After celebrating America’s independence with fireworks last night in Beloit, we spent the 4th of July traveling out of the country to Montreal, where we are staying for the next two nights. Our journey began with a short Uber ride from our hotel to the airport and a lot of unnecessary walking through the airport as the gate for our flight had changed from the printed ticket. The girls did enjoy the two trips through the tunnel connecting the B and C concourses, and we recreated a photo I’d snapped of Emmie a few years earlier.
Throwback: Emmie at O’Hare Airport in July 2019.
Now: Emmie at O’Hare Airport. Same background, somewhat different angle.
Eilidh wanted in on the O’Hare photo action.
She loved being first on the moving walkways.
After a thrown-together breakfast from Starbucks, we settled into our gate area until we boarded the plane. Eilidh wasn’t particularly excited about flying, but she did well and the 2-hour flight went as smoothly as anyone could expect. We traded our usual minivan for a Chevy Malibu rental car, which provided more than enough space for our luggage but less than optimal space for our children.
A LEGO vending machine was cool but lacked selection.
Along the route to Montreal, we stopped quickly for a bathroom (and snack) break and then longer at a pick-your-own strawberry spot. In addition to some iconic cans of Quebec-made maple syrup, we bought a bag of delightfully squeaky cheese curds to share on the short drive to the parking lot for picking strawberries. The farm was more functional than touristy as only one row of berries was open for public picking and we were the only visitors during most of our stop. Eilidh and Amanda probably enjoyed the experience the most.
There was limited excitement about documenting our rental car with a selfie.
We tried the ketchup-flavored, maple-leaf-shaped Cheetos.
The cheese curds at the strawberry market were exquisitely squeaky.
Some traffic coming into Montreal made the cramped car ride feel much longer than it actually was, but we survived and were able to park and check into our Airbnb apartment by 5:30. We mostly enjoyed the 20-minute walk down Montreal’s pedestrian-friendly Mont-Royal Avenue en route to dinner. Stops ranged from unnecessary (a Starbucks where I insisted on stopping to try to get an iced green tea, which wasn’t as good as the U.S.-equivalent) to fun (a grocer called Hexagone that sold goods imported from France including unusual flavors of Fanta.)
I’d bookmarked a well-rated ramen spot for dinner but we arrived to a wait of 45 minutes for a party of five. We decided to change our plans and found the nearest place that felt unique and was rated well on Google. We ended up with a less soupy style of ramen, and more than anything, we appreciated how big of a fan Eilidh was of her food. She liked the garlic butter sauce so much she drank the remaining bit from the bowl!
We stopped for soft and flavorful ice cream along our way back before swinging by the expansive Parc La Fontaine. Though the girls were clearly in need of sleep, and Eilidh generally had lost all interest in walking, they had no trouble finding the energy to run around the playground and wanted to stay even longer. I promised a return trip tomorrow and/or Thursday to check out some of the other kid-friendly parts of the park.
Amanda had to move the girls along after they were distracted by a missing cat sign.
