The Rest of the Week in Montreal

This has been a fast few days! Mal keeps saying, "How can we be leaving tomorrow? We've only been here two days!" We have been fortunate to have lovely weather and even with James's bone spurs acting up and some rain and cold yesterday, we've been able to fit in a lot. I mean, obviously we didn't get to see or eat at 10% of the possibilities I'd highlighted on my personalized Google Map, but we certainly hit most of the highlights.

Friday morning, we did indeed go to Old Montreal and kick around a bit. We visited the Notre Dame Basilica, which I was unable to go into 25 years ago as it was under refurbishment. They're working on one of the spires right now, but the inside was accessible and it's every bit as soaring and opulent as advertised.

We walked to the Old Port, and Mal played on the small playground there for a while. We'd hoped to visit the "beach" at the Clock Tower, but it apparently doesn't open until June 16. 

Mal was crushed about the beach, but rallied when he found Mamu! that had a strawberry banana Nutella crepe featured on the sandwich-board menu out on the sidewalk. We had an unplanned lunch there after visiting the Notre Dame de Bonsecours basilica. It's one of Montreal's oldest churches, dedicated to sailors. Some of the light fixtures were boats, which was neat, and it was much more understated than the church up the street. But it was still pretty fancy compared to modern-day pared-down modern church design. 

We took our afternoon rest, then went out for dinner at Schwartz's Deli. We were seated at a table with a local family whose daughter looked like she was just about Mal's age. We chatted with them for a while and thoroughly enjoyed our Montreal smoked meat sandwiches.

There was a playground nearby where Mal was able to burn off some steam before walking back to the hotel.

Unfortunately, the next morning, James woke up with his bone spurs/Achilles tendonitis in high gear. We had timed tickets to a Van Gogh immersive experience (sorry, Hannah Gadsby; the only other choice was too "mature" for Mal), so he hobbled his way to that, then the plan was to take it easy until we were to meet his cousin and uncle (and their spouses and a new baby) at a park.

The show was very cool, and afterwards, James made his way back to the hotel while Mal and I found a cane for him, got Mal some McDonald's, and then got lunch for James and me from Restaurant Noodle Factory in Chinatown.

Later, we went to Parc La Fontaine to meet James's cousin, Cynthia, who just had a baby a couple of weeks ago. Her parents, including James's favorite uncle, happened to be in town for the joyous occasion, so we got to see them. The last time James saw his uncle Kermit was back in 2011 when James was living in Dallas. Kermit and his wife, Cheryl, live in France, so they don't get to connect very often. Cynthia's husband, Fabrice, was kind enough to give James a ride back to our hotel (we've been using public transit, but you still have to walk to/from the stops, and the park stop is on the opposite side of the park where we met them, which is a good 3/4 of a mile away.

Mal and I went off to do some more sight-seeing. We hadn't needed to ride the train for a couple of days, and Mal wanted to do that. After we'd gone all over town, I dropped Mal off at the hotel and got us food from Slice and Soda.

Sunday we had reserved for James's rest day. Mal decided that he'd like to spend all day at the hotel, as well. So I got up super early, went across the street, and rented a Bixi to ride over to Parc Jean-Drapeau.

Since it was before 7 AM on a Sunday, I largely had the streets (and the Jacques Cartier bridge) to myself. The Montreal skyline looks lovely from across the St. Laurence River. And I got to see the apartments built for Expo '67 up close!

I rode the bike about 8.5 miles, then turned it in at a dock near the metro station, from where I rode back to the hotel. By then, Mal was hungry and wanted to indulge his Sunday McDonald's tradition.

We brought James some lunch, then I got out to visit Les chocolate de Chloé, which did not disappoint.

By the time James had had a full day of resting, he was good to get out to our high tea reservation at Cardinal Tea Room. It was really neat, tasty stuff, good service. And I knew Mal would not be remotely interested, so we took a big activity book and crayons for him. He stayed busy the whole hour and a half or so that we were there.

Monday, we took Mal by Parc Toussaint-Louverture to play (he says "I was famous there!" because there were a couple of preschool classes playing in the park, and they were fascinated with him), then took the metro to see the Barbie Expo! It was just hundreds of Barbie dolls dressed up as movie characters, dressed by famous designers, wearing outfits suggestive of many companies, etc.

Mal enjoyed hanging out at the mall for a bit, then we walked down to Mary, Mother of the World church.

The wind picked up, ushering in a cold front, as we made our way to Campo, a Portuguese chicken place, for lunch. I had the pork sandwich, James had the chicken, and Mal just had fries. It was all so good.

We came back to the hotel for James to rest, and I went up to a doughnut place we'd been wanting to try... unfortunately, they were closed on Monday and Tuesday so instead I just had an afternoon sight-seeing jaunt.

We elected to have dessert for dinner, as a place right down the road from us looked amazing, but not the kind of place where you'd eat after you'd had a proper meal. 

Later that night, I got out to try to see the projections from Cité Memoiré, only to learn that they're only available Thursday through Sunday. Oh well! Next time. Again, it ended up being a general sight-seeing sortie.

Wednesday, we went back to Old Montreal to the Montreal Science Center. Mal spent the first portion of the day mad that he couldn't go into the area that's reserved for the under-7 set. But then he found the water area and we ended up somehow losing the whole day there! When we stopped for "lunch" later and realized it was almost 4 PM, we were shocked.

Mal had, of course, McDonald's for lunch; but I got sandwiches for James and me from Olive et Gourmando. It was pouring rain and getting much cooler as we made our way back to the hotel. For dinner, we ended up eating all of the remaining snacks we had in the room. Mal had an apple and some cheese and crackers, I had a cucumber and peanut butter and crackers, and James had a bagel and some chocolate.

Today, Wednesday, is our last full day here. James wanted to go back into Old Montreal to visit a stained glass shop, and Mal and I headed the opposite direction to go to an indoor playground.

As it is a school day, Mal was the only kid there. He played for about an hour and a half, then we made our way back to the hotel via first the McDonald's at the train station where we transferred from our bus (and I finally tried McD's poutine, which I understand makes me a garbage person, but I swore I would try it, and I did, and now I never have to again) and then to the doughnut place I'd missed on Monday.

Mal and I got to spend a LOT of time on public transit today, and I think that's one thing he's really going to miss about Montreal!

We are getting packed up and ready to go tomorrow, and I'd love to order in, but Mal wants us all to go out to dinner together, which is sweet. 

We took the bus from the airport to the hotel the day we got in, but with James's bum leg acting up, we're probably going to take an Uber back to the airport tomorrow.

James has to check a bag because of the stained glass stuff he got, so we'll have to wait longer to get that taken care of and get through security without TSA PreCheck.

Over all, a great week that I'm sorry James had to pull the reigns on because of his leg. I've loved every minute of it, but know Mal will be excited to see his friends, and it will be nice to see D soon!