bonjour, Montreal!

Allo, mes amis!

So much has happened in our first week of holidays it's amazing - hard to know what to share, there's so much!

Tuesday we left off after arriving at the Brigantine Inn & Suites at some ungodly hour of the morning.  The Brigantine Annex where we stayed is in and of itself worth visiting - it is a beautifully appointed heritage building, built for a ship builder whose name eludes me but who had exquisite taste.  It has been renovated inside to afford all the amenities of a modern hotel without taking anything from its plush historical feel.

The following day was mind-blowing - if you're ever in Nova Scotia, put Lunenburg on your must-see list.  It's a Unesco Heritage site, an it was literally like walking into a fishing village caught in a time warp.  The architecture, the atmosphere - everything - is splendid.  The history is rich and deep, and is beautifully displayed in the Maritime Museum there - everything from crazy quilts and fashion to a petting tank to two fishing boats that you can board and explore.  They have a boatbuilding shop where you can watch builders making schooners by hand, artifacts from the now-defunct whaling industry, and more - we could have easily spent another day in Lunenburg, especially since we didn't even make it to the geneological society where you can find the papers from your ancestors who landed at Lunenburg from pretty much everywhere in the world... but the clock was ticking and we did have an agenda dictated by things we had to book in advance, like sea kayaking and the train to Montreal...

After being motion sick from the plane and barely surviving our sail around the Halifax harbour, Wil was leery of coming on the whale watching putt-putt boat, but we walked uptown and grabbed some seabands and Gravol and we went off to find some whales.  Now, anyone who has been subjected to the tales of my adventures in the past few years knows my terrible luck with seeing a @%$#@% whale.  We managed to miss the right ferry to see the orcas traveling south from the coast of Vancouver 3 years ago, our Dominican trip 2 years ago was super fun (mmm - pina coladas and minutes-old fish for lunch on Bacardi Island - how can that be all bad?) but a bust in the whale department, and in Jamaica last year, while I got to see wild dolphins frolicking ahead of our boat on the deep-sea fishing trip (they scared off all the damn fish) I had yet to see an actual whale.  It was apparently destined that I would see not one, not two, but countless whales off the coast of Nova Scotia, and got a few seals and dolphins thrown in for good measure!  The girls had fun counting all the wildlife spottings they experienced, and even the boys got into it when someone would yell and point, the motor would shut off, and we'd float around watching for them to resurface.  Bill & I both got a few pictures of the tell-tale fins, and even though none of them decided to do backflips or anything fancy for us, I have seen whales in the wild, for real, for sure, and I'm very happy :)

We ended up saying much later than planned in Lunenburg, and reluctantly left at about 4 in the afternoon, with the idea that we would take the coastal drive and stop at Peggy's Cove for supper.  Having not actually made it to a lighthouse, it became a necessary stop :)  The drive was harrowing, though - I'm not sure who sets the speed limits, but driving a van that handles like a school bus at 80km/hr on winding roads with no shoulders and blind corners every 200 feet is pure insanity...

Before we left, I had about 20 people tell me different things we needed to do,  I was selective about who I decided to listen to and who to ignore.  Part of what I struggled with was the whole, "Oh, don't do THAT - it's too touristy.."  Well, uh... I'm a tourist, and I WANTED us to do the touristy thing.  Obviously in 3 weeks we couldn't see everything there was to see, so I decided that we would try and see as much of a sampler as possible.  A little of this, a little of that, and enough of everything to be memorable for kids ranging in age from 6 through 15.  Not an easy task, and we hadn't originally planned on doing Peggy's Cove, the uber-touristy spot in Nova Scotia, but I cannot express how much I am glad that we did.  Not only is Peggy's Cove so quaint and adorable that it's sickly sweet, but it's a functioning harbour that offers a harsh yet beautiful portrait of Maritime life and the very real struggles the fishermen, boatbuilders, and settlers on the East Coast face.  If there had been a carnival or some cheesy theme park, it would have detracted from the stark reality of a small fishing village displaying itself in realtime.

