Montreal, Quebec, October 13-16

We headed north to Montreal so Mark could show our software at a usergroup conference organized by one of our resellers. On the way to Montreal, we passed through the town where Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is made. Well, we couldn’t very well pass up that educational opportunity, so we stopped by. The factory wasn’t nearly as large as we expected, and both the plant and the tour paled in comparison to the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Tillamook, Oregon. Unfortunately, we got there just minutes before closing time, so we planned to return on our way back to get the full tour. The sacrifices we make for education!

Ben & Jerry's Tour


We got through the border around midnight. We were a little nervous driving the RV into Canada, wondering how difficult the border control would be. We were pleasantly surprised at the brevity of their interview. As we got close to the border, we discovered to our dismay that most of the RV parks had already closed for the season. So, we ended up dry camping the first night in a Canadian Walmart parking lot. The next two nights we stayed at the conference hotel, and moved the RV to a new parking lot every night. This was partly to be considerate and not take up too much parking space at the other Walmart and Costco we used. But, the main reason was to prevent another tragedy of the freezer running out of power, and ruining the contents of both the freezer and the fridge.

Mmm, breakfast at Starbucks, downtown Montreal



Two aspects of Montreal stood out. The first was that it felt more European that other large cities we had been to. And the second might have been related to the first: French is the official language in Quebec. Fortunately, they were very accommodating of us English-speaking Yankees, but we definitely felt like foreigners as we tried to read the signs and pick up on things.

Overall, our tour of Montreal was brief with just a few highlights. We enjoyed a large indoor, below street level shopping mall. We also went to the Montreal Science Museum. The Museum was much smaller than others we had been to, and although it was modern & up-to-date, it was almost completely vacant. It was even challenging to find someone who worked there. However, small though it was, we really enjoyed the various science activities, especially the ones on the second floor.

A couple of the science activities that stood out to us were a seat attached to a pulley system that allowed you to lift yourself off the ground about 18 inches. There was also a spinning gyroscope that messed with your center of gravity, a huge bubble that enclosed you (Erika’s favorite), and a perception display where you tried to draw a line through a maze while only viewing the reflection of the maze in the mirror. That last one was a surprisingly simple, yet extremely difficult task! We enjoyed walking around the cobbled streets near the science museum in search of lunch.

Bubbles!