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From where I’m sitting on the balcony of our Airbnb, I can see into the houses or yards of at least seven other apartments. Surprisingly, it’s quite quiet for a Saturday morning. The only activity I can observe right now is a guy in the yard below and to the right who is digging up some kind of slate tiles or chunks of flagstone that were haphazardly leading from the alley behind the building to the wooden patio of the house. I don’t know if this space is supposed to be a garden or a place to park your car (it’s big enough) but right now it’s dirt and plants (weeds?) and a large and lovely tree. I wish we could stay to see the “after” picture.
The cool breeze through the trees is a peaceful contrast with our adventure from last night, when we walked down Mont-Royal Avenue and Saint Denis Street looking for a place to eat a late dinner. This neighborhood is apparently the place to be on a Friday night if you’re young and cool in Montreal. And we were there anyway. There are infinite bars and restaurants, many with wooden, lighted outside seating areas. There are tons of benches out in the streets–closed off to traffic–seemingly for the sole purpose of people hanging out. There were chairs set up in an area where you could watch street performers. It was all thoughtfully designed with people enjoying themselves in mind. After walking up and down both streets to see what was on offer to eat, we decided to try a dumpling place, only to discover their kitchen was about to close. Then we decided to try a tapas place, only to discover that their kitchen was about to close. Finally we settled on a bar full of people (so we decided it must be decent) that was named after the Catholic church across the street. They were blasting American rock music from the 80s, but everyone was speaking French so it seemed authentic enough. We attempted to order in French and they quickly caught onto the fact that our French is terrible and switched to speaking to us in English, but in a friendly way. We ordered a cider and a beer and a half kilo of chicken wings (which seemed like a lot, and it was) and poutine, and relaxed after two long days of driving.
So far we’ve covered more than 700 miles on this trip, and gone back and forth through several states before reaching Canada. We delivered Niki to camp in Western New York on Thursday afternoon and stayed in a hotel in Pennsylvania, just a couple miles from the New York border. We planned to leave for Montreal first thing on Friday, but then things happened and we didn’t. But while Randy was on a call, I found a cool coffee shop that also had antique axes and knives on display and a vast array of tinned fish for sale. Sardines have never appealed to me, but these looked so cool!
We finally started heading north and stopped to use a bathroom in Catskill, New York. We happened to park in front of a used bookstore. This was not planned, I promise. So we bought some books! And there was an art gallery. So I bought some art! Then we drove north some more and decided to have lunch in Saratoga Springs, where I once lost $20 at the racetrack and decided never to gamble again because there’s so much other stuff I’d rather do with $20. Saratoga Springs is a lovely little city. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the way you look at it, there’s a phenomenal bookstore there. We swore to each other we would only stay for five minutes…
So…by the time we got to Montreal it was after 8pm. But we found our cute little apartment and rallied to go eat. Now we get to explore Montreal in the daytime.
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Today I tried to teach my child what exploring means. That you don’t necessarily know where you’re going. You’re just going. To a small person who is fully immersed in the “when will we be there?” phase, walking for the sake of walking is a challenging concept. But this morning, she aced it. We left our hotel in search of a breakfast spot. There are many coffee shops in Vancouver, even besides Starbucks, which is just as ubiquitous here as it is in DC, and I am determined to sample them. We found a lovely spot where she had a parfait and I had a prosciutto and egg breakfast panini. They’re into paninis here, which I endorse. Covering one wall of the coffee shop were newspaper centerfolds of Canuck players. I appropriated a newspaper from a nearby table and explained what hockey is and why the people of Vancouver are so excited about it right now. We sounded out the “DROP THE PUCK!” headline on the front cover of the tabloid.
Then we walked. We found a mosaic-tiled fountain by the Vancouver Art Gallery. 
We spent quite a while in the gift shop of the museum, although we didn’t go into the exhibit because I didn’t want to pay for both of us knowing Zoe would want to zip through it in about two minutes. The gift shop was outstanding (I am a connoisseur of gift shops) and had an extensive section for kids. Zoe found a bowl of cats and played with them for a while. She kept asking me to petsit her cats so she could buy supplies for them, but I was trying to shop. I bought her a book about Rene Magritte, one of my favorite artists, after she had looked at some of his work in the shop. We read it tonight at bedtime and she said she thought his paintings were pretty cool.
After that we found more sculptures, an ice rink (where Zoe said she wanted to learn to skate this winter), and many many steps to climb up and down. We were near the court buildings and I saw several men with white judicial collars. We walked down Robson Street and ducked into a few shops. We made our way back toward the water, finding lunch at a market and eating on a bench in Harbour Green Park, overlooking Burrard Inlet. We watched seaplanes take off and land. We watched joggers, walkers, and cyclists go by. Zoe ate an entire apple. Then we checked out the sculptures at the Vancouver Convention Centre before retrieving our car to visit the Vancouver Aquarium. Clearly this last bit isn’t accidental wandering, but a plan made while we were looking out at the water.
The aquarium was excellent and we saw a dolphin show and several beluga whales. I’ve never before been so close to dolphins or whales, and it was a fun
outing. Seeing the dolphin show made up for the fact that we had waited for 15 minutes in line for a 4D movie, and had sat through a public service announcement and the first minute of it when Zoe started sobbing and asking to leave, after having solemnly pledged to be brave (before we entered the theater). She may be extraordinary, but she is still four.
I am a planner, and Zoe constantly demands information and answers. So several hours of exploring were good for both of us.
You Ask a Lot of Questions 