Montreal Trip: Day 4

It was the final day of our trip and we checked out of the hotel at noon.  The plan was just to have a quick lunch and drive back to Markham.  We walked around for 20 minutes looking for a place because every restaurant we wanted to go to was closed!  Not sure why, because it wasn't a holiday.  We contemplated taking the Metro somewhere again so that M2 could get in another ride.  But we ended up at another Italian restaurant - the girls love Italian food!  M1 got seafood risotto, M2 got shrimp and veal pasta, M3 got tortellini, and I got a pizza.  The place didn't look very nice but the food tasted quite good.  I thought M1's risotto was comparable to the fancy place we went to on Day 2.

The drive back to Markham was smooth and we only stopped once for a break.  Waiting for us was a nice home cooked meal by Uncle Pepe and Aunt Kay.  We also got to sleep in our own beds again.  This is why Mommy always said the best part about a vacation is that feeling you get when you come home.

Overall, it was a very nice vacation.  We had a good time and some relaxation.  Everyone enjoyed the food.  It was nice for me that M1 took care of the itinerary.  I only had to choose one restaurant ... what was the name of it again?  Oh yeah, Tim Horton's - on route.  Another bonus for me was that the driving was easy.  The train tickets for the four of us were a whopping $894 including taxes!  So the trade-off for $130 of gas and $75 for parking was a big gain.  M1's favourite part was everything!  She liked the shows, the food, just spending time together as a family.  M2's favourite parts were the Cirque du Soleil show and of course Le Metro.  M3 said, "No offense to the shows, but the food was the best part!"

Big Oh

P.S. Following up on the people falling down on the trip, M1 slipped in the shower at home.  Then the next day, we went to a New Year's Eve party and M3 fell on a snowbank as she was getting out of the car.  So we had a streak where each one of us fell on four consecutive days.

Montreal Trip: Day 3

For Day 3 of our trip, we took a 20 minute Metro ride to have brunch at St-Viateur Bagel.  It's supposed to be one of the best bagel places in Montreal.  There's typically a 30 minute wait and that's about how long we waited outside the restaurant.  Luckily it was not a cold day.

M1 had a bacon bagel, M2 had a BLT bagel, M3 had a ham and cheese bagel, and I had a smoked meat bagel.  I guess it was worth the wait because we all thought the bagels tasted very good.  In fact, M2 said she is not going to have a bagel at Tim Horton's ever again.

Afterwards, we hopped on the Metro again to visit the Jean Talon market.  It's like the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, but smaller.  There were lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and meats.  We snacked on some macaroons and they were very good.

Then it was back on the Metro again to go back to the mall we went to yesterday.  I wanted to pick up a 3D puzzle of the Batmobile and a 1500 piece Star Wars jigsaw puzzle.  Strangely, I was the only one to buy souvenirs on this trip.  Then we took the Metro back to the hotel to rest a bit before our next event that M1 booked.

The next event was a 30 minute Metro ride to the Planetarium where we watched 2 half-hour shows - one about stars and constellations and another about planets in our solar system and beyond.  I was always interested in astronomy so M1 booked this for me.

I mentioned in the Day 2 blog that the roads were slushy.  Well, the sidewalks were not much better.  They weren't shoveled and were often very icy.  I forgot to mention that M2 slipped on the ice and fell yesterday.  During the walk from the Metro station to the Planetarium, I slipped on an icy patch and fell.  They definitely don't plow and salt in Montreal as often as they do in Markham!

For dinner, we took the Metro back downtown and ate near our hotel.  After days of smoked meat, I decided to have a Cobb salad.  M1 had pasta with smoked meat, M2 had a smoked meat platter (we shared so I still had meat), and M3 had a Chicken Caesar wrap.  Again the food tasted really good.

I made it a point to mention all our trips on the Metro for this day because M2 came to the realization that she really likes riding the Metro.  She says it's fun and relaxing at the same time.  (She's never ridden the Toronto subway during rush hour, pre-COVID.)  One time the doors were about to close and we had to run to make it.  She thought that was particularly fun.

Big Oh

Montreal Trip: Day 2

First off, a Happy New Year to everyone!

Day 2 of our Montreal trip began with breakfast at Ben and Florentine.  It's like a Cora's (which was in our hotel) but I would say slightly better.  M1 got the eggs benedict with avocado, M2 got a chocolate banana crepe, and M3 got a smoothie bowl with poached eggs, guacamole, and cheese.  I pretended to be M3 and ordered a standard sausage and egg meal off the kids' menu.

After breakfast, we bought a 3-day transit pass and took the subway (or Metro as they call it in Montreal) to see the Van Gogh exhibit, which was booked by M1.  We stayed in downtown Montreal, just off of Rue Sainte-Catherine, so I felt it was better to take the transit rather than drive.  The roads were slushy and there were a lot of pedestrians walking around.  Also, I'm terrible with directions, even with Google Maps.

I don't know the first thing about art but again, as YC said - no pre-conceived notions.  I thought the Van Gogh exhibits had very pleasing colour co-ordination, which apparently is one of the characteristics of Van Gogh's work that he did very well.  The highlight for the girls was a kid spinning on a revolving chair, despite his mother telling him to stop.  When he fell off the chair, the girls had a good laugh.

After the exhibit, we walked around a nearby mall.  There were some puzzles I liked but I didn't buy them because I didn't want to carry them around.  We took the Metro again to Eaton Centre and walked around there.  All this was to kill some time before our 5:00 dinner reservation at a fine dining Italian restaurant.  This was going to be our nice fancy meal.  M1 got mushroom gnocchi, M2 got smoked meat risotto, M3 got a mortadella pizza, and I got a 5-meat pasta.  The portions were small but everything tasted delicious.  M1 had given several restaurant choices to us and I chose this one because I wanted to try their fried calamari, shrimp, and scallop appetizer.  It was also amazing!  (Reminded me of Basket B - subject of a future blog.)

Strangely there was no dessert menu, so we went back to the Eaton Centre for some gelato.  Then we took the Metro again to our marquee event - Cirque du Soleil: Corteo.  This was an awesome show with amazing acrobatic feats.  The only drawback was that most of the story was in French and we had trouble understanding some of the dialogue, but we got the gist of it.  I first watched a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas with YC over 20 years ago.  I really liked it and now M2 is a big fan too (Also the subject of a future blog).  We watched the Kurios show in Toronto earlier in the year.

The Corteo show was at the Bell Centre, which was just a 5 minute walk back to our hotel.  Day 2 of our trip was a great day!

Big Oh