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Toronto

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Kareem really wanted to visit Toronto as he has an aunt there and an affinity for the city. So we spent a couple days there.

His aunt was so gracious to us. She provided us lodging and tons of food while we were there! It was my first time meeting her, and she was so very kind to me and all of the kids. As a blended family, I am sensitive to how people treat our kids. I am really fortunate that my family views all these kids as family and treats my stepson the same as any of the others- sometimes even better haha- but not every family is the same. So it was appreciated that she was so welcoming and loving toward our kids.

We had kind of a funny snafu at the hotel. We were supposed to have two beds and a sleeper sofa which is what we will typically do. Trio on the bed and Rami on the sleeper sofa. We had two tiny double beds and a chair. So Kareem asked for a roll-away bed. They brought us a crib. Apparently, they didn’t have any roll-away beds and they were completely sold out so we couldn’t switch rooms. Jimmy was like, I can do the crib. So he did, and we made Rami a pallet on the floor. We enjoyed a huge Egyptian feast provided by Kareem’s aunt which was so welcome as we arrived late and had a stressful drive through some weather on the way there. We ended the evening feeling full, happy, and sleepy. The way it’s meant to be.

We visited downtown and had two priorities- the CN Tower and the Royal Ontario Museum. We were able to visit both and both delivered!

When we arrived in the city, we took the subway which, as you now know if you’ve been following my blog, the kids love. When we emerged from the underground, we just happened to be smack dab in the middle of an outdoor art fair!

So we enjoyed that for a while and took a few pictures with the Toronto sign. These city signs were a feature of our trip- we found them in several of the cities we visited.

We made our way to the CN Tower. This was really fun. We were on the tail end of the trip which had been really really great. We were all feeling the high of being together and in new places together, so the experience at the CN Tower was a bit magical. We took lots of pictures of ourselves and had lots of laughs. The views of the city and the lake were gorgeous, and I really enjoyed the views on the elevator ride.

We explored the city a bit. It has less of a cosmopolitan vibe than Ottawa and Montreal. It felt more like Chicago mixed with a splash of London than the other cities we visited.

We did visit A&W and Tim Hortons on our trip- two of Kareem’s top priorities. 🙂 We also went to an absolutely beautiful Chinese buffet with his aunt.

We had lots of choices of museums and attractions in Ontario and Toronto, but I chose the Royal Ontario Museum. It had really fabulous reviews, and we certainly found out why. It was a vast museum full of amazing artifacts from cultures around the world. We had some really important conversations and the kids had great questions.

The natural history on display was spectacular. Jimmy especially enjoyed the prehistoric creatures!

There were lots of kid-friendly and family-friendly exhibits that were hands on. We all enjoyed these Canada-specific exhibits about ecosystems and seasons.

Kareem enjoyed their very large and detailed Egypt collection. Actually, all of us enjoyed this. One of the best I’ve seen.

Rami’s birthday was at the tail end of our trip, so that was part of the appeal of the ROM- they had a special Harry Potter beasts exhibit that presented the magical beasts comparatively with real beasts and their adaptations. Rami is an HP fan, and all the kids LOVED this!

The museum was beautiful and a really great experience. We spent a long time there and probably could have planned another day there for real. The kids did not tire of it and there was a lot to see.

We also planned a night out at Medieval Times for his bday! I am a sucker for Medieval Times, the Stampede- any kind of show like this. Rami was knighted for officially becoming a teenager!! We all had a blast on our last night in Toronto!

Ottawa

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From Montreal, we headed to Ottawa. An absolutely beautiful drive. We actually saw purple rain! Among other things. Glorious.

We only spent one day in Ottawa, and this is somewhere I would very much like to return. Ottawa is the capitol of Canada, and has a very cosmopolitan vibe. Lots of diversity in people and cuisine here. I was really really wanting to spend one extra night here to see the light show on the capitol buildings, but we weren’t able to. Next time!

