This weekend the girls hit country number fifteen! Now that our whole family has school vacations together and I don't have any weekend obligations we've taken full advantage of our new lifestyle. Last weekend we went to Boston to see a former student play soccer for his university and then went to Great Wolf Lodge in Fitchburg, MA! It's so great having the whole weekend to do things together and we are really enjoying it!
We've been talking about going to Montreal for years. One of my former students went to college in Montreal and he still lives there. We've wanted to go and visit but never found the time. Now that the girls are pros at traveling the globe we made plans for a fall trip north of the border! Alex has know Téa since he was a sophomore in high school and we brought her home from Michigan! We have many memories of him working at our kitchen table in our apartment under the business office while Téa slept in Adam's arms. Once Alex was a senior Téa was old enough to talk and usually greeted him with, "Gonna do physics, Awex?" when ever he came over!
After about 6 hours in the car we made it to our hotel just outside the city. After a quick stop to freshen up and get some directions we went to Old Montreal to meet Alex for dinner. It was great to catch up over some great food and then to walk around the Old City and the port together. The girls were excited to walk down the pedestrian streets and see the huge Ferris wheel. Alex gave us some tips on driving in Canada (no right on red on the island!) and we had a great night. It was a long day so it was right to bed when we got home.
Saturday we wanted to cram in as much of Montreal as we could in one day and I'd say we accomplished the task. We started the day near the Olympic stadium. The 1976 Summer Olympics were held in Montreal and there were several memorable moments in this games. This was the Olympics in which Nadia Comaneci earned the first perfect score in gymnastics (at only 14 years old!). Bruce (now Caitlin) Jenner set Olympic and World records in the decathalon. Sadly for Canada, they are the only country to host a summer Olympics and not win at least one gold medal the year they hosted! A newly dedicated square named Place Nadia Comaneci that commemorates the 1976 Olympics and gymnastics opened just last week. Many people wanted their picture taken in front of the Olympic rings while doing handstands. My girls wanted to do it, too, of course.
We had really come down to the Olympic Stadium area because we wanted to take the girls to the Biôdome. This museum takes visitors through different ecosystems including a rainforest, a maple forest, the St. Lawrence river basin, the Labrador coast and the sub-Antarctic islands. While walking through each exhibit we got to see animals and plants from each ecosystem. The girls loved the capybara in the rainforest, the otters in the maple forest, the huge fish and jellies in the river and the puffins in Labrador. However, their favorite (and mine, too) were the penguins in the sub-Antarctic. There were several different kinds of penguins all walking around and swimming and they were so funny to watch. It was definitely the highlight. Coming in a close second for the highlight of the day was the interactive presentation a museum guide was doing with kids outside the penguin exhibit. She was asking the kids to match the poop sample to the animal that made it. Each sample looked and felt real (so gross!) but the kids had a fun time trying to figure out whose poop was whose. We learned that small pellet-like poop is from herbivores, and larger, more solid poop comes from omnivores and carnivores! They looked at bear, wolf, rabbit, deer and other animal poop. Pretty fun for a six and eight year old.
We continued our tour of Montreal by heading to the Biosphere. This sphere was designed by Buckminster Fuller for the 1967 World's Fair to house the United States Pavilion. Now it is a museum dedicated to the environment. We didn't take the time to go inside but the building was very cool from the outside. We stopped to take some pictures and stretch our legs some more and then got in the car for our next stop on our whirlwind tour of Montreal.
Mount Royal was Adam's requested stop on the trip. We drove up the mountain as far as we could and then parked so we could walk even higher and see some spectacular views of the city. We were not disappointed! It wasn't a long walk to reach a gorgeous overlook. It was quite crowded since it was a Sunday afternoon and the weather was gorgeous. After taking a few quick pictures we kept on hiking up to see the Croix de Mount Royal. The huge cross wasn't much to see during the day, but at night it is illuminated and shines high on top of the mountain. Tea and I had fun taking some selfies with the cross in the background.
We had one more stop I wanted to make before we could call it a day - St. Joseph's Oratory. This church's dome can be seen from most parts of the city and I wanted to see the church up close and personal. I know the girls aren't huge fans of touring churches after we dragged them to so many last summer in Europe, but I really wanted to get to this one. The church is huge and we were able to climb the stairs all the way to the top. We couldn't go inside the main church as there was a concert going on, but we were able to see the tomb of St. André and the thousands of canes and crutches left in his honor. Pilgrims that came to the Basilica hoping to be cured by the saint's blessing left the canes and crutches as a sign of their healing. There were reserved staircases around the Basilica for people that were making a pilgrimage on their knees and we saw at least two people climbing the stairs in that manner. As has become our custom when we visit new churches, especially in foreign lands, we lit a candle for Talia's birthmother, Caitlin, and said a prayer for her and her family.
After our lightning speed tour of some main sites of the city the girls were ready to get back to the hotel and enjoy their favorite part of vacation - the hotel pool! They got in a solid hour of swimming before dinner and really enjoyed the day. They were excited to hear me break out some rusty French in the hotel lobby and elevator and we felt much farther away than just a few hours since Montreal is French speaking. The girls did a good job with saying "bonjour" and "merci" and will be ready for our next adventure in a few months!
Stay tuned...the Radday family is off for another big summer adventure and will hit SIX more new countries (and return to some others!). It's incredible to think that my girls will be to twenty countries before they turn ten!! What a wild adventure it's been and we are ready for more!