This one is a bit of an epic sorry!
Day 1: Halifax to
Lewiston. Just over 8hrs @ 856km
We packed the car the night before so had a pretty good get
away this morning –all dressed breakfasted and the house pretty much in order
for an 8am departure! Today was our
first long haul day and neither parent was looking forward to it! The drive actually went really well and the
worst thing we had to deal with was a roadkill skunk which momentarily filled
the car with a purple haze...
The kids
were brilliant – listening to audio books and playing games kept them mostly
occupied – and we all made it to the other end without any major scraps! We left Nova Scotia in overcast dampness,
which increased to rain and thick fog through New Brunswick but when we hit the
US (after a legendary 30 min max at the border) the sun was shining and it was
HOT!
Maine is different to NS (can’t really comment on NB –
weather too terrible!) in a kind of indefinable way. The trees a little taller, the grass areas a
little bigger or somethi
ng. Definitely
America though – flags on every other power pole in the remotest looking
places! I imagine this will only get better/more apparent the closer we get to
Washington DC and the 4th of July...
Saw some very American looking things on the way – a bloke
cleaning out his hayloft, Amish people selling fresh strawberries and other
fruit on a street corner, gangster cars parked up on front lawns and people
tearing around on huge motorcycles without helmets.
Stopped in Lewiston for the night. It was just a convenient stop on the way and
we are currently all jammed into one hotel room. The kids are busted enough that they have gone
to sleep anyway and I don’t think we will be too far behind them! We had a lovely and much needed swim in the
pool as soon as we got here. We then had
a drive around the town to find some dinner and it’s all a bit dire
looking. The centre of town looks mostly
shut down with some dodgy looking shops here and there. Ended up getting a chicken from the
supermarket and eating in the garden at the hotel.
Day 2: Lewiston to
Philadelphia. Just over 8 hours @ 731km
Oh my god I can’t remember this morning... haze.
Up early – all up by 6 I think - well Amelia was a reluctant
starter! All packed and breakfasted by
7.30 on the road at 8. Another hugely
long day. The boys enjoyed an audiobook
while Amelia tortured us with singing, complaining and reading books. It wasn’t too hot which was great :).
The driving was a little harder with 6 lane freeways and
screeds of cars. I had a minorly stressful
bit around New Haven but I handed over the reins to Matt for the next bit which
included driving through New York. The
GPS lost contact going under the Washington Bridge and we had a few stressful
moments figuring out where to go! We did
catch glimpses of the famous skyline but it was mostly gritty brick walls and
massive roading structures for us and New York.
Lots of toll roads which were pleasantly quick to get through and I got
a wee kick out of experiencing the whole ‘turnpike’ thing :)
We saw some wildlife today!
Deer in the grass on the sides of the road, a squirrel at the rest stop
and a myriad of moths at our lunch stop.
Amelia was most taken with the ‘butterflies’ and it took more than a
little effort to get her to concentrate on eating her lunch! The highlight would have to be spotting the
magnificent wild turkey. Breathtaking
and exhilarating!!
Arrived in Philadelphia in time for a swim before meeting
with Scott Coumbe for dinner. We went
next door to an Italian diner and had pizza and lasagne for tea. Great to see him and he is now officially
Amelia’s best friend (sorry Imogen).
Matt went out for a drink with Scott and I hassled the kids into bed. Amelia still awake as I’m writing this – the
result of a nap in the car.... little
tart.
Day 3 Philadelphia to Washington 4 hrs+ @ 344km
4th of July!!
Dined out on all American waffles for breakfast! The kids had a swim while Matt packed the car
and we were off to get a good spot for the parade. We met Scott in town and parked outside his
work. We walked around town for a
while. We spotted the church which is
apparently on the site of Ben Franklins kite experiment, and took in George
Washington Park with its big grey squirrels.
We wandered back towards the parade route and stopped in for a quick
look (thru the window) at the liberty bell and a stand outside the Independence
Hall (where the Declaration of Independence was adopted, the design of the
American flag was agreed upon, and the U. S. Constitution was drafted –
important little place!) Matt went in to use the facilities, but there were too
many people round and the kids needed fuelling up!
