5/31 Montreal

With encouragement from Nephew Nate, we headed to Montreal yesterday morning. Before we could do that, it meant waking up Isaiah. It's a stressful routine! He would tell me that this is not appropriate and necessary to share:).




Never the less, by the time we got there, he was awake and we had a great day. I have walked a lot in Chicago, but probably never as much as in Montreal. After we parked for the day, we walked up hill towards Mount Royal. After about a bazillion steps, we reached the top. Amazing view!




This was just one of many sets of steps.








We then headed to the old part of town, which happened to be the opposite side of town, at least it felt like it. There a Carriage driver talked us into a tour and it was a relief to our feet and legs. At the suggestion of our driver, Wil went around the back of the carriage so he could sit up front. As he rounded the back of the carriage, a bike rider came flying in between the carriage and the cars, going the wrong the direction, his brakes screamed, hit Wil's hand and camera, and flew off his bike. A second earlier and he would have hit Wil, head on. The biker claimed to be ok, the traffic went on and so did we.












Where the rich and the famous stay.




This was yet. Another suggestion from Nate, which proved to be amazing. The Notre-Dame Basilic
















We ended our day with experiencing a French Restaurant












The dessert was the highlight of the meal. The rest was good but nothing I would go back for. Isaiah thought the Cod was good but took one tiny bite of the cabbage and was done. We chalked it off as an experience.




Leaving town was an experience of it's own.




This foot kept showing up beside me, all the way back to our Lodge. "grandma, can you rub my feet".
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Sterling Pond Hike to Long Trail

This morning Wil and I headed up the mountain, where we hiked up, up and up on Sterling Pond Trail to where it connected to Long Trail. It was a tough trail but such gorgeous scenery. We thought Brennan would have enjoyed the 1st part.
























When we came back to our room, Isaiah was still sound asleep and once again, it was a struggle to wake him up. We drove all the way to Burlington. We had to do some shopping to make the trip worth it!



The evening was spent in front of the TV with phones, computers and books. Plans are to head to Montreal in the morning.
Could we do anymore driving on this trip??
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5/29 rainy day

Today we woke up to a rainy day.



We opted to drive around and do some self tours.
Our 1st stop was at the Cabot Creamery Factory where we took a tour and tasted a lot of cheese. We ended up buying Greek Vanilla Bean Yogurt. awesome stuff!





Our next stop was at the Ben & Jerry Ice Cream Factory. We didn't take the tour. Wil and Isaiah got ice cream.






From there we went to Green Mountain Coffee Visitor Center.



We won't talk about how much sugar we had to put in Isaiah's iced blueberry coffee before it wasn't bitter.


Next stop-Champlain Chocolates.
By then we were getting tired of snacks and were just wanting real food. We bought a scrumptious chocolate granola bar and the headed up to the Trapp Family Lodge.



We were a bit rushed since we kept getting possible tornado warnings. Dinner wasn't served until 5:00 and it was a little before 3:00, so we went to the Deli and had some great food there.



We then went back to our Lodge and at Isaiah the haircut that he requested.


Wil was happy that Isaiah was pleased with the results.

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Happy 58th Birthday, Wil

Today was kind of a lazy day. We went to a late night birthday dinner and did just a little bit of hiking in the afternoon.

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Angelina's Pizzeria

Great Pizza tonight at a little place nestled between two roads. Homemade dough and good to the last crumb.






And I forgot to show you my Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream choice after our hike today.


Also, we decided it's good that we can't buy this bread at home.


It is incredible.
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Vermont 5/27

Vacationing with a teenager is quite different from vacationing alone:)

We left home Friday evening and drove to London Ontario. We then left from there, Saturday morning and drove til we got to Smugglers Notch Vermont. I must say that I was a tad bit disappointed that most of the restaurants and stuff is closed around here. We aren't close to a big town, but we are nestled in the mountains. Last night we drove 17 miles to get groceries in the dark and it took us almost 45 minutes to get there. It was a tad stressful since Wil was afraid we wouldn't find a gas station that was open. I will leave our trip back left unsaid.

This morning we were lazy until after brunch which was at noon. We took Isaiah on a 1 1/2 hr. Hike
It wasn't his idea of fun and he wasn't the most fun person to hike with. In spite of that, we were proud if him for doing it. He wasn't sure he ever needed to walk again.












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Isaiah-15

Birthday Cake decorated by Monica

Monica found a donut at the Dutch Maid Bakery that made Isaiah happy.

A Carmel covered donut, with Bacon bits on top!

If you know Isaiah, you know that Bacon makes everything better.

A rare close up of Isaiah.

Melissa came to visit from the 7th-11th, since Rusty and Lynette are here and she took all of these pictures.

If you haven't seen Isaiah in a while, you will be shocked at how tall he is.  Is also wears a size 12 shoe, so that tells you a lot.  He is finishing his Freshman year at Westview and he enjoys his X-box a lot