Ottawa

From Montreal, we headed to Ottawa. An absolutely beautiful drive. We actually saw purple rain! Among other things. Glorious.

We only spent one day in Ottawa, and this is somewhere I would very much like to return. Ottawa is the capitol of Canada, and has a very cosmopolitan vibe. Lots of diversity in people and cuisine here. I was really really wanting to spend one extra night here to see the light show on the capitol buildings, but we weren’t able to. Next time!

We started our time in Ottawa at the Royal Canadian Mint. There are a couple of mints in Canada, and this one is where they make the very special coins. It was a really thorough tour. We also got to see them actually making the coins, and throughout the tour, there were displays of historic currency and the story of Canada and its currency. We finally learned what a loon is and the significance of it! We couldn’t take pictures inside the mint, but they had a gift shop with some displays where the tour met and ended. They had a real bar of silver the kids got to try to pick up. They got a kick out of that.

We walked around downtown. This is the capitol of Canada, so we walked by lots of government buildings, including parliament, and embassies as well. There were many many choices for food. We let Lucy choose (I don’t remember why now), and she chose a Cantonese stall in an outdoor food hall. It was absolutely fantastic. The kids all made choices outside their comfort zones, and we all enjoyed a fabulous meal!

We walked around some more afterward and got some treats at a bakery and enjoyed the sights and smells of Ottawa.

There is lots more to explore there. This was kind of a last-minute diversion, so we definitely need to return as a destination. I really liked what I saw in our short viist!

Spot our kids! 😀

Montreal Cuisine

The last thing about our time in Montréal is probably also one of the best things about Montréal- the food!

We were fortunate to get to try a variety of foods in Montréal.  Of course, poutine was a priority for us to try.  If you are not familiar, it is fries topped with gravy and cheese curds…. We had a mixed review of the poutine, but I LOVE poutine so I was excited.  Some of that enthusiasm rubbed off on two boys, but the others weren’t fans. 

Of course, as I mentioned, we were budget conscious.  So we didn’t eat out all the time.  We visited the market and bought some fresh fruits and vegetables as well as freshly baked breads and pastries for breakfasts.  We visited a supermarket to stock up on some snacks. We also ended up staying in kind of a party area of town that had lots of pubs and restaurants.  Our American family of six was somewhat of a novelty in some of the places we went to, and we ended up getting some deals just on our good looks and charm.  😉 

That’s a coca cola, promise.

We also did not eat in the most popular touristy areas if possible.  This was for budget purposes because places in these areas are usually more expensive, but it was also just to get a sense of the culture of the life in this city.  We went to a small local bakery/cafe where the lady working there was just so impressed with the kids trying to speak French and the size of our family.  She gave all of them little cookies and pastries to try.  I think she just wanted to her them say “merci” and it was well-appreciated!

We tried some crepes one morning for breakfast in a really cute and funky café near our stay on our last morning in Montréal.  This meal definitely hit it out of the park for everybody!

We did try some Canadian fast-food as well, but not so much in Montréal.  So more on that later!

Ville Time in Montréal

As a family, we do a lot of state and national parks, camping, hiking…  We don’t always visit cities.  First of all, we have a penchant for the outdoor adventures.  But also, we have a large family and cities are expensive.  So from a practical sense, we just don’t always choose cities.  When we do, we try to take them to cities that are somewhat different from our own.  We also are choosey about what we do when we are there.  Of course, we are budget-conscious.  But also we want to get the biggest bang for our buck in terms of culture.  What are the things we want our kids to learn and experience being somewhere different?  Montréal was no exception.

First of all, this was our first trip as a family of six to another country.  So we definitely tried to give them a sense of the Eastern part of Canada.  Montréal is very unique.  They speak another language and culturally the lifestyle is different as well.  You really do get a cosmopolitan, European, French-y vibe in Montréal, so we definitely wanted to play that up.  We also always use public transportation if possible when we are in the cities to help our kids get a sense of that as well since our own city doesn’t have as integrated public transportation as many others. We stayed in a small cozy place in the city near a subway station so we would have quick access to public transport. We had a balcony, and the kids really enjoyed this. We also, apparently, stayed in a party area so there were lots of restaurants nearby (more on food later!).

We rode the city bus and the metro in Montréal.  This was thrilling for all of them!  Nick and Lucy have lived experience with subways in other cities, but Nick and Rami were new to this.  The sights and sounds were very exciting to them, and we taught them how to use the map and let them figure out the routes when we could. 

It didn’t look like this most of the time. Most of our trips, the bus was super crowded.

We also took a day to just enjoy the city.  Our visit to the Parc Olympique was not a whole day event.  We took just a part of the morning doing that.  So we decided to take the rest of the day to enjoy Montréal.  We went to the Marché Jean-Talon which is a famous open-air market in the city.  The sellers were so kind to our kids.  Many of them did not have great English, and so it was fun to get to practice our French.  We encouraged our kids to say bonjour and merci throughout.  They tried to read the signs and figure out words for the fruits and vegetables, among other things.  We had lunch at the market and bought some fruits and things for later in our day.

We then took the city bus to a park.  We climbed a hill and enjoyed a playground.  There were many kids around- we were not sure if it was school or camp.  But the kids enjoyed playing here for a long time. 

We had a snack in the sunshine and then headed over to a small lake where we rented a couple of boats and paddled around.  We were the only people on the lake.  We had girls in one boat and the boys in the other.  We tried to compete!  The girl boat had the easiest start but a disappointing finish.  The boys had some infighting, but ultimately gave up paddling and made Kareem do it.  😀  We had a delightful time on the water!  In the wintertime, Beaver Lake is used as an ice rink!  We went inside and saw where they rent the skates and there was a little café in there as well.

