“I have SO much to write about when the teacher asks me what I did this summer!” – Sierra, walking home from Cirque du Soleil in Montreal.
This encapsulates exactly what we’re in this for. We want life to be full of memories for our kids to look back on with a smile.
I have always wanted to stop near this sign when entering Quebec.
Vero is the queen of booking Airbnb’s. When she found a Friends themed apartment in Vieux-Montreal, we knew it was an instant acquisition. It was the highlight of my trip.
It even came with a chick and a duck!
For all the years I have been to Montreal, I cannot recall ever going near the waterfront. It felt like a different city.
A ride up in La Grande Roue
A photo for my cousins.
From the top of La Grande Roue, Ezra spied some bumper cars below. We tried them out and it was great fun! My bumper car wasn’t working all too well at the beginning and it turned out that the batteries needed changing, so we got some extra bumping time because of that!
At the end of our trip, Ezra said that this was his favourite thing he did in Montreal. It was also on Sierra’s list. This is an important point to remember for the future. Sometimes the fun things are things that can exist in any city in the world.
Night view
The kids thought this looked like PacMan
Having a chat with Gladys before bedtime
Showing the kids an episode of Friends, as they have never seen it before. Various objects in the apartment had little papers next to them explaining what they were, and what episodes they were from.
Early Wednesday morning.
Ezra and I walked around to find some food for breakfast. The kids mentioned that we were going to get some crepes so we picked up a few cinnamon buns from Olive + Gourmande. Ezra and I waited 20+ minutes to get them. Popular spot!
I thought we were going to get crepes fairly soon after arriving with the buns, so I suggested we just split one of them. This turned out to be a mistake as we didn’t leave until closer to 11am and then I was getting too hangry to be a nice guy. Mental note: always eat, especially on a trip!
We headed to an aerial park, but found out that there were no spots until the afternoon (because of summer camps?). We ended up at SOS Labyrinthe which was a super fun experience going through a labyrinth trying to find four treasures. I thought we would be done in 20 minutes but I was surprised when we came out of there 1.5 hours later! I was also surprised to see that they change the labyrinth up every week, which is cool.
I had left my phone at home because they said not to bring it to the aerial park. No pictures from SOS Labyrinthe exist, but we will always have fond memories of Sierra telling us “I told you so” when she found the right path through the labyrinth. I will also remember a whole lot of dead ends, and the funny circus type mirrors to look into.
We took this photo a day later while walking to Cirque du Soleil because I wanted at least one photo of the place.
After SOS Labyrinthe, my feet were sore so we walked back 15 minutes to the apartment. I loved being that close, but it was a bit too much to expect the kids to walk back and forth multiple times a day.
We then headed back to the old Port to check out the aerial park which was part of a pirate ship! It was very cool. I felt like I was on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean with kids flying overhead and underneath me.
The four of us all started out together on the ‘green’ path. You start on green, then can advance to higher levels if you wish. Ezra’s shoulder was hurting from a fall at Shannon’s cottage a few days earlier, and he was also having a hard time reaching some of the wires so after going through the green path, he didn’t want to take part in the activity any longer. It allowed me time to hang out with him, eat some popcorn and take some videos of Sierra and Vero going through other obstacles. Let’s not kid ourselves, I’m not the most adventurous person, so I didn’t really mind hanging out with Ezra on the ground. However, I wish I would have known this would happen before spending a lot of money for us to hang out on the ground! We could have just paid $5 if we knew we were hanging out on the ground from the beginning. Ah well.
After the aerial park, the kids wanted a treat. Ezra bought some candy called Toxic Waste which was supposedly very sour. It was. Vero’s reaction is captured here on video.
We had some supper at a nice patio in the main tourist area of Vieux-Montreal (Comptoir 400)
With an hour before closing time, we went to the Musée des illusions which was a ton of fun!
I saw this on the sidewalk near our apartment. I thought it was thought provoking.
On Thursday, we took a trip on the metro as the kids were excited to try it out. It is quite the marvelous way to travel across a city. We ended up at the biodome!
The kids were extremely excited to see a capybara
I thought these jellyfish were extremely cool.
A quick lunch before heading over to the planetarium. Passport holders, don’t forget you get 15% off for lunch! We ended up buying a yearly passport because it was cheaper to buy a family passport than individual tickets for the biodome, planetarium and insectarium. Plus, we can go back sometime this year!
The planetarium had some really cool movies about black holes and the cosmos. The screen envelops the entire room and I felt like I was in space.
Check out this story about a meterorite from Penouille!
The city was celebrating 50 years since Olympics 1976
It’s incredible to see these ants at work at the insectarium.
The butterfly garden was incredible. I had never seen so many butterflies.
After an afternoon visiting the biodome, planetarium and insectarium, it was time to dress up and go out for a nice supper at some Mediterrean restaurant that we walked by. I quite enjoyed the chicken. The kids found that the lemonade was too sour to drink!
I enjoy the fact that when we asked Ezra to dress up nice for supper, he brought his Angine de Poitrine shirt along with some ‘Live Fast, Pickle Hard’ socks! I know my bud Clive would appreciate that.
The kids pointed out this hilarious sign.
Going to see Echo, a Cirque du Soleil production.
The show was quite incredible. I always get a bit overwhelmed seeing a Cirque du Soleil experience. I just can’t get over how magical it feels. But it’s just some humans pulling off some incredible super-human feats. The family really enjoyed the circus. It’s important to point out that Ezra said that if he had to choose between the ‘infinite cube’ toy he got after the show, or the show itself, we can get him the toy in the future. Duly noted!
The walk back after the show. Final night in Montreal!
I went to pick up an assortment of baked goods for breakfast. Ezra really wanted a breakfast sandwich, but I found a hotdog wrapped in some dough and he said that was even better!
The Friends-themed apartment on Rue de la Moyne
One last shot before we packed up and left the apartment
Before leaving the city, we checked out a Quick Room which was an hour long game show type experience for the entire family to enjoy! It was quite fun and I enjoyed the fact that you had access to ‘jokers’, which were limited superpowers like blocking someone from answering a question, or stealing someone’s points. Ezra won the first round, Sierra won the second round and she was also the gold medal winner. Ezra came in second and I came in dead last.
After the Quiz Room experience, we knew we had to try some smoked meat from Reuben’s before leaving town. I had never been in the original Reuben’s which is a diner down in a basement. I quite enjoyed the experience compared to the other Reuben’s down the street. The kids said that the lemonade was life changing.
The final photo is of Ezra trying on his night vision goggles he bought at Indigo while Maman went shopping at Simon’s. We hit the road at rush hour and were back home in 2.5 hours. It was an incredible trip. I personally felt that we were living in an entirely different city that I am used to. I have spent time in Montreal going to concerts, or visiting Philipp in the Plateau and Mont Royal. But I haven’t spent a whole lot of time in Vieux-Montreal. I really enjoyed just having a little corner of the city to spend time in. A day into the trip, I kind of had a sense of where we were in the neighbourhood and how to navigate to the waterfront and back.
I also really enjoyed the vibe of the port area. I wish Ottawa had something like that going on. Maybe that’s what they are attempting to do over in Hull near the water.
I also enjoyed how it gave us a taste of what to expect if we wanted to go on longer trips with the kids, and have them walk around a lot. I can say that the next time, we might want to have them walk a bit more to get their leg muscles ready before the trip, as they said their legs were hurting the first couple of days. Mine were too!
The weather was great, the activities were fun, and everyone emerged happy from the experience.
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