Travel Dates: August 6-7, 2018

Montreal was on our route for two reasons: 1) we could visit the Montreal Quebec Temple, and 2) Rachel is learning French and this way WAY closer than the city with the Eiffel Tower.

Quebec is the only Canadian province who’s primary language is French. New Brunswick is bi-lingual and the rest are English with some French mixed in at the national park sites. It was obvious from the street signs, to the stores, and the conversations around us that we were no longer in Kansas.

Side note: The Canadian Costco’s only accept Mastercard. Luckily our business card qualifies but we didn’t expect to not be able to use our Costco Visa!

“When Rachel started learning French, see decided that a Montreal visit was in order. Without her push, we wouldn’t have spent a few nights in a city of 1.7 million, surrounded by people who spoke a different language.

We’ve spent enjoyable time in Canada before, but never in Quebec. Immediately upon arriving, we found ourselves in Costco for some shopping, and the culture shock was immediate. Even in familiar store, I felt completely crippled by my inability to even pronounce French words, let alone understand their meaning. We stumbled through a food order (Costco has poutine!) and then I felt totally helpless as I stared at the error being displayed on the payment terminal.

The people we met were wonderful and patient, but the experience gave me an enlightening view into what the life of an emigrant or refugee must be like. I was uncomfortable, and I felt stupid and that I didn’t belong. After the initial shock wore off (and we headed for less populated slices of Canada) I’ve relaxed and have been enjoying exploring unfamiliar places in spite of my obvious language deficiencies.

Also, the cycling infrastructure in Montreal is 👌. Our city visit was a learning experience for all.” – @telegramsam

Tuesday morning I took the kids to the science center in downtown Montreal. Our ASTC (Association of Science and Technology Centers) pass gets us into reciprical centers around the US and Canada (and a few other countries, actually) so entrance was free.

We soon realized, however, that all science centers are similar and this one wasn’t super engaging. Also, there were a gazillion kids as part of summer camps. We all about died. After a brief pow-wow we decided to pay $5/person to gain access to the special DreamWorks animation exhibit.

It was SO worth it! We had fun looking at all the models, watching “making of” videos and admiring the art work.

The following morning we planned to ride our bikes part way into town and somehow decided to just keep going all the way into Old Town. It was a good 10 miles but the kids were champs! Once there we walked around the historic section before taking the ferry back to our campground.

“Rode our bikes from the campground to Old Town Montreal this morning. Loved that it was bike lanes the whole way. Totally reduces stress when kids are involved!

We locked our bikes up and then walked around town for a bit before taking the ferry back to our campsite. Total win on adventure planning!

In other news, I’m not sure I want to ever do Europe. I feel like I hear about so many amazing cities and honestly they are just not our thing. Backpack through a few countries, sure, but we’d probably all drive each other nuts after one day of city exploring! 😂😁 Tell me I’m not alone?!” -@currentlywandering

And then we decided to leave a day early and find someplace not quite so populated.