Friday morning we shut down the house and headed to LAX. Despite a disorganized boarding queueing procedure from Air Canada, the actual flight was not full and we ended up with an empty seat next to us. However, the flight was delayed for about a half hour due to a “maintenance procedure” that prolonged our time getting to sleep in Niagara later and later.

But not before we flew over:

By the time we landed my head hurt a bit. This has been happening for the past year or so. There are different theories why. Usually on flying days my regular diet is restricted and disrupted, most strikingly in the amount of water I don’t consume. At home I’m constantly drinking from a large water bottle. I know it’s not a lot compared to focused “hydro-homies” drinkers, but I’ll usually go through 2 or 3 liters a day. On past flights I tried not to drink at all just to avoid taking off the mask. That ended up putting me in quite a bit of pain in Maui due to dehydration and pressure changes so this time I took sips and gobbled down cookies using the risky hold your breath and quickly unmask technique. The new permanent mask from Envo I bought works much better for this since it has a gel surface that allows the jaw to move around (chew) without breaking contact.

And normally some of that water I’m consuming in the morning is coffee, but I skip the coffee before morning flights so I don’t have to pee every five minutes. In that sense the flight was successful here, but caffeine withdrawals might be a thing?

By the time we were looking for food in Hamilton I had a headache so bad I had to ask Sam to drive. My left eye was extremely red as well, like burst blood vessels red which Sam noticed even in the dark. I was nauseous and couldn’t get down most of the food when we got to it. Two Advil and an hour later I was feeling better. By the next morning the headache was gone. I’m not sure if this is just what flying is going to be like for me now or if there’s something I can do or take beforehand to mitigate this.

Anyway, you know what else was gone on Saturday? Food. With nutrients. In the morning we walked towards the falls, through Clifton fun town, thinking we’d find breakfast. Instead we found fried chicken, fried pizza, fried pickles, fries, and gravy. Eventually, down close to the falls, we found a place called Freshi that had green things, protein that was curiously unfried, and rice. And some outdoor seats.

After eating we walked across the rainbow bridge.

Then moseyed along the edge of America to goat island.

After I took a bunch of pictures we took the trolley around the island before walking back over the bridge.

Hungry again we ate at the “garden” restaurant that we saw from the bridge while we waited to go through customs. It had outdoor seating and from afar it looked fancy (next to a big garden and on the main drag next to the falls). It turned out to be a souvenir shop with microwaved frozen dinners attached and more alcoholic drinks on the menu than food. We should have got the hint when “shot through the heart” and other traditional classy restaurant soundtrack songs started blaring through the outdoor speakers. The steak and fish and chips are in the running for worst version of each we’ve ever had. The steak was…a thawed piece of meat, but the mashed potatoes had no seasoning and a weird taste and texture that made us assume they were those instant potatoes from a box. Is it elitist to say I’m not interested in eating microwaved barely-food grade sawdust? The fish were two little pieces of frozen fish caught three years ago, fried three weeks ago, microwaved for three minutes, and laid to rest on a “bed” of three old fries. Despite all that, at least the fish were edible (thanks to copious amounts of Costco tartar sauce), but the coleslaw was the worst of everything on offer. No dill. Just wet shredded cabbage like somebody washed a cheap fast food salad in the sink and poured it back on a plate. It tasted like what you imagine eating coleslaw out of the trash tastes like. I could not eat more than one bite. Keep this in mind when I tell you how many times we ate at McDonald’s throughout the rest of the trip. I did like my peach schnapps ice cream drink, even though I couldn’t detect any schnapps or vodka in it. Sugar is a hell of a drug.

Not feeling full, but not finding anything else on our walk back to the hotel past Fried Food Mecca appetizing, we eventually settled for a banana split at Baskin Robbins because it at least had fruit in it and it was right next to our hotel so we could eat it in the room, which actually included a small couch.

Later we walked back down to see the falls at night with the lights on.

On Sunday the rest of the family had arrived so they met us at the outdoor patio across from our hotel for brunch at Casablanca restaurant.

And now I’ll note for the curious: Yes, there was covid planning involved. Yes, Sam and myself are still more covid cautious overall (but that’s true when comparing to anyone else we know in any facet of our entire lives) than the rest of the family. However, in the last few months three of us in the group (including me) have caught covid. For the other folks it’s now their second or third infection. So this time there was a heightened awareness of the continuing risk and more masking, with almost everyone masking inside cars (when we shared one vehicle) or when in hotel lobbies, rooms, etc. and a better attempt to dine outside when the entire group was together. There were also a few folks that took rapid tests before and after they arrived. I will not belabor it in the rest of the blog below, but keep in mind when I write about the family taking one car or eating together these precautions were largely followed. In instances where it wasn’t, Sam and I procured our own food from different restaurants that allowed more covid safety.

