Acadia National Park: Day 1

Highlights from the day:
-We love our 1 room cottage and are so happy that Levi's pack-n-play fits into the bathroom. He has slept so well!
-We were able to make our own breakfast because we have a kitchenette
-We went to the top of Cadillac mtn, the highest point on the eastern sea-board and it is said to be the place where you can see the sun rise there before any one else in the US
-We picked wild blueberries and ate them:) They're all over Acadia National park
-We walked around Jordan pond, which was no pond at all. This wonderful family excursion turned into a nightmare. We thought it was a 1.5 mile hike around the lake, but somehow we got onto a 3.2 mile path and it started POURING rain half-way around. We had no umbrella and nothing to cover Levi up with. I felt horrible. Nick and I were praying that some of the many people with multiple umbrellas would have mercy on us and give us theirs, mainly since our son was soaked and HYSTERICAL. We hoped in vain:( We survived but we have only happy pictures before the rain because we weren't really in photo-moods once it started pouring.
-We all had a nice nap in our cottage after we dried off!
-We went into town and explored the cute town of Bar Harbor.
-We got lobster, corn on the cob and crab to go and ate it in our cottage. I've never had lobster before...it was delicious!

On top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia

Goofing around

Still hiking around on top of Cadillac Mountain

Fog-covered island

so tasty!

Happy before the torrential downpour. Parent fail!

Jordan's-not-so-much-pond

Beginning the doomed hike

Calm before the storm

Happy boy after nap time and dry clothes

Panorama of Bar Harbor

Lobster dinner in our cottage

Quebec, Quebec

We had a great time exploring Quebec city! It's a beautiful town and truly has a very European feel to it! Made me excited to someday explore Europe with Nick!

Highlights of our 2.5 days in Quebec:
-Explored Old Quebec
-Visit Chateau Frontenac ( a beautiful old hotel overlooking the St. Lawrence river)
-Toured the Notre Dame basilica, which is supposedly the oldest catholic church in Canada
-Toured the Notre Dame-des-Victoires, a beautiful little church which was first built in 1687
-Ate great food, even with our Levi who doesn't prefer restaurants!
-We had "Poutine" for the first time...which is fried potatoes, gravy and cheese curds on top...yes, our diet is lacking on this trip!
-We met some fellow Ann Arbor-ites on the streets of Old town...They both work for the University of MI hospital...small world!
-Levi learned how to "Neigh...." like a horse because there were so many horse-drawn carriages
-We loved our hotel. Levi didn't fit in the bathroom so we had some early mornings, but it was very cool and had an awesome breakfast. They even made an egg and sausage for Levi each morning
-We enjoyed watching many street performers who seemed to all have a knack for fire juggling.
-On our last day, we visited the Montmorency waterfalls and we all climbed hundreds, I mean hundreds, of steps to get to the top lookout. It was beautiful

Our hotel room at the Auberge Le Vincent

Poutine with yummy sandwich

Chateau Frontenac Hotel

In front of St. Lawrence river

Levi gazing into the river

Streets of Old Quebec

Levi thought this chair was the coolest. It's a chair for the speaker of Parliament

Such cute streets in Old town

A mural of the many seasons and faces of Old Quebec

Just for fun!

Old church in the lower town of Old Quebec

Montmorency falls

Belly shot at Montmorency falls- 27.5 weeks

The stairs we climbed! Nick did it with Levi on his back and I did it with babe in the belly! So proud:)

Nick with his cool popped collar and Levi is out!

Levi discovered a new love for playing in dirt/rocks on this trip

Notre Dame Basilica of Old Quebec

Artists' alley

Toronto and Montreal:

I wanted to post a brief update with pictures on our first few days! It's been a really nice time of exploring new cities!
Tuesday morning, we woke up and spent the morning and early afternoon in Toronto. It's a huge city and reminds me so much of NYC. It's so fast-paced and definitely not a place you want to be pushing around a stroller with a 16 month old in it! Levi slept great in our hotel bathroom and we woke up early and took a train into the city.