We parked up near the start of the parade and had a drink
and something to eat. The parade was
great – marching bands, dancers, baton throwers, drums aplenty, flash cars,
giant flags, fire trucks and floats. It
went on for almost an hour and a half too!
Suitably impressed we turned our attention to lunch and ended up in Hard
Rock having pulled pork and burgers.
After lunch we bid Scott farewell and headed for a loop
through Amish country and down to Washington.
The countryside is gorgeous – so lush and green – and the towns all have
‘beware horse and cart’ signs which tickled us a little. We only saw a couple, but pulled into a shop
to check out the pies (apple pie for 4th of July!) and watched a
well bearded bloke getting his team of horses across the road on hitched up to
a plough or something. Interesting way
of life...
The drive into Washington was not quite what we
expected. It was incredibly lush and
green with trees draped with vines everywhere – almost like we were driving
through a tropical rainforest! We
arrived at our holiday house and got settled while Matt went out for dinner. After dinner we went and stood out on the
road and watched the fireworks that someone was setting off just down the
road! We could hear the fireworks down
at The Mall, but it was too far and too late to go to see them. The whole place sounded like a warzone tho –
explosions well into the night...
Day 4 Washington 114km and 34C
We treated ourselves to a sleep in and an easy start this
morning. Unfortunately that meant we hit
traffic pretty much straight away and ducking back home to get the camera
(luckily noticed before we got too far) didn’t help. Matty not impressed....
Our first stop for the day was Arlington (after an unplanned
driveby of the Iwo Jima monument). The
heat was oppressive and the kids wilted pretty much right away!! Owen wanted his hat off because his ‘hair is
sweating’. We walked up to the Unknown
Soldier and watched the change of the guard, explored the amphitheatre, took a
look at General Lee’s house and wandered back to the car past the Kennedy
monument and the wide sprawling graveyard that is the Arlington cemetery. Mind boggling how huge it is.
Lunched in the car and arrived at the National Air and Space
museum, Smithsonian full and ready to go.
The boys wanted to take their Discovery/Blackbird toys in with them and
had already decided that they would hold off on seeing those two as long as
they could. It is an amazing
museum. It is a huge hangar full of
planes and all things that fly. They are
sitting on the ground, up on lifts and hung from the ceiling everywhere. You start off by wandering around a gallery looking down and out to the
planes, before descending down and getting a closer look.
Highlights for us:
·
Space shuttle Discovery – omg even for a
nonspotter this is amazing. The marking
on the tiles where they were superheated coming back through the atmosphere,
the huge thrusters at the back and just the whole ‘that thing has been into
space’ness of it is AWESOME.
·
A satellite – I was blown away by how gorgeous
they (this one anyway) are. I’d have it
in my house as art if it would fit!
·
Blackbird – sexy goddamn machine. Owens fave and all round marvel :)
·
Enola Gay – Hard to imagine what it did, and
that it is just sitting there looking all shiny...
·
Sky baby – one of the smallest planes ever flown
and Amelia’s all out favourite – she ‘flew’ around the hangar being Sky Baby
for ages!
·
Concorde – again an amazing looking machine
·
Cessna demonstrations – Amelia whinged and
carried on till Matt got in line with her and waited for her to have a go in a
Cessna. She had a wonderful time
flapping flaps and making lights go while ‘flying’ like a crazy thing :)
·
Shuttle landing simulation – Despite flying the
machine straight into the ground the boys had a blast ‘flying’ the shuttle
(they didn’t do any worse than two grown ups who went before them!)
·
Astronaut Barbie. Obviously not a favourite for all of us.
Back home for dinner all thoroughly exhausted! Bussing into the Mall tomorrow for Lincoln,
Washington and more museums!
Just as an aside, we may have spent too long in the land of
polite and courteous drivers but MAN are American drivers crazy. They all drive at least 15 -20kph over the
limit and there is no such thing as merging, or letting someone in, or even
indicating before swooping across several lanes cutting everyone off. Madness and big ups to Matt for surviving a
day of driving in Washington!
Day 5: Washington. A
gazillion miles on foot and none in the car!
