How are you friends? Things are good here. If you’re not from the states (though I know most of you are), then you might not know it was a holiday weekend over here. Well, holiday for most people. For us, holidays mean that Alex def. has to work. He’s actually been working a lot lately. But there hasn’t really been complaints from any of us– because we did this New England/Canada family trip not to long ago– and then went to Colombia a few weeks later– andddddd it’s only a few more weeks left and we’re off to Guatemala. So crazy. So good.

These photos aren’t super fancy by any means. Just everyday snippets from our Montreal trip. You guys know me pretty well by now– I like all the snippets. All the happy in-between pictures. I mean, sure a posed and self timer-ed picture can be really great– and honestly, probably better for the memory books, but I like the in-between stuff too. You know? You know.

Montreal was way more hip than I imagined it to be. Or I shouldn’t say “imagined it to be” because I had been there a handful of times before. But the visits prior to this trip were spent drunk, and probably in a party dress with giant earrings) dancing in the streets of the city. Things have obviously changed a lot since my tight dress- drinking days though. And so this time I was grateful to experience a side of Montreal I never had before. And call us hipsters if you must, but man, the hip neighborhoods of Montreal are pretty freaking rad. I’m pretty sure I said it before– but so much vegan food!

Stumbling upon a vegetarian buddhist festival felt a lot like my trip to Chicago, magical. Like everything was just waiting for me there. The only thing that didn’t feel magical about it was that they ran out of food by the time we got there. But it was still rad to check it out. Marlowe has been super into meditation and mindfulness lately, so it was cool to show her where so much of that comes from.

More street coolness.


Maybe you didn’t know this (I didn’t know it), but Montreal, like New York is known for it’s bagels. I guess their a thinner, more dense bagel (really selling it, right?). I obviously didn’t get to try the bagels (my once favorite food, haha), but Marlowe and Alex sure had a go at them. Oh and we totally traveled with peanut butter… so they both opted for that πŸ™‚

Not lacking in produce.

So if you guys felt bad or me about the bagel thing, you shouldn’t, because not very long after I found vegan/gluten free crepes. And they were delicious. And filled with sunflower butter. I had never had sunflower butter. Truth is, I don’t love sunflower seeds (it’s most the smell) and I only ever use them for this recipe. But man, the butter was good. I should buy some for home.

Later we decided to head into the old part of montreal— little did we know that this would actually be the most touristy part, haha. I assumed that it was going to be quiet and picturesque cobble stone streets. No. Wrong. So we decided to just keep heading more towards the water, thinking we could escape the crowds. We didn’t. But we did stumble upon a giant Ferris wheel and cirque du soilel. Which we decided to go to and it was actually pretty cool. So much money, obviously, but pretty cool. Marlowe AND Alex got high fives at the end– so they were happy haha.

Afterwards we walked towards a traditional tea house. Marlowe freaking LOVED it. Haha, I have the 6 year old who loves meditation and tea. WHO IS SHE? But it was pretty rad. She asked for a traditional tea set for her birthday. I need to find a good one thats not too difficult to travel with for her πŸ™‚

We ended up back at the festival for the second day in hopes for more food. But got there a little later than planned and ended up sharing one of the last few plates left.

And so if the day wasn’t multicultural enough, we ended up at a Himalayan restaurant for dinner πŸ™‚ I think I’m going to do an entire vegan Canada food post for you guys. You know, What Marlowe Eats canada edition.
You know what maybe surprised us most about Montreal? The stairways. I have ZERO idea how the people of Montreal climb all their stairs in winter. I mean, even in summer, but especially in winter. Realistically the answer is: “carefully” But gosh the stair ways were crazy. Beautiful but crazy.

We had such a great time here. Id go back in a heart beat. Maybe one day πŸ™‚

2 Comments

  1. I live in Montreal and am somewhat challenged with coordination, so I refuse to live in any building with the outside staircases. It seriously reduces my options in the Plateau! This was based on my own paranoia, but now I have a friend whose thumb is her toe because she lost the original thumb in an exterior stair accident, so I’m sticking to my guns on that life decision. It comes from a sudden planning change just when that section of the city was being built — a new rule about how far building walls had to be from the street (the staircases don’t count).

  2. Looks like a lovely time! Thank You for sharing. I’ve always wanted to go to Montreal <3