Montréal, Québec

Montreal is a beautiful and wonderful city. It is so bittersweet for me to go there as it is so exciting but I miss who is not there anymore.

Each of the last four Fall's a bunch of my girlfriends go away for a weekend together. I have not been able to go for a whole weekend yet but, this is the second time I was able to join for a Saturday night dinner. It is supposed to be a weekend away without kids but, I cannot leave Apple yet, so I brought the clan and left Apple with Hubby for the night. She did marvelously as did he. He is exausted this evening so he got to experience my day for five and a half hours, four and a half of which Apple slept and three of which J slept. Hmm... I guess I didn't leave him long enough.

So yes, these wonderful girlfriends of mine. We all know each other from a common thread, our kids. We all struggled to have our children and were brought together through the internet so we formed a playgroup. As our kids keep getting older and are in school it is harder to get together for playgroup or playdates, however us Mom's try to have a dinner once in a while and then the Fall getaway. It was a wonderful night to dress up, even if I was wearing maternity pants, and see the sights of Montréal. I miss visiting Montréal, something I used to do once or twice a month, if not more.

Both my parents were born and raised in Montréal. Verdun and Ville Émard respectively. They left in 1967 for Ottawa but, my grandparents remained. All through my childhood weekends were spent going back and forth to Montréal. March breaks were spent at Grandma's house and our clothing was often purchased from the more stylish French stores. Even when my parents moved to Manitoba for a few years and I was left holding the fort in Ottawa, I went every other weekend to visit Grandma. There was always a place for me to stay, we would go out for lunch or just hang out together. Oh how I miss those days.My paternal Grandmother passed away over thirty years ago now but my maternal Grandmother, whom I used to visit, finally had to move to Ottawa and live with Mom and Dad back in '97. She spent her last five years here in Ottawa, something she vowed never to do. And since she moved here going to Montréal has never been the same for me. It leaves me mising her so much yet remembering all the fun we had. As well as making me wish I had spent even more time with her. This particular visit was probobly the easiest one I have had in ten years. Maybe because I was bringing my own kids to see the sights or maybe because we didn't have time to drive through the old neighbourhoods and stop at my favourite corner stores for some penny candy.

Hubby and I did not even get to do what we wanted to do. Travelling with an 8 week old was a little more difficult that we remembered. Probobly because we didn't travel with J until he was much older. We left Ottawa a bit later than we meant to, Apple cried for half of the two hour drive, and when we got there Hubby was so hungry all we had time to do before I had to join my girlfriends was to stop and eat. This morning we had enough time to grab breakfast then coffee and for me to snap a few photos before we had to start home. A was here with his buddy and we had to get them to hockey later this afternoon. And yes, Apple cried half the way home. J was so good in the car and still is that we are a little taken aback with Apple crying. It has really only been the last couple of weeks, so I need to figure out what happened and how to get back to great travelling as I will not give up going out.

So I have posted a few photos from the weekend but not nearly as many as I had wanted to. But, it was truly a great field trip and hopefully we can go again in the Spring or Summer and see more of our favourite sights.