A Tourist In My Own City

I woke up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 this morning so we could get everything together for our visit to the Montreal Biodome. It was Montreal's free museum day so you can only imagine what the line-ups were like! Surprisingly the HUGE line to get into the museum only took about a half an hour. However once we were inside the Biodome it was a whole different story. I have never met so many rude, pushy people before. Every time I went to take one step with the stroller another person would butt in front of me and I would be stopped dead in my tracks. By the time we made it to the penguins I had enough of all disrespectful people. On a positive note the animals were adorable! Bulldozer spotted a monkey swinging from a tree and squealed "eh eh eh" (you know the sound that monkey's make!) We also saw a sloth high up in a tree, seagulls (seriously?) and penguins that kept posing for pictures! My absolute favorite animals were the river otter and the puffins. This one little guy (a chubby puffin that I named "Rollie") kept swimming into this jet stream only to be pushed back out by the current, sometimes belly-side up! So comical... Even though the huge amount of people aggravated me (although what do you expect when it's free museum day?) I had an amazing time and it was all worth it to see the joy on Bulldozer's face! His smile lit up the room. We ended our tour by buying him a plastic snake (now that's good parenting considering I am TERRIFIED of snakes!) and a little stuffed penguin.

After the Biodome we headed downtown and went out for breakfast/lunch at a diner. Next in line was the Montreal history museum which probably again would have been more enjoyable had there been less people. The problem was that every time I would start to read one fact sheet a clog up of people would prevent me from moving on to the next one. So the actual Montreal history portion on the first floor was somewhat of a blur, I basically looked at the pictures and then moved up to the less busy second and third floors. The second floor was my absolute favorite with artifacts (everything from old cigarette boxes to a wringer washing machine) and information about the companies that made them, etc... The third floor was a dedication to Dr. Norman Bethune and the impression that he made on Montreal. I have to admit that by the time we reached the third floor I had lost interest in the museum because I was getting tired. I have to go back another time to really enjoy the experience, this time without kids and not on Montreal's free museum day!

After leaving the Montreal history museum we caught a bit of the international street festival and dined on coconut juice, mangoes and sugar cane. Mmmm... Since I am such a suck I felt my pride swell for our city and I was overcome with emotion at one point. I love the city that I live in!

Last but not least, actually one of my favorite attractions, was the Notre Dame Basilica. The stained glass windows were GORGEOUS, breathtaking actually. The woodwork was rich and in such great amounts, I loved it! Finally after Bulldozer decided that the Church was really actually quite scary we left to go home. After ten hours of being on our feet you can only imagine that the kids had enough and we were exhausted. It was back home after an absolutely amazing day as a tourist in my own city.