus thirty!!  Luckily that was the day we were in the car a lot for a few side-trips. :-)

Now we're home and getting ready to go back to school and work and enjoy the almost-tropical 40 degree weather here in New Jersey! More posts on our French-Canadian adventures to come ...