Montreal
This past week Brian was in Ottawa/Montreal for work, so, since Friday was a PA day for the kids, we thought we would join him and make it a Valentines Day, Brian's birthday, family day weekend.
So on Friday I drove MANY hours with the kids and finally met up with Brian at the hotel. There was swimming that night in a warm pool which the kids loved!
Saturday we went to the Biodome where we walked through replicas of four ecosystems found in the Americas. The building was originally constructed for the 1976 Olympic Games. It hosted both track cycling and judo events.
Here we also saw the penguin exhibit which we nicely tied into Hadley's recent project at school. :)
Easton liked the hands on exhibit where he touched a sea urchin and a starfish.
Following this we went to the insectarium. There were many insects from around the world on display. Lots of butterflies, bees and ants.
There was an ant display that was particularly good with tens of thousands of ants working hard.
We also got to have a ghost mantis walk on our hands. It was so light.
That night we took the kids swimming again.
In the morning we decided to abandon our trip to skate on the Rideau Canal as the temperatures were approx.. -40 with the windchill.
We decided instead to take the kids swimming and then head for lunch at McDonald's. Kids choice.
While there, our van's starter broke. So instead of heading to the nice warm botanical gardens that we had planned, we spent about 5 hours eating lunch, playing in the play place and trying to get our roadside assistance to assist us. (On a day that apparently everyone needed roadside assistance... On a Sunday... before the holiday Family day). Good times.
Easton was tired from the swim and playing and took a nap at a McDonalds table. Hadley was quite patient as she knew the situation was out of our control.
It was after 6 p.m. when we finally had our van towed to a Canadian Tire close to the hotel we had stayed at for the past few nights. We taxi'd from the McDonald's and met Brian at the Canadian Tire, dropped our keys in the drop box, and then went to our hotel.
It was Brian's birthday so we made the most of it and ordered some appetizers and cake in the hotel restaurant. Not exactly how we planned to spend his birthday but we were all together.
Monday we were stuck at the hotel until the van was fixed, so... more swimming. At least the pool was warm. :)
Later in the day we had everything fixed and we headed home.
Not exactly the weekend we were expecting but we were all together.