Ready or not here we come. We've done it up big for our fortieth anniversary and now we need to come home and rest up for the next party! We hope you all are up for seeing us back. Quick-scamper, scamper and do everything you thought you would do while we were gone. Now's your last chance. We enjoyed our last day of our trip in the old town of Montreal. We had breakfast at our hotel- Chateau Versailles, which was in two stone houses built near McGill University during the golden age for Montreal in the 1880s. We went to old town on the metro- because our car was valet-parked at the hotel and we would have to pay for parking down at the old port. So this added one more type of vehicle to our traveling- and reminded us of Paris.
We went to a museum in the Ramezay House- which was built in 1740 as the governor's house and also served as headquarters for the East India trading company (beavers and other fur), and in the 1800s as a college for teachers and about 1900 as the Laval law school. Montreal was ready to tear it down in 1910 when an early preservation group was formed to save it as a museum. It had informative audio stories about these different periods, with nice pictures and artifacts. And a cute little garden with flowers, vegetables and fruit trees-some on trelleses.
We looked for lunch along the plaza near the City Hall building overlooking the old docks, and found a delightful restaurant garden- enclosed by old walls and buildings. This was a perfect spot for our last 40th anniversary lunch!
Next we went on a harbor and port cruise- downstream a few miles past the island where the 1967 World's Fair was held. I used my telephoto lense and there were nice views of the modern city. Judy stayed beow deck in the air-conditioned lounge with a big picture window- but I was up on the top deck in the sun and gusty wind- I needed my hat string several times to save my hat. Montreal was a major port, because upstream falls blocked trasport on ocean ships and everthing was trensfered to canal boats or railroads in the 1900s- until the St Lawrence seaway (big canals and locks). It is still a major port for railroad transfer to ocean container ships.
We packed our suitcases and prepared for our 8:30 AM flight from old town Montreal to good old Sacramento. Judy woke up early so we got up and left the hotel and made it to the airport. Our suitcases were both too heavy (50 lb limit), so we transfered some items to a strong carry-on bag with handles that we had along just in case, and because US customs was in Montreal, we needed the extra time. We had a good croisant bacon and egg sandwich for breakfast and were ready to fly. But our flight was delayed by 2 hours and we landed in Chicago at noon, just when our flight to Sacramento left. The next Sacramento flight was at 9 PM, but it was already booked, and there were about 15 of us with the same missed flight. So we waited standby for a 2 PM flight to San Francisco, and we had the last two seats (separated), but made it safely to SF at 5:30 PM. Then we rented a car and drove home to Sacramento. We drove a total of 2,500 miles during our 20 days including the last 100 miles from SF to Sacramento.
We have learned a lot about our American, British and French tangled histories- so I am anxious to find some good "boring" books (non-fiction) to get it straight in my twisted mind. Especially about Jacques Cartier the river explorer and more about the fishing fleets and canal boats and such. I hope you have enjoyed exploring these interesting places along with us on our river roaming adventure for 2014.
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