Since we had limited time, we split up. Nick took Levi to the "Hockey Hall of Fame"---it was Levi's request of course;) They had a great time checking out the exhibits and even got a picture with the Stanley Cup. This was the only thing Nick wanted to do in Toronto...besides going to "Hey, Meatball". Since I had no interest in spending $ on the hockey hall of fame, Nick let me have a  little break. I walked down to the Toronto harbor and literally spread a blanket down on grass and laid down in the sun. It was marvelous! :) It was such a beautiful day with blue sky and I enjoyed the quiet time:) Then, I walked for about 45 minutes around the city before meeting Nick, Levi and Nick's friend, Simon for lunch at a Thai restaurant. At lunch, I realized that I had NO DIAPERS for Levi (Mommy fail!) He had officially leaked through his clothes and I had nothing for him to change into (Second Mommy fail). Let me just say that this 6 month preggo body is STILL sore from that walk around the city in flip-flops! It was nice but my body feels like it's 60 years old. We have done SO MUCH WALKING already! After lunch, we had to make our way back to our car and out of the city, which took us an extra 1.5 hours with traffic! eek.

We arrived that night at 10:30pm in Montreal after taking 7.5 hours on a trip which was supposed to only take 5.5 hours. I think this is an appropriate spot to mention that when we planned this trip, we had a sweet, calm, flexible, easy-going 12-13 month old baby boy. Now that we are actually on this trip, we have discovered that he has gone through quite the transition! It's amazing....he's right on track, developmentally. He loves to say "No, No, NO!" and scream at an octave that stings your ears! He loves to throw everything that you give to him....he refuses to sit still or let you hold him and he babbles in public places, like a nice restaurant....at a screaming level! At dinner tonight, an older couple got up an moved after sitting next to us for about 20 minutes. Nick tried to comfort me fears that they were running from our very loud toddler by saying, hey..."maybe, they're cold!" (we were outside). Perhaps they were cold, but it made me realize that we have officially hit that stage where it's simply easier to just stay home....the public seems to only appreciate the "cuteness" of a toddler for so long. Anyways, we only have about 2 more days where we will be traveling then we will be able to be in a spot where we can cook our own meals and have space for Levi to get all of his energy out...I must say, I'm looking forward to that! :)

So, on to Montreal...it was a great city....a little dirty and "rough", but we're used to that, having come from Detroit;) We spent Wednesday morning walking around the "Old town". We walked about 20 minutes from our hotel to get to old town and had to walk down Rue St. Denis. This street had a lot going on and seemed like it problem becomes pretty wild in the evening hours.Once we got to Old town, we went to the Notre Dame Basilica. It was a beautiful cathedral. We had a great time in the square right outside the church, listening to an awesome band play…Levi had fun dancing.

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel for nap time and then went back out in the afternoon to see the “Old port and clock tower” and have dinner on the Rue St. Paul…which was a lovely little street with lots of cafés and shops. We even got a nutella crepe to-go to enjoy back at the hotel once Levi went to sleep. We were bummed earlier in the day when our hotel manager told us about a big fireworks show that was happening at 10pm…we realized that there was no way we were going to take Levi back out at night to see the show. However, we were able to see the fireworks from our hotel room! It was a great way to end the evening.

Thursday morning, we woke up and went to the Montreal Botanical Gardens…besides the admission cost, this was a lovely thing to do! They have beautiful plant/flower sculptures by various artists across the world. We will surely remember this forever because Nick was sure to get multiple shots of all 48 exhibits! I will share just a few of the best pictures and spare you the restJ Walking through this exhibit reinforced the fact that we have very different ideas about picture taking. I hate pictures without people in them and Nick hates posing for pictures! Oh, the compromises of marriage…

Anyways, this is getting way long…so more to come later from Quebec City!
Pictures:

Levi's 1st train ride

Me basking in the sunlight at Toronto's harbor

Having fun in Montreal

Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal

Preggo at the alter!

view from water in of Montreal

Water's edge in Montreal

Trying to make Levi happy at his least favorite place...a restaurant!

Nick's Quebec brewed beer

Levi's first time on the metro in Montreal

Montreal Botanical Gardens

this was my favorite

this one was pretty awesome!

finally, a family pic where we are all looking! :)