For our first Boston Marathon weekend, we stayed in the city, and watched the marathon. It was super inspiring, especially because it was the year after the bombing, so more runners and spectators were there. We decided since we've now had the marathon watching experience, to use the money we can make from renting our place on airbnb to fund a trip each year for the marathon weekend. Last year we went to Cape Cod, and this year, we decided to visit Burlington, Vermont, and then head up to Montreal, in Canada, since we are so close. Without a baby, I would say the drive was super short, but with a baby, I'm pretty sure it at least doubled the time to get anywhere because of frequent stopping to feed or because he was crying. Because of that, I don't think I'd recommend a long road trip anywhere (Montreal is about 5.5 hrs away, aka 9 hours with a baby) with a 3 month old, but I DO recommend visiting both cities!
We were going to leave early Friday morning, and ended up leaving at 2 pm after deep-cleaning our apartment in preparation for our guests, just in time to catch traffic on our way out. We stopped for lunch in Medford, where we risked it and went to a Mexican restaurant with good reviews. Usually mexican in the northeast is awful, but it is our new favorite place. SUPER AMAZING tacos, and I had the torta mexican sandwich. It was so amazing, that we stopped for dinner on our way back also. For those in the area, it's Tenoch.
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| The tacos and torta from Tenoch, calling all Bostonians... GO THERE ASAP! |
BURLINGTON
Burlington is a super Vermontonian city, aka delicious local foods, beautiful outdoor activities, and maple syrup everything. We walked through Church Street, a street with lots of shops downtown, and walked along Lake Champlain, a giant and beautiful lake in Vermont, and ate delicious food. I made it a personal rule to get some sort of maple in each meal. Brace yourself, your mouth is about to water...
Maple goodness included:
Breakfast: French Toast with maple syrup
Lunch: A savory cheddar apple crepe with maple syrup
Dinner: Hawaiian Pizza with maple drizzle and Maple BBQ wings
Dessert:a maple vanilla shake (with local, homemade ice cream)- HOLY CRAP SO GOOD
Lunch 2: a burger with maple bbq on it.
So all the lists of best restaurants included this place called The Farmhouse tap and grill... well, we looked at the menu and vetoed it because they put arugula on the burgers... not my style, so instead on yelp we found the Barnyard pizza grill.... BEST CHOICE EVER, because we went there for dinner and lunch the next day. Please, if you ever go to Burlington, GO THERE!
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Example of all the cool locally made goods,
like these adorable baby shoes we refrained from spending $40.00 on |
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| Lake Champlain |
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| Hi guys! |
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| Yes, the dress code for the wait staff was flannel plaid |
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| Best wings EVER! |
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| Our little hike, when in Vermont, babies should wear plaid |
On our drive to Montreal, we actually backtracked to explore more of Vermont a little, then went up a scenic route through all the islands that go through Lake Champlain, and it was BEAUTIFUL. It was only an additional 20 minutes or something according to google (aka 7 years with a baby) and SOO worth it! We stopped to see the sunset and it was incredible. We got to the border at around 8 pm and the only restaurant in the US side at the crossing we were at closed at 8, so we just thought, we'll just get something in Canada on our way. Well middle of nowhere Canada has some burger joint that we stop at, the menu is in french, and the staff only spoke broken english, they tell us we can get "garbage" aka cabbage on our burgers with ketchup, we were sure they meant lettuce, and just didn't know the word, but nope, it was actually cabbage, and the fries tasted disgusting, so we were pretty terrified for the Canadian food the rest of the trip, but luckily once we got to Montreal, they had really delicious french-style food.
Pics from our drive from Burlington to Montreal in Vermont:
THe NoFor our day in Montreal we started by picking up some french pastries from a local bakery and then walking up to the top of Monte Royal which is more of a hill than a mountain, and it is what the city is named after. It had a great view over the whole city. Then we went to Old Montreal to see a bunch of the old buildings with beautiful architecture that the city is known for. First we saw the Notre Dame Basilica aka where Celine Dion got married (and where her husband's funeral was), which if we had done nothing else, would probably have made the trip worth it, it is so ornate and incredible. They actually have a second chapel that was also gorgeous, and Nate liked even more! We walked down the street with lots of cute shops, and then got some lunch. (At some point in there we were running the stroller down the street in the rain to get to the car to feed Elliott.) We then explored some of the cute colorful neighborhoods, and did our own little version of a croissant walk, that involved driving because it was raining, then ordered some pizza for dinner. The next day we went to a famous bagel place, which I waited in line for, then realized they only take cash, ran down the street to an ATM to get some Canadian cash, then went back all for a bagel... and no regrets, because it was delicious.
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| All three of the delicious Croissants on our croissant walk. |
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| Walking in Old Montreal down Rue St. Paul |
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| Outside the Basilica |
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| Notre Dame Basilica |
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| The Notre Dame Basilica |
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| This intricate woodwork is in the backup chapel |
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| Chix and waffles |
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| Eggs Benedict on mac and cheese |
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| The view from Mont-Royal |
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| Our international baby |
On our drive home we went a different way, through New Hampshire, to see some different stuff and when we stopped for lunch, we found this giant candy store, which was super fun to pick and choose a little of everything (and Nathan's bag literally did have a little of everything).
We loved getting to spend every minute with Elliott and not have work on our minds, which made it hard to come back for all of us, but it was super fun!
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| 112 ft of penny candies |
Other recent pics of our adorable family :)
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| Destroying his paper tie |
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| He is legitimately balding everywhere except the top of his head! |
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