We started our time in Ottawa at the Royal Canadian Mint. There are a couple of mints in Canada, and this one is where they make the very special coins. It was a really thorough tour. We also got to see them actually making the coins, and throughout the tour, there were displays of historic currency and the story of Canada and its currency. We finally learned what a loon is and the significance of it! We couldn’t take pictures inside the mint, but they had a gift shop with some displays where the tour met and ended. They had a real bar of silver the kids got to try to pick up. They got a kick out of that.

We walked around downtown. This is the capitol of Canada, so we walked by lots of government buildings, including parliament, and embassies as well. There were many many choices for food. We let Lucy choose (I don’t remember why now), and she chose a Cantonese stall in an outdoor food hall. It was absolutely fantastic. The kids all made choices outside their comfort zones, and we all enjoyed a fabulous meal!

We walked around some more afterward and got some treats at a bakery and enjoyed the sights and smells of Ottawa.

There is lots more to explore there. This was kind of a last-minute diversion, so we definitely need to return as a destination. I really liked what I saw in our short viist!

Spot our kids! 😀

Montreal Cuisine

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The last thing about our time in Montréal is probably also one of the best things about Montréal- the food!

We were fortunate to get to try a variety of foods in MontrĂ©al.  Of course, poutine was a priority for us to try.  If you are not familiar, it is fries topped with gravy and cheese curds…. We had a mixed review of the poutine, but I LOVE poutine so I was excited.  Some of that enthusiasm rubbed off on two boys, but the others weren’t fans. 

Of course, as I mentioned, we were budget conscious.  So we didn’t eat out all the time.  We visited the market and bought some fresh fruits and vegetables as well as freshly baked breads and pastries for breakfasts.  We visited a supermarket to stock up on some snacks. We also ended up staying in kind of a party area of town that had lots of pubs and restaurants.  Our American family of six was somewhat of a novelty in some of the places we went to, and we ended up getting some deals just on our good looks and charm.  😉 

That’s a coca cola, promise.

We also did not eat in the most popular touristy areas if possible.  This was for budget purposes because places in these areas are usually more expensive, but it was also just to get a sense of the culture of the life in this city.  We went to a small local bakery/cafe where the lady working there was just so impressed with the kids trying to speak French and the size of our family.  She gave all of them little cookies and pastries to try.  I think she just wanted to her them say “merci” and it was well-appreciated!

We tried some crepes one morning for breakfast in a really cute and funky cafĂ© near our stay on our last morning in MontrĂ©al.  This meal definitely hit it out of the park for everybody!

We did try some Canadian fast-food as well, but not so much in Montréal.  So more on that later!

Ville Time in Montréal

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As a family, we do a lot of state and national parks, camping, hiking…  We don’t always visit cities.  First of all, we have a penchant for the outdoor adventures.  But also, we have a large family and cities are expensive.  So from a practical sense, we just don’t always choose cities.  When we do, we try to take them to cities that are somewhat different from our own.  We also are choosey about what we do when we are there.  Of course, we are budget-conscious.  But also we want to get the biggest bang for our buck in terms of culture.  What are the things we want our kids to learn and experience being somewhere different?  MontrĂ©al was no exception.

First of all, this was our first trip as a family of six to another country.  So we definitely tried to give them a sense of the Eastern part of Canada.  MontrĂ©al is very unique.  They speak another language and culturally the lifestyle is different as well.  You really do get a cosmopolitan, European, French-y vibe in MontrĂ©al, so we definitely wanted to play that up.  We also always use public transportation if possible when we are in the cities to help our kids get a sense of that as well since our own city doesn’t have as integrated public transportation as many others. We stayed in a small cozy place in the city near a subway station so we would have quick access to public transport. We had a balcony, and the kids really enjoyed this. We also, apparently, stayed in a party area so there were lots of restaurants nearby (more on food later!).

We rode the city bus and the metro in MontrĂ©al.  This was thrilling for all of them!  Nick and Lucy have lived experience with subways in other cities, but Nick and Rami were new to this.  The sights and sounds were very exciting to them, and we taught them how to use the map and let them figure out the routes when we could. 

It didn’t look like this most of the time. Most of our trips, the bus was super crowded.

