Lana's visit days 2 and 3

 Our vacation continued the next day by a very early rising.  I thought that the Botanical Gardens had free entrance. (Info given by my usually reliable missionaries), but because of some international exhibit there are no free entrances at this time.  We decided to go to the Biodome and Planetarium instead.  The tickets were too expensive to do both.  We began by looking a little bit around the outside of the Botanical Gardens.  There was this very pretty fountain.  My foot was still hurting, so I waited while the rest of the group walked around.  They found a fun little garden where you could touch and smell all of the flowers and plants.  It's a special garden for the visually impaired. They all like it a lot.

 That is the Olympic tower in the background.  The Olympic dome is right there too, but not visible in the photo.

 We went to the Biodome next.  This wonderful exhibit has four eco systems through which you can walk.  It is housed in what was the Velodrome for the 1976 Summer Olympics.  The first is the Tropical Forest which is a replica of a South American Rain Forest.  Next is the Laurentian Forest, a replica of the North American wilderness.  Then there is the Saint Lawrence marine eco system and finally the Arctic and Antarctic wilderness.  Each area had all of the authentic flaura and fauna.  Many of the animals, birds, etc were roaming free and we saw so many of them.  Of course the penguins and Arctic birds were behind glass.  In the Tropical Forest, Grace spotted a lemur, a poisonous red frog and lots of other animals.  The beautiful birds were flying overhead.  We really enjoyed  our visit there.

Then we walked across to the Planetarium which was also great.  We got to see two shows, both of which we all thought were excellent.

Here is Grace in a dinosaur egg.  Afterwards we went to eat Poutine at the Banquese.  Poutine is a typical Canadian dish of french fries covered in a gravy and served with cheese curds.  There are many other toppings that can be put on them too such as chicken, hamburger, veggies, etc.

When we got home one of the young adults, Victoria came over to watch Grace while the rest of us went to the Montreal Temple.  It was a wonderful experience to go there together.

After we got home from the temple it was quite late, but we still stayed up even later, talking and having a snack of baguettes, cheeses, pate, and salami.

 Saturday we went to Rigaud to Cabin du Sucre or Sugar Shack.

 We got to hear a presentation on how the Maple syrup is collected and then boiled down.  It takes 40 liters of sap to boil down to make 1 liter of syrup.  The syrup is very yummy.

 We had a great lunch there and had fun entertainment.  Grace was chosen to play in the international spoon group. They had a little lesson and then played their spoons.  It was so much fun.

That afternoon or rather early evening, Lana, Rob and Dad went walking along St Denis street.  This is a famous street full of cafes, shops, and tons of people.  They stopped at a Patisserie and bought lots of delicious pastries.  After they got back to the apt. we cut them up and got to sample lots of different ones.  Grace and I stayed home and played Phase 10 and chatted.  We loved our visit together.  I loved having them all come.  Sunday after church they left for their long drive home and we were left happy to have had them come here and so sad to see them leave.