Having grown up Catholic and having visited Notre Dame in Paris well before that heartbreaking fire this year, I knew we needed to visit the Basilique Notre-Dame.

I’ve always been fascinated by churches, especially old churches. The intricacy of the carvings of the pews and the spiral staircase, the painstaking task of the stained glass and the feel I always get when I enter one – the feel of something more made visiting Notre Dame a must. And I’m glad we did.

The organ – with pipes as tall as a two story building at least – perched on the balcony. An organ demonstration was ongoing while we visited and Amazing Grace brought tears to my eyes.

Dad says…Montreal is a city that I could return to over over again. I love the vibrancy and there are so many distinct neighborhoods to explore. I really enjoyed the French and English fusion. Menus, signs and even the local magazines are written in both languages. I think that if I spend a short time you’re really sharpen up my French speaking skills.

One of my big takeaways from the couple of days that we spent was our family’s experience using public transportation in a big city. We earned a level of confidence in learning the metro and bus system and using it to bop all over town.

Many of the metros are deep underground so one thing I will always remember is the incredible leg workout we got in the many many steps we had to climb. Lily and I even had a system where we would run up all of the steps in a pattern of every other step and every single step in order to get the ultimate leg burning work out. By the end of two days, this was getting quite difficult

After Notre Dame, we decided to head back down to Vieux Montreal because many of the shops have been closed the evening before when we went down for dinner. The walk-through with 300-year-old buildings and streets was a good way to stretch our legs before our 3-hour drive to Quebec City.

Dad (that’s me) is starting to really feel the hit from dining out in a very expensive city for each meal so I tracked down the local grocery store, Provigo, and we did a French breakfast of croissants, jam and whipped maple butter in the hotel room this morning and took sandwiches for the road today.

Lily spent a moment lighting a candle in honor of her new cousin, Luke, whose arrival we were all eagerly awaiting.