With our 'to visit' list only half completed and lumps in our throats, we had to choose only a couple more activities for the Montreal portion of our Great Canadian Adventure. There are so many options for fun kid activities in Montreal and we have been spoiled for choice (not so in Rome, as you may recall). We eschewed La Ronde (the Six Flags amusement park) and Pi-O (Chucky Cheese equivalent) for the Montreal Botanical Gardens and the Insectarium. The botanical gardens is considered one of the best in the world and we barely scratched the surface. What we saw was gorgeous and it will stay on our 'to visit' list for next time. A play in an insect-themed playground was a nice diversion for the girls but was cut short by incoming rain clouds. We took refuge in the Insectarium but were quickly overrun by swarms of summer campers! Although our girls love bugs and this is one of the largest insect museums in the world, they were hungry and grumpy and a little grossed out by all of those bugs, all in one place so we bailed and headed to Pizzaria Magpie for lunch. Just what the doctor ordered! Good moods restored! We tried to geocache but found it hard to translate the location hints so gave up and went to Kem Coba for their famous cheese cake soft serve ice cream! After a little shopping in the Mile End neighborhood, we hopped our Uber and headed home. The girls relished their last swim in the condo pool while I began the monumental task of organizing the great diaspora of all of our crap.
The evening was clear and pleasantly cool and we did not have another prodigious meal waiting for us so we took a leisurely stroll down the shopping street, Rue St Catherine's until we wended our way to the Canadian Center for Architecture. This is yet another very well-reviewed museum in town but we showed up with just an hour left so we couldn't give it its due. One small but chilling exhibit showed the architectural drawings for the gas chambers in Auschwitz. It's hard to imagine but there were many. many regular professionals like architects who's talents were employed to this tragic end.
We were ready for a drink after our visit to the CCA and the friendly staff at Restaurant Sumac were happy to oblige. Dinner was quick and satisfying - a nice way to end our fantastic visit to Montreal. Jack keeps mentioning how much he loves Montreal and that we should consider moving here (!). Perhaps, if there is a Trumpocalypse in the US, we will be back with a U-haul!
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