Boston & Montreal - Day 6

Day 6 - May 23, 2016

We spent most of the day driving back to Boston.  But, before we could leave Montreal, we had to try some of their famous bagels.  The bagels are cooked in a wood-fired oven on long wooden planks.

We went to the St-Viateur Bagel Shop.  The place was packed and there was a camera person setting up.  They were gearing up to film a TV interview or something.  I bought my bagels (and apparently we didn't take any pictures of the bagels) and we were making our way out when we were stopped by the guy in blue above.  He's the owner of the shop and took a liking to us.

He had somebody run into the store to grab some t-shirts for the girls and was just the nicest guy. Just like everybody else he spoke perfect English and didn't mind us not speaking French one bit.

While getting onto one of the bridges over the river we had noticed a street that had tons of pink decorations.  We went on a search for this street and stopped to wander for a bit.  I'm not sure of the significance of the pink festoons, but it looked pretty cool.

The drive back was fairly uneventful.  We took a different route home from the one that we came on.  We stopped at a couple covered bridges in New Hampshire, but otherwise we drove straight through.

We got to the airport and I left a mac and cheese scented air freshener for the rental car folks.  Alison wouldn't let me use it in the car while we were driving (probably because it stunk).  I've got to think that people who clean rental cars and hotel rooms probably see a lot of strange things...

Lounging around waiting for our flight home.

SLC here we come!

Brace yourselves, tomorrow starts the blog posts about our European adventure!

Boston & Montreal - Day 5

Day 5 - May 23, 2016

We didn't know it at the time we booked our trip to Montreal, but our visit coincided with Victoria Day, which was a national holiday.  I was surprised when I first looked out the window of our hotel how empty the streets were.  The holiday helped to explain that.

We walked from our hotel to the metro, stopping to admire some strange street art on the way.

We found breakfast at Starbucks and sat to eat it in a park.  Maybe I should have cropped out a couple of the guys hanging out in our picture, but oh well.

We took the Metro to the Biodome, which is next to the Olympic Stadium from the 1976 Summer Olympics.  It was originally the volodrome (for short track cycling), but was converted into the Biodome after the Olympics.

Inside the Biodome there are four ecosystems with plants and animals from each.

Alligators.

It was a little chilly in the St. Lawrence Seaway Ecosystem.

Ada loves her pigs of all sorts.

When you find a rocking chair that is just your size, you've got to try it out.

From the Biodome we jumped on the metro to take us back to the old town.  We visited the Notre Dame Basilica. Poor Lyla wasn't having anything to do with the photos.

Inside.  Lyla's hiding.

We stopped at a crepe restaurant for lunch.  I had to have a heart to heart with Lyla.

We spent a while watching the street performer swallow swords & fire and climb on a ladder of blades.

We walked down to the waterfront.  It was great, there was a whole festival or street market going on because of the holiday.  I was surprised that we had such awesome weather in Montreal in May.  We lucked out.

The girls were good enough to get to swim in the hotel pool. It was up on the 9th floor of the hotel, so that was pretty cool.

We found a place for dinner that was highly rated, but was a bit of a drive from the city and made our way there.  When we arrived we were told that the grill was broken, so we ended up at a Pizza Hut. Bummer.

Tomorrow we head back to Boston to catch our flight back to SLC.

Boston & Montreal - Day 4

Day 4 - May 22, 2016

Today was Sunday and it was time for us to move on out of Boston.  Our hotel was just a short walk from Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, so we walked over to buy some hats and take one last look around.

Faneuil Hall.  I'm glad this wasn't ever a spelling word in school.

Ahh yes, animal heads. The girls fight over the pig head, so Kate isn't present in this photo because she's throwing a fit...

Lyla was a champion zebra though.

Coach Red Auerbach horsing around.

The Old State house.

We hopped into the car and started heading northwest.  We made our way to Sharon, Vermont where we visited the birthplace of Joseph Smith.

It started raining buckets while we were inside listening to the missionaries' spiel. We stopped at a local burger joint for lunch, then continued on our drive up to Montreal.

I couldn't find any pictures from the rest of this day, so it must not have been too exciting...  We checked into our hotel, then walked over to see the Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal and had dinner at a small Indian restaurant.

Tomorrow: We explore Montreal!

Boston & Montreal - Day 3

Day 3 - May 21, 2016

Today was spent doing more touristy things in Boston.

Our first stop was the Fine Art Museum.  This is one of our very favorite places to visit.

Picasso.

Grumpy Ada.

Van Gogh.

Alison.

Happy Ada.

My favorite collection and room in the museum is the Monets.  The museum has an excellent collection of them and I sometimes wish that I could just sit and enjoy being in the presence of such masterpieces for a couple of hours.  The kids would never let that happen though.

From the Museum of Fine Arts we took the T to the Prudential Center.

We went to the top of the Prudential Tower to enjoy the 360 degree views.

Our next stop was that little building with the green roof.

We had tickets to a performance of the Boston Pops Orchestra.  They had a puppets with the pops performance with the puppeteers from the University of Connecticut.  The orchestra was wonderful, playing a large selection of John Williams' pieces among others.

We had seats on the balcony.

Mesmerized by the puppets.

After the Boston Pops we walked the Freedom Trail starting at the Boston Commons.

Kissing a... donkey.

The Old North Church.

While in the North End we stopped for dinner at the original Regina Pizzeria.

No visit to the North End could be complete without a visit to Mike's Pastry.  This place was madness.  You have to fight your way in (so I sent Alison), and the crowd is every man for himself.  I gave Alison some cash and told her to get a dozen cannolis.  She ended up only having enough cash for 9, but we didn't expect them to be so big.  1 cannoli for each of us would have been plenty.

Lyla with the cannoli as big as her head.

Tomorrow we make our way to Montreal!