We visited Parc Jean-Drapeau on the St. Helen’s Island in the Saint Lawrence River to close our evening.  I had heard that the sunset from here is especially nice with the city in the west and the sun setting behind it.  They weren’t lying- it was spectacular!  We explored the park before the sunset.  We skipped the Biosphere, but did take some pictures around it. 

While taking pictures, we had a very nice Québecois cyclist stop to offer to help us.  He did not speak English really at all, and I was glad I was able to understand him and use my French.  He complimented me on my French which always feels good, even after all this time.  The Canadian accent is quite different, so I was pleased that I was able to communicate with him with ease.  He told us about a fireworks show off the bridge and a number of other cool things about Montréal. 

We sat by the river and just enjoyed the waves and the sunset and the togetherness.  It was a great evening in Montréal. We really lucked out with the weather. They had been calling for rain for our whole trip there. We got one downpour and we happened to be inside a museum for it. The rest of our few days there were absolutely gorgeous.

The next morning, we ascended Mont Royal, the “mountain” or hill for which Montreal is named. It was very cool because we had heard lots about it through our times in museums in Montreal and the origin of the city. We had a lovely view of the city for saying au revoir to Montreal!

Montreal Olympic Park- Parc Olympique

Montréal Olympic Park was a big draw for us as we are a whole family of Olympic fans!  We weren’t sure what all there was to see or do, but we knew we needed to be there on our visit.

First of all, the Olympic park is humongous.  Be prepared for this!  There are also many partner attractions nearby and not so nearby related to the Olympic park. 

Montréal hosted the Olympics in 1976.  I know there was some controversy surrounding it.  Montréal was an underdog for the host, but did win the selection as host.  The city reportedly lost $1.5 billion dollars hosting it, supposedly due to poor planning and corruption.  Twenty-nine nations, mostly African, boycotted the Montréal games because they refused to ban New Zealand after the New Zealand national rugby team had toured South Africa earlier that year in defiance of the UN call for a sporting embargo. 

But anyway, in 2022, upon our visit, our kids were unaware of any of that history, and were able to just be thrilled about being in a place that hosted the Olympics! 

We started by walking through the Esplanade and taking it all in.  Unfortunately, the Montréal Tower was closed for renovations, but it was still an amazing structure to view from the outside and inside.  We just couldn’t go up.  Next time!

We visited the Olympic Stadium- what an impressive place!  We also visited Saputo Stadium where the Montréal Impact major league soccer team plays. 

The most exciting thing for us, I think, was visiting the Sports Centre.  This is a multi-sports complex that includes a gym, pools, and fitness rooms.  We considered coming back to swim there as it is open for public swim sometimes!  We got to watch some swimming competition happening, as well as some martial arts going on.  The kids were excited to sit in the stands. Very cool!

Of course, we really enjoyed the Olympic rings everywhere. 

A fun stop in Montréal!

Vieux Montreal

After we left Niagara, we headed to Montreal! This was a stop we debated on. It was out of the way, so to speak. But also close enough we didn’t want to skip it. When considering what to do with kids in Montreal, we really thought about what we wanted to kids to takeaway from this city. One important thing I wanted to the kids to understand was the rich history of the settlement of Canada AND how it tied into our local history as well. There was definitely no shortage of choices to do this!

We started at Château Ramezay, a historic site and museum depicting 500 years of Montreal history. It is located in Vieux Montreal and the building itself was built in 1705. It is on the Canada National History Places list. The museum has rooms telling stories from the settlement of Canada, including First Nations history through settlement and colonial times to independence. The basement held some very cool interactive exhibits for the kids.

After we visited the museum, we visited the beautifully appointed colonial-style gardens. Beautiful day for it.

After our visit to the Château, we walked around Vieux Montreal and enjoyed the gorgeous old part of the city. (More on this in a separate post!) Then we made our way to the PointeàCallière Museum.

This museum is another history museum but it is more like a complex. It covers three archeological sites as well. There are exhibits on First Nations, how they interacted with French and British settlers, and then on through settlement.

A cool aspect of the museum is the archeological aspect. You get to experience archeological remains from every period of the city’s past firsthand. We walked through remains of the settlement Fort Vielle Marie as well as the first sewers. The interpretation of the history from these points was very cool. They used colored lights and neon lights to show where the original boundaries were and how it grew and changed over the years. Very interesting and engaging visual for the kids AND for me.

We made our way through the complex. There was a temporary exhibit on Vikings and their history, culture, and link to Canada. This was a favorite of the kids!

I will say that this was a little tougher. MANY things were in both French and English, but not all of the interactive things were. So I served as an interpreter, and it was all gravy!

Another favorite of the kids was the pirates exhibit! Then upstairs there was a music and communication technology exhibit. This museum seriously had TONS of cool exhibits through which we learned a ton about Canadian history and culture and it was visually so interesting.

After the museum, we enjoyed the city and went over to the Notre-Dame basilica for a concert.

This was such an amazing experience! The concert was also a light show where they darkened the cathedral and they had lasers and projections on the walls of the inside of the cathedral. Spectacular and unique, unlike anything I had seen before. In London a few years ago, there was something like this but on the outside of the buildings. This was a totally different experience being combined with music and the interior. Very very cool! We all enjoyed that.

Then a night on the town!