Apparently 36C but felt like at least 42C.
Carless day! We
caught the bus into town this morning and it was alarming how hot it was at
8.30am! We intended to try and get
tickets to climb the Washington Monument, but the line was huge and we were not
going to wait! Took a bunch of photos –
it is massive!
We walked down from the monument towards Lincoln
Memorial. We had a wander around the WW2
Memorial which had a lot of tempting water features to keep wee people out
of... There we met a helpful parks volunteer who gave us a map and informed us
that yes, back during the war the Philippines was a territory of the US. We
took our map and headed for Lincoln, only to be turned back by a militant parks
warden who didn’t want us there, but wasn’t very helpful on telling us where we
could actually go!! They were cleaning
up after the 4th of July
fireworks and it was apparently too dangerous for anyone to be there. We did make it (phew) and walked around the
lovely green peaceful Korean Memorial before heading up the sweltering glarey
white steps to see the big man.
Lincoln looked just like he does in the pictures. Alex
was impressed with his 4 score speech, and
Amelia lay on the ground, apparently in the process of expiring (or perspiring) in front of about a hundred
sweaty Americans.
Food was then in
order so we sat down in the park for a sandwich. We were visited quite quickly by a VERY
friendly squirrel, who chewed on the backpack, stood on Matt’s foot and sat
beside me on the bench and put its front feet on my leg! I touched its tail (fluffy!) and it whipped
around and had a go at my hand (not so friendly after all... not that I really blame it!)
Walked on past the Vietnam Memorial and round to the White
house. The heat was killing us (kids
mostly and Alex more than the others!) but we got our photos, decided not to
walk around the front and promised the kids an ice cream from the next place we
saw. The next place we saw was of course
just round the corner, and we shelled out $12 for three snow cones (when in
Rome!) The kids happily slurped away as
we walked down to the Smithsonians. We
passed over the American History one – thinking that the only thing we would
really like to see is the original flag and the kids were still working thru
their snow cones – and headed for the Natural History Museum.
Alex had said he
would like to see a Viking ship if there was one around, but changed his
request to a mummy or two when we discovered there was no Vikings around. Amelia kept going on about dinosaurs and I
think Owen was along for the ride! The
mummies and dinosaurs were on the second floor so up we went. We paused on the first floor to look at the
whales, vampire squid and a bunch of other nasty toothy looking little things
from the deep. Up on the second floor we
looked through the National Geo best photos from the last 5 years exhibition
(brilliant!), wandered thought the dinosaurs (said hello to Rexy!) and the
mummies before ending up in the entomology corner with Alex They had a bunch of chrysalis/cocoons in the
window and you could see butterflies hatching – a highlight for Amelia!! We hurried past the huge queue at the
butterfly house and visited the Hope diamond for Alex (Something to do with 39
Clues...). That done we headed back out in
the heat.
Next stop was the American Indian Smithsonian. We took a wee detour through a sculpture
park, and down the Mall to have a look at the much scaffolded Capitol Hill
buildings. The museum was huge and
beautifully cool! We headed for the
floor with the interactive stuff on it and attempted to interest the kids in a
bit of local art/information about the Incas before busting into the activity
centre. It didn’t work well and we ended
up stamping passports, balancing in kayaks, building igloos, reading books,
hiding in tipi and riding on skateboards (?) until everyone was hungry! Matt knew there was a cafe at the Air and
Space Museum so off we went.
We found a lovely lady standing outside with a telescope set
up for looking at the sun. We all
attempted a look through at the fabulous red ball. Alex swore he could see flares, while Owen
and Amelia couldn’t’ figure out how to open one eye... Neither Matt or I saw flares, but it was
pretty damn impressive all the same!
Inside was crazy awesome.
Again I think I might just do highlights!
·
Viking landing craft – not the actual one,
because that is still on Mars, but the one they made to do all the tests. Amazing looking thing!
·
Apollo landing craft – again not the actual one
but pretty amazing to see how flimsy it looks.
·
Apollo 11 command module – the ACTUAL
THING!!!! Mad to look at this little
toasted looking bit of machinery and imagine that it kept Neil Armstrong and
co. safe all the way back home!
