Moncton/Pugwash

first glimpse of the ocean!

From Québec we took an overnight train to Moncton, New Brunswick. We got in on the 24 and rented a car. We were going to be staying in a cottage on the coast of Nova Scotia in a little town called Pugwash. A family Bradley knew from his mission owns it and let us stay. It was an hour and a half drive there and on the way we stopped to pick up something from kijiji. Psych DVD's! The real reason we took this trip hah. We got some groceries and had a relaxing half day in. We strolled along the beach. Watched the sunset. And realized that I hate crabs.


 When the sun had gone down watched some psych and did laundry.

P.S. This whole trip was planned around when we could do laundry. Making sure that we had access to a machine once a week.

Québec

We arrived in Québec with time to still explore on the 22 Aug. We went to the citadelle and did a tour of the Governor General's accomadations.

It was interesting, but too fancy for me to live in. Also I only took pictures of the artwork in the building never any of the actual rooms... Hmm wonder what interests me...
Later that afternoon we did a tour of the Parliament building.


The outside of the Parliament building was under construction but the inside was still beautiful.

That night we ate at this cute little Creperie in old Quebec. It was our 2nd anniversary.

We wandered around the walls surrounding Old Quebec, but both of our phones died as we found a great picture spot...

We were staying a little bit out of quebec so we took the bus to the place we would be sleeping that night.



On the 23 we walked along the path in the Park of the Plaines of Abraham. It was quite long but very informative. They had signs along the path giving details about the battle. And we had accidentally started at the end so when we made it to the beginning we turned around and did it all again. (maybe that's why I thought it was long). So many cannons everywhere. And benches... Sometimes we questioned the placement of said benches...

Sooo many benches looking out...

to these wonderful trees...

Montréal

I am kicking myself that I didn't finish this sooner...
We got into Montreal late on the 20 of August. And we had such a crazy cab ride to our AirBnB place that Brad almost reported him.

Our hostess welcomed us in and explained where everything was in French. It wasn't until she said goodnight and left that I realized that I understood everything and had no problems with her accent. It turns out she is from France and not Quebecoise.

We fell asleep quickly that night and woke up early the next day. I had heard that the top of Mont Royal was a beautiful place to watch the sunrise so I pulled Brad out of bed at to watch 6:03 sunrise. We started out by walking their and then running when we realized that we were running late. On the way, we came across a bike rake that you could rent bikes at. I believe it was only like $10 for both of us for the whole day. The only catch was you had to return it to a rack every 30 min (but they were all over the city it didn't pose a problem). So we rented those and biked the rest of the way
We made it in time, with little to spare, but really sweaty...

 After we went back to our room and had a nap.

 We went to the Museum of Fine Arts and came out just in time to see the last of the eclipse. Some kind strangers on the street let us see it with their glasses.

Just around the corner from the Museum was Dunn's Famous where we went for lunch. I had a poutine and Brad had some smoked meat sandwich.

I wanted to see Old Montréal and Notre Dame so we biked there as fast as we could as the roads turned to cobblestone. We made it just in time to take a tour inside. Then we wandered the streets for awhile and walked on the port.

We went back to place satisfied and content with everything we saw. Finished the evening off with a conversation with our host and called it a night.

We took an Uber to the station and left Montréal the next day.

Ottawa

Once in Oshawa we got on a train to Ottawa and arrived there later Saturday evening. We only had Sunday to spend there but it was enough. We wandered around and made our way to the parliament where we took a few selfies. We love the 3D Canada 150 signs! We were waiting for Brad's friend to come and pick us up to take us to church with them. After we continued wandering. I never realized that Ottawa was so close to Quebec! Seriously, the Parliament building to on the river which borders the two provinces!

We had poutine for lunch and had a nice relaxing time in Ottawa. I'm sure that we would have found more things to do if we had the time, but we were quite content to just see the parliament and Brad's friend.

Lindsay

Here is Michelle Milne with her 3 kids
Her husband wasn't able to come

Visiting Lindsay was basically just a reunion, there wasn't much to do besides see everyone Brad served around. Sister Doering came and picked us up in Toronto on Thursday and we stayed in at her house on the farm until Saturday morning. Bradley served in Lindsay for a total of 9 months, 8 months and 2 weeks the first time and then he was able to extend his mission and serve for 2 more weeks at the very end to return for the baptisms of the Milnes.

