Translation: “We’ve arrived in Montreal”

We decided that from now on, our leaving the campsite time would be 10am each day.  We can adjust it earlier or later but it gives us a starting point.  Today we were leaving Herkimer, NY for Montreal in Quebec, Canada.  We planned to leave at 10 and actually left around 9:30!  The drive was hilly, bordering on mountainous.  We drove through the Adirondacks and past Lake Placid.  We saw lots of breathtaking views and beautiful homes and resorts.  I didn’t take any pictures though.  It was an all-focus hands on the road type of drive with all the climbing, descending, twists and turns.  We listened to about 3 hours of the audiobook of the first Fablehaven book.  It’s a series I previously listened to with the boys and the girls seem to be enjoying it so far. 

We went through customs without any issues and our campground is only 30 minutes from the border at Camping St. André.  We got here and set up and then realized we were too far from the sewer connection to hook up. 

The girls and I headed to “Supercentre Walmart” for some supplies with the Yatzecks.  I was hoping to get a second sewer hose but they were out of the normal ones and only had expensive premium ones.  I decided it would be better to use the campground shower than to spend 70$ CAD on a hose. 

The girls spent some of their own money on the “illegal” kinder surprise eggs.  The food section was a mix between things we are familiar with at home and things we are not.  The rest, including the toy area was pretty similar to Walmarts everywhere.

Back at the campground, we checked out the shower (singular, only one working shower per gender) and I decided it was worth it to move the camper.  My mom and Joe helped me make sure I was far enough back this time to connect.  We are right up against a riverbank and I didn’t want to go too far back but we found the sweet spot.  There are a ton of gnats and mosquitos here – probably related to the massive amounts of rain.  It did rain again while we were at Walmart but luckily it didn’t last. 

I’ll have to take some pictures of our campsites because we have a pretty sweet setup.  When I emailed the owner to make the reservation, I told them we wanted to be “voisons” (neighbors) and we are.  We set up a screen tent between us (a place to escape the bugs) and we ate leftovers and other random stuff for dinner. 

Melissa and Joe planned on going with their kids to church in Montreal at St. Joseph’s Oratory at 7:30pm.  Below is a picture from Wikipedia.

I considered it but the 30 minute drive (which was more like 40 due to traffic) just didn’t sound like something I wanted to do after today’s drive.  Mass was in French which would have been interesting for me.  My mom, Esme and I decided to stay back and Nova joined the Yatzecks.  My mom and I did laundry and Esme and I took showers in the camper now that the sewer was connected.   I also worked for about an hour and half, cleaned the bathroom and mopped the camper floor. 

Everyone else got back about 9pm and we settled in for the night.  I’m excited to roam around Montreal all day tomorrow (and the weather is forecasted to be low to mid 70s, a nice change from low to mid 50s). 

Yatzeck’s blog post for the day