Saturday morning

We had a hearty continental style breakfast including our first picked whitefish (yum!) along with more muesli and yogurt.  There was fruit and pastry and boiled eggs as well.  After fueling up it was time to hit the road. We debated taking the ferry from Stykkisholmer but the drive was the same length so we decided to drive and see the fjords. (foreshadowing). The first dirt road we were on was quite muddy and bumpy but pretty straightforward driving.

By this time, we had calibrated civilization.  Any group of 3 or more buildings was “town,” or any intersection or stopping point with a petrol station/small convenience store and a guest house (sometimes a home with an outbuilding, maybe 5 or 6 rooms) was a notable spot on the map and guidebook.  Most had “cakes” that we came to understand as any type of pastry, mostly danishes  (from the Danish influence), made with either wheat or oat flour, and some with rhubarb or nuts as a filling.  We later discovered one tasty item we tried was called “Happy Marriage” – an oat bar with jam.  Arugula, peas, lamb and fish were plentiful, but most other provisions were imported.  A few types of green-house grown vegetables, such as tomatoes, could be grown locally using the plentiful summer daylight and geothermal heating. It was best to not worry about the cost or exchange rate and just get whatever sounded best, since everything was very expensive compared to the US.

Upon making it to the north side of the peninsula we turned onto another dirt road. This one was being re-graded which narrowed the road to one lane. On trying to pass the grader, we slid sideways and got stuck in the soft dirt on the side of the road. I was unable to move the car. Fortunately the road was fairly busy and a car with 3 young men stopped to help us. As we were debating the best approach, a tour van driver who saw us slide off hopped out, barked some instructions, and had us back on the road in short order. The whole thing probably took less than 10 minutes but it was a little more excitement than I was looking for.

A little more dirt road and we were back on pavement. We stopped at a town which had an N1 (petrol) station. I figured out how to buy a petrol card since many of the stations around the country are unmanned and US credit cards (which have no European style PIN) do not work.

The station was also a grocery store and sold appliances. Kinda the main store for the whole “town” of approximately 1000 people, and reminded me of the store in Herscher, IL near our cousin Eric. One or two units of a variety of standard items (like frozen fish, packaged dinners, a small array of meat, lots of kinds of yogurt and cheese, and an aisle of pasta and dry goods  that could be reonstituted when boiled for a quick meal or camping), but very little produce. We were lucky to find some bananas and an apple and plums, picked up some fig bars, and a yummy Skyr yogurt drink and got back the road.

Our next destination was a major waterfall about 2.5 hours away. As we left town we quickly started ascending and had some great views of flowing rivers. There was no rain so visibiity was much better than the previous day. We stopped at a small waterfall to take some photos. Along the way, we saw plenty of sheep.  Most were mothers accompanied by two lambs, and the two lambs were good about running to mama when cars approached.  At one such instance, a confused lamb ran into its sibling and mounted it in the road instead of getting out of way.  Silly lamb! Finally they both cleared the road and we moved along.

Then we kept ascending and descending. Then the roads turned to dirt. Then we were driving on a narrow road along the walls of the many fjords. Climbing one side, heading over the summit, and then descending the other side. We headed up each valley, usually crossing a one lane bridge where the glacial river emptied into the fjord, then heading back up the wall of the opposite side of the fjord. It was challenging driving.

We finally got back on some pavement at a small gas station/restaurant/swimming pool where the road split to the waterfall and the other way to our hotel. We decided to go to the big waterfall called Dynjandi (good decision). It was another hour of narrow dirt road but this time the scenery was not fjords, but instead a rocky open landscape with very little plant life. There were still snowpacks in the north and west facing cliffs and glaciers in the distance. It was much more brown (and red from iron in the soil).

Finally we descended to the falls. One huge main head fall about 1km from the road descended several hundred feet to a series of smaller falls (all named) that emptied into the ocean. Unfortunately this was our first encouter with bugs – there were swarms of small flies. Brian took lots of pictures, and Susan was glad they had a WC at the parking lot. Never take petrol or bathrooms for granted in Iceland. Also refill or unload (or both!) each time you see one.

