Montreal

If you had a choice: rain in the first half of your trip with good weather for the ending, or, good weather first, followed by rain, which would you pick? Though I subscribe to the best for last mantra, I'm happy we started off grand. It was not a disappointing introduction for the kids, for us too. If all else fails going forward, we still remain satisfied.

Of course, we don't have a say in how these things play out. But I do want to note that we have been exceptionally lucky. The trip -- a first for a family of five now -- has been a fantastic adventure, with plenty of high points along the way, played out well because the weather cooperated.

But this morning we've been warned: it's going to rain out there. Or maybe drizzle. Wetness for sure. Well fine: I have work to do rewriting another PR piece on Like a Swallow  (what can I say, I'm fussy!) and so I settle for another breakfast at the hotel. Oatmeal no less! 

And the kids -- they are oblivious to weather. They are drawn to outdoor activities and they press for us to move forward with their favorite bouncy stuff. We're agreeable, though I'm taking along an umbrella. I have little confidence in the weather at the moment. Those clouds look mighty thick: like they may want to stick around for a while. A long while.

I take the metro and once again we meet up just outside the Biodome. This time it's the whole gang of five plus me. And guess what -- despite an internet page claiming otherwise, the bouncy castle thing is deflated and closed. We ask at the Biodome, we try to find some person of great authority -- no luck. No one knows. A shrug, a shake of the head. 

Are the kids disappointed yet again? Well yes and no. Only Snowdrop cared deeply about the activity and she was content to switch focus. Sparrow is at an age where he still sort of rolls with it and Sandpiper? Well, he bounces around plenty without the aid of an inflatable castle.

We go back to the Olympic training field (this used to be the center of Montreal's Olympic Games back in 1976). Sparrow bounces on a trampoline in his own gentle way and Snowdrop finds new ways to strengthen her arm muscles!

We're nearing the lunch hour. There's an outdoor cafeteria just by the entrance to the Botanical Gardens and so we head there. I'd say the food choices made several of the kids very happy.

Good lunches make good energies flow.

And since we are so close, so close to the Gardens, wouldn't it be a splendid idea to show at least a little of them off to mommy and Sandpiper? They missed it yesterday. 

Yes! It's unanimous. In we go.

I'm itching for a picture of the kids against a background of color. That same color that we long for in early spring. They oblige, the gardens oblige, the weather obliges.

And now be patient with me. I'm posting a half dozen pics from our walk through this corner of the Gardens. You have to understand: I grow flowers. I love flowers. I love watching kids move freely between flowers. So, six photos, in a row.

Okay, I cheated. That was seven.

Note in that last photo that we have had another piece of blooming luck! We hit the peak peony blooming season!  I had to horn in on the act here. I set up the camera and the two big kids and I had some fun doing  a timed release photo. I like this one best:

I'll leave you with one last glance at the peonies, with a dab of iris. I mean, just sublime!

Our dinner tonight is just for a group of five. Adult five. We were to be six, but a friend's flight got delayed. Wait, the traveler did arrive in the end? Yes he did. Alright, five, but eventually six.

The kids are home, us big people are trying out Maison Publique. 

Wonderful food. Small plates, so we have to share. Baked oysters, asparagus, seafoods, wild mushrooms, tartare this, tartare that, halibut, pork, pasta dishes, desserts. We ate it all.

When my daughter's friend finally does arrive (straight from the airport), I have a chance to sit back and just take it all in: these guys have all been together, and therefore part of our extended family since college. So for over twenty years. (Here's the original threesome...)

Their banter has come closer to being the banter of older adults (rather than very young adults), but not anywhere near that of my generation. The energy level is high, the conversation far reaching. From the personal, to the political, to the inconsequential. Always with humor, because really, if friends can't help you find reasons to laugh, then you're in trouble.

And then the evening ends. Well, not for my daughter and her friends, but it does for me. I walk in the drizzle of a Montreal evening... 

... and I think -- knowing when to say goodnight is perhaps the most important lesson. 

