One of Summer's Highlights

This year for our big, luxurious vacation, we traveled to.......wait for it.......

Canada!

 

As mentioned in a previous post, the whole cash flow situation has been a bit of a downer this year, preventing us from planning a cross-that-off-the-bucket-list type of vacation.  Well, decreased cash flow coupled with having to save money to spend to travel to visit family on the other side of the country. And Clark is in school which complicates scheduling vacations just that much more.

  

So an Egyptian vacation to see the pyramids wasn't in the cards this year.  (Or maybe ever, let's just be honest.) But when our besties in Australia told us they would be visiting Canada to see some family, we got very excited!  We love to travel with these cats, and since they would be coming so close to the states, we thought it best to just meet up with them in Montreal.  Hey, we've never been to Montreal and it seemed like it would be a great adventure!

 

It was a blast, but it was a very short visit.  Clark was just about to wrap up his semester and had to be back for finals the next week, so we really only had a few days to catch up and explore.  In total, we were only gone 5 days.

 

Joanne's parents were so accommodating and fun.  It was so nice to finally meet them in person rather than just through Skype! They live in a beautiful area just south of Montreal.

  

St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal.  The interior of the church was more of an art-deco flavor, which was a bit different.

We enjoyed an orange julep at the Orange Julep (think Orange Julius, maybe a little frothier) and our first ever poutine. Joanne's mother was convinced we would think it was disgusting. But we really enjoyed the fries covered with cheese curds and gravy. We're American. We like almost anything that is bad for us.

Group shot atop Mt. Royal, overlooking the city of Montreal.

 Joanne being a super cool kid and smoking an invisible joint right next to the tagging of her surname. She didn't do it, I promise.

Exploring the city's Old Port.  Clark got a little crazy when Ivan handed him the selfie stick.  Now he will never, ever be allowed to have one, because he can't handle it.

 

The day we walked around the Old Port was so hot.  Who knew Eastern Canada could get so hot and muggy? We had to stop at this little bakery/cafe for some seltzers and tried to get creative with photography. Dang reflections.

As I mentioned earlier, it was so good to meet Joanne's family, which included her brother and his family. She even threw a bbq and we met several of her friends.  We felt so welcomed and just had a great time catching up with Ivan and Joanne.   We can't wait to see you guys again soon! And hopefully the next get together will be for longer than 5 days!

(I just want to mention, our drive up to Montreal wasn't too bad.  It's an 8 hour drive.  The best part is passing over the border from the U.S. to Canada.  You actually drive over this area called the Thousand Islands and it is beautiful. So spectacular.  Apparently there is an archipelago of over 1800 islands right on the U.S./Canadian border and when you drive across the border you actually drive over this bridge above multiple islands in the Saint Lawrence River.  I hope we'll get a chance to revisit this area at some point.  It was quite impressive and I was completely unaware of this area before driving up to Montreal!)