After walking around the falls and enjoying the invigorating mists, we headed back over the dirt road to the gas station and filled up again (with a WC stop and another oat “cake” for a snack) before heading toward the hotel. Halfway to hotel the road turned to dirt. We saw a sign advertising a bar and big screen TV showing soccer so we decided we would eat there rather than at our own hotel. We considered a nice bistro in a fishing village across the fjord, but it would have required an extra hour of travel and I was tired of dirt roads.

We checked into the hotel, which was a former boarding school. Our bedroom was a dorm room with an updated bathroom. The bed was also very comfortable (individual duvets again). Su took a short nap and we headed the 10 minutes down the dirt road to the next hotel for dinner.

Due to the continuing rainy weather, bad visibility and being tired of driving we decided to change Sunday/Monday plans. We booked a spot for the car on the ferry back to Stykkisholmer so we wouldn’t have to drive the winding mountain roads farther north, and then a long drive back on Monday. It was fun to do once and great scenery but I didn’t need to do it again so soon. At this point we did not have a hotel for Sunday night but figured we would be able to find one. Su picked out some things to do in the rain Sunday (explore town, go to the swimming pool) near Stykkisholmer, which is a huge town of 2000 people.

Dinner was just ok (fish and chips for Brian, shrimp fettucine for Susan) but we were ravenous. After dinner we both wished we’d tried the grilled salmon and vegetables, maybe next time.  We were joined at dinner by a large group of motorcyclist who were staying at the hotel’s block of rooms in a second building.  They were enthusiastic but polite, and it added an air of energy to the dining room.  The site also had camping in addition to outbuilding and the main Inn. After dinner I watched a few minutes of soccer in the bar before heading out to the evening entertainment – the Latrabjarg bird cliffs. We discovered that after dinner is the best time to go see Puffins, and with daylight extended nearly all night, there was no reason not to head over.  It was a 30 minute drive on narrow dirt roads (again!). The car by this point was filthy and I was exhausted from driving.

The bird cliffs are the westernmost point in Europe (not counting the Azores). Thousands of black birds (terns and other varieties of sea birds) and gulls nest on the cliffs. We managed to see 3 puffins, cute friendly quiet little birds compared with the others, and I again took many photos. The ground was amazingly soft and it was so quiet other than the crashing ocean and birds. We walked about 1km up the cliffs before turning around. We came back down to car and read about a famous shipwreck and heroic rescue by the townsfolk before heading to our hotel. At this point it was 2200 and the sun was still in the process of “setting.” The sky would have maybe turned red if we had stayed until midnight but we were sleepy.

Thursday evening
Despite taking the scenic route through Everett and Revere to avoid I-93 traffic, we arrived at the airport 1 hour earlier than needed. Check-in was fast and we headed to the Air France lounge for “dinner.” The food was ok, the lounge was crowded, we were sleepy and ready to start our adventure.

Boarding was delayed (late inbound aircraft) so we didn’t get settled until nearly 10pm. Economy Comfort meant a larger seat and access to the pre-flight lounge, but not much else. We tried to fall asleep right away. Susan slept the first half of the flight but I was cold. Got my sweater when she woke up and slept almost 2 hours before landing. On the other hand Susan had trouble getting comfortable and didn’t sleep much the second half of the flight.

The last sun we saw for 3 days was as we descended through the clouds to the airport at Keflavik. Upon landing we immediately took note of the huge fields of purple lupine that we would see over much of the countryside. We deplaned out on the tarmac and boarded a bus to the terminal. Customs was fast and baggage claim was fast. We had a short wait at the Hertz counter for our Yaris. We should have known the clerk’s insistence on our checking the car for scratches was foreshadowing for the roads to come.

Our Yaris was a 6 speed manual and drove nicely. It was early (~7:30am) so we decided to head into Reykjavic for some breakfast at a cafe. I signed up for a $10/day verizon international plan. We’ll see what the charges are once I get back home, but it seems to work great and we made good use of it during the trip to make reservations and look up information. I could use google maps for navigation and found the cafe and parking easily. We enjoyed a breakfast of yogurt, granola, and fruit and grabbed a muffin for the road.

