The Trapp Family Lodge was a great escape from the world. With no cell service and spotty (at best) internet access, we were shut off from anything other than Vermont mountains and the peacefulness that surrounds it.

Day 5 brought us back on the road and headed to Canada. We ate breakfast at The Bagel in Stowe. Great joint that has every kind of bagel and bagel spread imaginable and some of the best hazelnut coffee I’ve had. Shane and I split an Energy bagel with vegetable cream cheese. Never heard of an energy bagel, but in times of traveling through four states and Canada with three kids, we try to find energy where we can.

Vermont 108 would take us out of Stowe and through Smuggler’s Notch. Our first stop just ten minutes up the road was the Bingham Falls hike. A short hike – about .25 miles in – until you can hear and see part of the falls. The hike was a little treacherous because of the rain that had pounded the area for several hours the day before. This made the moss covered rocks and boulders a bit slick as we trudged down toward the falls. But the few slips and slides were worth the treasure at the bottom.

I’m always amazed at nature and how beautiful yet fierce it can be. The water hurried over and between rock, spraying anyone within a certain distance. The sound of rushing water filling the air around us making it difficult to carry on any kind of conversation. Perhaps Mother Nature’s way of shushing us.

After enjoying the falls and climbing the rocks, we hiked out and headed to the hairpin turns between boulders known as Smuggler’s Notch. It’s a mountain pass that separates Mount Mansfield from Spruce Peak.

This area derived its name from the activities carried on during the early 1800s. The Embargo Act of 1807 forbade the US from trading with Great Britain and Canada. Because of the way this area was carved by the glaciers and water, it made the perfect hideaway path for Vermonters to smuggle goods in and out with Canada.

Well, we wanted a better view of this rock face, only one way we could do it. Climbing a huge rock was the answer for us. Well at least the kids! We climbed a few rocks which led to a huge, I mean huge rock that lets us set our eyes upon a beautiful rock face. Even when we looked the other way, more and more of a rock face.

But hey, you can’t stay in one place forever, can you? That left us one choice, keep going! We knew we had to get to Canada sooner or later. That is exactly what we did, we took a couple hours of driving and guess where we were?? NEW YORK! Yes, can you believe it? We were in New York, that is only because we had to drive through a small part of the state to get to Canadian border. Now, finally we are actually bout to drive in to Canada. But, we must pass a place where we go to get out passports checked and this and that. The guy asked daddy a lot of questions and made us put our windows down in the back so he could see us.

WE drove another 20 minutes before we got to our hotel, ‘Holiday Inn’, a super nice hotel! Luckily, most people in this area of Canada can speak English since their primary language is French. It is a bit uncomfortable in a place where you hear French words being thrown around and it takes some getting used to. I promise you it is weird, super weird! But, you gotta live through it and do what you need to do. Daddy gave us a brief lesson on how to say a few words in French. Bon Jour. Merci.

What we needed was Lunch. Once we got settled in parking, not unloaded from the car yet because our Suite wasn’t ready yet, but unloaded meaning the Smiths unloaded, we went to a café. This cafe was a vegan café, which meant NO meat at all. The LOV is a new restaurant. So, burger meat was replaced with a type of fruit.

This café also had very good soda. It was a Cola made with maple syrup to sweeten it up. It is called ‘1642’. And, it was gooood! I won’t lie to you, I don’t really like Cola, but when it has maple syrup in it, boy was it delicious!!

So, Mom got a Power Bowl which contained kale, cucumbers, quinoa, corn, and all kinds of healthy foods ready to bump up your energy! Dad got Bhan Mi which is technically a fried tofu burger. Jonah got a BBQ Burger with tomato, romaine lettuce, more, and instead of the meat, there was Jackfruit which is a type of fruit that can be substituted with meat for vegans. It was a cool burger. Julia and I had a Caesar Salad containing lettuce, tomatoes, croutons, and the regular salad ingredients except there was fake bacon chunks sprinkled over it. Luckily, it didn’t really make a difference at all. After enjoying our meal, we had to get going so we headed back to our hotel room and it was the biggest hotel room I have ever stayed in. Super cool!

After exploring our hotel room for a while, we had to get ready for the MLS game Dad got us into. It was between Montreal, Canada and Portland, Oregon. Since we were in Montreal, we can’t not go for Montreal. Right? Julia did go for Portland because she felt bad they didn’t get the same applause as Montreal. But, everyone has their own opinion. So, we got ready, some of us showered, some changed into pants for warmth of the cooler night ahead of us! We got to the game and had to go through the security thing and walk up to our seats.

We eventually got to our seats!

We saw the Montreal mascot, a dog!! So adorable!!!

We even got to see the players of Portland and Montreal warm up on the field!

And finally the game is about to start but we get an announcement that lets us know that we have blow over rain headed our way and we should go under the stands. So, we did and we ate our dinner under the stands. No rain yet but then a drenching downpour happens and all the people who stayed on the stands evacuated from the stands to under them. We were squished together because of the people that decided to wait until the downpour but whatever. After it all blows over we can FINALLY start the game, officially.

Montreal wins 2-1 and we hop on the train back home to our “Suite” hotel! 😛 We fall sleep and sleep away until the morning when Jonah, Dad, and I have a hotel gym workout in the morning and whole lot of walking ahead of us!