Oh Canada

Traveling around Quebec was much harder than I anticipated due to the language barrier. Studying Spanish for 8 years did very little in a city where the parking meters’ “Translate to English” buttons were broken. However we managed and used our phones as translators. Parking is very cheap compared to cities in the North East. Overnight parking for $8, can’t beat that! (1 Canadian Dollar is .82 US cents.) Arriving a little before sunset, we were able to explore the city on our bikes getting to cover more ground. However the historic Old Quebec is pretty small so it can be explored walking without any problem. For dinner we tried some poutine and I had french onion soup, I try to make an effort to eat like the surrounding culture, but there was no way I was trying snails. Next morning we woke up early and found a small coffee shop, we sat outside eating our maple muffins and sipping the coffee I had missed for the last few days. I will surely detox from my morning coffee sometime soon (hopefully), the morning headaches are getting old. As we were sitting at 6:30 in the morning, there was an Eddie Bauer photo shoot going on, we were surprised since the models looked like they’ve never even pooped in the woods before. We blew them off as posers. Amped up from our coffee we decided to say goodbye to the beautiful Quebec and make the trek to Montreal.

From a distance we could already see Montreal made Quebec City look like a town. Our frustration in big cities typically comes from parking the big rig, who we have named “De Von” like “The Van” but now say it with an accent. Most cities have parking garages and very limited parking for the massive van. Once we parked we traveled around Old Port, had lunch, and went to find the Jean Talon market. Parking in a 15 minute only spot we rushed to see as much as we could. Convincing a smoothie cashier to take US dollars since we were running out of time. Montreal was a little too populated for our liking. A nice city with I’m sure much to explore, we just get overwhelmed and have to book it out of there and head for the woods. So we retreated to a providential park, Charleston Lake where we camped. It was half way from Montreal and Toronto and to our surprise it had showers! I did a Tiger Woods arm swing when I saw that we didn’t have to put in coins, because well, we still didn’t have any Canadian money. Taking a shower at night and in the morning was a gift, I needed to get the sticky city germs off me.

Traveling to Toronto meant listening to Drake for a few hours and having to see the CN Tower so Zack could take pictures. He kept saying “I wonder if Drake is up there right now.” I couldn’t even get myself to respond. (For those who do not understand, Drake is a rapper and he has an album cover of him sitting on the CN Tower). We went to the St. Lawrence Farmers market which was pretty amazing. We had gyros and like that wasn’t enough Zack also had a slow roasted brisket sandwich. We got two chocolate croissants and I took advantage of having the option to get coffee.

Niagara Falls was a short hour and a half away, it felt like nothing. We found $4 all day parking and were amazed by the powerful force but peaceful beauty of the falls. Walking around for a few hours Zack had mentioned that we should go take a boat into the falls. I’m so happy we did. It was pure happiness and bliss as we were sprinkled by the falls. We jumped around taking pictures and video, yelling and screaming when we would get soaked by a gust of wind smacking us with mist. Feeling touristy we ate at Margaritaville taking our time waiting for the falls to illuminate.

Nighttime Pictures! Tripods in hand we stayed out until 11 just taking the most epic shots of the constantly changing colors of the falls. We headed back to our little house and slept with smiles on our faces. So happy, so in love. I felt and continue to feel so blessed to have my best friend on this trip with me. Back into the US of A when we travel 7 hours to Michigan.