After breakfast we walked back up the hill about a quarter mile to a giant stone Lutheran church with a statue of Leif Erikson in front. We had apparently chosen a cafe in the older, touristy section of town so we got to take in some sights. Lots of colorful houses, mostly metal or cement with little courtyards. There were many flower pots, some strawberries growing on a front stoop, and a number of little hot dog and pizza shops in the neigborhood. The town had a very European feel between the tight street, shops, and road signs. Road signs have been easy to read and my German is coming in handy for many nouns which have similar roots.

We drove toward Hotel Budir, our hotel.  After not getting much sleep on the plane and having a little breakfast, Su was ready to doze off, and slept a good 20 min on the way out of Reykjavik.  There was a long 6km tunnel on Hwy 1 north of Reykjavik on the way to Akranes. It started to rain, a consistent pattern during the weekend.  Once we got away from city/main road (Iceland 1), there were lots of sheep along the roads and a good number of horse farms. We appreciated Dan Dunn’s parting advice, “Don’t hit a sheep!” since evidently the car driver has to pay the farmer for the sheep, and with free range grazing, it would be challenging to find the farmer.  We fortunately only saw one dead sheep on the road, so it looks like most drivers are careful, and sheep generally skittered to the side of the road once the cars approached.

We got to the local mineral baths about 1130am but the internet was wrong and the baths didn’t open until 1300, so we headed to the hotel. Our room was not ready so we changed clothes in the WC and headed to a cliff/ocean walk. It was raining fairly heavily with winds from the ocean, so we were damp on the way out, and soaked on the way back. Saw a ton of troll stones (rock formations that looked like trolls and had signs and names), lots of moss and small wild flowers and a few birds. We even saw an arctic fox from a close range. He was wet and on top of a short rock formation just off the trail. He scampered off pretty quickly once he saw us but I managed to snap a very quick photo. The hike was through an old lava flow so lots of volcanic rocks, some mixed with stones smoothed by the ocean water. Everything was so green. So many shades of green.

Afterward, we decided it was a great time to warm up at the swimming pool and drove straight there.  We paid admission and rented towels. As the sign and and attendant reminded us, you must shower first without your suit. It is demanded, in the kindest Icelandic way, as they don’t use chemicals in the baths, just the natural minerals.  This one was special due to the amount of iron, calcium, and healthful algae that grew in it.  There was one large swimming pool and two smaller round tubs. The pool was cooler (but still quite warm, over 90 degrees F) and the tubs hotter ~38C. The water smelled of iron and there was lots of algae growing on the bottom/stairs that made it very slippery, but also made it feel more natural. We chatted with a family from NJ who had vacationed in Iceland at least 11 times, and said how nice this pool was compared with the commercialization of Blue Lagoon which we had missed because we couldn’t get a reservation.  Nice and warm, we showered off and happily climbed into the car. But alas, on the way back to the hotel, Su realized she left her suit hanging in the changing room, so we had to drive back for 3rd time that day before heading to hotel. We noted that our skin was glowing like after a mud bath/massage.

We checked in and got an 1830 dinner reservation. Our room was on a corner of the inn so we had a great view of the river flowing into the ocean. But unfortunately it really clouded up and started raining more, like being in a cloud of mist, so there was low visibility.  We didn’t get to see Snaefellsnes glacier at all despite being so close.

After snacking during the day, but not sitting down for a meal in over 24 hours, we were ready for a nice dinner.  We were the first ones in the dining room to start, and picked a nice bright spot by the window. Brian started with cod cheeks (a local delicacy we’d read about) and Susan had cauliflower soup, which was delightful. We were disappointed that the catch of the day was catfish, so we passed on that and instead both had lamb with spring herbs (pea tendrils, green onions and something resembling anise pods), peas and yummy potato cakes. Brian had two different icelandic beers. One an organic pils which was very good (must be the crisp Icelandic glacier water?) and a red ale that was quite sweet. At one point during dinner Brian stopped and said “listen” – the muzac was an Icelandic rendition of “We don’t have to take our clothes off,” kind of an odd choice for dinner music. By 20:00 there were maybe 8-12 more people dining but we were ready to sleep!

