Today we started off strong! Although it was already noticeably warmer at 10:00 am than it has been on our trip yet, we were undeterred and marched straight to the bike place and rented 2 adult bikes with tag alongs and one kid's bike for Jacqui. This is a repeat of our strategy in Venice Beach and it is a proven! We set off, a little wobbly at first, with the goal of reaching the Biosphere - the only environment museum in North America! We rode along happily and soon pasted Habitat 67, the model community and housing complex designed by Israeli/Canadian architect Moshe Safdie for the World's Fair Expo 67. They are so iconic to Montreal, I looked into renting one for our stay here. Not surprisingly, these residences are not available for short-term rentals! Further along we crossed the St Lawrence River onto Ile St. Helene where there are many activities for families including Parc Jean Drapeau. Montreal makes the most of every day of good weather with fun activities and festivals every day! We only had time for the Biosphere today so we escaped the heat and enjoyed this hands-on museum exploring themes related to meteorology, climate, and water and air quality. The overall message was not lost on Jacqui - if we don’t get it together soon, climate change is going to accelerate past a tipping point and then we’ll be in real trouble. It was not all doom and gloom, thankfully. We enjoyed looking at their thoughtful presentation of options for clean energy and the girls were very happy to know that we will soon have solar panels on our house. Not a panacea for sure, but it’s something!
After a quick stop at a playground (had to be done!), we rode home and turned in our bikes right at the magical hour of date night. Happy, tired and hot girls went off with Courtney for a swim, Jack and I went to Cafe Tommy to work by the windows and start our evening together. After getting a few things done, we headed off to Joe Beef, the restaurant that Jack has most been looking forward to and, frankly, the restaurant that sold him on this whole Canadian adventure. (some of you may remember that we were considering Germany this summer) Although I did not find it as impressive as, say, Hotel Herman, Jack was in heaven and ordered twice as much food as we needed because he ‘just needed to try it’. We rolled out of our restaurant and really should have walked home but we hopped into an Uber. Ubers are very plentiful here but they are not ‘legal’ since the government so strictly regulates taxis here. One of our Uber drivers made Jack sit in the front because, if a taxi sees you picking someone up and they get in the back then you are clearly not picking up a pal and they will take a picture of your car, send it to the taxi commission and they’ll come and tow your car! Not all the drivers are this conservative though and they seem to be doing fine!
We had hoped to stop by an open air movie theater but we ran out of steam so we went home and got tucked in to watch the International fireworks competition viewable from the roof deck of our apartment building. What a lovely end to a very full day!
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