9/11 Montreal

 On Monday, we took the SUV into Montreal for a day of tourism.  We parked in a parking structure and walked to the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal.  Then we walked around the city, enjoying the sights and the food.  It was a very walkable area with cobblestone streets and lots of shops aimed at tourists.  There was even Le Petite Duck Shop, which seemed to exclusively sell rubber duckies!  Fortunately, they were closed, so the kids couldn't beg us to buy any.  (They were very cute but very expensive.)  We went to a crepe shop for lunch and got crepes with strawberries and Nutella and chocolate.  Emily and I split a Canadian special crepe with almonds, bananas, and maple syrup.  It was interesting and pretty good but not something I'd order again.  Gotta get the local special when you visit, though!  The crepes all came with a side of fresh fruit, and stay tuned for how that comes into play in tomorrow's post.

In front of the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal

Inside the Basilica.  The inside is so beautiful and detailed!

Emily and I thought Montreal felt very European.  The kids agreed, but since they haven't been to Europe I think they based their opinions exclusively on the fact that almost everything was in French.  I was very glad to have Emily to help me with the French.  When we were in the crepe shop and she took kids to the bathroom and left me in the restaurant without her, I couldn't communicate with the waitresses at all.  It was kind of surprising, because their menu was in both French and English and they had lots of English signs in the shop, but the employees didn't seem to speak any English.

On our drive back to the campground, we got lost again, and traffic was awful.  Montreal is a great place to walk but a very unpleasant place to drive!  We decided to go buy gas and get pizza for dinner at Costco before we went back to the campground.  The Costco food court had a lot of options that we don't have in Oregon, like poutine and chocolate ice cream, but the employees weren't very patient with our limited French and the kiosk wasn't working right, so we kept having to ask the employees questions.  Finally, we got our food and drove back to our campground.  We roasted marshmallows and tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour, because we had to leave camp on time the next day.