We sat in the cozy lounge for a little while, with only Igor the sleeping dog and one man talking on his cell phone as company.  It would have been a great place for an after-dinner drink if Su had been drinking and we were less tired.  We finally agreed that it was late enough to stave off jetlag and head back to the room around 2100. Brian had managed to stay awake the whole day. We both fell sound asleep and slept 10 hours. We had a full size bed and each person had an individual duvet.

This year we ordered our seeds from High Mowing Seeds. Because we got a head start on last year we decided to start some plants indoors and also direct seed some early season seeds in the hope of getting an early first harvest. Here’s a picture of what we started indoors on Saturday.

Seeds started indoors

Our sunroom has large windows which face south and west so that’s where we’ll be putting the seeds to germinate and grow. At some point very soon we have to figure out how to keep Slinky away from them.

No, kitty!

On Sunday we got into the yard and worked some bags of composted manure into two of the six beds. Then we planted radishes, lettuce, beets, peas, kale, spinach, chard, and cilantro.

Sundays planting

We’re planning on doing another planting of these same crops in about two weeks. Hopefully by staggering them we won’t be stuck eating beets and radishes for 1 straight week in June and we’ll be able to harvest gradually.

Shh, don’t tell her parents, but Susan willingly planted peas.

The plantation still grows produce which is sold locally. In its past, the plantation has belonged to several families who have grown cotton, pecans, and indigo among other crops. They still grow a small field of cotton for show which was very pretty. After we left the plantation we went to their market and bought some of their strawberries and peach cider.

That afternoon all of us walked down to the beach to take some final photos with the Kennealys. The next morning Susan, Isaac, and I went back to the beach to try to get a few shots of Isaac. He mostly wanted to keep his head down and not look at the camera but we managed to take some cute shots anyhow.

The end of a successful vacation

Too bright!

Mmmmm sand

We cleaned up the house and left midday on Friday, drove as far as Richmond, VA, and continued the final 9 hours home on Saturday. Things learned this trip: vacationing with another family is fun, driving (if you make the time) is better than dealing with airlines, Charleston is a lovely city, and even a cold day in South Carolina is warmer than Boston in March.

Our complete set of vacation photos is uploaded at flickr.

The couples ended up going in separate ways for dinner. We had dinner at the Old Village Post House in Mt. Pleasant, about 20 minutes from our house. The restaurant was recommended by our favorite farmer from Newburyport who just happened to see via Facebook that we were on vacation in the Charleston area. We both had very delicious meals with Isaac cooperating from the time we sat down until the entrees arrived. While Susan enjoyed her salmon with some of the tastiest tomatoes we’ve had, Brian held Isaac in the entryway. Brian ate the best duck breast he’s ever had while Susan did parenting duty. It wasn’t exactly the long dinners we’d enjoyed pre-Isaac but there’s a lot to be said for sitting down with great food in a relaxing atmosphere and having someone else do the cooking, serving, and dishes.

Wednesday the weather cleared so we decided to would be a good time to go explore downtown Charleston. We both ran in the morning which was sorely needed exercise and fresh air. When I got back from my run I found Susan and Isaac on the patio on our turret. Note: Su loves wraparound porches and turrets on houses so this is a clear winner.

Wraparound turret? Sign me up!

All 6 of us piled into the car around noon and headed into the city. First stop was Charleston’s City Market. We browsed the vendors for a while looking at the local artists and sampling some local flavor. Next up was lunch at an Irish pub. Susan had a crazy sounding, terribly unhealthy, yet amazingly tasty burger with fried oysters, cole slaw, jalapenos, and hot sauce. A tasty lunch and good time was had by all.

As happy as his daddy

After lunch we wandered our way on foot up to the visitor center taking in the historic Charleston architecture. Heather particularly likes Spanish Moss so when we were walking down a street heavily shaded by moss I snapped a picture of them.

