Canada Trip 2024 - Day 3 - Baby Steps Through Art
What a difference 12 hours makes. When we arrived late last night at Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, it was pouring rain, but when we opened the blinds in our room overlooking the rest of the castle, it was a beautiful sunny morning. After getting Elle ready and having a room-service breakfast, we were prepared to go out and explore.
We first made our way down to the boardwalk immediately in front of our hotel, which had views of the St. Lawrence River. We walked up and down the boardwalk, taking more pictures in the first 30 minutes of our day than we had the trip thus far. From there, we walked through town, stopping at a few shops, including a Christmas store, where Jenn bought a few ornaments. A few days into this trip, I realized that we are still actively learning how to be parents. We used to be able to alter plans on a whim, but now our plans are strictly made around Elle’s schedule. However, each day, we seem to be getting better at it. We realized we were getting close to her next bottle, so we cut our shopping trip short and walked for twenty minutes to the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec.
We didn’t arrive on a “free day” this time, so we paid for our tickets and were off. We learned from the art museum in Montreal that, given how much Elle loved it, we put her in her carrier rather than the stroller. This allowed her to take in the stunning museum easily. Jenn particularly loved the Helen Mcnicoll exhibit, our first stop in the museum. We went through their extensive Rembrandt exhibit and a few more floors before going to their cafe to feed Elle and get her in a fresh diaper. Elle was just as mesmerized here as she was yesterday which likely means there will be a lot more museums in our future after this trip.
We made the stunning walk back towards our hotel and landed in Au Petit Chalet, where we had lunch. With each meal, I think we’re getting better at caring for Elle while still trying to enjoy our meal. Even though it was well after noon, they were still serving only breakfast, so Jenn went with the breakfast tacos, and I had their breakfast grilled cheese. This is one of the rare restaurants that I judged rather harshly when we sat down, but the food blew me away much better than I thought it would be. Thankfully, it was a quicker lunch than yesterday, and we could enjoy a quick lunch before walking back to our hotel.
When we arrived back at our hotel and put Elle down for a nap, another massive rainstorm swept in. That gave us even more reason to relax. Elle slept, and we watched the first few episodes of The Gentlemen on Netflix, a show I started on my work trip the prior week but decided it would be an excellent show for us to watch. When dinner rolled around, we headed downstairs to the Sam Bistro. They were also kind enough to give us a booth away from much of the restaurant. We started with the calamari, which was delicious but probably double the necessary serving size. I paired that with a delightful Old Fashioned, which I hadn’t had in a while and was the perfect way to start the meal. Unfortunately, from there, we had to wait over thirty minutes for our main courses. Elle wasn’t bad, but she was losing patience, so we quickly ate our short rib and cod before it got out of hand.
Elle was much happier when we were back on the move again. The storm had passed so we briefly walked on this beautiful September evening. We took a ton of photos, enjoyed the many performers on the boardwalk before going back to our room and calling it a night.
