Finally a Vacation

Finally!! A holiday after four years of busyness and Covid, and the chaos that ensued. 

We debated this holiday as we weren’t sure we could take the time away from work. We literally decided on Wednesday to leave the next day and booked a four night stay in Montreal. It helped that we didn’t need passports as all four of us need new ones and we haven’t organized the paperwork for that quite yet.  

So, we had a night to pack, get laundry done and organized. It was a whirlwind of a trip but our life over the last 12 years has also been a whirlwind, so this wasn’t anything new.  So without saying anything more, here are my 10 reminders if, like us, you too haven’t taken a trip in a little while:

 1. Unpack your suitcase when you get home, even if it is to pile it somewhere or throw it in a laundry bin. My husband Brian brought up our suitcases to pack for our trip and as we opened our kid’s suitcase, we were surprised by what we found. It was still packed from my mom’s funeral almost three years ago. My son’s suit, my daughter’s favourite things she brought over to the funeral, given to her from her nana. Now this may not sound like a big deal but for our daughter it brought up all sort of feelings. She then wore every day these Great Wolf Lodge headband for the entire trip because it was something my mom gave her before she passed.

2. Print out a map or have a tablet with a map on it for the kids so they can keep track of where we are going. My son gets a little anxious when we are on long car drives and he doesn’t know where we are going, especially at night. Our last trip was to Ottawa a few years ago, it was dark by the time we drove through Peterborough, my son was so nervous it broke my heart and I ended up holding is hand from the passenger seat wrapped around the seat to calm him down. This trip, he loved to estimate the number of kilometers we had left to the time we would arrive to our destination.

3. Find out as much as you can about what attractions and amenities are around your hotel. We booked our hotel the night before arrival, and we knew that the hotel was attached to a mall. What we didn’t realize was there was also an IGA in the mall. This was amazing to grab muffins, veggie sticks and fruit, plus some cream for coffee. We could also pick up some much-needed razors so I could shave my legs since it had been such a long year. The only downfall about not asking enough questions when we booked was that we didn’t know there was a ‘Just for Laughs/Comedy festival right outside our hotel. This made it fun at night for the kids to walk around and see the events, but it was so busy that getting into restaurants were sometimes challenging or even the noise in the hotel room could be a bother to some.

4. Try to organize and prepare what you want to see and do while away. Brian wanted to go to the Bell center to show the kids. We walked and walked in the heat, only to be disappointed to learn there were no tours or at least we didn’t see any when we got there. Brian then tried to look it up quickly on his phone, but that became frustrating as he had a frustrated wife and tired kids to deal with. We also needed to double check the restaurant/pubs that we went to were appropriate for kids as we had a situation occur……tired, hot, and hungry kids and off the tourist part of the city my husband found what he thought was a family pub we had been to a few years ago….it was not.

5. Expect to wait at times: we were so fortunate to be able to get into some amazing restaurants in Montreal. We had some awesome waitress/waiters at every restaurant we went to. They were lovely to our children and apologized several times for the wait. They worked hard, very hard to make sure everyone was getting the best service under the circumstances. So if you have a performance or a event you want to get to prepare ahead of time and plan for extra time.

6. Try out the city’s transportation system. We go to church in our city and wanted to visit a church that our friend’s family member worked at. We took the Montreal subway to get there, and it was great to not have to walk that day over 6000 steps one way on a hot day with kids. We also got there early which doesn’t happen when we are 10 minutes from our own home church.

7. Don’t forget your earphones: Kids are sleeping, it is QUIET and a new Ryan Gosling movie is on Netflix….plus the IGA carried wine…a win win situation for us!

8. BE IN THE PICTURES. I am the one usually taking the pictures but my kids right now love taking pictures…..This was the first vacation I just didn’t care about being in the picture. As you know I lost my mom three years ago and there are not many pictures of her as she was the one taking the pictures. I’m so glad for the chance to create memories and I’m glad my kids were able to capture them, with me in them!!

9. COFFEE

10. MORE, MORE, and then some MORE COFFEE!

Have a great Summer !

Shannon