Thanksgiving in Montreal, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011

"Bonne Action de grâce", which means “Happy Thanksgiving” in French (we think). But of course, Canadian Thanksgiving was about a month ago. It almost feels like we’re boycotting Thanksgiving by being in Montreal for the day. When we talked about heading toward the Adirondacks this year, Montreal seemed like a logical side trip for Thursday. Everything would be open, and we wouldn’t have to feel guilty about making people work on the holiday.

So, after an early breakfast at the hotel, we left Syracuse. Traffic was very light until we got to Montreal itself, where there were a few traffic jams and crowded narrow highways. It was the same way when we passed around Montreal on our way to Quebec City before. We’re not impressed with Montreal’s traffic. We got to our destination in the city shortly before 1:00. We grabbed a quick lunch at a Burger King, but it was inside a movie theater, and we ended up paying movie theater prices. Still, it was quick, and we were able to start exploring.

We started at the Biodome. It is in a building that was originally built for the 1976 Olympics, but the complex has been repurposed as an indoor animal habitat. In fact, there are four habitats to pass through, and lots of up-close looks at the animals to go with them. First there is an elaborate rainforest with many birds and tapirs to find hiding in the trees. Then there is a Canadian maple forest, with a beaver pond at its centre. Then there is the Gulf of the St. Lawrence with underwater views of the fish and over water views of the birds. Finally there is the subarctic habit for penguins.

All three of the girls seemed to really enjoy the experience at the Biodome. They all said that they wanted to live there. Anna’s favorite animals seemed to be the puffins that were with the penguins. She got some up close views and pictures as we passed through. Naturally, Anna was busy taking many photographs of the animals today. Emma said she liked the porcupines that slept in the branches of the trees. Julie liked the caimans because they seemed much larger than the ones in the Buffalo Zoo. Scott liked the otter, but even though the otter was active and playing, he seemed a little lonely and on his own.

After the Biodome, we went next door to the Olympic Tower (a.k.a. the Montreal Tower). We had seen it from a distance before when we were driving to Quebec, but this time we rode the funicular up the side to the observation deck on the top. The tower is famous for the way it leans and extends out over the stadium that was built for the 1976 Olympics (although the tower wasn’t finished until much later). The stadium was also the home of the Montreal Expos before they moved. It would seem that you could have looked down on what would have been a great view in the stadium, but the architectural purpose of the tower seems to be to hold the guywires that hold up the stadium’s roof. Even though it was so cloudy that it was difficult to see the skyline of downtown Montreal and the hill of Mount Royal beyond, there was still a lot to see in the immediate vicinity. We looked almost straight down on the Biodome and the planetarium that is under construction next door.

It was going on 4:00 by then and starting to get dark, sadly, so we braved the Montreal traffic to find our way to our hotel. The hotel we’re staying in is on René Lévesque Boulevard, right in downtown. After we got to it, we found it almost impossible to find a place to park. We finally found a pay lot a few blocks away. Our suite is like a small apartment. There’s a large living room area, a small kitchen, and two bedrooms.

We walked a few blocks to an upscale shopping center, the Complexe Desjardins, where we had chicken dinners from St. Hubert, a Quebec chain. The girls then visited Père Noël. He had a quite an elaborate village set up there and gave each of the girls a stuffed baby seal. Chinatown was very close to our hotel, so we explored it a little bit on the way back. Many of the stores were closed by then, but the girls did get to go into one. Anna bought chopsticks and Emma bought a small glass snake. She said “Xie xie” to the man and he smiled at her.


P.S. We also just learned that the Packers won again today. 11-0. Go Pack Go!