Friday April 1:
Friday was a day of rest and regrouping. It seems silly to be holed up in our hotel room when we were in a great city like Montreal, but both children and adults needed a breather, so after my 8am poster session, I returned to my boys in the hotel and napped (yes, rare for me, I know!) while the boys played with their toys, which they really needed to do. We went to lunch at Boccacino's after walking along Rue St. Catherine. Then we headed back to the hotel to meet my dad, who was joining us for the weekend. Thank goodness that Parc Suites had free long-distance calling (to the US even) included in the room - this made not having cell phones a little easier for meeting up.
My real highlight of the day (other than seeing Dad) was getting to eat dinner with adults, more specifically my Brandeis advisors/colleagues, at Restaurant Fonduementale, sort of. I was SUPPOSED to get to eat dinner alone with adults, but somehow my children and their Father and Grandfather ended up at the same restaurant, seated across the aisle from me. Luckily, they were cute before Logan melted down, prompting Lance to take him outside and RJ to come and sit by me instead of Grandpa (poor Grandpa!). It was a crowd of developmental psychologists, so we were at least entertained by it all. Regardless, it was still nice to not have to feed anyone, have anyone hanging on me, or worry about Logan throwing food off the table! That alone would've been enough for me to be happy, but the food was OUTSTANDING as well. Melted cheese, shrimp, steak, salmon, chicken, calamari for cooking in the broth, topped off with chocolate fondue with assorted fruit and clearly fresh in-house made marshmallows.
It was starting to feel like a vacation.
Saturday April 2:
We ate Montreal bagels and cream cheese in the hotel room, and then sought out the views from the top of Mont Royal before eating crepes for lunch at La Crepe 2 Go.
After lunch we headed down to the Parc Olympique area to visit the Montreal Biodome.The Biodome was really cool with four different habitats under one roof. From rainforest birds
to sub-antarctic penguins, we had a great time watching the animals. I think it's safe to say that while the DeLancey's prefer the Mediterranean climate of the San Francisco Bay Area, we all seem to enjoy watching the King Penguins frolic the best. 
Probably because their cold (2-5 degrees C) was behind glass.
We also really enjoyed the beavers,
and watching the ducks' feet and watching them dive into the Gulf of St. Lawrence replica pool.
Then we walked around Vieux Montreal and ended up eating in Montreal's Chinatown. I don't recall the restaurant's name though it was very good, especially the shredded duck!
Sunday April 3:
We ate an excellent breakfast of fruit exploding out of crepes at Chez Cora, which was literally downstairs from the hotel and then wandered through the massive underground mall in Montreal. Or attempted to. It would've been better had we put Logan in the Ergo and had RJ walking because it was not very stroller friendly if you were trying to use it to stay out of the cold. There were elevators, but none seemed to get you to the level of the tunnels that went from one section to another. After a few times of carrying the stroller up the stairs (most of these tunnels had a set of about 6 stairs going up or down to get to them), we gave up and just walked outside to Vieux Montreal again for some Poutine at Montreal Poutine. For the uninitiated, Poutine is basically fries and cheese curds smothered in gravy. In other words, delicious comfort food. Fries have never been my favorite thing to eat, but this makes them delicious.
After lunch, we had some maple sugar taffy, freshly rolled off some snow at a little kiosk in Place Jacques Cartier, and then walked along the waterfront while Dad told us about the buildings from Expo 67
Then Dad left for his long drive back home and we let the kids play for a little while in the hotel before heading out for some smoked meat at Schwartz's
Monday April 4:
We packed up and headed to Quebec City.
We definitely enjoyed our time in Montreal, although I think we'd enjoy it a lot more in the Summer when it's warm or without the children to enjoy the nightlife! Planning more would probably have helped too!
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