Author: Seb

Verizon… FU

I’m hoping this is the most frustrating part of the trip.

Both Hanika and I have unlocked iPhone 8s, bought outright from JB Hifi. I’ve used my in Canada and Thailand with new SIM cards without issue. After a bit of research I figured Verizon would be the best carrier for us given their service coverage and store locations.

We cruised into Vermont and went to the closest Verizon store we could. I paid $120 USD to set up two prepaid plans WITHOUT having any credit on my account. They wouldn’t accept payment in store and told me to call their 1800 number to finish the process.

6 hours later I still couldn’t activate my phone. By this time we were in another town and after an hour they said it was sorted and I should be good. They gladly took another $100 USD. Cash only though because they wouldn’t accept my USD credit card because it was from Canada (on a prepaid!). By the time we got to Chester it was clear things were not working as they should. I spent over an hour on the phone with Verizon and Apple, both blaming each other. Our phones were certainly compatible with Verizon (CDMA and GSM).

The next day I called back and got an assurance, though it was made abundantly clear it wasn’t a promise, that my $100 credit would be reimbursed. As for the $120 set up fees I’d have to visit the chain of stores I went to originally (resellers not actually Verizon). They refused to give me a refund over the phone for some garbage reason.

I finally gave up and went to AT&T and sorted us both out within 25 minutes for a fraction of the cost! They had no issue taking my credit card in store.

Over 6 hours and $220 wasted! Travelling without a phone these days in nearly impossible. We don’t have paper maps anymore and our van doesn’t have a built in GPS. We relied on free wifi from the parking lots of restaurants to load up Google Maps and download offline maps and the next set of directions.

Lesson learnt: Verizon sucks.

Vermont

After Montreal we spent 3 nights in Chester Vermont. Why Chester? No reason really. It seemed half way to Boston and the Air BNB was the right price.

We left Montreal and headed straight for the Ben and Jerry’s factory for a tour and tasting. They had an informative propaganda film that exalted the values of being bought by Unilever. Saying that, they must be better than Nestle! We had a couple of ice creams before getting back in the car to find Chester. We were without cell phones at this point (more on this in another post) and arrived after dark to our little cabin in the woods.

In the morning we were greeted by wild turkeys running around and beautiful tree covered mountains. We spent the day getting groceries (beer) and walking around the forest. The next day we had a 1 hour train ride through the hills and got treated to some early foliage.

On our last day we did a self guided walking tour through Chester. We stopped at a local cafe for lunch, a tasting flight of beers and picked up more at a local beer shop. Vermont is famous for its selection of craft breweries and we weren’t disappointed.

Our cabin was fantastic. Nestled amongst the trees, completely secluded. It had a full kitchen with a washing machine and oven. It was almost completely baby proof and even had baby gates. The finished basement had a ping table which occupied Moose for hours.

After Vermont we went to Boston to catch up with more friends!

Montreal

Back to my second home! I’ve always loved Montreal and it’s still the only place I’d move back to Canada for. We spent 3 nights here.

We stayed downtown at an Air BnB apartment. It had a late check in at 1630 so I risked it and arrived at 1600. It was a self check in process and I found the door open with the keys inside as promised. I also found the place in a tip. The sheets were clearly used, all the towels were piled up and there were still dishes in the sink! I grabbed the keys and sent a message to the host to let them know. In fairness they had 30 minutes before I was supposed to check in. We used that time to get some groceries. We arrived back closer to 1700 to find the cleaner at work! I thought I was well prepared for Montreal being functionally bilingual. What I didn’t prepare for was trying to speak Spanish! Luckily I took one year in high school… The poor cleaner looked surprised to see us in the apartment and worked as fast as he good. Hanika sat in the hallway with the boys while I shuttled our bags out of the van. Our babysitter arrived (we were due out for dinner) to find the kids crawling around the halls! We managed to get the kids dinner and settled before we darted off to join friends 30 minutes late!

We ate at a delicious French restaurant called “Grenadine” in the Latin Quarter. 3 of the group ordered the 6 course degustation. Much to my surprise we were all given different meals for each course! I had a mouse foie gras creme brulee, horse and a rum and sorbet pallet cleanser. Other people had rabbit and deer.

After dinner we went to Benelux which was our old regular brew pub where I worked after graduating for a few months. We had a great night going through some old and new beers and catching up.

The next day Alex hosted brunch at his place, complete with Cesars (which is a Bloody Mary with clam juice added). I seem to remember the metro to be much easier to ride when I was single and childless! The metro system is not very pram friendly, especially after using Toronto’s subway. I had originally planned to take the family to Tam Tams but time got away from us and we headed for a quick nap before dinner with family friends (I first met them in Thompson in the early 90s).

The follow day we went to the Science Museum to pick up our memberships. The exhibits were alright and kept Moose occupied but I don’t rate it as highly as the one in Ottawa. As a bonus we got free parking for being members which saved us $30! We had St Viateur bagels for lunch, a superior bagel as compared to any we’ll get in NYC! We had a classic poutine dinner at La Banquise to finish off the day. It was dreary and raining all day so that limited our time outside. I walked around McGill with Ollie but the whole campus is covered in scaffolding.

