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May 1, 2003

Trip to Montreal

Wednesday, April 23,4:00 am - The sound of the alarm clock at this ungodly hour brought Will to an immediate standing position as he then proceeded to finalize the packing for our first ever family vacation. was it really time to get up already? Not for me, I decided to forego the shower for an extra 30 minutes of sleep. By 4:45 Will plucked a still sleeping William out of the bed and plunked him in the car and we were on out way to the airport.

Equipped with books and snacks and crayons we boarded the plane at about 8 am. A small dash 8 was the aircraft that carried us from Gander to Halifax. (FOr those travellers accunstomed to jets, the dash 8 is a propeller plane that holds about 40 people, with two seats on either side of a narrow aisle). The ride was 2 hours and 30 minutes and for the most part William was an angel. He didn't attempt to run down the aisle as I had feared, and he didn't even cry until we were landing and he was in obvious pain, tugging at his ears (poor little guy). He did squirm an awful lot and it was a challenge to keep him from kicking the seat in front of us, and for a little while he was even lying underneath the seat in front of us, but for the most part he enjoyed drawing, reading, singing songs, looking out the window and talking about what we would see in Montreal. (OUr conversations consisted of me saying something like, we are going to Montreal to see Nanny, then repeating the sentence leaving out different words each time and having him fill in the blanks, we are going to 'mon' to see 'nan')

At the Halifax airport we had a two hour wait. William was entertained at the play center there, where they had an almost life size transport truck that he climbed in and out of like a pro ( and sporting an orange plaind shirt and a green fleece vest he even looked the part of a truck driver). The next leg of the flight was a blessing as William slept the whole way (as did my legs arms and practically the entire left side of my body!!)

We were greeted at the airport by my Father in Law who couldn't believe we had so much stuff with us. With one large sized suitcase, two small ones and a duffel bad that held the mandatory car seat I was proud of myself for packing so light.

We arrived at our destination, nan and pop's house and it was absolutely beautiful. An old stone house in a real nice part of town on a quiet little lane, the perfect neighbourhood for William to explore. William was especially fond of climbing the large set of hardwood steps up to the third floor whenever we were at home (What a workout for me, going up and down). Not far from where they lived was also the nicest playground I have ever seen. We don't even live within walking distance of one here, and the ones that are here are not really worth the drive, most of the time. I was especially fond of this Little Tykes slide and fort thing that they had. It was toddler safe, as in he could climb up and walk through the fort without us worrying about him falling through any openings (as there weren't any). And William had tons of fun sliding over and over and over...

The next day we went to Ikea. I made sure to get this excursion in right away to ensure that we did indeed get to go. And I must say it was better than I could have ever imagined. I have seen the products on the internet and in magazines but never in real life and I was really impressed with the quality and the prices. And the size of the store!! I mean it was three times the size of our entire mall. Two floors of absolute heaven. I wandered around the twists and turning aisles (thank god for the arrows or I would still be lost in there now) like a kid in a toy store. I made out with a few great purchases too, not in the least was my cedar patio bench that I have put in my front porch, for only $50! (That also meant a lot of tight squeexing to get my four bags down to three but it was worth it). If only there was such a great store within driving distance of me, what damage I could do to our bank account.

Will's sister who is living in Vermont joined us on Friday. William was thrilled to see his aunt who he hasn't seen since Christmas. It's amazing how he could still remember her (having her picture on the fridge helps I am sure). We spent the rest of our trip walking here and there, stopping occasionally to stop in a store or a church for a look etc. WE also visited the Biodome, which WIlliam really loved. He especially liked the ducks and penguins and the monkey. It was truly amazing how well behaved he was throughout the duration on the trip. We were on the got he whole time (except nap time), we'd jsut stick him in the backpack and go. I think he just really enjoyed watching all the activity, the cars, people, the many buses etc. THe highlight for him I think was seeing and riding on the Metro. When he saw it pulling up to our stop he was pointing and screaming, ohhhh ooo ohhhh ooo like crazy!

We left to return home Sunday afternoon. Will's parents left us at security at around 4:00pm and we made our way to the far end of the terminal to our gate to await the arrival of our flight. William became a little antsey so Will took him to find a place to play while we waited. WHile they were gone it was announced that our flight would be delayed due to a snow storm in Calgary. Will returned saying there was no play place, nor anywhere to get anything to eat, except for one little place at the opposite end (a long distance away) where people were smoking. (We have no smoking in all public places in Newfoundland so that was one thing I found hard to get used to in Montreal, people smoking everywhere, and sooo many people smoking at that). So needless to say we were getting pretty hungry. He also reported that there was no where for children to play in the entire airport that he could find. At some point during the wait William made a nice smelly mess in his pamper, the kind that requires immediate changing. SO Will set off once again to find a family change room. He returned to tell me that there was no family bathroom, adn that none of the mens washrooms were equipped with a change table. So he had to change WIlliam on a chair in a crowd of people while William screamed at the top of his lungs (as per usual) and tried as hard as he could to get away from his daddy. I can only imagine how frustrated I would have been had it been me. I was totally unimpressed with the airport however, a unisex bathroom with a change table etc is a must in this day and age.

We arrived in Halifax to find out that because of our flight delay we missed our connecting flight home, so they put us up in a hotel for the night. Again, I was a little disappointed witht he fact that we still hadn't eaten supper, it was after 10:00pm, the bus ride was 25 minutes and by the time we checked in and put William to sleep it was after 11:30. The hotel restaurant closed at 11:00 and we were located in the middle of the industrial part of the city so there were no food places/convenience stores anything within 7 km of the hotel. The hotel didn't even have so much as a chip machine or a mini bar. I was starving! The airline gave us a $14 meal credit for breakfast at the hotel. I have tosay that breakfast started at 7 am and our bus left at 6:50. Now that's what I call service. The one bright spot in our return trip home was that William was even better than on the first flight, with no apparent pain from his ears. ANd he was thrilled to be riding on a bus for the first time. When we first got on he was so excited and even yelled drive drive, as he wasnted to drive the bus. The passengers thought that was too cute, but he wasn't too impressed when I said he couln not, in fact, drive the bus.

Overall, our trip was wonderful and we were safe at home again by noon on Monday. (Although we did have to fly an extra leg once we arrived back in Newfoundland, on an even smaller plane than the dash 8, this plane seated only 18 people! Mini vans have more space from side to side.)

William's new sandbox.

Since we have been home we have gotten WIlliam a new (well, used) snadbox. It is a small ladybug with a cover that fits perfectly in the corner of our patio. It's perfect as our patio is totally fenced in, so if we need to run in the house for whatever reason we can leave William there with no worries. He has been spending almost every waking moment out there the past two days. He loves digging, filling up his trucks, and watching me make things with his car and fish molds, then destroying them of course, only to cry out "one more". And we have been busy reseeding our lawn, raking, preparing the flower beds and vegetable garden and painting doors and garage floors etc etc. My brother is here helping us with our long list of chores which is really nice. I am really enjoying Spring, now that it is finally here!!!!

Talk to me-
I am interested in hearing from other travellers about their experiences flying with young children. Especialyy if you have noticed whether airports have been children friendly (offering change tables, etc). SOmeone needs to know they don't just belong in womens' bathrooms!

Thanks for reading