This past weekend I was invited to a Liberty Fund conference at the swanky Hotel Nelligan in Old City Montreal. Since I was going to be holed up in a conference room with a bunch of academics talking about nationalism and secession (a sore subject in French Quebec, which wants to secede from Canada), my crew decided to come along and enjoy the hotel and its neighborhood.
They started every morning at a local patisserie, where Austin enjoyed croissants and chocolatine pastries and Gavin gorged himself on baguettes.
Lucy still refuses to try French breads and pastries, but she willingly joins in drinking family-sized cups of Chocolat au Chaud.
The first day was rather rainy but these kids are Vermonters -- always prepared for any weather!
Austin and the kids went on a boat cruise down the St. Lawrence River. The rain spoiled the views somewhat but they had a great time anyway.
When it cleared up they walked around and found their favorite entertainment: a street performer.
Who wants to help with the next part of his act? Lucy does!
She was awesome and got a huge round of applause. (I hope this doesn't give her any career ideas.)
I joined the family in visiting some amazing Montreal churches, like the Basilica of Notre Dame.
I think Lucy takes after her Gram. As soon as we got in the building, she snatched the camera and photographed EVERYTHING. All of these pictures are hers.
We also visited the smaller pilgrimage chapel of Notre Dame de Bonsecours. It is notable for the models of ships hanging from the ceiling which, for some unaccountable reason, Lucy actually didn't photograph.
Lucy DID get a nice picture of the shrine of St. Marguerite Bourgeouys and the original 17th century "Notre Dame" she brought with her from France. It's the dark little statuette in the center. Apparently it rescues sailors at sea -- hence the hanging ships.
Our hotel didn't have a swimming pool, but the kids quickly got over their disappointment when they discovered that we had our own "hot tub" in the bathroom! Their reward for being so good in this very un-child-friendly hotel was that they got to go "swimming" pretty much whenever they wanted!
P.S. we rushed home after my conference ended so Gavin could make it to the birthday party of his best Kindergarten friend, Elyas. They had face painters at the party who made Gavin into a super-scary skeleton. He refused to look in the mirror because he scared himself too much.
I was just standing there watching the face painter when I noticed the painting behind them and realized -- THAT'S MY BARN! Elyas' dad is an artist and he came by about 18 months ago to take some pictures of our hay barn, but I completely forgot about it. The picture made it into a couple of juried exhibits and hung at a gallery for a while but hasn't yet sold. I stood in front of the painting during the entire party trying not to think about how great it would look on our wall.