Yes it is.

Goodnight,

with so much love...

Montreal

The kids really wanted to go to La Ronde, the amusement park just across the river from Montreal's downtown. It's there, tempting them with a visible roller coaster, and the usual Six Flags whirling spinning crashing stuff. We set aside Monday for this.

Wait, today is Monday! And the weather is great! A bit warm perhaps, but we'll take warm! No rain.

We do not go. 

When it came time to purchase tickets on line, we noted the park was open yesterday, but closed today. And the next day. And the day after that. Basically, until the Canadian kids are out of school, the park opens only on weekends.

Sweet kids that they are, Snowdrop and Sparrow swallowed their disappointment. While the grownups mulled over the alternatives, I had a quick breakfast downstairs in my hotel...

And then I had a Zoom meeting about my book,  Like A Swallow. One needs to do these things if you want your work to reach an audience. You discuss distribution. You discuss promotion. I suppose it becomes part of your job as author person to do this stuff.

And afterwards, I went for a leisurely walk. 

It's quite pleasant to window-shop here...

And it struck me that it might be a good time to look at some sweet Canadian stuff for the grandkids. And so I went further north, and further west, walking, walking, until I came across a perfect little store.

(This is how far I wondered away from Old Montreal...)

This is when I got a text from my son-in-law. He and the two older kids were right now on their way to the Biodome -- an incredible place where you can come face to face with animals from very diverse biospheres. Penguins and puffins, parrots, beavers and so much more! Let's meet up there!

But first, we pause at the planetarium, where the kids get about as close to Mars as they'll ever come. We dont have access to rocks and minerals from that planet except when flying debris comes our way. Here,  you can see it, touch it, get close to it.

And you can, with the help of a joy stick, propel a buggy across Mars in search of water. Now that's really fun!

Lunch. With Montreal bagels which both kids agreed are better than the American version. 

And now the Biodome. Just an amazing place for kids, for adults as well.

I thought we had run them ragged inside, but no -- they were willing to continue. On the other end of the park you'll find the Botanical Gardens. It's a hike, much of it uphill and, too, we pause at the Olympic exercise station and the kids, especially Snowdrop, really get a workout there...

And still, they continue, even Sparrow with his short little legs, surely tired by now...

The Botanical Gardens are vast and I'm sure we touched only a few of the corners, but what we saw was just so beautiful! 

We were lucky. The Gardens have extensive Japanese and Chinese segments and of course, the iris will be emphasized and of course this is the week of the iris.

I could not get enough of it all!

How could you not reach for the camera again and again!

And again.

It's a long walk back to the subway. I thought their feet would surely give out but they continued, with only the occasional pause for a rest. Such good travelers, both of them!

I zipped on the metro to the hotel to dump my shopping bag which had been my companion all day long and to freshen up (I needed a hand scrub!) and then I set out again, this time meeting up with the whole pack at Vices et Versa. I'd call it a pub with pub food, though they swear it's very fresh and honest. From the poutine to the fried chicken.

We were ten for dinner today. A group shot was taken.

And then the young family and I took the metro home. They got off first, I got off much later. It's good thing I didn't doze off with the sway of the rapidly moving train. I am that sleepy tonight!

Good night, with love...

Sunday in Montreal

We will have rain for the second half of our trip, but for this first half, we've had luck: the rains held off and we have what I regard as the perfect Canadian weather! [You will want to tell me that Canada is large and does not have "one weather." This is true, but when I think of Canada in the late spring or early summer, I imagine gusty breezes, a few clouds and a few rays of a strong sun -- which, by the way, stays out until late. Sunset's at 8:40 p.m. today, just a few minutes later than our own sunset in Madison Wisconsin. And this is what we have had and continue to have: my imagined perfect Canadian weather!]

It's really pretty in the Old Montreal at all times of the day, but I especially like it in the morning, when the streets are empty and you can easily drift back in thought to a life once lived here before the advent of all that modernity has brought with it. 