·
Bits of Hubble (including the old Cameras)
awesome...
·
Amelia Earhart’s red Lockheed
·
A Spacelab from Skylab - didn’t end up being used
in space but still a genuine bit! Complete with space shower and plastic space
food.
·
Another Cessna for Amelia to play in
·
A model of the Hindenberg
·
The Wright Brothers plane (apparently!)
·
A bit of
the moon that you could touch!
Awesome awesome day.
All trailed back to the bus stop and home for dinner and the last of our
Apple Pie :)
Day 6: Washington to Niagara. 7+hrs @ 672km. Still bloody hot.
Up and packed and off for Niagara. Pretty uneventful drive really. Trees and fields most of the way. Drove through Bradford and saw a big oil
refinery that no doubt services all the little derricks we saw on the sides of
the road. Oil country! A little bizarre as I always associated oil
with desert type landscapes, not lush green ones.
We stopped at Kinzua Viaduct, a 300ft high rail bridge that
was over 2000 feet long before a tornado went thru in 2003. The longest remaining section is 600 ft long
and is now a public ‘sky’ walk, complete with a Perspex section at the end for
daredevils to jump on :). The view is
fabulous and the crumpled towers lie as they fell at the bottom of the
gully. A great and relatively quick
stop!
Driving though Buffalo we came out of a toll booth and
needed to merge. Surprisingly the car to
the side of us slowed and waved Matt in.
We were both thinking about how the drivers had improved, when he
overtook us and we saw the Canadian plate! Oh Canada!
Installed ourselves in our “well in need of an overhaul but
nice and roomy” motel room and went out for dinner to celebrate our last night
in the USA.
The kids were absolutely brilliant all day with no arguing
or whining or even requesting endless audio books in the car! The boys pretty much just sat back there and
chatted about Pokémon and landmines, and Amelia chatted to herself and her
toys!
Day 7 Niagara to Kingston
6.5hrs @ 431km
Niagara Falls Day!!
Packed, had brekkie and headed for the park. It was raining on and off and the queues we
expected were nowhere to be seen. We got
onto the first boat we saw after waiting about 5 mins! The ride was short, wild and wet! Amelia not so impressed (mostly because she
preferred the pink raincoats they got on the oppositions boat better than the
blue ‘Maid of the Mist’ ones) but the boys loved it. After the ride we walked up to the American
Falls lookout, then back up the elevator to the observation platform. When we stepped out of the elevator, Amelia,
who was right by my side, went one way and we went the other. We stepped onto the deck and Matt noticed she
was gone... terrifying. We tore around looking for her, wondering if
she had gone back down the elevator, or if someone had walked off with
her. After what was probably 2-3 panicky
minutes (felt like hours!) Matt found
her out on the walkway back to the car with some nice lady who had noticed she
was alone.... Heart stopped for a while
there.
Anyhow.
We walked across the river and had a look at the top of the
Horseshoe Falls before heading back to the car and setting off. Border crossing was nothing but a nice chat
with the lady in the booth and we were back in Canada! No drive by shootings or
toddler gunfire :)
We drove along the cliff edge to see the falls from this
side, and paused to see the rapids and whirlpool before heading for Kingston. The drive was supposed to be about 3 hours
but ended up being just over 6 by the time we made it through the traffic
around Toronto. Checked into the
B&B, had dinner and went to bed!
Day 8. Kingston to
Ottawa. 3hrs @ 221 km Total 3369km
Had a lovely brekkie at the B&B – best we’ve had so
far! We packed up and drove into
Kingston to check out boat tours around the 1000 Islands Park. Parked up at the information centre and spent
a goodly little while chasing and taking photos of two chipmunks who were
looking for brunch outside the building.
They are so cute! Another animal to tick off the list!
