Oh, Canada

Like the true American patriots that we are, our family spent Memorial Day weekend up in Canada.

We only have a few more weekends left in Newport, and we’ve been trying to make the most of them. The Army will more than likely never send us up to the northeast again, so we’re trying to see and do as much as possible. After this weekend, we’ve now hit up all the states of New England, plus an international trip to visit out neighbors to the north. 

For Memorial Day weekend, John had a 4-day weekend from school from Friday through Monday. The girls weren’t out of school on Friday, but we kept them home that day anyway. School is absolutely important, but the experiences they gain outside of school are just as important to us.

Our trip started bright and early Friday morning, with our first stop being 4 hours away, in Montpelier, the capital of Vermont. John is on a quest to visit all the state capitals, so that’s what we did. While in Vermont, we also made visits to a maple farm and Ben & Jerry’s. 

I spent the entire day looking forward to visiting Ben & Jerry’s and it did not disappoint! Except that they didn’t have my favorite flavor, Half Baked. But still, the Bourbon Brown Butter was just as tasty. No mistaking the bourbon flavor in that! We spent that first evening not too far from the Ben & Jerry’s factory.

The next morning, we were off to Montreal, Canada! It was my first time traveling internationally by car and I had no idea what to expect. We plan to drive up through Canada when moving to Kansas this summer, so this trip was good practice. Thankfully, it was easy peasy. 

Our first stop in Montreal was the Notre-Dame Bascilica. I think John is still salty about not being able to visit the Cathedral when we went to Paris (I’ll write about our trip to Europe someday). It was beautiful, but basically we paid a whole lot of money to go to church. Which we did twice that weekend. Ha! 

Stop #2 in Canada was to the science museum. We’ve done a variety of children’s museums with the girls, but I think we enjoyed this one most. They had a variety of exhibits that we all enjoyed.

Our day ended in the hotel pool. Of course. The girls would be perfectly content spending all day in a hotel pool! 

After breakfast at the hotel, the next day began at ‎St. Joseph’s Oratory‎. Honestly, I think we were trying to go to an observatory, but Siri decided that our souls needed salvation. Amen.

It was Sunday morning, which meant traffic was a little nuts, but not unbearable. We actually got a decent parking spot right at the entrance. And thankfully, this visit to church was free! As a bonus, it was Montreal Museum Day, so we ever got to tour the nativity museum for free. The displays were versions of the nativity scene from across the world. SO interesting and so beautiful! 

From there, Johnster planned to take us to some fun and Instagramable spots. The first stop was 21 Balancoires. It’s a city street that has 7 sets of 3 swings set up. Perfect for my 3 little ladies! We made it just in time, as the exhibit’s last day is today! The swings light up and make music as they swing back and forth. So much fun! 

Next, we headed to St. Catherine’s Street, which had a HUGE portion of street covered in rainbow balloons, in support of LGTB+. French is not my thing, but it’s close enough to Spanish that I can somewhat decipher. Pretty sure the banner says, “International Journey Against Homophobia and Transphobia”. Or something close to that. We had lunch beneath the balloon canopy before heading out to a maze.

I was really looking forward to the Labyrinth maze, because I thought there might be some cool clues or something that we’d have to figure out to make it though. Nope. Not even our little card with the the maze map on it was accurate. Still, we made it out in exactly an hour. Not terrible. 

From there, it was back to the hotel for some pooling. I swear, the girls would be completely satisfied if they could spend the entire day in the pool. That’s basically what we did last summer at my parents’ house! 

Monday morning, we made our way back to the good ole US of A. It was an 8 hour journey, which included roughly an hour and a half stuck in line to cross back over the border. At one point, John and Ju hopped out of the car and walked to the duty-free store to use the restroom. 

Upon arriving back in Newport, we swung up to the Fort, before heading home. They had a Boots on the Ground display for Memorial Day, and we made it just in time before it all closed.

A few moments later, we were home and the girls hurried back to the yard. It’s good to be home!