Let me say just a few words about Montreal at this point, in case you're not up to speed on your Canadian history. The city is old, but of course, not that old by European standards. The Frenchman Jacques Cartier was the first European to arrive in the 16th century, though the indigenous people -- the Iroquoians -- had been lived here for a very long time. Like 8000 years. 

After Cartier's landing (ensuring that the land would be relegated to France as a colony), many years would pass before more Europeans made their way back to the island that was eventually to be Montreal. Initially a fur trading outpost, the settlement expanded, but it wasn't until the middle of the 19th century (1832 to be precise) that it became a city. By then the whole province of Quebec had become a British colony, and Montreal had grown to have 80,000 inhabitants.  A newly constructed canal ensured that it would become a major (some would argue the most major) economic hub on the North American continent. [Before the opening of the Lachine canal -- do you see how its name, la-chine, tells us much about the goals of exploration? -- ship navigation from Europe had to stop at Montreal. Without roads and without the water link, Montreal was actually quite isolated from the rest of the continent.] I write all this because you have to look for the old here through the prism of its history, remembering that most of Old Montreal as we see it today really dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. So again, old, but not that old.

I walk back to Olive et Gourmand for breakfast but it's closed today, so I pause instead at the lovely Cafe Tommy. Here, you have to commit to a real sit down breakfast and I do just that. Croissant, egg, the works.

The young family is attending to very important stuff in their neighborhood (like getting Sparrow to a hair cut place, even as he has resisted having this done for months now) and so I continue to explore Old Montreal and the Old Port on my own.

(You have to love that for once, a monument is put up not in honor of a military leader, but of three women chatting. It's titled "les chuchoteuses," or the whisperers.)

There are fantastic walking areas here! You never forget that Montreal is as much a part of the St. Lawrence River as New York is part of the Hudson River as it empties out into the Atlantic Ocean. 

As I admire the well tended spaces, the numerous paths, docks and bridges...

...  I can't help but think that this is a wonderful place to live if you are destined to live in an urban area. I remember my cab ride into the city just a few days back when the cabbie, who immigrated here some twenty years ago told me how good Montreal has been to his family. I asked if he minded the cold (everyone who is not from Canada just assumes that the country is basically one long winter with a brief pause for spring). He answered bluntly -- that is not a measure of a good city. You're cold, you put on a coat. We have a nice home, the kids go to a good safe school, I have a good job. We love it here.

Lovely indeed!

Right after lunch, some of the young family comes down to Old Montreal for their first look at this part of town (Sandpiper naps, dad stays home to keep an eye on him).

Here's where we can pick up a bit of history: these blocks tell a story, don't they?

And we veer toward the Old Port and of course the big Ferris wheel. Three times around!

Such views!

We are joined now by a couple of my daughter's friends. We all know them well. They're as close as you can get to being family without being related. We hang out together now, so we have morphed from being a group of seven to being a group of nine.

The kids do a few more bouncy things  and pick up a couple of lollipops...

... and now Sandpiper joins us! 

We all settle in for an early evening aperitif back on the patio of my hotel. 

The plan is to eat dinner in a restaurant that's a bit of a trip from Montreal's center. It's Kwizinn Verdun and it's worth the lengthier metro ride. (Of course, for the kids, the metro ride is part of the adventure!)

Kwizinn is casual, but very very special.

The food is Creole, or maybe Haitian, or maybe both. (I have a fantastic sea bass grilled in plantation leaves.)

And there is live island music and the atmosphere is relaxed and jovial and the food is superb.

(Sandpiper moves to the rhythm of the guitar...)

It's late when we ride the metro back to our various destinations. At a changing station, they go that way, I go another way.

And as the train rumbles through the tunnels, I sit back and think how good kids can be when you take them to new places that demand of them so much more patience and fortitude and a completely new way of taking in the world around them. Being in less familiar communities is humbling. And in feeling yourself to be small, maybe your various issues also become small. 

Small thoughts on a big day...

Goodnight, with love...