Montreal and Niagara

Bonjour!

It's amazing how little French I actually know.

From Quebec City traveling West to Montreal we didn't notice much of a difference, road signs were still in French and Old Montreal looked a little like Old Quebec. Sadly it was cold and rainy the day we decided to tour Montreal, making it harder to navigate the already confusing roads without our Google maps.

We visited the Basilique Norte-Dame of Montreal, an amazing 200 year old Catholic church and also where Celine Dion (one of my favorite singers) was married.

When we first walked in it took our breath away, it was so beautiful.

Every inch of this church is ornate and colorful.

Candles everywhere.

After a yummy lunch of Crapes and French onion soup we headed back to our car because it was so cold outside. We drove to the Montreal Funiculaire...which is the largest leaning tower in the world, and also the site of the 1976 Olympics.

Our ride to the top.

On a clear day the view would be incredible.

Montreal was one of the hardest city for us to navigate through, but looking back I am so grateful for the experience.

The next day sadly we had to say goodbye to our cousin Madison who was with us for the previous nine days. Lots of tears were shed, we didn't want to see her go. She was the perfect RV guest, always ready to help and so much fun to be around. We love that girl to pieces and she is missed terribly.

I had prepared myself for the next leg of our trip, I knew lots of driving would be involved, which always causes a little stress.

We set off from Montreal to the Toronto, Ontario area. It was an interesting drive...slowly as we headed West the road signs became English. It was neat to see how Quebec is purely French, while Ontario is mostly English.

Other things we noticed about Canada in general is that they make really good Maple syrup and like to put it on just about everything.

They also don't put ice in their drinks...soda's, juice and water, no ice.

What we really had to get used to was the fact that the sun did not set until 10:00 pm at night. It felt like summer, except it was cold. Our poor kids tried their hardest to go to sleep at their usual time.

After a long day of travel to the Toronto area of Canada we decided the next day to take the afternoon off and see Niagara Falls.

Niagara originally was not on our "list" of things to see, but I am so glad we did. We were able to view the sights from the Canadian side, which in our opinion would have been the better side because both waterfalls face it.

The top of the falls.

The American falls.

The girls were so silly that day, probably from the long drive the day before.

After we viewed the falls from the street level we jumped on the Sky Wheel to view them from up high.

I don't know why we always choose to do things that are so high in the air, I get nervous every single time.

Next to the Sky Wheel the kids were able to play a few arcade games...

and Reagan hit the Jackpot big time. She was so excited.

We finished up our lovely day at Cat's Kitchen and Bar...and tried Canadian poutine, which is french fries with gravy and cheese curds. It doesn't sound very appetizing, but it was really yummy.

Niagara was beautiful, even a little romantic...the sound of the waterfalls mixed with beautiful spring flowers made our day so enjoyable. I am glad we didn't skip out on seeing such an amazing wonder.

We crossed the boarder into the US yesterday...

I am happy to report it only took us 5 minutes, we answered a few questions, showed the boarder officer our passports and we were off.

Currently we are situated South of Chicago...excited to check out the windy city tomorrow.

Crossing Boarders

Drive days are always hard days, but going from Maine to Quebec, Canada was exceptionally hard.

Preparing to cross the boarder we did lots of research before hand. I made sure we didn't have illegal fruit and Justin took extra precaution in researching if we could travel with his shotgun. Looking at the Canadian Customs website, from what we understood, we were allowed to cross the boarder with a shotgun if we had a permit. All we had to do was fill out a form and pay a fee. No problem.

Pulling up to the boarder I was a little nervous. This is our home we are trying to take across, they were bound to find something they didn't like.

Everything went smoothly at first, questions were asked and they seemed pleased with our answers. At one point the customs enforcement officer asked us why our children were not in school. Um...let me see here. How do I explain road schooling? He seemed satisfied with our answer.

Sadly though our conversation went down hill when we mentioned we had a shot gun and gave them the paperwork we had filled out.

They looked at us like we were crazy...and then proceeded to treat us like we had a bomb on board.

They made us pull to the side and told the kids and I to go wait in the waiting room...more like holding room. We watched them search our coach and vehicle, every nook and cranny. It took about an hour, which seemed like forever.

I know they were just doing their jobs, but it still felt violating. At one point I just wanted to turn around and head back to the beautiful States, my home.

The officers ended up confiscating our shotgun, despite having agreed with us that their website is misleading. They are holding the gun for 60 days, but we are not returning the same way we entered. So that is that.

Our experience at the boarder put a damper on the rest of our day...Justin and I chatted a long time that evening and we came to the conclusion that we cannot focus on the negative during this trip, we don't want it to cloud the many blessings...and Quebec was just that.

Our first day we took a trip into The Old City...

We took the Funicular up from the lower city and into the walled section.

Walking the streets felt like we were in another world.

We ate lunch...

went shopping

learned about Canadian currency

and took in the beautiful sights.

I spy a cute boy.

Just relaxing in Quebec with a Starbucks.

The Old City was amazing.

Since we only have wi-fi at camp we could not use our phones to navigate around Quebec. We had to do everything the old fashioned way...we used a paper map and asked for directions.

It was such a good experience for our kids, everything was in French.

Our second day we drove to Canyon Sainte-Anne where we walked across three suspension bridges to see a huge waterfall from all levels.

The path was secure and safe making me happy to let my little ones walk on their own and discover. It was beautiful.

Back at camp we have enjoyed the nice weather...

Looking closely at this picture you can see Blake flying a kite and the girls sitting in the grass.

Madison and Blake enjoyed exploring the lake on a paddle boat.

Today we spent a few hours at an indoor mall with amusement park rides...

The kids had fun...we enjoyed lunch and ice cream.

The rest of the day was spent at camp, enjoying the warm sunshine. Our experience in Quebec was a good one despite the original hassle of crossing the boarder.

We are off to Montreal tomorrow, hopefully we wont get lost, we are realizing we rely on our phones way too much!