What we’ve learnt so far is that we need about twice as much time as we had planned to do things. That means we should be spending a week or so in each city. We’ve booked the next few major cities already but I think this will influence how long we spend in places after that. Also, packing is terrible! Hanika’s made it her goal to make us more efficient at short stays instead of dragging all our belongings out of the van every night.

Kids and busy days don’t lend themselves to long transits on public transport. We drove a lot more than I had planned but found parking easily enough. There’s no way the kids would have tolerated a 40 minute journey plus walk at 8pm!

Ottawa

After Toronto we made a quick one night stop in Ottawa to catch up with my uncle, cousins and second cousins. Despite multiple attempts we couldn’t get a nice photo of all the kids (mainly because mine can’t/won’t sit still).

The following morning we went to the Science and Tech museum to burn the kids out before the quick drive up to Montreal. We bought memberships to the Montreal Science Centre which gives us reciprocal entry to lots of museums. Even though we hadn’t picked up our cards yet I was able to show them the online receipt and we were waved in!

The museum had lots of interactive exhibitions covering transport, mining and even medicine. Moose wasn’t nearly excited enough to see a stethoscope that belonged to William Osler. He did however like smashing a hockey helmet with a hammer.

We had a quick drive to Montreal until we hit the construction. I didn’t trust Google maps and followed the sign posts and ran right into the worst congestion ever!

Toronto

We spent 2 nights in Toronto to catch up with friends and be tourists.

We managed the CN tower and Ripley’s aquarium in a day. We pre bought tickets to both places online the day before, both kids were free. We arrived at the CN tower at 11am and managed to walk straight onto the elevators without any waiting! The views from the CN Tower are absolutely amazing. I hadn’t realised how big Toronto is, from that height it feels much bigger than Sydney. There was a bar with a special CN Tower lager that I just had to drink! We went to the glass floor level and struggled to persuade Moose to walk on it. Another poor kid was dragged kicking and screaming so the parents could get the iconic shot.

After we went to the aquarium which may end up being a highlight of the trip. It’s got a great collection of animals but what stands it apart is the the layout and design of exhibits. Each seemed to have their own music. The underwater tunnel had a travelator so you could easily move through without bumping into people.

After the kids had a quick nap so we stopped at the Steam Whistle brewery for a beer and pretzel. Much deserved after all that walking!

That night we got a baby sitter from an online agency and went out with friends for dinner and drinks. Toronto has no shortage of unique small bars. Interestingly the ones we went to offered little snacks as well. We had spicy ribs, duck hearts and sweet potato pie.

Our Air BnB was well located, at a good price but damn small and not Ollie proof. Any time we wanted to clean or pack one of us would have to take him out for a walk. Not bringing a portacrib is proving to be short sighted!

We met Cara, my old nanny, for a play date on the way out to Ottawa. Turns out the drive was quite a bit further than I had realised. It took us close to 5 hours with 2 pit stops. For now that seems about the limit the kids can put up with. If all goes to plan that will be the longest drive though. We bought some towels to put under Ollie’s seat to change the angle. He’s in a bucket seat in the van and he’s rear facing so he flopped forward when he slept.

Niagara Falls

What a sight! It’s everyone’s first time here and it’s more stunning than people make it out to be.

We started on the American side given we were driving from Buffalo. We stopped at the state park, went up the observation deck and went on the Maid of Mist. We donned our cool blue ponchos (they’re red if you take the Hornblower from the Canadian side) and rode right past all 3 falls. The boat should be renamed the Maid of the Downpour. Thank goodness for the ponchos or we would have been soaked! Honestly though, it was a great experience and for $40 USD it was well worth it.

It was a beautiful day so we dried off quickly, had a snack and made our way across the boarder to Niagara Ontario. The boys slept so we drove around for an hour soaking up the sights. We checked into our hotel then explored around the area as much as Moose’s legs would let us. I think we’re going to buy a cheap foldable pram for him! We finished up by putting the boys in the pool before dinner with hopes of getting a solid nights sleep!

We stayed at the Four Points with a falls view room that didn’t disappoint! A big step up from the airport motel in Buffalo and probably the nicest accommodation we’ll have until Disney.

A note on Niagara Falls, it’s bloody expensive! Saying that, I wish we had a few more days there.

The next day we woke up early and headed for the Sky View ferris wheel for a lofty view of the falls. On our way Hanika took Moose to the toilet. While they were gone I heard the unmistakable sound of car vs pedestrian followed by screaming. I ran up the street to find a lot of people walking AWAY! I handed Ollie in his pram to some responsible looking people (what gives me any special ability to be a parent?) and ran to render assistance. It was a poor Australian couple who were hit crossing the road. A bit of blood and tears but no one seemed too injured. Within 10 minutes 2 fire trucks, 2 ambulances and a police cruiser showed up! Good to see the local tax revenue is paying for first rate emergency responders. We made it to the ferris wheel unscathed and enjoyed walking around Clifton Hill.

The hotel has a 12pm check out so we made our way to Toronto. We stopped in Oakville to see a very old friend and arrived in Toronto safely that afternoon.

Another challenging trip!