We got tickets for a harbour cruise on a ‘steamboat’ which
was kinda cute too. They had a dude
playing a cornet and a dude playing a clarinet welcoming us on board, and they
played music on the lower deck during the cruise. The cruise took us up Lake Ontario and into
the St Lawrence River where there are around 1800 islands of varying sizes. A whole bunch have houses on them – even tiny
ones that the house takes up most of the area above water and others with huge
mansions on them. It was a lovely
morning out and beautiful scenery. The
kids enjoyed it, although I think they would have enjoyed a slightly shorter
version better! Amelia charmed the tourists with her dancing :)
We disembarked and had lunch under a tree in the park
listening to some of the buskers for the busker festival then hopping in the car and drove up the
river, looking at more house islands and a couple of massive freighters you
would expect to see in Auckland’s Seaport, not a river! Turned inland and headed for Ottawa.
We got ourselves settled in our hotel and made contact with
Jill, who popped over for pizza dinner.
The kids downloaded pretty much everything that was going on in their
heads at elevated volume and she managed to retain her sanity!
Looking forward to a look around Ottawa tomorrow :)
Day 9 Ottawa 0km
(Walking.....) !! And about 17C! Brilliant!!!
We walked from the hotel to Capital Hill and had a look at
all the grand buildings while we waited for the changing of the guard to
start. Jill had recommended the
Parliament Tour, but the line was far too long so we have shelved that till
tomorrow... Changing of the guard was
grand – all that pomp and ceremony! – the police with their war-ry looking
automatic rifles were a bit distracting!
Once that was done we had a look at the ‘Women are Persons’ monument
(‘Famous Five’ group of women petitioned to have women recognised as ‘persons’
so they could be appointed to the senate) and a statue of the Queen that Amelia
had to have her photo taken with!
We found our way down to the river and walked along to the
Rideau Canal where we watched the boats coming up and down, and had a bit of a
refreshment stop. The boys were well
taken with the locks :)
We headed over the bridge and into the Canadian Museum of
History. Matt was particularly taken
with a piece of modern art out the front.
It is apparently all about the inaccessibility of some modern art (the
tin being a reference to Warhol, and the pigeons being us I guess...). Now whenever his brow crinkles at a bit of
odd looking ‘art’ I’m going to make cooing noises....
The museum was amazing.
We did a couple of grown up exhibits first, the most noteable being one
about Napolean – we both learned more about the man than we knew before! We checked out their collection of totem
poles and went outside for some more lunch.
Once we were back inside be devoted the rest of the afternoon to the Children’s
Museum. It was a whole bunch of spaces
dedicated to different activities or countries with lots of interactive
stuff! Amelia loved the camel at the
Egyptian Pyramid and dressing up in kimono and Mexican costume. Owen and Alex loved the ship, and Alex got a
kick out of writing ‘Hello’ in Russian, Arabic and jewish script! They played
and played and played and then we walked home with all our activity
reminders! Bubble wands and mixture,
etched metal dogs, Malaysian paper puppets, passports stamped with every stop
on their journey and origami dogs :)
We
wandered home through the market district taking in a fire juggling street
performer (Buskerfest) and headed home for reheated pizza for dinner. Tomorrow Parliament!
At about 9.30 we decided to wake the kids and take them down
to the sound and light show at Capital Hill.
We got Alex up first. He stood
looking like he was about to collapse at any point then wheeled around and
climbed back into bed. We considered our
options and decided we would try Owen, and if he didn’t wake up we would
abandon the scheme. He popped out of bed
like a jack-in-the-box and stood looking stunned while I helped him into jeans
and a hoodie. Matt hauled Alex out
again, with more success this time! I
popped some trousers on Amelia, slipped her into her jacket then into the buggy
with a blanket – she didn’t notice a thing!
We perched on a statue of Terry Fox (I didn’t think he would mind) to
watch the show which was great. It was
the same kind of thing as the light fest in Canberra for those of you who were
there! I piggybacked Owen home –a bit
tired poor laddie! About half way home
Matt pushed the buggy over a big hole and Amelia kind of woke up. We don’t think she remembered any of it and
I’m pretty sure she just thought we were moving her from our bed to the couch!
Day 10 Ottawa to Montreal hrs @ 216 km Total 3585 km
Everyone a little grumpy today... We were up and packed in good time though,
and Mat headed down early to see about the Parliament Tour tickets. The line was unfortunately as long if not
longer than the day before and we had to check out of the hotel so that was
that...
