The Day We Drove to Canada

On Saturday we headed north to Montreal, Quebec, but  made several stops along the way.  As we drove through Vermont I honestly thought I was going to see Rory and Loralei Gilmore (from The Gilmore Girls) at any moment.  It looked just like Stars Hollow!  To make the beautiful drive even better, Brooke provided us with special music by singing the entire way.  She did a medley of her greatest hits collection – including numerous songs from the Wiggles, “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” album.  Our favorite had to be “Dr. Knicker Bocker.”  she also sang several versions of “Follow the Prophet,” “Twinkle Twinkle” and Old MacDonald.  My personal favorite was the performance of her self-written hit single “I Am A Big Girl.” 

While Brooke sang, Katelyn enjoyed the sights (in between games on her DSi) – and she actually said several times, “It looks like we are in a picture!”  The leaves are at their peak and have been truly spectacular.

For our first stop, we had a chance to go to Sharon Vermont and see were the Prophet Joseph Smith was born.  The missionaries gave us a nice tour and we had a chance to tour the beautiful grounds.  This is a picture of Katelyn and Brooke sitting by the actual hearthstone from the fireplace of the home where he was born.

This is the monument that they erected in 1905 to commemorate the 100 year mark since his birth.  It stands 38.5 feet tall, representing number of years he lived.  It is made of 60 tons of flawless granite and is truly an engineering marvel even by today’s standards.  The story of how they got it in place was incredible too!

This picture of the girls shows them at the spot that would have been the entrance to the Smith home where Joseph was born.  You can see that the girls were delighted about the rain and the flags the missionaries gave them – they really enjoyed visiting this beautiful place.

 

Next we headed to Waterbury, Vermont to tour and sample at the Ben and Jerry’s factory.  When we arrived we found a line longer than anything I have seen at Disneyland and the machines weren’t even running.  So as far as tours go, we decided we could walk the girls through a grocery store and it would be about the same since the machines weren’t running. 

Finally, our travels that day took us into Quebec to visit Montreal.  It was absolutely pouring as we arrived but their was a rainbow near the city which was a real kid pleaser.  Unfortunately, I was functioning as a human GPS, so between the torrential downpour and everything being in French, let’s just say it got a little dicey getting to the hotel.  But we made it and then it was time to find some French food and hear Kyle speak French.  Bonjour Canada!