On Thursday, September 10th we arrived in Montreal, QC for our second stop in Quebec.
Montreal did not have any signs in English, so we had to try to decide collectively what they said, luckily we had been noticing the directional signs since entering Canada and we could at least determine that we were traveling in the correct direction. For our stay in the outskirts of Montreal we stayed at the Camping La Cle des Champs in Saint Philippe, QB. When we checked in the price changed from earlier in the day so the coupon good for one night at 50% off did not make our stay as inexpensive as we first planned but the campground was the closet to Montreal with decent reviews. In this campground most everyone was from Quebec and everyone was speaking French, so we were easily noticed when we “opened our mouths”. Some people would smile then said “hello” but most just looked at us with a blank stare. The campground offered WIFI at the motor home but it cost us $5 per day so we decided to “give in and pay the fee” so we could plan our travels into Montreal.
Our trip into the city was delayed on Friday morning due to Bella being sick and no one wanted to leave her. She woke up early by jumping off the bed so she could “throw up” on the floor –thank goodness she jumped off the bed. Her sickness lasted until around lunch time and we thought it may be the Tim Horton’s donut holes that she had eaten earlier in the week- chocolate cake ones. Zachary got so upset because he thought she was going to die but after praying for Bella she started running around like she felt better; I guess dogs can have a stomach bug too. We took a short drive into the surrounding area late Friday afternoon to see the area before our day in Montreal on Saturday. Since it was close to dinner we decided to have dinner before going to the grocery store, so we ended up eating at Saint Hubert’s since we could not find the local Mike’s Restaurant like the one we ate at in Quebec City. The first chicken we had eaten since the US, so it was either rotisserie chicken or chicken strips for everyone except Carson who ate French fries. The next stop was desert at Krispy Kreme except we bought two dozen since there was a special where you save $2 if you bought two dozen. Since we had eaten so much at Saint Hubert’s we had over a dozen and a half donuts left but they are good reheated too. We picked up a few groceries at the local IGA where everything was in French and the staff in the store could speak very little English but we managed to get the basics- milk, bread, soup, and cereal. Carson will be very glad to get back into the US so he can get some other type of cereal other than the store brand honey nut cheerios (which do not taste like honey or nuts!).
On Saturday morning, September 12th, we got up early and drove to the closest Metro station parking lot to catch the Metro to visit Montreal for the day. We had planned to visit again on Sunday if we did not see everything since checkout at the campground was not until 8:00pm. We purchased an unlimited metro pass so we could get on and off as much as needed in one day for $36, so we could limit our walking in the city. Our first stop was Old Montreal and the Quays of the Old Port where we saw a large cruise ship which would depart later in the day. We walked along the city streets observing all the sites and sounds of Montreal. The biggest highlight of the day was visiting the Biosphere, which was an environment museum to teach visitors about major environmental issues relating to climate change, water and sustainability and responsible consumption. The museum had its own environmentally safe water treatment system and offered presentations to teach people about sensible water consumption and the effect of everyone’s carbon footprint on our environment. The kids were free and we got a 25% discount since we came to the museum on the Metro instead of driving our car. The kids really enjoyed the water room where you could sail a ship (powered by a rubber band) across a “river” without it sinking and a bathtub that had to be filled with water from a jug teaching everyone how fortunate we are in the US to have water in our home flowing freely from a faucet. We could have spent several more hours in the Biosphere but as the last visitors they locked the doors as we left. We had a very fun filled day in Montreal and we very proud of our ability to understand some of the French that we heard through out the day.
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