We also took a day to just enjoy the city.  Our visit to the Parc Olympique was not a whole day event.  We took just a part of the morning doing that.  So we decided to take the rest of the day to enjoy MontrĂ©al.  We went to the MarchĂ© Jean-Talon which is a famous open-air market in the city.  The sellers were so kind to our kids.  Many of them did not have great English, and so it was fun to get to practice our French.  We encouraged our kids to say bonjour and merci throughout.  They tried to read the signs and figure out words for the fruits and vegetables, among other things.  We had lunch at the market and bought some fruits and things for later in our day.

We then took the city bus to a park.  We climbed a hill and enjoyed a playground.  There were many kids around- we were not sure if it was school or camp.  But the kids enjoyed playing here for a long time. 

We had a snack in the sunshine and then headed over to a small lake where we rented a couple of boats and paddled around.  We were the only people on the lake.  We had girls in one boat and the boys in the other.  We tried to compete!  The girl boat had the easiest start but a disappointing finish.  The boys had some infighting, but ultimately gave up paddling and made Kareem do it.  😀  We had a delightful time on the water!  In the wintertime, Beaver Lake is used as an ice rink!  We went inside and saw where they rent the skates and there was a little cafĂ© in there as well.

We visited Parc Jean-Drapeau on the St. Helen’s Island in the Saint Lawrence River to close our evening.  I had heard that the sunset from here is especially nice with the city in the west and the sun setting behind it.  They weren’t lying- it was spectacular!  We explored the park before the sunset.  We skipped the Biosphere, but did take some pictures around it. 

While taking pictures, we had a very nice Québecois cyclist stop to offer to help us.  He did not speak English really at all, and I was glad I was able to understand him and use my French.  He complimented me on my French which always feels good, even after all this time.  The Canadian accent is quite different, so I was pleased that I was able to communicate with him with ease.  He told us about a fireworks show off the bridge and a number of other cool things about Montréal. 

We sat by the river and just enjoyed the waves and the sunset and the togetherness.  It was a great evening in Montréal. We really lucked out with the weather. They had been calling for rain for our whole trip there. We got one downpour and we happened to be inside a museum for it. The rest of our few days there were absolutely gorgeous.

The next morning, we ascended Mont Royal, the “mountain” or hill for which Montreal is named. It was very cool because we had heard lots about it through our times in museums in Montreal and the origin of the city. We had a lovely view of the city for saying au revoir to Montreal!

Montreal Olympic Park- Parc Olympique

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MontrĂ©al Olympic Park was a big draw for us as we are a whole family of Olympic fans!  We weren’t sure what all there was to see or do, but we knew we needed to be there on our visit.

First of all, the Olympic park is humongous.  Be prepared for this!  There are also many partner attractions nearby and not so nearby related to the Olympic park. 

MontrĂ©al hosted the Olympics in 1976.  I know there was some controversy surrounding it.  MontrĂ©al was an underdog for the host, but did win the selection as host.  The city reportedly lost $1.5 billion dollars hosting it, supposedly due to poor planning and corruption.  Twenty-nine nations, mostly African, boycotted the MontrĂ©al games because they refused to ban New Zealand after the New Zealand national rugby team had toured South Africa earlier that year in defiance of the UN call for a sporting embargo. 

But anyway, in 2022, upon our visit, our kids were unaware of any of that history, and were able to just be thrilled about being in a place that hosted the Olympics! 

We started by walking through the Esplanade and taking it all in.  Unfortunately, the MontrĂ©al Tower was closed for renovations, but it was still an amazing structure to view from the outside and inside.  We just couldn’t go up.  Next time!

We visited the Olympic Stadium- what an impressive place!  We also visited Saputo Stadium where the MontrĂ©al Impact major league soccer team plays. 

The most exciting thing for us, I think, was visiting the Sports Centre.  This is a multi-sports complex that includes a gym, pools, and fitness rooms.  We considered coming back to swim there as it is open for public swim sometimes!  We got to watch some swimming competition happening, as well as some martial arts going on.  The kids were excited to sit in the stands. Very cool!

Of course, we really enjoyed the Olympic rings everywhere. 

A fun stop in Montréal!

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