Montreal

I'll save our short story on not being able to be rid of "the stink of parenting" and focus on the good parts of Montreal ... where Elliot came down with the worst cold to date. She did get her passport stamped for the first time. And in an unpredictable turn of events, did not eat 1 thing while there - must have something against Canadian food!


Elliot & Daddy in Park Du Monde


Elliot playing with her Poutine. When in Montreal, one must eat poutine ... basically big bowl of gravy fries with cheese curds. We found our hot spot, Frit Alor, on chowhound.com, of course.


Ben followed it up with a big cappacino on St. Laurent Street while we waited to check into our hotel.

We, Elliot especially, loved the view from our hotel room. The hill in the background is Park Du Monde, where the first photo was taken above.



Look at the rainbow in the sky while we shopped!
Then it was on to the Biodome ... many bad Pauly Shore movie comments made while there. Elliot & Ben are in a waterfall. Then Elliot took to the prairie dog play area and popped up behind the glass.





When in Montreal, one must also try their bagels. Distinctly different than NY bagels. Boiled in honey & flattened out a bit. There is fierce competition between Fairmount Bagels (above) and St. Viatuer, which we did not try. We did however stop back in Vermont on the drive home ...right before Elliot exploded, and visited Cider Hollow Mill. Yum...and Elliot started eating again once we hit the States.

Vermont en Route to Montreal

We hit the road for a long weekend to Montreal and were treated to some great fall foliage along the way. We stayed the night in Essex Junction, VT, and through some lucky fate on Priceline wound up staying at the Inn at Essex, which is the home of the New England Culinary Institute. How perfect for us! Before we checked in, we checked out the Ben & Jerry's factory tour and had a yummy time.

Bismarks & Auntie Kassi

Auntie Kassi came to visit and all we have are these stinkin' photos. We had an awesome excursion to Salem, MA, where we saw witches and a street fair and a huge boat called the Friendship. We ate lunch on the pier looking at the boat. Pumpkins and fall colors were everywhere. We also went to dinner in Beacon Hill with Auntie Kassi. Do we have any pictures of any of this? No! We have a full chronicle of Elliot and us trying our first Bismarcks. I read about them on Chowhound.com on our way to Salem, so we had to stop. Basically like a lobster roll, but replace the hot dog bun with donut and the lobster with creamy yummy filling. It was a good sweet kick-off to the day trip.

Jam-packed Weekend with Grandpa

Picking pumpkins at Parlee Farms


Below, Elliot is having a long talk with Grandpa while walking in the orchard.


Then we pose for a family photo ...


Then Elliot drives Ben into the trees and supervises the picking from the top.


Then Grandpa slips her a bite of her first apple in non-pureed form.



Then she became an apple-eating fiend and of about 20 pictures in the Orchard, an apple is in her mouth for 15 of them.




We also took a ferry to the Boston Harbor Islands to see the huge regatta at George's Island.


Elliot & Grandpa have an "I'm King of the World" moment.

On the island, near Fort Warren, Elliot & Grandpa set of on another chat.

I thought this was a regatta ... where are all the sailboats? No worries though, it was 70s and sunny and gorgeous.




Back on the pier, we saw this boy reel in his fishing line ... with a starfish on the end of it!


On the way home after a quick trip to the aquarium (we are sparing you more fishie photos), we went to Union Square in Somerville and stopped in on the Fluff Marshmallow Festival. It was 90 years ago on this spot that Marshmallow Fluff was invented. How could we not stop? Though the general assessment was that there was not enough Fluff on the scene and we were bait and switched since there was NO Flufficino being served anywhere, and we could have used a coffee!




Lounging it up at Baby Loves Disco. There are NO cute photos of ours from this event, but here is Elliot having a cookie in the VIP lounge and then commandeering a hula hoop on the emptying dance floor as the party wore down.



And finally, walking a mile in Grandpa's shoes. Elliot loves shoes and now tries them on and trods around everywhere. Grandpa's sneakers were a big hit!