Sis. Doering dropped us off at the church on Friday and then we wandered around Lindsay until the party. We stopped at Brad's old apartment and met up with the elders. They treated Bradley like a celebrity. (a lot of the mission records of that ward were done by Bradley) You should have heard them, "You mean, you're THE Elder Smith?!"

We visited with Cindy, and she
sent us off with a beautiful quilt.

We had Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream. Delish!! And stopped by some members houses to say hello.

Brad hates this picture

We had a bbq with a group of people which lasted well into the night, (or until the kids got cranky at least, but for some that is late). Once again I loved seeing Brad reminisce. We probably told the story of how we met a half a dozen times. But we love that story anyway so it was fun.

Sis. Doering who was so gracious
to host us and drive us from Toronto

Toronto

We stayed in Toronto from the 12-16 of August. We stayed at Sarah and Will's place (Brad's cousin but I also knew Sarah before I knew Brad) We got in in the afternoon and Sarah and Will picked us up and took us to their favourite eateries. That night we did laundry (This is very important... haha) our accommodations were planned on if we had access to a washing machine on certain days (we only brought a limited set of clothes) 

This building was actually built to house 6 wards

Day two was Sunday. We went to Don Mills ward (Bradley served there for about 6 months) and people were very happy to see us. The bishop even called us up to the front of the chapel at the end of the meeting to introduce us and have Brad bare his testimony. 

We went all over that day, to Brad's old apartments and visiting people that he didn't see at church. 

I loved meeting everyone and seeing Bradley so happy! He loved being on his mission and loved everyone he met while serving and I'm so glad he got the chance to go back.

Day three was spent in Niagara Falls. I was so excited about this, I've wanted to go for a long time. We did the Hornblower boat tour and got places right up front. It was so beautiful and astounding. At Niagara we found the first of many 3D Canada 150 signs. (This is not the last picture like this you'll see)

 Day four Sarah, Will, Brad, me, and their two dogs, Kili and Quill, went to Wasaga Beach. The longest fresh water beach in the world. On Brad's mission he served close to the area but never around the beach and ever since he has longed to visit. Wasaga Beach is on Lake Huron in the Georgian Bay.


Day five we did normal tourist things like the CN tower, Casa Loma, Blue Jays game, and Ripley's Aquarium.
We spend a lot of time in museums and therefore more time than we had anticipated (we later learned to schedule accordingly). We had gotten the City Pass which included a lot of the attractions with it. That night we visited the Legislature.

The Filipinos from the Don Mills ward invited us over that night for dinner. I tried Balut for the first time. It is a fertilized duck egg that has partially developed. It was... interesting. It is a delicacy, but usually the Filipinos don't like to look at it so they eat it with the lights off.



Day six was our last day in Toronto. We had lunch planned with Lila and Lana.
We also visited the Royal Ontario Museum before Sister Doering picked us up to take us to Lindsay.

Sudbury

Sudbury is a city about 8 hours north of Toronto where Brad served for three months on his mission. It's the home to the Giant Nickel because of their nickel mines.


Sudbury Junction isn't the easiest place to walk from with carry ons and a bunch of bags. It is kind of out in the boonies. We were going to walk the 20 minutes to the bus station and take the transit from there to a friend's house. As we were walking down the (I suppose) gravel road (mostly mud) a sweet lady stopped by and insisted she give us a ride to at least the bus station. Once in her car we told her where we were actually going and she said she was going by there anyway. We were very fortunate as we weren't quite use to the humidity and the short distance we had already walked was tiring us out.

We stayed at Matt's house (Bradley baptized him when he was there) it was so nice to finally put a face and personality to his name and stories.



There first day there we visited the Giant Nickel and did a mine tour. I now know a lot more about mining then I ever thought I would know, but it was fun. In the same building they had a bit of a science center there for kids (but we enjoyed it too) all focused on mining and minerals.




 I don't know why, but I found all the graffiti there beautiful. They actually advertise it as one of the things to do as a tourist there.

Brad also showed me around and recounted memories from his mission. We had a really good time there, and I'm glad Brad got the chance to reminisce. We are really blessed to be able to have this experience.