Day 1 – Our next adventure. We are in Quebec, Canada, the only French-speaking part of the country, which is like being in France, but with Walmart and yellow school buses.
The first task was to get the rental car. My friend from Alamo started with “we have a beautiful black on black Wagoneer” Daddy turned the corner and saw Black Beauty ™️
She is ridiculously big. Wing mirrors would be flying off if Daddy drove this thing in Southend. Out here, it’s a large car, but it fits perfectly into all the spaces.
The drive from YUL airport to the accommodation was easy enough. Apple CarPlay worked, and once you get past laughing at the Apple voice saying French words, you’re off and running.
45mins later we are in Saint-Anne-des-Lacs where we have booked to stay at Lake Serenity a huge property that overlooks Lake Guindon and is absolutely stunning.
Another interesting discovery was that we still have snow! In a far corner, where there’s no sun, we still have a small patch of ice/mush.
Daddy needed to grab some shopping before heading to YUL (again) to pick up the family as they jumped on a short 2hr flight from Detroit.
Everyone seemed in good spirits, with a super quick flight landing at 16:00. Mummy got herself settled at the airport and Daddy got Black Beauty ready for the boys’ arrival.
The boys were incredibly well behaved on the plane and sat reading their kindles for the 1hour 40min flight. Mummy was so proud of them when they spoke politely to the air hostess about a drink and a snack and as a result, the lovely lady brought them some extra snack goodies and a ‘pilot’s badge’ to wear! At the end of the flight they were asked if they wanted to visit the cockpit and meet the pilot, which they most certainly did and as we were under no time restrictions this time (except poor Daddy chomping at the bit to meet us!) they had a great time pressing the chime button and ‘flying’ the plane! Nate even asked an extra question at the end: ‘How long did it take you to train to be a pilot?’ Which took the main man by surprise, as it was asked so clearly and confidently! 12 years he said as he’d started flying at 19!
We cleared passport control with no, ahem, appley situations again and had grabbed our 3 cases and the car seats from the gate (having them gate checked is a dream!😃) so we were off to meet Da!…OH! Hang on! Where is the Tesco bag with all our coats…and the cam and crank toys?! 😫 Left on the plane! Never mind!…I’m sure it’ll be at baggage claim somewhere! 😭😬🤞🏻 ‘Is it zis bag?’ YES! YES it IS! You wonderful French speaking Montrealian lady! Woohoo! NOW, we were off to meet Daddy! Airalo is a wonderful electronic eSIM advancement and I would recommend it to anyone travelling abroad!
Back to Daddy!
YUL airport has an interesting setup. You can drive to a Cellparc (imagine a field with a portable toilet on it) and stay for 2-3hrs for free. However, when you need to actually pick people up from Arrivals you have 5mins and you can’t leave the vehicle. Police monitoring the pickup zones, popping the trunk is also a sign of good manners.
Daddy noticed the flight landed early so after trying to pinpoint them on Find My Friends he received a WhatsApp call that they are through and outside Door 26.
Daddy drove out of Cellparc 1 and straight into a Bus Lane (by accident) and headed over to Arrivals. After driving for two 1hr journeys with no issues the 5mins drive to Arrivals presented two near misses (not me, ahead of me) and one car that was just parked the wrong way in the middle of the road.
‘We are in Zone B!’ Daddy can see Zone B! Park up, screw the rules and ran down so tiny Nate could give Daddy the biggest cuddle ever! Grabbed their bags, threw them into the boot/trunk and get them safely in Black Beauty.
The drive back was traffic-heavy, but we made it back together as Team Hunter for our next adventure.
We unpacked and saw an amazing sunset.
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