After eating large plates of Persian food we walked down the Canadian side for an hour or two before walking back to the hotels. One brother/sister-in-law couple decided to do the zipline. Despite Sam and I doing ziplines many times elsewhere we turned this one down since it wasn’t actually going over the water. Talk about stuck up! But that allowed us to go and video/photo the other couple that wanted to do it.

We split into two cars on the egress from Niagara. Sam, myself, and her mother ate dinner at a chipotle (don’t judge) outside of Toronto on the way to our next hotel. The other in laws went straight to Toronto, skipped dinner, and went to a Toronto park.

After Sam and I checked in and saw her mother to her room we went to downtown Toronto in theory to visit the CN Tower. We quickly realized something was up. There were multiple streets closed and lots of trendy people walking around at 8:30 at night. We would later learn TIFF (Toronto International Film festival) was in full swing. We couldn’t find any parking downtown for less than $25. Mind you it was already 9pm. If it was 2pm and we were planning to spend all day then we might have accepted the squeeze, but not when all I wanted to do was take some pictures of the tower.

So we headed to the harbor front and discovered a small street with a row of spots that are free after 9 on Sundays that the trendy people didn’t know about or were too lazy to walk a few blocks from. We took a few pictures in the harbor park and headed back to the hotel around 10.

On Monday morning Sam and I went to Loblaws (yes, Arrested Development fans, yes) for lunch and then tried to visit a city park that’s supposed to look back on the tower and downtown, but it turns out it it’s closed for renovations.

So we started the 4+ hour drive to Ottawa. We stopped at a McDonald’s in the middle of nowhere (most of the drive took place in nowhere) and somehow arrived at the hotel at the same time as the rest of the family. The nuggets in middle-of-nowhere Canada are not as fulfilling as on the Champs-Elysée.

Everyone was tired and didn’t want to see the city so they retired early after a brief birthday party for Sam’s mother. I knew this was my only chance for night pics in Ottawa so I drove down to one of the waterfront parks and walked down to one of the bridges.

On Tuesday we had planned to meet in Byward Market for brunch but ended up at different restaurants. Then we were going to walk through Major’s Hill Park but the stairs were closed for construction. After we got back in our vehicles the other car of family decided to skip the park and head to Montreal. We didn’t find this out till we were already at the park so we (in this case Sam, her mother, and myself) walked around the parliament view park for about an hour. There were some excellent bee photographing opportunities, though they weren’t without copious sweating in the heat.

This was the day Sam and I both realized we’d for sure packed wrong. We’d discussed what to wear weeks before and landed on jeans and t-shirts with thin coats if it got cold. I ended up sweating through my jeans in about ten minutes and never needing the jacket. For the most part the St. Lawrence River area in September is far from cold.

We arrived in Montreal around 5pm. The hotel we stayed in was new, the Hyatt Centric, and had a rooftop bar and pool. They gave us all a free drink ticket so we sat around outside and drank (and I took pictures of course). Before sunset, and while the others went out to eat, I had to attend my court case. You see, I had to appeal a decision EDD made about my unemployment benefits when I was laid off in April. And of course, the court date you get (which is thankfully a phone call) is three months out from when you request it and you can’t move it. So my call happened to be right at dinnertime when the whole family would be in Montreal. Thankfully the rest of the family picked up take-out for Sam and I and brought it to our hotel room. It was after that that we went up top for drinks.

On Wednesday we walked down the street to Notre Dame (under construction, like everything in Canada right now) and waited for a restaurant with a rooftop seating area to open, but, without explanation, they never did. So we went to a nearby French restaurant instead.

We walked back to the hotel and then drove to Mount Royal and walked through the park for a while.

After Mount Royal we drove to Parc de Dieppe to take sunset pics back across the harbor. It was very windy so getting a steady shot with smooth water was difficult.

For dinner we visited a trendy area that seemed like a college part of town on the southwest corner of Mount Royal. We all ended up getting different dinners and eating at park benches that were in a closed off street.

On Thursday Sam and I stopped by Mount Royal again for the lookout on the northeast side.

This was on our way to the botanical gardens in Montreal, in which we discovered there wasn’t much to eat and the famous pictures that come up of the gardens with giant plant sculptures are actually from a temporary feature taken down many years ago. Wonder how we got fooled? Just google it. Look at these photos. The majority of what you’re seeing doesn’t exist there anymore, but Montreal doesn’t mind if you pay admission first before finding that out.

Mom would have liked these flowers though.

And I’m not sure how to describe this dragonfly photo, but if these were humans I don’t think I could post it here…

Since we were just across the street I couldn’t not take a spin around the Olympic Park which was, you guessed it, also under construction. And boy does it need it! It looks more like a Russian cold war bunker now than a place for a grand spectacle in North America.

On the way to Quebec we stopped at Parc des Chutes de Sainte-Ursule to see a large waterfall, but we almost didn’t get in. Finding it was iffy, we departed from the highway and drove through flat countryside for miles wondering how waterfalls could exist in a place as flat as Oklahoma. Then we got to the point on the map and nothing was there but a farmhouse. In confusion, and looking for a spot to turn around, we drove on and then saw the signs for the gravel road going down to the Parc.