Old buildings and Spanish Moss

One of Charleston’s many steeples

The diaper blowout on the walk over was tiring

What? I’m not tired

Finally we headed back to the car and headed home for a quiet evening of bath time and early bed.

Issac got on his first boat ride since he was born. The ferry to Fort Sumter left from where the USS Yorktown (now a floating museum) is docked.

USS Yorktown

After a short 30 minute ride to the island the ferry docked for a little over an hour letting us explore a bit and learn a little more about the battle for Fort Sumter than our history books taught us. We got on the ferry back to the mainland, did some grocery shopping, and headed home to a tasty home cooked chicken dinner with the Brian, Heather, and Liam.

Approaching Fort Sumter

Boom!

Flags on top of the newest gun battery

Brian K with Isaac

Liam giving kisses

We landed at SFO on Wednesday and drove to Morgan Hill to see my cousin Betsey.  It turned out that the LeCounts were also visiting, so we had a short but fun visit and lunch, chatted a bit more with Betsey, then headed down the road to Pacific Grove for the wedding “retreat.” There were fun activities each day, as well as an activity room where we put together puzzles, played games and just relaxed.  We woke up early and ran along the beach, before meeting up with the rest of the crew to fly kites, view the sea lions and check out the lighthouse on Thursday morning. Other fun events were a beer and cheese tasting, Movie Night at a small local theater, Game Show Night, and a bonfire with s’mores.  There was also a fun afternoon of science that included non-Newtonian fluids, slime, making superballs, crushing cans, playing with dry ice (including making ice cream), and some key research into how much liquid disposable diapers can hold (almost a liter!).   The grand finale was Diet Coke +Mentos fireworks – amazingly the kids who each held a string managed to wait until the count of 3 to pull the string and drop the Mentos into the 2L bottles to make a pretty cool fountain!

Two highlights were the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where we saw jellyfish, “pregnant” sea dragons, the otter feeding, and the big ocean tank feeding.  I liked the touch tanks too.  The other highlight was the whale watch.  While the water was a bit choppier than expected, Brian and I both managed to hold onto our breakfasts and enjoy amazing sightings of blue whales and hump-back whales.  Both types of whales could be sighted by looking for their blows, then we could see their shiny backs and dorsal fins when they dove.  We also saw a good number of flukes on the humpbacks. There were lots of cool shore birds too, including some brown pelicans who hung out near the boat.  On the way back to the harbor we saw a pod of dolphins, plus some otter and sea lions in the harbor.

In addition to the planned activities, we also did a little sight seeing on our own.  We walked along Cannery Row, did plenty of jogging along the coast and bike trail, and had a lovely and delicious date night dinner at Bistro Moulin (duck confit – yum!).

We did a little hiking with the group at Point Lobos before saying goodbye and heading back up to the city to see our friends Wayne and Santina, who just moved into their new home.  Their boys are growing up fast, and are both very athletic!  Wednesday we headed to the airport for the flight home, relaxed and cool from our wonderful week in California.

The wedding ceremony itself was held on the beach at Asilomar. We sat with our friend from college, Brenton, and his wife, Kat. The kids all got to carry the flower arrangements down the aisle and hang them at the end of the rows of seating. Then Mary and Craig entered for a fun, memorable ceremony.

One of the themes of the weekend was games and most of the people invited had spent a great deal of time playing games with Mary and Craig over the years. The reception seating” namecards” were Scrabble racks and letters. The goal was to make the highest scoring word with the letters at your table. After the kids table won with ‘jazzy’ and then scored with ‘razzamatazz’ (which they made after raiding other tables for letters), Brian had some fun. Seriously, having kids named Liz, Zoe, and Josie at one table was too much for the adults to overcome.

My goal for June is to improve my consistency and continue to hit my mileage targets.

44
Since learning about it several years ago, I’ve been working on hiking the 48 peaks in New Hampshire that are 4000 feet or higher. On Sunday, Susan and I decided to go hiking and knock another peak off of the list. We chose Wildcat (D and E peaks) to be my 44th of the 48 4000 footers.

