Feb 4, 2013 - Two weeks and counting

Here we are just two weeks away from our big trip. We have been planning this trip for almost a year and it will be here before we know it. This trip is our 2013 Mother and Daughter trip but this one is extra special because it is in celebration of Shannon's University graduation. She graduated from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia in December 2012 with an International Business Degree (Dean's List). I am so blessed to have Shannon in my life and so proud of all of her accomplishments. She means everything to me and I pray...

Dec 19, 2012 - Train to Montreal

After spending a night in Toronto, we took the morning train to Montreal. 5 hours on the train was a lot more comfortable than 5 hours on the the plane. Montreal was cold and rainy but we were staying at the impressive W Hotel. We meet up with our friend Diana and had a crazy dinner at A Pied du Cochon. It was fun and we were filled up fast. Try the Foie Gras Poutine and Duck-in-a-Can. The next day was a spa day :) Nick and Lei

Dec 8, 2012 - Some big news and a stay in Ottawa (and Montreal)

Ok so the big news first is that I've been offered an au pair job in Zambia with an English family. They live right between Victoria Falls, the Zambeze river and Livingstone. I first heard about this a couple of weeks after I'd arrived in Vancouver and I spent the next couple of months in a back and forth between my mum and Sam in Zambia. My mum told me about the job, as a woman that she rides horses with is the mother of Sam. It's only in the last week or so that I've heard that they definitely want me to go out and I'm just waiting for...

Oct 8, 2012 - Touring the Resort Complex

After a very restful sleep and leisurely breakfast..we met with Kiko, the complex Mgr. who proceeded to take us on a tour of the grounds. We started (in his golf cart) by driving over to the Golf Course Club House where we picked up our passes which allows us access to all the Cocotal resort amenities as well as the Melia Resort complex grounds. The grounds were all amazing. After the tour was over we walked back over to the Melia Resort and booked a couple of all day Excursions. More on those later. After touring more of the Melia Resort...

Oct 6, 2012 - 6 hr. Layover in Montreal

Arrived in Montreal for our 6 hr. layover. Must admit, the airport staff seemed extremely unfriendly and not really interested in helping anyone who did not speak French. Made it obvious there is a real problem with the Quebec people not wanting to be a part of Canada ?? However, we won't dwell on this as we're in hoiday mode and nothing is going to deter us from a great vacation. Onward.... til tomorrow.. Waine and Joanne

Sep 26, 2012 - Oh Canada

I don't know which city was more beautiful, Quebec City or Montreal. On our way to our new campground we saw beautiful countryside and the beginnings of fall colors. I've included a few pictures of the trees at our campground. Quebec also has an old part of town that we spent a day walking around. It's a walled city situated on the St. Lawrence River, with wonderful views. We met a woman from France (near Mont Saint Michele) and she told us how much the French people love the city of San Francisco. She spoke perfect English. We visited a...

Sep 26, 2012 - Montreal

I am posting a few pictures from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This city was beautiful and fun. We spent most of our time in old Montreal. French and English are spoken here, but all the signs are in French so I needed to go back to my high school French. This helped especially during driving times. I'll be doing three updates today we have been without wifi for awhile.

Sep 24, 2012 - Montreal

September 23, 2012 It was 175 miles from Quebec City to our Montreal South KOA. We decided to spend our several available hours in a couple of Montreal’s noted places—Parc Mont Royal and the Basilique Notre Dame. But before we went to them, we found another Best Buy. Mary Anne bought a Canon digital SLR camera that was on sale. It has a view-finder, not just a LCD screen. It’s so much easier for her to take pictures in the sun, and from the moving motor-home. Up on Mont Royal we had a fine view of some of Montreal, including the site of...

Sep 19, 2012 - Montreal Our Way

September 19, 2012- Today we have a free day. Susan and I spent the morning cleaning up, doing laundry and other domestic chores, then around lunchtime we headed into Montreal to do it our way. I had been studying the little booklet about Montreal we had received and determined that there was a neighborhood area that we had not visited on our tour yesterday. Susan and I agreed that we weren’t interested in trying to go back and see things we had seen yesterday, so off we went to Rue de Mont Royal. This was a street of the unusual. The...

Sep 19, 2012 - Montreal

It's out of season now and we couldn't get a tour of Montreal from our campground, so we drove into downtown, specifically the port area, where we were lucky to find a spot.... and started our walking tour. The cruise ship that you see in the port area was also in Quebec a few days ago. The first place we found was the remnants of the first Hospital of Montreal est. in 1693 and an adjoining chapel, added two years later. In 1747 administration transferred it by Royal Ordinance to a nun, Madam Margaret d'Youville and it now is used by the...

Sep 18, 2012 - Touring Montreal

September 18, 2012- We started early this morning by meeting our bus at 7:45 am for the trip into Montreal. We are committed to Montreal on the bus for all day, including dinner. The idea is to give us an overview of the city so we can make our own decisions about where to go on our free day the next day. We started at the Olympic Park, home of the Montreal 1976 Summer Olympics. It is marked by the leaning tower over the stadium and swimming center. That complex cost way more than Montreal expected—our guide told us that they instituted a...

Sep 17, 2012 - On to Canada!

September 17, 2012-Today we drove into Canada, clearing the border with no problems. We drove up to an RV Camp just south of Montreal. We are limited on our communication here—our cellphones work but are too expensive to use up here, so we go from free wi-fi place to place to get our email and communicate. The park here is not as attractive as the others we have been in because it doesn’t have a lot of trees. It does have pull-thrus, which are nice because it makes it easy to park, but I feel like we are just out in the middle of a...