Unlike Avonlea and pretty much of PEI, where I felt like most of the island had fallen victim to renovating itself to capitalize on the commercial viability of Anne of Green Gables (necessarily so as it may be) Peggy's Cove was stunning in its simplicity and starkness.  There's not much to see: some uber-wicked rock formations, the lighthouse, and the tiny cove itself, crammed with fishing boats and lobster traps and gutting boxes.  Aside of the local artisans in their little houses-cum-stores, only the restaurant and gift shop at the top of the hill are really "touristy."  And even then, the building itself is unassuming, slightly decrepit, weather-beaten and time-worn.  There isn't a fancy 5-star restaurant - it's a family dining room more like a camp cafeteria, that serves some damn fine seafood.  (Wil had his first lobster dinner, the girls had fresh haddock and fries, and Bill and I had scallops and crab - yummers~)

After succumbing to the appeal of the coast in Nova Scotia, it was difficult making the break to head for Hopewell Rocks, in spite of how excited we were to move along.  We didn't arrive at the Hopewell Motel until almost 2 am, which involved us reluctantly waking the owner/operator to check us in.  The room was decorated like someone went hogwild at the Brick Warehouse in 1983 and stockpiled it in a storage facility for when it came time to renovate for decades to come... and it smelled funky...  Of course, this might have something to do with the fact it's only a few hundred metres from the Bay of Fundy and it was rainy, but whatever... it had beds, the price was right, and to borrow a staple of real estate fundamentalism: location, location, location.

And the restaurant had amazingly tasty cheeseburgers, which we partook of before donning ponchos and wielding cheap umbrellas from the gift store to see the Hopewell Rocks at low tide.  Un-freakin'-believable...  Anyone who knows me, knows I love rocks. I especially love the way they look wet, and will lick them to see how pretty they are.  (Hanging out with some geologists as of late, I found out that licking rocks is actually normal - yay me!)  Anyhow.  I only planed on grabbing a couple of keepsake rocks but took a good pound of stones out with me.  We built an inuksuk, crawled through a cave, and took metal note of where and what things were because the next morning, bright and early, we were going to kayak at high tide.  Despite the rain/mist/drizzle, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves; and got totally muddy.  (The silt was really gucky - I lost my shoes a couple of times, gave up, and just went barefoot...)  We all ended up taking showers under the runoff from rocks to get the big chunks off before heading back to the hotel, and while the kids and I swam, Bill went to the campsite up the road to do some laundry.

We had to be at the Rocks by 8am to check in.  We had originally planned for me to go with one of the boy at 8:45, and Bill to go with the other at 10:45, but the sun was out, the winds were calm, and the kayak gurus at Baymount Outdoor Adventures said that he girls could come too, which was TOTALY awesome, as I had felt really bad they would miss out on it.  I took kaelan, Wil took Mads, and Bill took Serejane out to kayak around the rocks;  I don't even have words.  the ONLY bad part about it was that Kaelan packed his iPod at the bottom of my drybag, and his screen got cracked by my big fat heavy camera...  So we are going to try and find a repair place... ugh... But, I will have to share the pictures later, as I did sneak my fisheye out of the drybag for a couple of shots, though most of the pics were taken on the Optio that I bought for the trip thanks to a generous giftcard from my Dominican newlyweds ;)

