Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Musings: Northeast Vacation

I began writing this post using a top ten motif, but decided there were more than ten experiences worth talking about on the family vacation which we just completed.  

We did a grand circle, beginning in the Boston area, then heading north to Freeport, Maine, onward for three days stays in Quebec City and Montreal, and then returning back home via Vermont and New Hampshire.  This was an expensive year for a driving vacation, especially one to Canada, but we'd decided it was time for our kids to get a more diverse summer vacation experience, including one with cultural and languages differences.   It was expensive, yes, but our experiences were also rich.  

What follows is a sampling of our best experiences on the trip, roughly in the order they happened.  We had fun and learned a lot.   It is presented here in table form, but one can think of it as a geodesic guide, as the experiences built and overlapped upon each other.   I've written about other parts of this trip here and here.   Bon Voyage!

Locale	Experience
All	Biking - People riding bikes were everywhere on our vacation, though notably in Montreal and Burlington, VT.  Most riders were fit and all were saving money.  This meshed well with the green friendly theme which was a subtle undercurrent everywhere we visited, from LL Bean in Freeport, Maine onto the cities which followed.
Maine	Just off of interstate 95, on Route 201, we found Sandy's Kitchen.   Sandy's is a classic diner, but with individual touches such as hand-painted sunflowers on the walls. Our waitress Donna was quick with a smile and a friendly word, and very popular among the men who visited the diner.  The food was scrumptious.  My wife and I shared a Reuben, pastrami piled high on thick, homemade bread.  Thus fortified, we were ready to tackle the long drive to Quebec City.
Quebec City	Dining Out - Dinner was expensive in Quebec City, but the quality was outstanding.   On our first night in QC, we ate at Bistro sous le Fort in the lower part of the old city.  The service was attentive and the bistro fare both diverse and tasty, with dishes such as an appetizer plate with pate, Caembert, and Brie, duck served three ways and fresh seafood.   We hoped for economy at Verla the next night; instead we got a top end Italian dining experience via the Table d'hote menu, with fresh greens in either Insalate Verde or Caesar salad, carrot soup to cleanse the pallette and excellent pastas or veal for the main course.   The following night, Le Cochon Dingue struck a better balance of quality and economy.  Our waitress was friendly and energetic and the food outstanding.  I had two bowls of mussels as my main dish, served with marinades of mustard and smoked salmon, while my family ate the barbecqued ribs.   Nobody left hungry.
Quebec City	Musee de le Civilization - This museum was outstanding and had appeal for our entire family.  Highlights for us were the exhibit on the history of Gold and Urbanopolis, a fact-filled journey into the design of cities past, present and future.   Later, we visited the outdoor Visionaries Garden, a unique exhibit composed of row upon ascending row of plants: herbs, vegetables and flowers, accompanied by windsongs played on chimes.
Quebec City	Marche du Vieux-Port - We weren't sure what this was, but walked in and voila, a farmer's market under a white tented roof.   Everywhere, there were fresh goods, ranging from strawberries, blueberries and other fruits, onto more exotic items such as hemp seeds and products.   Our family bought candies, maple tarts, and fresh strawberries for the next day's breakfast, but there was much, much more.
Montreal/QC	Driving and Parking in the City - Taking the car was difficult in Quebec City and painful in Montreal.   We spent at least $15 per day if we used the car, just on parking.
Montreal	Biosphere - This is the globe shaped building built on St. Helene Island for Expo 67 (see below).   The museum is dedicated to a one world eco-view, but manages to be both fun and educational.   We played at Water Genie, learned from the master at Planet Bucky (aka Buckminster Fuller) and stretched out on the climbing wall in the Great Lakes exhibit.
Montreal	Atwater Market - When the cost of food gets too high, it's time to go to this bastion of fresh food. I learned about the market when staying with local friends and it offers a wide variety of farm fresh goods.  We stocked up on breakfast necessaries (croissants, juice, yogurt and a melange of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries) and yummies for lunch (lemonade, a long and broad fresh bread called le Parisien, pate compagne (aka country pate), goat cheese and proscuitto).
Montreal	Chinatown - This little gem south of Rue Rene-Levesque offers authentic Chinese dining and good buys on Chinese goods such as soup bowls and bracelets.    We had an excellent dinner at a fair price at Maison Kam Fung, found on the 2nd story of an office building on St. Urbain.  Highlights of the dinner included copious portions of a fine wonton soup, steamed shrimp dumplings and a wonderful dish of the tender white fish grouper, accompanied by lightly steamed green beans and carrots.
Montreal	Beauty's - Ah, it is so good when reality exceeds memory.  On an early visit to the city, a friend took me to this classic eatery just to the east of Parc Mont Royal.  Beauty's offers all of the essentials of breakfast in a small room replete with booths and a soda fountain bar for informal eating.  Our slender, dark haired waitress greeted us with friendly words and quickly supplied us with coffee, juice and hot chocolate.  Our eyes were drawn immediately to the Beauty's special, except for my youngest, who wanted the chocolate pancakes.  About ten minutes later, the special arrived:  a toasted bagel brimming over with freshly whipped cream cheese, and layers of salmon lox, lettuce, red onion, tomatoes and capers.  Our waitress supplied extra napkins, saying it was difficult to eat graciously when eating the special.   She was absolutely right -- we all needed our utensils to down this bit of heaven.  Our waitress kept us supplied with hot cups of coffee.  We walked away with full stomachs and a fine end to our Montreal trip.
Burlington	Downtown - We arrived in Burlington on our way home, just to stop for lunch.  On this warm summer day, the town was very busy.   We walked through an outdoor farmer's market on the town green, vowing to come back, then continued to Church Street.   This street is set up as a pedestrian mall, and is loaded with shops and open air cafe's, with the usual sideshows of street jugglers and busker musicians.  My oldest quickly made an allusion to the energy of Quebec City, which seemed to fit.   We walked about and found the cafe seats were full even at 2:00 pm.   We finally settled in at a place called Ken's pizza, but were able to order a variety of goodies including a lobster roll (pour moi), pastrami sandwiches and, of course, pizza.  Our waitress was friendly and quick to share her thoughts on the town.  She is a student at the University of Vermont and clearly loves the city and the school.  The farmer's market had been put away by the time we returned to the green, but we went on to view the waterfront and drive about the campus of UVM.  Summer in the city along Lake Champlain -- it doesn't get much better than this.
Vermont	Rest Areas - Vermont wins plaudits for its rest areas on the highways.   The attendants were friendly, the Green Mountain coffee was free and so was the WiFi.