There are two main routes to access Wildcat D. One is a long, though pleasant, hike in along 19 mile brook before ascending to Wildcat Ridge and hiking across the A, B, and C peaks to reach the D peak. Since we had already hiked that end of the ridge we opted for the more direct route. Of course, more direct means more vertical in a shorter amount of time. After setting out from the car and crossing the Ellis River (pictures of Su crossing the river on the way down later) we immediately started up the New England version of a stairmaster.

Believe it or not, this picture was taken in one of the easier, more level, sections of the trail.

Susan ascending Wildcat Ridge trail

The trail continued ascending steeply with occasional short steep descents mostly in woods with annoying flies for the next two miles. Just when it seemed like the short hike (ha, short) would never end we hit the top of the ridge, descended briefly to the ski gondola station at the top of Wildcat Mountain, and were rewarded with a great view of Mt. Washington across Pinkham Notch.

Mt. Washington from Wildcat Ridge Trail

Wait, we could have taken a gondola to the top?

Not a bad reward for a lot of work

At the top we snapped a few photos, devoured our sandwich, and liberally reapplied bug repellent. Apparently I got some on the lens of my camera as a lot of my later photos are blurred. Oh well, better than being eaten alive.

The descent went much more quickly than the ascent and despite being hard on the legs didn’t leave us nearly as winded. One final crossing of the Ellis River and we were back at the car and off for a well deserved burger on our ride home.

Ellis River crossing

The obvious place to put the garden in the back yard is off to one corner behind the driveway. Because of the trees around our property and the location of the house this is about the only spot that gets sufficient sun to grow any hot weather crops. The problem with this location is that the previous owners had used it for some other purpose and it was covered with stones, weed cloth, a layer of pea gravel, and finally a layer of decomposing plastic. Before we could plant we’d need to clear the area.

Moving enough stone so that we could think about putting down the beds took a week or two. During that time, I started looking for lumber to build the beds out of. The best materials to build raised beds out of appeared to be cedar or redwood as they are both naturally water and insect resistant. Unfortunately in the northeast it is hard to find these woods in rough cuts. Most of the cedar gets made into deck material which is substantially more expensive than rough cut lumber. I managed to find one mill in southern New Hampshire that had enough 2×6 rough cut cedar to make six 4 foot by 8 foot beds.

The lumber arrived but still needed to cut to length to assemble. The design I chose was to build two 4 foot by 8 foot frames out of 2×6 and to stack them on top of each other and held together by 4x4s in the corners. I enlisted the help of my friend Dan to help cut and assemble the beds. This was a bit of an adventure as my selection of tools was somewhat limited. I did not have a lot of garage/workshop space in Newburyport and kept my tool collection pretty small. Fortuantely, I do own an electric chainsaw which turned out to work the best for cutting the boards down to size.

Once the beds were built and the gravel was cleared enough to place the beds it was time to order loam. Seven yards of loam arrived last Friday in a pile on our driveway. The weather was going to be sunny and warm Saturday and Sunday with rain on Monday so we had two days to get the beds placed, leveled, and filled.

Placing and leveling the beds turned out to be quite a bit of work as the area we were working in has a bit of slope as it went towards the back of the yard. Also, once the beds were placed we had to finish making sure all the plastic was removed from the bottom of the beds. The 2 back beds required digging down another three inches or so in order to get all the plastic out. Finally once the beds were in place we had to move stone back around the beds to use as walkways. By Saturday afternoon we had all 6 beds placed and leveled.

After the beds were placed and leveled we went to the local Agway to pick up some composted manure to give the loam a little boost. Who knew you could fit 1000 pounds of manure in the back of a car? In the future we will use compost from our backyard composter to enrich the soil.

Sunday morning we got up early and finished pulling plastic out of the bottom of the beds. We then filled each bed with loam to about 6 inches from the top, then added and inch or two of composted manure, and then topped it off with loam.

