Grad Trip- Kingston to Palmyra

The awesome place we stayed in Ottawa didn't have the last day free, so we had to book one night in Kingston. Kingston is not a place we would have ever visited but I am SO GLAD we did. It was such a beautiful place! I would love love love to visit there again with more time and a boat to play with! 

The night we stayed there we had supper at a really yummy seafood place. It was so busy the only table we were able to get was near the bar and was one of those super tall ones. Poor Arlie was in a highchair like 3 feet down from us lol but she did awesome. 

Then we had gelatto- yum!! 

So the next morning Mark was anxious to get on the road. He admitted later that he was starting to feel homesick and thought the sooner we move along the sooner we get to go home :(. I was not having that lol. I wanted to take the scenic route which meant 3 ferries. So we headed over to the ferry dock and just missed it which means we had to wait 4 minutes until the next one. Lucky for us there was this adorable little farmers market right in the middle of the town sqare where we were able to walk around a buy some super yummy snacks. Chocolate covered cinnamon buns, are you kidding me!? So good!! 

So we got on the ferrier for free for whatever reason, it was a big one I would say 60-80 cars, It took us across to Wolfe Island. I swear the only people that live there are fisherman or farmers but the place is wicked cool!. We docked there are started driving across the island to catch the second ferry. It was such a beautiful place, the grass was GREEN. 

So we are driving along, the pavement turned to gravel and it really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Until we pull up to this boat dock that has the "ferry" attached. It was a ONE CAR FERRY! The platform to get onto the boat was flodded with about a foot of water. The two guys running the boat had to stand on the ramp so we could drive down lolololol. 

So we pull on, hand the guy a $20 and on we go. 

So as we get closer to the US side we get to be wondering where the boarder crossing will be. This was it!! A couple guys came out of that white house into that little shack. So funny. 

We made it to Palmyra! This is up at the top of Hil Cumorah. 

At the sacred grove- It was an amazing place although lets be real, it's more difficult to enjoy it with a little one squaking and boobing the whole time. 

Caught this cute pic right before she fell off the stump. 

Marks favorite art piece! 

The Book of Mormon publication site. Super neat! 

Hill Cumorah visitors centre. It was so great!! They had a couple theatres with every church movie ever made- something like 258!! We went there Sunday after church and watched the 3 new additions to meet the mormons. There was even one with a horse trainer which of course I loved! 

Marks souvenier from Palmyra lololololol don't judge us! 

Grad Trip- Ottawa

From Montreal we drove to Ottawa. 

Our original accomodations fell through but luckily my soon to be step dad steped up and helped us out! We ended up staying in Gatineu in a really nice condo with a HUGE tv. Not gunna lie aside from the first and last day we spent the entire time in our condo napping and watching friends!!! LOL

The first day we went into Ottawa to the Canadian History Museam. It was OK. The highlight was the Hockey exibit they had going on while we were there. 

Beautiful churches. 

Rideu Canal

Then we headed to Parliment hill. Parking was a NIGHTMARE. There was a ton of construciton going on and we had to park 5 or 6 blocks away and walk. Parliment hill was cool but it was CRAZY busy and the soonest tour they had was about 6 hours later from when we got there. We decided to go up to the peace tower instead of touring the parliment building. Still a super long wait but it was cool and the view was amazing. 

Next stop was Rideu Hall. I had seen this spot recommended on Trip Advisor and totally dragged Mark along lol. This is the building where the Queen stays when she visits Canada, and also the place where prime ministers are sworn in. It has a ton of rich history and is gorgeous! 

This is Arlie & I in the main ballroom- the actual room where the Prime Minister is sworn in and where they used to have grand balls. 

Arlie & I in front of the giant spider that is in front of the Canadian Art museam. 

A gorgeous church across the street. (I snuck in the back and snapped a pic in the middle of a serice) 

The park across the street. AMAZING. Tulips everywhere. We had a sit down and hung out there for a while, and Arlie Jayla clapped for the first time! 

At the other end of the park is this incredible view of Parliment Hil;. Looks like hogwarts am I right!?

Last day! Picture in front of a cute mural they had at the mall. 

Grad Trip- Montreal

Montreal was COOL!!  We will 100% be going back there again! The history and arciteture was incredible. 

So our first night we walked around old montreal and tried to find somewhere to eat. We passed every shop & resturant trying to find an authentic hole in the wall. We settle on this cool italian resturant. Go in, play with our translation app with the menu and realize that we had gone to THE OLD SPAGETTI FACTORY! We felt suuuper dumb lol. The food was amazing though. 

Old port! It doesn't show in the picture but across the river you could see the temple. 

The ward we went to. It was so modern and weird looking! 

Poutine. OMG! I am changed for life. 

We took a day trip out to St. Bruno to see where my mom lived. This was her house! 

My grandparents used to manage a boarding stable on the mont st. bruno. Based on what my mom described we were trying to find it. What my mom didn't know was that since she lived there they have turned that whole area into a national park. Including tearing down the very historic and huge monistary. 

As we were trying to find this barn we decided to drive up into the authorized vehicles only area into the park. We ended up driving in this INSANE RICH community surrounding a man made lake. Im talking rich rich. The owner of Cirque Du Soleil lives back there!! Crazy! 

So we ended up going back out of town around to the actual park enterance. Mark schmoozed the young girl opperating the booth into letting us in for free by telling her we were just going to go in quick and then out... ha. 

So we drove PAST the pavement, basically onto the service road and we did find the barn! It was hard for me to picture what it looked like in its prime as now its all borded up and used for storage. 

So once we found the barn we went along and tried to find the monistary. My mom was super confused as to why we couldn't see it from the barn. She said it was on the top of the mountain. So we headed up in our jeep to the top. lol. on service roads and then completely off roading. Straight up. It was super not allowed. We passed byt his super creepy cave that they used to use for services in the monistary. We kept investigating and we found a gazeebo that had information and a few statues from the building. Turns out someone went on a weekend, without telling any of the townspeople and tore the building down. Sad! 

This is deep fried anything from this little fish and chip place. AMAZING! Deep fried cream eggs!! 

Next stop, St. Joseph oratory. Such a HUMUNGOUS building. 

We got to meet up with my moms childhood friend Mona! She is such an amazing person! She and her daughter took us for montreal smoked meat sandwhiches. So good!! 

Below is the church that Celine Dion was married in! It was amazing. 

Notre Dame basilica

BAGELS

Montreal Biodome. This was a highlight! 

Olympic pool

Tired baby after a long few days!!