Four days in on our journey to the East Coast, our overtired, sugar-hyped, bleary-eyed crew arrived in Montreal early afternoon and had to park outside ChouChou and Fizey's condo and haul ourselves in. Picture this: A big white fluffy bear tied to my waist, a tiny toddler COVERED in cheerios hanging off my hip, a day bag slung over my shoulder, a toy bag in the other hand followed by an overtired, gangly toddler jacked up on sugar and six hours worth of sitting still silliness (who's idea was it to give him a sucker to calm him down in the car 30 minutes before destination again???). And here we go, parking our car several blocks from the condo, crossing a busy street at rush hour..... (More on Montreal parking later).
Ok, here is "later:" Montreal parking. Ohhhh Mmmmm Gee. Driving and parking on the island of Montreal is like playing Tetris. You can't park on THIS side of the street T and Th 9am-5pm. You can't park on THAT side of the street M, W or F 9am-5pm. And you can't turn right on a red light. And you can't read any of the signs because they are all in small print AND in French. And let me be clear, I can read French just fine... But zooming my eyes in on time to read a sign and translate absurdly legislated Montreal parking regulations in French after a six hour drive with littles yelling to play EYE SPY with their sugar-induced hysteria is enough to send any rational person over the edge. But I'll get off my soapbox now.
So after a lovely night in the condo with ChouChou and Fizey (and it was sooo lovely), I snuck out early to drive around in circles for a half-hour to find a new spot to park because it was a "Thursday," We packed up our things and hiked down the street several blocks to our new parking spot. Aiiiyiiiyii.... Remind me never to move there. Lively city, terrible parking. I suppose it's sort of a fun game to play with one person and a laptop bag. "Where is my car? Where do I park today." But maybe not so fun with little people and lots of bags and dogs and stuff.
One of the other longest days in our journey was from Montreal to Rivière-du-Loup. Fortunately we had ChouChou to join us on this leg of the journey. Somehow we managed to squeeze her in between the soft-sided cooler and the three bags of travel treats, my purse, laptop and camera all piled in the front seat. It's a good thing she is tiny!!
Total kms to date: 1300 kms
Hours in car this leg: 6 hours
Montreal to Riviere du Loup
Highlights from the day: A rest stop overlooking Quebec City area where we ran around chasing bubbles for an hour, visiting the ocean in Rivière-du-loup, and ordering room service for the littles to our hotel room overlooking the mouth of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Don't they look so "posh?"
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