We had an early start, waking by 8am to have showers, eat breakfast, and say our goodbyes before Kathy left for her 10am tee time. We met Ken's PSW who, it turns out, comes a few times a week to help out, which is very helpful for Kathy. Said our goodbyes but left knowing we would see one another again soon when Ken and Kathy come to our cottage in Sauble before their annual two week vacation in Southampton.
First stop: Canada Science and Technology museum. Although annoyed that we had to pay $8 for two hours of parking, we were pleasantly surprised to find that our admission was entirely free. The kids were free because of the current Canada tourism initiative, and Ryan and I due to our wonderful profession as teachers. After high fiving on the great price, we set off to explore. So many interesting things to read and learn more about including a live presentation about fire which was both impressively and annoyingly given in both English and French. This museum definitely did not disappoint… you could easily go back in another few years and see things that you missed the last time.
After we left, we made a quick stop for a charge, and then headed towards Pointe Claire, QC where Ryan was born and lived for the first few years of his life. We found a trendy and chic spot for lunch called Dizzy's where we enjoyed some authentic and freshly baked Montreal style bagels. Ryan and I were in heaven. Katie and Ben need to acquire the taste for this unique style of bagel that they aren’t used to. Another quick stop at a supercharger at the Pointe Claire mall, where we used the washrooms and browsed a cool outdoor store called Decathlon, and Katie checked out Sephora. On our way out of town we drove through Ryan’s old neighbourhood and past his old house as he reminisced with us the memories that flooded back to him as we drove through the crescent of 122 Embleton.
Although we originally didn't plan to spend any time in Montreal since we know it is easier for us to get back to another day, we decided at the last minute to drive through to get a taste of the city. We headed towards Old Montreal. Unfortunately the weather wasn't fabulous, and parking was confusing since all spots seemed to require a permit. So the kids and I hopped out while Ryan stayed in the car. We wandered up the cobble streets to check out the Notre Dame Cathedral. The $36 entrance fee deterred us from going into the famous church, but we took some time to marvel at the architecture from the outside. That area of Montreal sure has a unique atmosphere and would be nice to visit again, and actually stay downtown. There were so many quaint shops and cafes along the narrow streets, several of which were blocked off to traffic and dedicated to pedestrians only. We couldn't leave the city without grabbing a poutine. Our Internet searches led us to a poutine shop that turned out to be maybe not as authentic as we had hoped for, but it was still enjoyable nonetheless.
We were beyond happy to leave the Montreal traffic. One very strong observation that we made is that Montreal drivers seem even more aggressive and dangerous than Toronto! After several near misses getting out of the city, we finally made it to the Samuel De Champlain bridge and the rest of the drive was smooth. We had one more stop for a charge in Sherbrooke where we grabbed a couple of pizzas from PizzBox and shared a fountain soda while we waited for the charge to finish.
When planning this trip and searching for accommodations in this area, I found this national park called Mont Megantic. What made it extra neat was that it housed an observatory and astrolab. I was unable to book a campsite directly inside the park (multiple checks for an available site failed to return anything) but I did find a campground outside the park called Camping et Chalets dans Les Arbres. We arrived to find it was a very small homegrown campground, but good enough for us to sleep. After setting up our tent, we discovered that the electrical outlet wasn't strong enough to charge the car (boo), but thankfully we had enough juice to get to our next charge. We thought about our evening plans and debated about having a campfire or trying to explore the Mont Megantic park. We knew it was the night before the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower, and also knew that the National Park housed a famous Observatory. It was hard to find good information about what you could actually do at this park on the internet, so we decided to make the short drive to the park to see what it was all about. We parked in the visitor lot and went into the Information Centre. Here we discovered that there was some last minute availability to get into the Astrolab. Although the presentation that came with the $30 per adult entrance fee was given in French only, the exhibits were available to explore and in both English and French. We decided to give it a go, and much like the Museum in Ottawa, we were very impressed with what we got to see. There was an employee in one of the exhibit rooms who spoke English and taught us about thermal cameras and how they use different spectrums of light through the use of a hands on demonstration. After we had explored the rooms, we headed outside to discover a wide open area that was home to a giant star-gazing party. Although it was VERY dark outside (the only lighting was provided by the red lights that were sparingly installed around the area) I would guess there were at least a couple hundred people in the area all there to stare up at the sky in hopes of catching a shooting star. We had brought our camp chairs with us, but after setting them up, we realized that laying on the ground was the best way to view the sky. In the half hour that we laid there we were lucky enough to catch about 6 or 7 meteors fly through the sky above us, each with an accompanying “oooh” or “aaaah” from the crowd. There were also 3 or 4 giant telescopes spread around the viewing area where you could line up to have a view further into space, and we each got a chance to look in. All in all, it was a very cool experience that we felt lucky to be able to take part in.
We headed back to our campsite, brushed teeth, and into bed. As I was getting into my sleeping bag, I saw a bug of some sort move underneath me. After turning the contents of the tent upside down, we found it, and with Ryan’s lickety split fast reflexes, he squished the bug. Unfortunately, the tool he used was the first thing he could grab - Ben’s fuzzy blanket. After giving his dad the stink eye and some moans and groans about how gross that was and WHY did he have to use HIS blanket, Ben threw his blanket to the side and we all slept a bit more peacefully knowing that the bug was dead.
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