Roadtrip: Montreal

After visiting Nanny, we started our first day of exploring the city. It was time for round 2 of our Urban Quest missions. This one didn't go nearly as well as the first one, though. Between trying to find parking in Old Quebec City, almost breaking the emergency breaks, and almost eating the paper out of frustration at the confusion caused by the terrible directions in the quest, this made for a long day.

Habitat 67 - a co-op that was initially designed with intention of providing a solution to affordable housing. It was used as accommodations for dignitaries who visited during Expo 67.

Even this guy couldn't have helped us with the quest.

Notre Dame

This may or may not have been the answer to one of our clues. The jury's still out on this one.

Despite the day's frustrations, we still had a fun day.

The following day was frustrating, but for very different reasons. Upon leaving the Pointe A-Calliere Museum, Doris and I got back in our car and headed off right away in search of a place to eat, since we were both famished. In fact, we were so hungry that it wasn't until we got on the highway that Doris noticed the loud gusts of wind coming from the backseat. It turned out somebody had smashed the little triangular window of the rear passenger side seat. Thinking quickly, Doris reached for her Jansport bag, only to find that her iPad and $50 were missing. It was the low point of our trip. I pulled over on the side of the highway and shared a hug. I can only imagine how violated she felt to have her precious iPad stolen. Just thinking about the fact that some jerk out there had it in their hands made me want to play a game of Chicken with this invisible monster and my rental car. But Doris, being the strong person that she is, shook off the hurt, and we proceeded to the one place that could cheer her up: Manzo's Pizza. 

The literal birthplace of Montreal.

Our great tour guide telling us about the complete disregard for sanitation Montreal used to have. I mean, what could be so bad about throwing all your garbage into the river?

Love this guy!

A simple game: Match random winter sounds with their pictures (e.g., skating, shoveling, snowmobile, etc.)

I'd like to see this thing on the 401. It was, though, an original design to help rural Canadians get around in the dead of winter.

Manzo, the man of the hour.

Off for a quick swim before hunting down the Carbide Willson Ruins.

And then, to our surprise, another swim at the Willson Ruins. There was an old dude bathing in his speedo nearby when we arrived. Shortly after, he literally just walked uphill into the woods just to the left and disappeared. 

But first...

Road to Ruin. (If you get the joke, you've officially won two points in my books.)

Found the ruins! This was once an industrial plant built by one Thomas Leopold Willson in 1911.

Can't keep her spirits down :)

The drive to the Wallingford-Back Mines was quite the rocky terrain. And it kept going, and going. Google Maps started going on us because of how remote we were, so we just kept hoping we were going the right way. And the road was so narrow, that if another car had appeared in the opposite direction, I don't know what the hell I would have done. Thankfully, we made it through. 

Apparently it's more fun to visit in the winter, because the water at the bottom of the mine freezes over so you can go skating.

Quebec City, here we come!