7/7/19 – 7/9/19
(excerpts taken straight from my journal I kept during my 2019 trip to Canada)
7-7-19
Well, we made it to Canada! And it pretty much looks exactly what we just drove through in Vermont. We left this morning at 7:00AM, and it took us about three hours to get to the border. We only stopped a few times to get gas, switch drivers, and of course to get food and coffee. At the border, they checked our passports, car registration, and asked us a few questions before we were on our way. (It was a lot quicker and less scary than I thought it’d be). It’s about three hours from the border to Quebéc, and so far, all we’ve really seen, is farmland and a lot of highway.
7-8-19
Well, we spent less than 24 hours in Quebéc, but we did so much in such a short amount of time. We got to the hotel around 1:30PM. We stayed at “Hotel Classique”. It wasn’t the nicest place I’ve stayed, but it definitely wasn’t the worst. We had a king size bed, clean bathroom, and two balconies. However, the room smelled like smoke, and the shower head had no pressure.
Once we dropped our stuff in the room, we headed downstairs to “Showgun Sushi” for all you can eat sushi. We had just missed lunch, and the dinner special was a lot more expensive. We decided to just split a few rolls and grab an Uber to Old Quebéc. (I’m not sure if it was our driver, or all Canadian’s, but he was a worse driver than any Masshole I’ve ever come across.) Finally, we made it up to Old Quebéc. We walked around for a few hours, seeing Notre-Dame de Quebec, Notre-Dame des Victorias, Quartier Petit Champlain, Montmorency Park, and the Fortifications of Quebéc. We stopped at an old souvenir shop called “Magasin General”, which reminded me a lot of “Zeb’s” in New Hampshire. We walked around and finally stopped for dinner around 6:30PM. We went to a place called “Buffet de L’Antiquiaire”. It was a cute little café that sold breakfast all day. We got poutine (because you HAVE to when in Canada). After dinner, we got an Uber back to the hotel. We ran to the liquor store to grab some beer and wine before showering and relaxing.
This morning, we got up around 8:30AM, got ready, and headed to Starbucks across the street. We then headed to “Parc de la Chute-Montmorency”, a giant waterfall with a suspension bridge, zip-lining, and a cable car. We spent about two hours walking around and over the bridge. We then headed off to Montreal. It was about a three hour drive from Québec to Montreal. Along the way, we stopped at “A&W” for lunch. I never knew that they were a burger place, I always thought they were just a rootbeer company. Mason and I both got burgers, and I of course got a rootbeer.
7-13-19
Once we got to Montreal, it was a nightmare to find parking. We tried several different garages that either didn’t allow overnight parking, or didn’t allow us to park at all. Eventually, we ended up parking at the hospital and walked about 15 minutes to our hotel. We stayed at a place called “Dr. Penfield by Ellegancia”, right down town. It was a little strange because they didn’t have a front desk or reception, so we just had codes to all of the doors. We got to our room and the door was already open, and the room was a complete mess. I called the hotel and they ended up putting us in a room on the top floor. It was actually a much better room. Once we dropped off our stuff, we headed downtown for sushi (again). This time, we actually got all-you-can-eat. I couldn’t even tell you how much we got because we just kept ordering roll after roll. Once we were full, (too full) we walked around downtown. There wasn’t too much to see, (besides a bunch of tall buildings) so we headed back to the hotel around 8:00PM. We couldn’t really figure out the TV, so we ended up watching about half of three different Family Guy episodes before calling it a night.
The next morning, we slept in till about 8:00AM (even though we set our alarms for 7:00AM). We packed up and walked to the car. We drove up to Mont Royal, but didn’t really see much, so we navigated ourselves to Starbucks. Now I know the roads in Boston can be rough and confusing, but they are 10X worse in Montreal. More than half of the roads didn’t have lines on them, there was construction going on EVERYWHERE, and not to mention, all the signs were in French. At one point, the two-way street we were on , turned into a one-way, and i thought the car passing me on our left was going the wrong way. Once we got to Starbucks, I had Mason run in, and I sat in the car with the hazards on because we were in an illegal spot.
I really wanted to see the Biosphere, so we headed towards that. When I say there was construction everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE. We finally made it to the Biosphere, only to get a quick look at it before somehow ending up on the Grand Prix Race Track. It took us a few minutes to realize where we were, but we still don’t understand how or why we ended up on that track. We drove around it for about ten minutes before we found the exit. I guess it’s pretty cool to say we drove around a race track, but at the time, we had no idea what we were doing. We were going to go to the Botanical Gardens next, but there was so much construction and we got stuck going on a one-way across a bridge, so we decided to just call it a day and start heading back home.
Crossing the border back into the US was a little more strict and a lot longer line than going into Canada. The guy in the window asked us a bunch of questions about what we did, how we got to the U.S. in the first place, and even how we knew each other. After about five minutes of questions, we successfully made it back into the U.S.
We were getting pretty hungry, so we decided to stop in Burlington, Vermont for lunch. We ended up shopping at a BBQ place, and it was beyond amazing. We shared a platter for two, which consisted of three meats and four sides. (We didn’t realize how big the tray would be, so we also got cornbread to start.) When the tray came out, Mason’s eyes lit up, he was in BBQ heaven. We stuffed our faces and then headed back on the road. Driving through Vermont in the summer is absolutely beautiful.
We got back to Massachusetts around 5:00PM, so we decided to stop at the Gorman’s (family friends) beach house in Salisbury. We hopped in the water, and then laid out in the sun to dry off before heading home to have ice cream for dinner.
Overall, Canada was a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend Québec over Montreal, but I look forward to someday exploring the Western side of Canada.