Yesterday, my parents came to town for a family day of fun!

Summer, in Montréal can be a little tricky… We have bad car traffic to start with, but during the summer months, it gets worse for many reasons. The city takes advantage of the nice weather to make most of the construction work, blocking many streets in the process.

There are some main streets that are closed to cars during summer, to give pederstrians a better downtown experience… And all the festivals overlapping over one another, giving the city a constant partying look.

This weekend, on top of all that, we had the first Montréal FE Grand Prix (electric race cars competing in the center of the city…

Talking about a puzzle for car drivers would be kind of laughing at them. It is a nightmare to drive around town this past couple of days, so we invited my parents to come and park their pick up truck near my apartment, and we took the subway to get to the Vieux port…

Yeah, I know, the Old Port again… But there’s so much to do there… I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!

My brother and his boyfriend were late, so we walked straight to St-Paul street, possibly the most touristic street in Old Montréal. You’ve seen Place d’Armes Square before, but not in the peak of summer, so here it is, when foreigners and locals invade the heart of town all at once:

Ok, maybe not that impressing yet, but you’ll see a little later how crowded it was!

Walking along St-Paul street, I decided to pause to take the picture of a backstreet… I like backstreets, and Old Montréal’s are even more special, with their high stone walls alleys. There were some tourists at the other end of the street, and my mom thought it was very funny that they were taking our picture, while I took one them. She started waving around, and we heard a loud noise from the other end… Mom obviously found a tourist matching her uncontainable friendliness…

We stopped by a must-see boutique if you come here, and want to take back souvenirs that are really worth it and very original… The Quebec Craft Council, (Métiers d’Arts du Québec) is an association promoting artists from around Québec, and you can find all sorts of things… Jewelry, paintings, sculptures, toys, clothing… Name it, they have it.

I fell in love with a turquoise hand made silk scarf, that had Pippa’s name written on it. I’d show you, but I forgot to take a picture before it was wrapped at the cashier… Anyway, the perfect gift to bring along on a backpack trip, being weightless, and taking close to no space at all in my bag!

My brother caught up with us as we came out of the shop, and we walked to the Old Port together… You have to be prepared to see anything on a fine Saturday afternoon, walking on St-Paul street, and we were lucky enough to see the very famous Stanley Cup!!

(ok, actually hockey fans that had decorated a beer keg, but still…. )

 

We wanted to give our parents the choice of activities, but it is hard to choose, with all the choices… You can decide to spend a lazy afternoon, getting a great tan either lying in the nice grass of the parks, having a gellato, or at the beach with a cold beer. Or go for an exciting time, going zip-lining, or exploring an inside maze…

You can rent a bike, a Segway, a pedal boat or take the little train that runs along the whole port… Ok, that’s really meant for children, but you can ride it too if you feel like it!

And there are pretty much as many indoor activities than things you can choose to do outside…

So we decided to go see the foodtrucks first, and tempt our appetite.

As you can see, there’s a lot of choice, and sometimes, too much choice leads to confusion… Even though I strongly recommended trying Dic Ann’s very special burgers (the restaurant is one of Montréal’s institutions, it’s been running for over 60 years!), we ended up just walking in front of the many food trucks, and we went looking for something else to do…

We spent a long time simply walking along the St-Lawrence, enjoying the park behind the Bonsecours Terrace…

 

And at last, mom decided what she’d like to do… She wanted to try the zip-line! We were so surprised, that we rushed to the pink tower right away, before she changed her mind!!

I have videos of mom and dad sliding along the long line over the lake and to the other end, but WordPress won’t allow me to put videos, so, you’ll just have to imagine that part… It was pretty awesome!

While I was waiting for them to slide over my head… A man came out of nowhere to talk to me. That happens to me all the time! Sometimes I wonder if I am wearing a “Please talk to me!” t-shirt… People just pick me, in a crowd, when they need to share totally random information. So… The man pointed out that we could see the moon through the big wheel, which was true, and very interesting to me!

After that, everybody agreed that it was time to grab a bite…

Unfortunately, the majority prefered cool air over cool food, so we went to the indoor food fair. Not that I don’t recommend it, but the Dic Ann’s food truck was just a few minutes away… Dang!

Next, mom and dad agreed on a less stressing activity, and we headed to the IMAX theater to watch “Predators 3D”.

Ok, don’t choke here… I know I am against selfies in general, but I like this one, and I think our IMAX glasses provide just enough anonymity.

We learnt a whole lot of stuff about predators, small and huge, from all around the world… The main lessons I learnt were:

• It is tiring being a leopard!
• It is difficult to find a small enough prey when you are a mini kameleon!
• It absolutely sucks to be a flying fish!
• If you ever feel lonely, try calling a Polar bear, he might make you feel better!

 

Well… that’s about it…  Oh no, wait! I still have a few random shots, I just thought were fun…

Oh, and I mentionned the crowd earlier, didn’t I?

 

Well… Now we’re done for the day’s tour. I hope you enjoyed your afternoon!