A few weeks spent in the car!
It seems like forever since I posted anything on the blog. We have been away for two full weeks and busy with wedding stuff, now I feel settled enough to get some documenting done.
We traveled this month to Canada, mostly because of the current currency exchange, but also because they are such a bike friendly country. We visited Montreal, then drove to Burlington, VA, then back to Canada to see Ottawa.
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| This rainbow showed up from no where on our road trip from hell. |
We started our journey on Friday, June 20 at 8:00 am sharp. Well, that is when Dave said he would like to leave by, but true to form we left at 8:10, because we are always 10 mins behind schedule. I should clarify, I am always 10 mins behind schedule. We proceeded to drive to Montreal and can I say the ride from Hell ensued. We were stuck on the 401 for 4 full hours, sometimes stopped, but mostly traveling at a 10 mph speed. It was grueling. Dave mentioned that if we had left on time maybe we wouldn’t be stuck…you can guess how that went over 🙂
Canada was celebrating their 150 years of statehood and everyone wanted to travel to the Toronto for the fire works and festivities, I can’t blame them.
We finally arrived in Montreal just in time for bed. Yup, we finally pulled into the hotel at 10:30 pm! after driving and cursing Things were a little heated in our SUV. 🙂
Even though it was late, we had to walk around Old Montreal. The Marriott Hotel is situated only one block away from the beautiful Rue St. Paul and the sites and sounds are just magical especially at night. So many people were out walking, drinking, conversing, shopping- many stores stayed open late for the celebration weekend. We walked around holding hands and being grateful that we made it safely without killing each other.
On Saturday we ran early, 4 miles around the harbor then biked most of the day, 30 miles. We ate lunch at a wonderful market and bought some beer for the hotel for later. Dinner was at the hotel, concierge lounge, and then we took a chance on a very popular burlesques show the concierge told us about. OMG, I was amazed at the comfort level of the girls. I mean these are moms, who are not professional dancers, and they are all out there dancing and strutting their stuff. I could never do that, not even for lots of money. Needless to say, we had a great time. The audience was clapping and hollering and the girls were just so much fun- I guess it’s because it’s not a strip show and certainly not nude dancing, instead it’s just a group of women, with imperfect bodies who were nonthreatening, and therefore- I felt comfortable…and I should say that I am against strip clubs (I feel they are demoralizing to women), but this type of show was based on fun and art. I loved it and would definitively go again.
On Sunday we enjoyed the Montreal Jazz Fest and listened to some great artists. We also sipped a Lefte Brown beer while we walked around Katherine Street and listened to street music. A great evening.
Monday morning found us on the road again, we took off mid morning to go to Burlington, Vermont.
I had never been to Vermont, Dave was there once before. Burlington is a college town similar to Ann Arbor here in Michigan, although on a smaller scale. The main street was full of shopping and great restaurants to choose from. We settled on eating dinner at the Vermont Brewing Company. Food was delicious, beer was lackluster. In the evening we waited for the fireworks show and marveled at the sunset. 
Tuesday we biked 35 miles on the Lake Champlain Trail all the way to end. It was the most beautiful trail I have ever biked. Not only was most of it dirt trail, not road, but Lake Champlain is crystal clear. From the trail you can see New York, Vermont and Canada.
After our bike ride we decided to take a boat ride on Lake Champlain over to New York. It was so relaxing and we needed the down time to sit, feel the sun on our face, and be present.
We ran daily and ate well, what always does us in is the craft beer. Ottawa has plenty of good craft beer 🙂
Glad to be back home. Anxious to celebrate Olivia soon as she prepares to get married!
More on that later 🙂
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