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Published: June 27th 2015
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Bonsai
I've never seen one flowering before. This was one of the youngers ones, at mere decades. I'll get to the title later.
It was a dreary day today. We drove in to Montreal in the rain, aiming for the Montreal Botanical Gardens. I saw photos online of fantastical creatures and thought it would be really interesting to see. Unfortunately, we either could not find them or they no longer exist. I'm pretty sure it's the latter. Despite that and a little bit of rain, the Gardens were stunning. We walked through roses and a Chinese garden, marveled at bonsai trees both young (20 years) and old (more than 200), and found some interesting new species we could plant in our shade garden. We saw Japanese peonies and Scarlet willows and birch trees and spirea and lemon trees and poppies and bishop's hats and the coolest begonias ever.
I had thought we should go to the Biosphere, but we spent a lot longer at the gardens than I planned and we were tired with a long drive ahead of us, so we drove past the Olympic Park and looked for a restaurant. We then drove to Quebec City and, despite the rain, decided to visit Montmorency Falls. We found free parking and a boardwalk to the
Montmorency Falls
It was very hard to capture a good picture, especially with dead camera batteries. Falls. Liam was thrilled to go up the stairs and over the suspension bridge, but Cole said his stomach felt like a washing machine even thinking about it, so he stayed very close to the edge. The Falls are the highest in Quebec, and 30 meters higher than Niagara.
We found a cheap hotel, asked about poutine, the boys swam, and that was it.
We know Canada is a different country, although there seems to be very little evidence of that in Ontario other than the metric system and the French subtitles, and, of course, all the Tim Horton's. As soon as we crossed into Quebec, though, it was different. Curving road signs became red and white instead of yellow and black. Stop lights became horizontal with different shapes. Left turns were indicated by a flashing green, no arrow. (We learned that one by being honked at.) Names are separated by hyphens, not spaces. The Canadian flag appeared to have been replaced by Quebec's. Oh, and English disappeared from the signs. It has been interesting.
- - -
Miles Driven: 186
Steps Taken, According to Fitbit (for the two of us): 26 364
Future
Plans: Bone up on my French before returning to Quebec.
Memorable Meals: Giorgio's (we weren't sure with the French and everything. The minestrone soup was fantastic. Our waitress apologized for her English afterward, but we told her it was much better than our French.); Chez AshTon (we were referred here for poutine, which we were told we had to eat. It's a fast food place. It's fine.)
We Learned: The Botanical Garden has more than 22 000 species of plants. We also learned that Quebec celebrates Quebec National Day, on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, which is tomorrow. There were events scheduled until 0300 tonight, with more to come.
We Wondered: How Quebec gets away without English.
Geocaches Found: 2
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