Niebauer Family: Canadian Adventure

We went up to Quebec for five days to celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary. It was such a fun trip! In Montreal, we saw the old city, Mont Royal, Olympic Park, the Lachine Rapids, and so much more. We also went up to Quebec City one day, another ~3 hours each way in the car, but it was totally worth it! It was such an adorable city and felt like we were in Europe. Quebec is celebrating its 400 anniversary as a city, so there has been a lot of events this summer. On the day we were there, it was battle of the marching bands- we saw at least 3 or 4 of them all across the city.

Montreal is kind of a trip, because pretty much everyone speaks both English and French. So they'll say "Bonjour, Hello" all at once and just wait for you to respond in your language of choice. I started out responding in English, even though I was excited to use my French again, because I felt silly using my broken, African French when clearly I am an English speaker. Well, after Mike encouraged me, I started using French more. It was pretty fun and I didn't have too many people just talk back in English, which was nice.

We did a house-swap with a young, professional couple who live right near downtown Montreal. We had talked and exchanged e-mails a lot, so I felt comfortable with it, even though it was the first time we'd ever done it. It was a great location for us, though we were worried the neighborhood might be a little sketchy, since there was a strip-club across the street. But after driving around Montreal, we discovered there are strip-clubs in almost every neighborhood (we must have seen 10 of them!), so that didn't signal much about our new hood. They live near the canal and the Atwater Market- an open market selling fruits, veggies, meats, breads, and cheeses. Loved it! It was nice to have a really nice apartment to use, (for free!), and I think they enjoyed our home, particularly because they have a dog who loved playing in the yard. The only little annoyance that we faced was when the neighbors decided to have a raging party on Saturday night. So we got to hear thudding music until 6 in the morning. At least I'm already used to sleep disruptions ;)

It was great to spend some good time as a family, and to take Caroline on her first trip across the border. We applied for a passport last week- can't wait to get it! Luckily we just needed a birth certificate for this trip. Look forward to making a little world-traveller out of her!

The Lachine Canal with Atwater market in the distance