We finally finished up about 5pm on Sunday and were completely exhausted. In the end we ended up moving about 6.5 yards of loam (or about 16000 pounds) in a wheelbarrow in addition to all the stone that we also had to shovel. We’re both sore today, but it looks like we’ll be able to actually plant this week! Future tasks will include putting up fencing to keep deer out and figuring out how to adjust the yard sprinklers to hit the garden but for now, SUCCESS!

We left Friday morning from our house and within 5 miles I had already taken a wrong turn and set us on a path to downtown Lowell. A quick correction, and we were on Rt. 3 North heading to Canada. The weather was mostly sunny giving us some great views as we passed trough Franconia Notch. A quick stop for gas (since it’s more expensive in Canada) and coffee in Littleton, NH and we were on our way once again.

The border crossing was non eventful and despite a little rush hour traffic heading into Montreal we were at our hotel in about 6 hours. We decided to stay in the lovely boutique Hotel Gault in Old Montreal. Montreal is a collection of islands in the St. Lawrence river with Montreal island being the largest. Old Montreal is the location of the original European settlers and has great old architecture, cobblestone streets, and is rich in history.

After settling in we went out to a wonderful dinner at Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins. Fortunately we had a native French speaker with us to help with the menu translation but based upon what we ate we couldn’t have gone wrong with any order. The food was served on small plates and we ordered enough for the table and shared with each other. The cheese and meat plate we had to start was a hit, although my thinly sliced veal was a close second. After a leisurely, thoroughly enjoyable meal we headed back to the hotel to crash for the evening.

In the morning, we woke up, had a tasty fresh breakfast in the Hotel Gault lobby, and decided to wander on our own for a while. We walked down to the river and explored the waterfront of Old Montreal. It was a cold morning in the 20s (Fahrenheit) with a brisk north wind off of the river. We saw many people carrying ice skates and followed them to an outdoor ice rink. Susan loved watching the large crowd of young and old skating in a circle on a clear, cold March morning. She particularly enjoyed when the whistle blew and on cue all the skaters reversed direction.

Ice skating in Old Montreal

By this time we were cold and decided to head back to the hotel via the cobblestones instead of along the water. Along the way we stopped into the Notre-Dame Basilica. As in most large cathedrals the art work and architecture were spectacular.

Once we got back to the hotel we grabbed our car and decided to head to the Montreal Botanical Gardens. We had intended to go to the Biodome but there was a very long line just to get tickets and the line was filled with strollers and small children. Fortunately the Botanical Garden was a short walk away.

After a nice warm walk through the greenhouses and a moth and butterfly exhibit we were feeling a bit hungry. G suggested we try a French Canadian local delicacy, Poutine. We headed to a local fast food restaurant for our lunch of french fries covered with gravy and melted cheese curds (with a hot dog on the side for good measure). Fortunately we had a light breakfast and did a lot of walking or the amount of grease might have seriously injured one or both of us. I’m not sure I need to eat Poutine again, but I’m glad I tried it.

Su and Poutine

We headed back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap and hopefully sleep off some food before dinner. We had a late dinner scheduled at one of Montreal’s acclaimed restaurants, Joe Beef. It was going to be hard to top the meal from the night before but Joe Beef lived up to the hype. The menu was all in French and written in chalk on a wall so it took quite a while to translate and make up our minds. Susan opted for a straight forward steak (how can you go to Joe Beef and not order beef)? I ended up with a slow cooked wild hare with foie gras. I’m not sure how to describe it other than to say it was the richest food I’ve ever eaten. It was like cheesecake except it was a very tender, rich dark meat. Once again we all sampled each others wonderful meals and without exception they were all outstanding.

In the bathroom at Joe Beef

Upon getting back to the hotel we crashed into bed for our last night in Montreal. In the morning we decided to go for a run along the river to try to work off some of the previous nights dinner. It was moderately successful as we felt hungry enough to have a wonderful brunch before we said goodbye to G for the weekend.

The drive home was very pretty again and the weather had warmed up into the 60s; Spring came early this year. Hopefully it won’t take us 9 years to go on another vacation out of the United States. We’re both looking forward to going back to Montreal during the summer and seeing what else it has to offer.