Covered in salty seawater and bug dope, we made a burn for Moncton to catch our train to Montreal.  No trip would be compete, of course, without a few hiccups, right?  ~sigh~  We had meant to do Magnetic Hill when we arrived last week, but decided to make a break for PEI straight from the airport, with the intent to hit is on the way back.  Unfortunately, we ran out of time - our train left at 3:20pm.  Only, it didn't leave at 3:20, it left at 5:20pm. My bad for not double-checking the tickets.  What that equated to was 3 hours to kill in Moncton.  Bah. We have to backtrack a bit here though; when we picked the van up on Sunday, Bill accidetaly forgot his book and his iPod at the Budget rental counter.  We had already called and asked them to hang onto it for when we brought the van back.  Fine.  Great.  Bill had been wearing his sandals instead of his sneakers for kayaking, and left his sneakers in the front passenger side of the van; so I put my other camera ($1200, plus a $900 lens...) there for Bill to grab when he grabbed his shoes since he'd been using it on the trip.  And he got the shoes but left the camera... oops.  The biggest disappointment is that of course now he doesn't have a schmancy camera to take pictures with.  We called and asked if it was still there (they didn't know) if they could ship it back to Edmonton...

After we got that fiasco sorted out and I assured Bill the camera was in fact insured and it was all good, we left our bags behind the counter at the train station and ventured off to explore Moncton for a couple of hours.  When we drove in, I had taken a bunch of pictures of a bell tower that stood above the entire city; as soon as we got out of the station, we saw that it was within walking distance, so we followed it like a beacon, drolling along the way at beautiful old houses...  So, 'please don't think I'm stupid for not knowing it was the famous St. Vincent de Paul church.  When we got there, we didn't plan on going in really,but sine the doors were open, we ventured forth and were treated with what is one of the first official guided tours that included going up into the chambers where the organ is house.  Holy.  Crap.  Holy crapoly.  Talk about serendipity!  What a totally happy surprise!!!! The stained glass windows were worth going in for alone, but then we got to climb up in behind the organworks to view the over 5000 pipes that are controlled by whatever skilled musician happens to know how to work the keyboard/pegs/pedals.  Apparently, they church (built in 1939 an 1940) could not open unless it was debt free.  So the cathedral was completed as a shell - no pews, no organ, nothing inside -  in 1940, but was not officially opened until 1955 after the congregation had spent over a decade fundraising.  The final installation was the pipe organ, which cost about $78,000 dollars then but is now worth about $1.8 million dollars.  The kids ll took a turn ringing the bel in the tower; Kaelan played The Lion Sleeps Tonight on the keyboard.  Twere wonderful :)

After walking around a bit more, we decided to head back towards the Via station.  Having forgotten the book I was reading, we stumbled onto a used bookstore reminiscent of Edmonton's own Wee Book Inn.  We had already stopped at an amazing candy and ice cream store (Candy Chameleon - the lime sorbet and the pineapple ice cream are super tasty!) so the girls ate their penny candies and browsed Where's Waldo? books while I grabbed myself a couple novels and the boys and Bill chilled out.

A lesson learned: check the train schedule BEFORE you go wandering - they had moved the train's departure by almost half an hour, to 4:54 instead of 5:20!  We made it back to the station with 4 minutes on the clock, found seats, and settled in for the overnighter to Montreal.  Everyone but me slept :(  And though we left Moncton a half hour earlier than scheduled, we arrived in Montreal over an hour later than what our tickets said.

We thought we would head straight for the apartments when we hit Montreal, so we could leave our bags and go off exploring for the day, but there was no answer on the phone number.  We walked for what seemed like an eternity this morning, looking to find ways of killing time.  We ate gross McDonald's food kitty corner from our suites and ended up sitting in a public green space until our gracious host Fernando called and told us our suite was ready.

Another backtrack....

I showed the kids the links to most of the stuff we had planned, including this apartment.  Madisyn was more excited about this apartment than  pretty much everything else I showed her.  Every 3 minutes she'd ask when we got to stay in the cool apartments.  It was kind of making me crazy, truth be told.  So when we got the call that we could check in early (11 am - woot woot!) Mads was vibrating!

We're all settled in now; the pictures do not do this place justice.  We have a fridge full of groceries, clean kids, cocktails, and enough ambience to tide us over until our trek to see the Canadian fireworks competition entry tonight and our breakfast date with my old friend Julie-Alex and her fiance tomorrow morning; then off to Jean Talon for super ingredients and the Tohu for some free Cirque :)