March Break in Montreal

The kids had March Break last week, and we spent it in Montreal visiting family. Todd was eager to get a few more skiing opportunities before the season ended, and so we brought our skis along. Our first stop was at Beryl's and Rob's house, where we always get a warm welcome! The girls were happy to spend time with their cousins, Emma, Amanda and Olivia, who is reading her new Dora books with Julia and Kate in the photo above. We had a terrific day at Mont Avila. Rob took Todd and me skiing, while Beryl took all the girls snow tubing, and the evening ended with an excellent meal at a local gastro-pub.

We had an opportunity to ski again later in the week, at Bromont. Bromont's a great place to ski. It's a large resort, like Tremblant, but slightly less expensive and definitely less glitzy. There are enough challenging runs to satisfy Todd, and there is enough variety in the easy runs for me. Though the snow was rather slushy, both ski days were sunny and warm.

Being on vacation, I didn't keep up with news, and it was only after we returned that I heard about the death of Natasha Richardson at Tremblant. I was somewhat shaken by this, having done that same run a number of times. The Nansen run is a beginner run, but when I was on it in February, there were some very icy sections. However, we ski with helmets, and being the worrying type, I always insist on a trip to the doctor after a head injury. Our family seems to be prone to this, as we've had three (non-skiing) incidents in the past few years, with two requiring stitches. Maybe we should wear helmets all the time ....




We spent the second half of our March Break at my parents' house, where we had fabulous Chinese food. My mom cooked my favourites, including steamed lobster (also Julia's favourite), braised mushrooms, and stir-fried greens. We joined my cousins Teresa and Leo for dim sum, but unfortunately, their kids were in school, as Quebec students get March Break earlier in the month. We rounded out the week with the inevitable clothes-shopping trip, a walk through the McGill campus (a futile attempt to inspire Julia to pay more attention to her studies) and an afternoon at the Biodome, a nature museum housed in the velodrome originally built for the 1976 Olympic Games.