Hanika and I have no luck when we travel! This time we arrived at the airport painfully early to ensure we could drop off the rental car, check in, have breakfast and change a nappy before going through customs. We were extra early when I received a text message at the airport to say the plane to Chicago was delayed an hour.

Normally that wouldn’t have been a big deal except it meant missing our original connection to Buffalo. No one was at the United desk but I was told over the phone we had been rebooked on a later flight that evening. Again, that should have been fine. Except I’m a tight ass and I booked our rental car from an off airport Hertz which closes at 18:00! I can’t remember how much I saved but it better have been more than $20.

We landed in Chicago and saw that our original flight to Buffalo was delayed. I quickly asked at a gate if we could change back to that flight but was told I’d have to take it up with the people at the departing gate. I hadn’t been to O’Hare before so I figured we could make a mad dash and catch them… wrong! It’s a massive airport, the scale of Charles de Gualle. So I dragged my poor family through a busy airport, across 2 terminals only to find that by the time we got the gate the plane had left! We collected ourselves and mopped our brows. We headed back to another terminal to wait for our flight. 45 minutes before check in I looked at the screen to confirm the gate only to find they had moved the plane to another terminal! We walked across and found another 45 minute delay!

Eventually we landed in Buffalo and made our way to the hotel. The airport charges $5 for luggage carts so I walked outside to the taxi rank and found a discarded one! Despite Ollie being Mr No Sleep we made it out with the van to Niagara Falls in good time.

Leaving Winnipeg

After a month it’s time to leave Winnipeg and start the road trip part of the trip. It’s been great catching up with friends and family and being “home”.

Since the last post we’ve been keeping busy. We went out to the Living Prairie Museum (a bunch of native grasses), the Forks multiple times, Go Kart racing and even made time for an escape room!

We played some street hockey to introduce Moose to even more Canadian culture. I grew up on a street full of families with children of overlapping ages. As we’ve all left the empty nesting parent’s haven’t moved so there’s been a glut of children around. Things are changing! It was a great multigenerational game with children, parents and grandparents all playing.

The escape room was heaps of fun! We went with Eric and Jenn (Eric and I met each other in grade 6). It was loosely based on the movie “Alien” and involved solving puzzles aboard an alien infested spaceship. There were lots of puzzles requiring different levels of communication. One involved talking Eric through a puzzle via an intercom while he was in a black room and we could see him with a nigh vision camera. The staff acted as aliens and worked hard to scare us. I believe Jenn was successfully terrified.

Tomorrow we’re flying to Buffalo NY to pick up our car and start our first road trip. We’re heading back to Canada through Niagara, Toronto, Montreal then down the east coast of the USA to Florida for 2 months. The blog posts should be more frequent from now on as we write about all the things we’re doing.

St Malo Provincial Park

Tucked 45 minutes south of Winnipeg is the town of St Malo and its provincial park. We were invited down for the day by my cousin. The weather cooperated by clearing up just as we arrived. We were treated to bright blue skies and a little in the way of wind.

It was a great day spent immersing Moose in all things Canadian. For lunch we had fire roasted smokies. Then we took him canoeing in a wooden canoe that was hand built by my uncle (no blood relation obviously). We finished off the day with Smores over the fire. We couldn’t convince him to go for a swim though, he’s still a bit precious about the temperature!

Lake Manitoba

We’ve just returned from a week with my dad at Lake Manitoba. It’s about 2 hours north west of Winnipeg (see google maps on the sidebar) next to the Narrows Resort. The cabin was beautiful, situated right on the water with ample grassed area for Moose to race his Uncle Beeg (Alex) every day.

Unfortunately we were not treated to any of the famed summer weather Winnipeg has had recently. Highs in the low 20’s to mid teens with wind warnings hampered efforts to get into the canoe. We did manage to go for a quick swim which was followed by jumping into the hot tub. This is the third year running I’ve brought Hanika to Canada to experience “unseasonably cold weather”. Last year there was snow in September. The year before there was snow for Halloween. I’m beginning to think my memories of warm summers are just figments of my imagination.

Luckily we had the resort next door to kill sometime in. It comprised a small convenience store with all the essentials, a Chester’s Fried Chicken bain-marie, a lounge with the mandatory VLTs and pool table and a restaurant. We had a couple of meals in the lounge which permitted children until 9pm. I see a bright future as a pool shark for Moose.

We went to Ashern for a grocery run one day. It’s a town of just over 500 people but services a busy highway and surrounding communities. We were able to find food and even a puzzle. Dad and I proudly finished the 500 piece puzzle in two days. At our low points we routinely blamed the manufacturer for pieces that must have been missing.

Despite not introducing Moose to canoeing he did manage to have his first bonfire. The Haiarts are famed woodsmen. Armed with a forrest worth of paper and cardboard, some wet branches and overpriced logs we managed a half decent fire. I masterfully whittled a branch into a marshmallow stick using a blunt steak knife. Moose was thoroughly unimpressed with my roasting skills and complained they were too burnt. He did delight in simply eating raw marshmallows off the stick though, so not a total failure of an experience.

Despite the weather it was a relaxing week with some beautiful Manitoba scenery.