Montreal

MONTREAL

Day 7 of 9

Thursday, July 4th

(Independance Day) *NOT celebrated in Canada :)

Sunny and 90 degree

****I have been journalling almost all of my travels since graduating college in 2003.  In 2019, I decided to make them digital! I'm happy to share our adventures with you, but keep in mind they are actually for me and my family!****

Our plan was to get the famous Fairmont Bagels for breakfast and continue through Mont Royale to the St. Joseph Oratory.  The weather was 90 degrees,  Sahara dry, beating sun and we knew parking would be tough. We found a spot quickly and paid at the meter to only realize after 4 blocks of walking that we were about 10 blocks away still!  That was a map fail on my part.

FAIRMONT BAGEL
We chose one of each blueberry, multigrain, garlic and onion with strawberry and Lox cream cheese.  The tiny storefront was super hot with no air conditioning so we were happy there wasn't seating inside. Instead, we chose a bench on the street outside of Kem Coba.

DROGHERIA FINE
We heard from our acquaintances on the tour that this tiny little shop is amazing.  They are known for their fresh pasta sauce and only have one item on the menu.  The fresh Pasta de gnocchi interieur or gnocchi Della is simmered in the sauce and served with parmesan cheese in a Chinese take out box.  We had no idea is was wedged directly beside Fairmont Bagel so we just had to try it!

CAFFEE GRAIZZE MILLER

A family owned business where the dad and daughter were clearly working behind the counter.  They were full of smiles and you could tell that they loved what they did.  We ordered a  Mocha (meh) and mom and I asked for iced Chai's.  He said they make the Chai as a warm tea and it would take 5 minutes for it to steep.  No problem, this is going to be good we thought.  Chai was like milky water "birthday milk" Dylan calls it.  Maybe the food was good but definitely, don't get the coffee there.

MONT-ROYAL
We were full and ready for some walking on Mont-Royal.  Navigating up the hill, we stopped to play frisbee in a large open area.  All of the trees and stone structures made for an amazing frisbee golf course. We went back down the hill after seeing the oratory to stop at the lookout. 

St. Joseph Oratory in Montreal

We spent half a day exploring this beautiful oratory.   The beautiful basilica, museum, tomb of Saint Andre from Montreal, meditation gardens (my favorite) and blessing room are worth the trip.  The outside is beautiful,  although the front stairs are under construction and that's a fairly prominent part of the building.  The basilica had relics of some type of significance (we aren't sure) where you were not allowed to photograph them.  We all prayed, said prayers for our family and friends (that's you!) and took the time to sit and enjoy Gods grace.  The tile work around the relics signify Jesus's birth and his life from the left to the right.

Meditation Garden video

It filled our hearts that Dylan took so much time to pray (often longer than us) and light a special candle for Gramps to heal after his heart attack last week.

Mom passes the blessing office and first declined but then was blessed by the priest after being tugged back to the blessing room.  I am so glad she did, as his words resonated deeply in her heart.

We all left feeling overjoyed about this amazing visit. 

Brit and Chips

This was our favorite meal! We arrived just in time to pick our spot in this little diner with rave reviews.  It was too hot to sit outside tonight after the hot weather.  We started with a scotch egg deep fried with a relish sauce.  Fish and chips all around.  Mom and Paris had the special with cod and a burgundy Lion Ale. Dylan had a Ben Shaws cream soda and it was DELICIOUS!  Dylan and I split the orange crush batter.  For dessert,  a deep fried "whatever" was ordered.  Its basically whatever chocolate bars they have .  Our options were Snickers, Twix and 3 Musketeers.  We chose the Twix- not awesome.

Back to the hotel for some swimming where mom let me borrow her bathing suit for some photo ops down below!

We were all beat from an awesome trip and after some warm showers, we fell quickly to sleep.  Actually,  mom and Dylan played Wordscape until Dylan fell asleep mid sentence and she laughed so hard!