But at the Parc we were initially denied entry by woman that spoke no English and took no credit. Nor American cash. Eventually with the help of a laggy (cell coverage was spotty) translation app we agreed she’d take an American hundred and exchange for Canadian, which we could use. Then she told us the parc was closing in an hour.

Back on the road we were hungry, but restaurants (nevermind outdoor seating ones) were in short supply in the far flung small farming towns of French Canadia.

Then Sam somehow found a steak restaurant attached to a cowboy themed bar in a small town in the outskirts of Quebec with outdoor seats. The barkeep seemed ecstatic to have some customers (everyone else was eating back in the fancy red velvet booths inside. We were equally ecstatic to have something approaching “real food” (and wine) instead of McDonalds again in the middle of nowhere.

On Friday the whole family piled into one car and went to Old Town Quebec, discovering on the way that it was the day of the Quebec gran prix. While this produced some difficulty in walking, parking, and finding meals, it provided multiple opportunities to photograph an international Grand Prix as we walked along the Frontenac and Fortress boardwalks.

Sam’s mom and one of the in-law couples went back to the hotel for a breather while the other four of us walked through lower Old Town and had maple gelato with maple butter topping (Je peux croire que c’est du beurre d’érable!) before getting on the ferry and heading to Quai Paquet to watch the sunset.

The others picked us up to go to Levis for a late dinner. Their first choice, a Vietnamese restaurant required reservations, which we didn’t have, so we walked across the street to L’intimiste for dinner. This was a mixed bag. It was good that they had outdoor seating for 7. But I had to repeat my entre order twice and then the waitress completely forgot it anyway. By the time the food came our table’s food (we split into two tables) was behind the rest of the group, so there was no time to order up another entre without delaying everyone getting back to the hotel as it was already late. They would have waited, I don’t want to imply they wouldn’t, but I didn’t want to be “that guy,” so after a long day of walking I didn’t get so many calories. But on the flip side, that’s probably a good thing. We ordered appetizers and desert so there was plenty of food at our table anyway. Speaking of which, the desert I ordered was memorable, a local berry called haskap jam sort of thing that was stuffed inside a meringue that was shaped like a pufferfish and sitting on an ice cream base. The combination of tastes and textures worked really well and I’d recommend it. Looking at their menu online after returning it looks like they’ve already discontinued the desert and replaced it with a Rum Baba for their haskap, so once again my peculiar tastes run contrary to what the rest of the world enjoys.

On Saturday, and for the rest of the trip, Sam and I were on our own as the rest of the group flew to Banff to spend another ten days there. Having gone to Banff twice already we decided not to take part. Our first stop was Montmorency Waterfall, which surprisingly didn’t have a lot of great photo taking opportunities. Again, possibly this was due to construction, as the famous bridge that connects the two base side viewpoints was dismantled and sitting on the left side marsh.

We walked up the nearly 500 step wood climb on the right, again very much regretting our choice of only wearing jeans as the heat bore down. We took the gondola back down.

After the falls we stopped in a little hipster type of neighborhood near the St. Charles River for sushi.

Then it was time for Costco for gas, supplies, and ice cream.

We made it to Chaudière Falls Park just a little too late to capture the sunset on the falls, but the way the access to the falls is set up and the topography it’s actually a more interesting place than Montmorency, though far less famous.

We finished the night with a return visit to Old Town Quebec. Sam originally wanted to eat down there, but due to the parking situation and it already being late we took a walk and then tried to find food near our hotel. Which ended up being McDonalds for the third time on this trip. Not because it was good, but because we knew they’d be open, they’d have outdoor seats, and we knew what we’d be getting.

Some drama that I haven’t mentioned yet, but we were all following day-to-day as the trip went on was the Air Canada pilot strike. A couple of days into our trip we started seeing news reports and getting emails from Air Canada notifying us that their pilots may begin a strike during our trip and our flights may get canceled or deferred or…who knows?

We could have tried to rebook a more difficult flight with another airline (only Air Canada has nonstops from Montreal to LAX), but decided to white knuckle it. With government and media support the pilots pulled off a deal at the last minute and all flights (or ours, anyway) remained on schedule, but we didn’t know this for sure until 24 hours out (the minimum notice the airline was required by law to let us know the flight was cancelled).

Despite all this, our flight was still delayed by an hour or so, for reasons we were never told.

We had to drive back from Quebec City to Montreal to take our flight since Quebec does not have direct flights to LAX. Since we were back in Montreal for a few hours we found parking near Notre Dame and looked for a quick place to eat. Which, you guessed it, ultimately ended up being McDonald’s (many places downtown were closed on Sunday). So we took our to-go order and ate in Place d’Armes, which we’d been to with the family a few days ago.

On the longer flight back we flew over:

And a prolonged amazing sunset that was blocked by the wing for folks in the cheap seats:

And Vegas, but every flight goes over Vegas.