twentyventi: Our Annual Trip to Montreal

In July we took our annual vacation to Montreal, with a couple stops along the way. We've made the trek to that gem of a city nearly every year since we honeymooned there seven years ago - and that little piece of history, among so many other reasons, is why Montreal will always hold a special place in our hearts. It's the place where the story of us began, where we visited when Ramona was still just an unknown flutter inside of me - and now we continue to revisit and create more memories as our little family grows together.

And you know how there are people who will sit you down and make you look through their 900 vacation photos, and you're bored to tears after the first five? This is what this is. This is me showing you my too-many vacation photos. You're welcome.

Lavender Farm

For the first day of travel, we decided to slowly make our way east through Ontario, and spend one night in Ottawa before heading to Quebec. As we've learned with travel over the years, our days go best with a little flexibility. An outline of what we would like to do, with a whole lot of wiggle room for spontaneous adventure or detours where we never end up where we intended to go. Though this year we really didn't plan much, aside from visiting a couple friends. We find that little adventures always find us when we're open to them.

Right about the time that Ramona was getting grumpy, and we were all ready to stretch our legs, I looked up a lavender farm we had visited last year on our weekend trip to Prince Edward County - and it was only ten minutes away. We immediately rerouted. There we had a quick little jaunt, watched honey bees, took a couple dozen photos, sipped on lavender lemonade (probably one of my favourite photos of Ramona ever below), and hopped back into the car towards the beach.

Same conclusion as last year - when we have some land, I really, really, really want a lavender field.

Sandbanks Provincial Park

After the lavender fields, we headed down to Sandbanks Provincial Park. We had such a lovely time there last year, and Ramona is such a sand and water baby, that we knew we couldn't drive past the area without making a stop.

Ottawa/Gatineau

Our first visit to Ottawa was less than 24 hours - we basically slept in our Airbnb, then checked out bright and early to meet my longtime online friend, Danielle, at the Canada 150 Mosaicultures exhibit in Gatineau. I tend to have some anxiety about meeting new people, but the connection was so instant, like reuniting with an old friend. We had such a lovely day together at the exhibit and then at the Children's Museum that I hardly took any photos until it was time for us to part ways.

A farewell to our short but sweet visit to Ottawa, from across the Ottawa river.

Montreal

We chose our Airbnb in the Noveau-Rosemont area of Montreal because it was within walking distance of the The Big O at the Olympic Stadium (which is an obligatory stop each time we visit). We also brought Ramona's tricycle along expressly for this purpose. She had the best time imitating her papa, rolling that little bike as high as she could up the sides of the tunnel, racing along beside him as fast as her legs could take her.

I felt like I was watching the scene in a movie where the cool guys walk in slow motion towards the camera (and one of the cool guys stops to scratch her nose). Love these two so much.

We visited our longtime friends Crissy and Tory in their Junior Versus studio, and went for a late lunch and ice cream at Atwater Market. I'm always so inspired by how their creativity and originality fills the spaces that they use.

A gorgeous evening walk in the Nouveau-Rosemont area where we were staying - with ivy walls for me, and rocks for her to fill her pockets with. We try to stay in a new area every time we visit Montreal - aside from the Plateau (where we stayed on our honeymoon), this is our new favourite.

This photo. There are no words. That sass.

Also on the list of things I want when we have our own land - ivy ivy ivy!

We spent our last day in Montreal in Old Port (Vieux Montreal), mostly because I wanted to see Ramona squeeze through those hedges at the museum again.

She's a little nervous around horses (because size and volume), but was so fascinated by the horse-drawn carriages carrying tourists around the cobblestone streets.