Montreal - June 23

Wednesday, June 23

Now, the day where we finally make it to the destination!

We awoke reasonably early and set off northward and toward Montreal. On the way out, we decided to gas up before leaving Massachusetts and followed the GPS to a gas station that turned out to not be a gas station. It was a worthy detour, however:

Giant chair in the middle of a field

Old, cool buildings

Horse of "Toy Town", aka Winchendon, MA

Horse plaque

It drizzled and rained the majority of the day, but it was still reasonably nice driving weather as we moved through Massachusetts and soon entered New Hampshire!

"Live free or don't."

Our first stop was the town of Keene, where we had found a little cafe we figured we might as well stop at for breakfast. Considering neither of us were hungry, though, we decided to briefly check out the record store there and head back. It was a nice little city, though; we were caught a bit off guard by the cars stopping for us in anticipation of our crossing the street. You know you live in New Jersey when this surprises you.

Charming little town

I'm a nerd and found this funny

Anyway, we continued on and pretty soon we crossed the river into Vermont. Vermont was absolutely beautiful and lived up to its motto: The Green Mountain state. I also never noticed that Vermont resembles words like "vermillion" or the Spanish "verde." Again, incredibly apt.

BEARS

We spent a lot of time just gawking at the scenery before we decided to find something to eat in Burlington, Vermont. I suggested sandwiches and Dana magic'd up a place called Four Corners of the Earth that was right on the way. We arrived and the place was fantastic in more ways than one. All the sandwiches had been named after cities or places and didn't enumerate what was in them. Perfect for experimentation.

Four Corners of the Earth decorations

Cat/Cat Stuff/etc.

Dana waiting for sammich

My "Hawaiian Ham" sandwich, with ham, pineapple, onion and honey mustard

Now it was time to head for the border. After stopping briefly at a grocery store for a toothbruth and bed bug spray, we were off. They border guard asked a few questions (got whiny with me for not being specific enough at one point) and let us on our way. Ahhh, smell that Canadian air! Well, it was a bit like fertilizer for awhile, since there wasn't much to see between the border and Montreal. Eventually, though, we found our way to the second largest French-speaking city in the world.

I mean eventually, though. We got stuck in traffic for about an hour and a half while being within fifteen minutes of our destination according to my GPS. Oh well. We got to listen to plenty of CBC (which has amazing accents) on the way into the city. The hotel was a bit hard to find, being the hole in the wall it apparently is. We had to park in a nearby ramp that's either $20 a day or $20 for 24 hours or more - we really should figure that out tomorrow. Oh, and the rain was stopping finally!

Double rainbow all the way across the sky

So intense!

We got up to the hotel room after parking the car and sprayed down the bed nicely with our bed bug murder spray. I didn't see any sign of critters in the bed, so we should be safe, fingers crossed. We decided to head out and find some French cuisine, and we found a nice little cafe called Les Deux Gamins. Dana ordered a delicious looking flank steak and I ordered the salmon with rice pilaf, and both were incredible.

Oh, and apparently we came to Montreal right as they're preparing for a holiday devoted to Quebec and its (hopeful) independence. Tomorrow there is a parade and fireworks apparently. We've got good timing!