After a quick walk down to Avis to pick up Matt’s GPS we
headed out of the city. We took a
roundabout route, driving over the same bridge three times – the first to get
across it, the second for me to take a picture and the third for Alex to get
the picture he missed! Lucky it was an
easy bridge to cross.
We drove up into Gatineau Park – a great big park just out
of Ottawa – with the idea that we might have a swim. Our first stop was Pink Lake which (much to
Amelias disappointment) was named after the Pink family. It is meromictic (water doesn’t’ mix so there
is no oxygen in the bottom 7 metres of the lake) and does contain some ancient
weird anaerobic critter who happens to be pink, but you can’t see them from the
top! Drove up to Meech Lake and found
ourselves a bathing beach. While I was
digging out the togs Matt found a sign to say that several cases of ‘Swimmers
Itch’ had been recorded in the lake that summer and they were recommending that
you don’t spend more than 10 mins in the water due to some duck borne parasite
who couldn’t tell the difference between a human and a duck until they had
bitten them... With about a gazillion
miles still to drive we decided that having itchy kids was not a good idea and
binned the swim idea (very reluctantly!)
Was a gorgeous drive anyway so well worth it.
Drove on to Montreal and got ourselves set up at Casa
Pinchuk with Matt’s friend Amy. She has
a property with a guesthouse that she VERY generously offered to us. She also has a couple of horses and was
pretty sure that she could convince Amelia that she needed a horse before the
end of our visit!
We had dinner with the family (sugar pie for dessert!!) and
as we were walking back to the cottage we could see fireflies! SO EXCITING!!!!!!
Day 11 Montreal hrs @ 102 km Total 3687 km
Amy had taken the day off to do some stuff with us, so we
started with the Eco Museum out at Magill.
It is a great little zoo – mostly rescued animals - and we enjoyed it
thoroughly. Big fluffy racoons, lovely
lynx, snowy owls, snakes, wolves and a caribou with the best set of antlers
I’ve ever seen but to name a few!
Back at Amy’s place we had lunch and set out to do some
horse riding. The boys brushed Edgar
(the horse) first, then we all trooped to the yard to wait our turn. Alex went first and just LOVED it. I think having control over an animal that
big really gave him a buzz! Amelia was
next and sat there like a little barnacle, only breaking into a smile when one
was requested, but refusing to get off!
Owen then decided that maybe he could have a go after all and after a
bout of height related nerves he relaxed and enjoyed it too! I had a go – trying out my rusty riding
skills then Matt saddled up for his first ride ever! He decided
it was fun, but liked a motor better....
Amelia and Alex both requested a second ride (Owen was off playing with
Luna the dog) and Alex asked me if we could get some horses when we get back to
Greytown!
Once we had recovered from the excitement, we piled back
into the car and went and got some berries for dessert. Amy has a friend with a blueberry orchard not
far from her house, and when we got there she had already picked them for us!
The bushes were absolutely dripping with fruit and the kids relieved the
pressure off a couple of them... We
heaved away with a tray of blueberries, a tray of raspberries and a tray of
something that looked like black raspberries, oh – and a jar of blueberry honey! A stack of berries to eat when we were
already full of blueberries! Stopped in
at the local farmers market and bought some of the best doughnuts in Canada (or
so the bloke in the stall next door said...) and some maple syrup.
Had dinner with Amy and her son Paul again. Paul entertained the boys with his splendid
pokemon collection – both cards and figurines – and they were well
impressed. Later, heaving full of
berries, we walked back to the cottage and not only saw fireflies but also
bats! Supercool! Matt and I went out a bit later and caught a
firefly that was sitting on the grass and they are not what you would
expect! I was thinking it would be more
like a mozzie with a glowing butt, but it is actually quite a big beetle. Took it in for Alex to see, then liberated it
and its glowing derrière.
Day 12 Montreal hrs 205 @ km Total 3892 Km
Drove into Montreal for a whistle stop tour of the some of
the best bits (didn’t have long and it was stinking hot!!!)
