Thanks to our amazing parents (who are brave enough to take on our four kids), Zach and I are headed to Montreal today! It's an 11th anniversary trip; we were a little too busy with newborns last summer to take a trip for the more traditionally-celebrated 10 year mark. Why Montreal? I've wanted to visit ever since high school French class, it's international without being overseas, and well, it just looks like a fun place to visit.
In the five years since Austin was born, I have only spent two nights away from my kids (not counting nights in the hospital because they hardly qualify as a vacation). It is not that I am against leaving my kids with someone else so I can spend concentrated time with Zach, but rather the logistics of willing babysitters (family) living hundreds of miles away. But we decided months back that we wanted to make this a priority. Our marriage is a priority. We love love love our kids but having four of them so young has made for a crazy year. So we saved our pennies, made arrangements with the grandparents, and now it's time to go!
Saying goodbye to the kids this morning was emotional, as I knew it would be. Austin was so sweet, he said he hoped we would have fun and assured us that he would have fun. Esther was pretty sleepy this morning and I doubt she really processed what was happening, but I got a sweet I love you from her last night and that's enough. Joshua and Jude gave me some snuggles this morning. Little moments to treasure while we're away. This is the farthest physical distance that has ever existed between me and my kids and it's bringing out a lot of mixed feelings. Every kid I saw in the airports made me think of my own. Part of me is embracing this freedom with Zach, enjoying how carefree one can be on a trip like this, and then thoughts of the kids pop into my head and I miss them so much. I guess this is all to be expected; I am not going to let myself feel guilty about this, though.
****Insert here hours-long interlude of air travel which is really too boring to write about****
Aaand we're here in Montreal! We made it through customs, hopped in a cab, and the first thing I saw as we left the airport was...Walmart. Seriously. (Shaking head.) I came all the way to Canada to see Walmart? Okay, maybe I should back up and say one cool thing about the hours of travel. As the plane was descending into Montreal we got a great bird's eye view of several areas we've read about like Mont Royal and the Olympic Stadium. So I'll think of that as my first Montreal memory instead.
We are staying in a bed and breakfast in the Verdun neighborhood of Montreal. We wandered around a bit before choosing a restaurant for dinner and it is most definitely a neighborhood, not full of tourists at all. Houses, apartments, sketchy-looking convenience stores, a surprising number of secondhand shops, some restaurants. It reminds me of Paris and New York at the same time.
We chose to eat at a place called Woodland Pizza because we saw people eating delicious looking Italian food through the window. In my opinion, walking into a restaurant in a foreign country is perhaps the most uncomfortable part of foreign travel. (I've done an incredibly small amount of international travel, mind you.) The person who greets you doesn't yet know you're not comfortable with the language so you get asked something in that language which you do your best to process and respond appropriately, but invariably your deer-in-the-headlights look reveals your foreign identity. And then (fortunately for me in the places I've visited) they smile and start speaking English. Our server tonight was quite kind; she and the bartender even gave Zach some tips on getting around in the area while he paid. But man, I wish I remembered my high school French.
Our room at the B&B is beautiful and happens to be the only thing I have a picture of tonight.
Hmm, wonder what time we'll wake up tomorrow without kids around? I'm excited to find out empirically rather than hypothetically. :-)
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