Short stay in Burlington, Vermont

I should have posted these pictures a week ago before we arrived in Montreal, but they somehow got lost in the fray.  Our initial plan was to cross the border at near Niagra Falls, but we had some issues exporting our van from the U.S., so we decided to drive as close as possible to Montreal before crossing the border, which took us to upstate New York and the Lake Champlain region.  We ended up finding a nice storage spot for the van near Lake Champlain about an hour from Montreal.  

In the mean time, we took the opportunity to spend a day in Vermont, enjoying the beautiful scenery on the east side of Lake Champlain.  Burlington is a cool little town with a really nice historic downtown and lake side.  I took the girls for a nice afternoon walk on the board walk. 

Of course, we found ice cream.  Bea had vanilla.

Maggie had blackberry and I had a blackberry/maple swirl.

The following morning, I had to wake up early to rent a car (so that we could store the van and drive across the border).  I walked down to the Lake at about 5 AM and took some nice pictures just as our last dawn in the USA was breaking.  You can see the Adirondacks in the background.

There are still plenty of pictures to come, so keep checking the blog for updates.

First trip to Laval - our neighbor to the North

There isn't really anything special about Laval, but they do have a giant indoor playground called Funtropolis that we decided to check out.  We don't yet have a car (my truck will not clear customs until Aug 5th and we had to leave the van in upstate NY until we get some additional paper work), so we had to take the subway and the bus to get there.  No worries, though, Maggie and Bea had a good time playing dog.

Funtropolis was also a lot of fun and they had surprisingly decent food.  The highlight, though, was the really fast slides.

An afternoon in the old port

We have been enjoying the location of our hotel in the centre ville.  We have been going on a lot of walks and short trips to see things in the area.  One evening, we took a walk down to the St. Lawrence River in the Old Port area of Ville Marie (the original part of Montreal).  We had ice cream and then bought some junk for the kids.

OK, just a few more slow motion videos, I promise.

Afterwards, we played on some inflatable pirate ships and then watched a fire works show.  July is the peak of summer here, and there are fire works at least a couple of time a week.

Here is Bea's celebratory pizza dance in slow motion

I apologize for all of the slow motion videos, but I got a new phone and this feature was not available on my last phone.  I will stop recording these in a few weeks.

The new house and neighborhood

Here's what Maggie and Bea think of the new house.

Here's what they think of the new park.

Here's what they think of the neighborhood pizza place (in slow motion).

Here's what they think of the actual pizza.

Last Days in Champaign

Well, it's been fun in the Midwest.  We had wanted to stay for 3-4 years, but ended up staying almost 6.  Still, in the cut-throat world of academic research, we are happy and very grateful to have jobs at a university as good as McGill.

In preparation for leaving there were many things that needed to be done and many good-byes that needed to be said.  For example, here is my last day of work.

Here is the last bike ride for BB and me.

Here are the last few elk steaks I had in the freezer.

Here is our last trip to the mall (it was buy one get one free day at Claire's).

Here's our last visit from the ice cream man (it's amazing how quick the sugar hits BB),

our last visit to the frozen yogurt place,

and our last bottle of champagne (this one has been in our fridge for 5 years).

But, when all was said and done, we left the house at 714 Breen and the Midwest with literally nothing but fond memories.

Onward to the next adventure!