We started with a climb up Mont Royal and a bit of view
admiring. There was an outdoor piano up
there and Alex serenaded the locals with some of the pieces he could
remember! Gorgeous day and a gorgeous
view, just a little too hot...
Packed into the car and off into town. We stopped at Lesters diner for some smoked
meat for lunch. The place was a classic
– just what you would expect from a North American diner! Matt had the smoked meat sandwich, which is
like a whole corned beef sliced and a couple of bits of bread propped on either
end. I had my inaugural poutine
experience, and I have to say (sorry Haligonians!) it looks a whole lot better
than the poutine I’ve seen in Halifax!
The kids were charmed with some fake mustard (squeeze it and a bit of string
leaps out at you) and we all ate well!
Another couple of Canadian classics to check off the list!
We headed downtown and wandered around the cobbled streets
of the stinking hot old town. The kids
(and parents!) admired the high ropes course on the waterfront and we checked
out the town hall (aircon) and an art gallery (aircon!)
All hot and sweaty we hopped in the car and drove out to
Sylvain’s for dinner. The kids were
great – played in the backyard and got all grubby (they had been planting a
hedge and the lawn had an extra layer of dirt that ended up on feet knees and
arms... They also watched their first TV
since we left – Polar Express in French!
Sly’s daughter Anne-Sophie charmed Amelia and got to practice her
English a wee bit as well!
Day 12 Montreal to Quebec
City hrs @ 321 km Total 4213 km
Day on the road. I’m into day 3 of a sinus headcold and
don’t remember much of the road down here!
We said goodbye to Amy and spent the day driving over to
Quebec City. The kids have been awesome
in the car – we are currently 8 disks into a 12 disk audiobook and I’m
resisting the urge to go sit in the car and listen to some more. Arrived at our accommodation at about 4 and
let the kids have a good play in the playground. Amelia and Owen were covered in dirt (dirty,
wet sand in sandpit) so they had a good long shower and a blob in front of
telly before dinner and bed.
Day 13 Quebec City.
70km. Total of 4283
Big Day Out in Quebec City.
We drove into the old town (with the help of a local who stopped at the
traffic lights and told us to follow her because she works at the chateau),
parked up and started walking. We
wandered down and around and up and down again though the old town, promenading
on the promenade and checking out art galleries and souvenir shops on the
way. The old town is lovely – if not a
little touristy! There is a big festival
on at the moment and one of the headline acts in Neil Finn! A long way to come to see Neil Finn :) We watched some street performers – harp,
piano, sax and a clown that the kids just loved – very physical humor!
After our big walk we went into the Saint Louis Fort Museum,
which is under the promenade and the Chateau.
The kids had a great time with the parks explorer books, and Amelia just
LOVED the dressing up! The heavens
opened while we were down there – we could see the rain on the glass windows
onto the promenade – and finished just before we emerged! Perfect timing!
Back above ground we stopped to let the kids have a play at
a fountain, then walked up to the citadel for views over the river and
city. Got to listen to Duran Duran doing
a sound check before there concert tonight too!
Drove out to Parc de la Chute-Montmorency which is not far from the old town. It is a massive waterfall with a cablecar/zips
lines and all manner of other money sucking devices! We left our money with the parking attendant
and walked up to the waterfall. We
climbed most of the way up the 340 odd steps for a better view then down to the
bottom of the steps for a damper experience!
The boys and I got soaked and Matt walked Amelia down to the playground
for a bit of a play. Got dried off (as
much as possible) and headed for Costco to fill the car and buy some essential
supplies (cheap beer). Now prepping for
the big drive home tomorrow! Hoo ha!
Day 14 Quebec City to
Halifax 11 hrs @ 1066 km Total 5349 km
The boys celebrated our milestones (every 100 km or state/country
boundary) as they have been doing, with air guitar and either crazy frog or
thunderstruck. Funny to watch them rocking out in the back J
Arrived home after 11 hours on the road. Everyone a little worse for wear, but mostly
still in good humour! Had an ice cream and went to bed! Matt pointed out that the distance travelled
today is only 2/3rds of the drive we did from Adelaide to Ayres Rock…although I
wouldn’t do that with kids!