Dining Contrasts: Montreal and Quebec City

I'm winding up a trip en famille to the two largest French cities in North America, Montreal and Quebec City.  I've been to both cities before, but this was the first time I brought my family along.   

The biggest challenge was to attempt to balance the needs of four different people.  I love walking around in cities, but my family has less interest in that than I do.   I like French cuisine and usually can strike a good balance between quality and price. It was much more difficult this time than ever before, thanks to the weak US dollar.  So, we made compromises.  

As it turns out, we had four outstanding dinners.  Three were in Quebec City and one was in the Chinatown of Montreal.  I'm not really surprised about this, since I have always found wonderful food in Quebec City and we managed to do so even when we watched our expenses.  By contrast, Montreal is much broader in scope and has a much wider range of dining possibilities.   I've had spectacular food in Montreal on past visits, but have also had mediocre dinners.   We did okay on this visit to Montreal, but we were definitely alert to the high costs of dinner in Canada and stayed away from the high end places.   

It turned out that Chinatown in Montreal hit all of the right notes.  On this trip, I relied a lot on Google to get both dinner possibilities and advance reviews.  This was a big help.  For example, I'd eaten well in Montreal's Chinatown before, but it had been a long time ago and I really had no idea what restaurants to pick.  Enter Google.  I simply went to Google, entered the words Montreal Chinatown Restaurants and up popped a few reasonable possibilities.   We ended up at Maison Kam Fung.  It was on the second floor of a business building, so the restaurant itself was a bit hard to find.  Happily, we eventually found the magic escalator that took us to the proper floor, unlike the elevator, which was closed for the night.   

The food there was excellent.   The menu offered all kinds of choices, so we settled on a group portion of wonton soup, steamed shrimp dumplings, spring rolls and two main dishes.   We had a bit of a wait for the soup, but is was worth it.  The soup was hot and very tasty, with plenty of wonton to go around.   The shrimp dumplings were equally good, though we were surprised they came without a sauce.  No problem, we simply used the sweet and tart sauce that came with the spring rolls to complement the delicate dumplings.   A little later, the main dishes arrived: grouper with fresh vegetables and orange chicken.   I was personally more partial to the grouper, which was light to the touch and accompanied by the best tasting green beans I can recall, prepared in a way which kept them bright green and firm for eating.  Yum.  This meal cost less than any dinner on the trip, but really worked for us.   

By contrast, in Quebec City, we had three multiple course meals.  Each meal was a total experience.   We were served one course at a time and each one had its time.   This was particularly true of the restaurant Verla, which was promoted as being value-priced Italian, but turned out to be much higher end in all respects.  We had an incredible dining experience, but it included a full two and one half hours devoted to the dinner and up to 30 minutes between courses.  Everyone except my youngest son loved this place, but it was off the charts when we totalled up the bill.   Still, our experience there symbolized the difference between the Quebec City and Montreal dining experiences.  In Quebec City, dining is a passion.  In its ideal form, you will sit down for up to three hours and have time to savor each course, while taking the time to enjoy a full bottle of wine.   

In Montreal, there is a lot more going on.  So dining is just one of the things to do and much less time seems to be devoted to it.  As indicated by our Chinatown experience, it can still be marvelous, but the diner needs to be more careful in their selections and perhaps have lesser expectations.  I love both places and now have had a chance to share both of them with my family, but the cities are very different experiences.   

Do you want to enjoy a taste of Europe in North America and to bring home dining experiences to savor? Please, head off to Quebec City and enjoy the intimate experience offered by this special ville.   But for the more cosmopolitan experience with many more things to do, head to Montreal, another unique city on the water.   Either choice is a good one, but you'll have dramatically different experiences based on which city you choose.