To Canada, via NH and VT

Our trip to Canada was the longest road trip we've ever embarked on with the kids (aside from a crazy 1,300 mile trip we took when Erin was 13 months old and our only baby!).

We knew we would all benefit from breaking up the drive with a few stops, and aimed to make the stops a memorable part of the trip rather than just doing a bunch of gas station potty breaks (although we had our fair share of those too!). 

We started the trip with the longest leg of the drive, which was the 7 hour trek to Quebec City. This was a good decision and it was great to have the longest drive behind us once we arrived. We traveled up to Canada via New Hampshire. 

We left Needham around 9am after a stop for bagels and coffee, and our destination stop was Flume Gorge in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. We got there about 2.5 hours into the drive, which almost felt too soon to stop, but it was a gorgeous destination and worth the detour. It was easy to find and right off the highway. 

We thought it was a little touristy when we arrived and were surprised that we had to pay admission, unlike many other hikes in the mountains. But once we got on the trail, we realized how much infrastructure there is to maintain and were more than happy to pay to support it. 

We did a hike that was about a 2 mile loop and it was totally kid-friendly. There were a couple of spots with narrow-ish stairs, but plenty of others where it was wide open trail. The map was easy to follow and they had little Bingo type scavenger hunts for the kids. We couldn't have timed it any better with the foliage and the views were just breathtaking with all of the gorgeous leaves. 

The whole stop was about an hour, which was just enough to keep us on schedule for the drive while giving everyone a long enough break to move around. We made two other stops on the way up to Quebec City, one for lunch (the kids' first Happy Meals at a random McDonald's before we crossed the border!) and another for a potty break (at a Canadian McDonald's!).

We traveled from Quebec City to Montreal about halfway through the trip and did this route without any stops, aside from our visit to Montmorency Falls, which was just about 15 minutes outside of Quebec City.

On Monday, we headed home from Montreal via Vermont. We took the scenic route through the Hero Islands on the recommendation of some friends, and this detour added about 30 minutes (?) to our trip but was gorgeous, and we think may have saved us some time crossing the border because it took us through a tiny little customs stop where we were one of only two cars going across.

We took most of these pictures out the window while we were driving, but we did pull over for a couple because the views were just so pretty.

Our destination stop on the way home was the Ben and Jerry's factory in Waterbury, VT. This was another easy, right off the highway stop, and well timed about halfway through the drive. We did not anticipate that Columbus Day is the busiest day of the year there - but between foliage, Columbus Day weekend, and Canadian Thanksgiving, it totally makes sense. We had to disappoint four kiddos by telling them we couldn't wait an hour for the next tour, but everyone got over it pretty quickly when their big ice cream cones came out.

We were racing the clock to get home for Erin's soccer practice at this point, so we pretty much drove straight home from Ben and Jerry's, with one stop to switch drivers and a crazy overland detour once we got into Massachusetts to avoid bad traffic on 95/128.

Overall, the road trip was very doable and made much prettier by the timing of the foliage. It was very helpful to have two destination stops on our routes, to give ourselves something to look forward to and to break up the time in the car with stops that were just as memorable a part of the trip as the final destinations.

Extra Long Weekend in Quebec City and Montreal

Road Trip!!

As we were looking at the school calendar this year, we noticed that in October, between a Jewish holiday on a Wednesday and Columbus Day on Monday, we could take a 6 day vacation while only missing two days of school. After our trip to Europe, we (or at least I!) have totally caught the travel bug and feel like we've opened up a whole world of possibilities for traveling with the kids. We wanted to keep the European vibe going after how much the kids enjoyed Paris and Florence, and decided to make it a road trip north to Canada.

Zach and I had visited both Montreal (on our "mini-moon" after our wedding) and Quebec City (on a November long weekend before kids) and knew that they would be fun destinations with the whole family.

The Stats

6 days

5 nights

4 kids, 2 parents

17 hours of driving

900 miles (of which Zach drove 800!)

1 minivan, 1 scooter (see below!)

The Itinerary

• Wednesday 10/9/2019: Departed Needham, 9am
• First stop: Flume Gorge, in the White Mountains of NH
• Destination: Quebec City, Canada: arrived around 5pm
• 2 nights in QC (Airbnb: L’APPARTEMENT CENTRAL au coeur du Vieux-Québec)
• Friday 10/11/2019: Departed QC, 10am
• Destination: Montreal: arrived around 3pm
• 3 nights in Montreal (Hotel: Le Square Phillips Hotel & Suites)
• Monday 10/14/2019: Departed Montreal, 9am
• Destination: home, via Hero Islands and Ben and Jerry’s Factory!: arrived 5pm

Packing
Layers, layers, layers! The weather forecast fluctuated a lot in the week before we left. We packed rain boots and coats for everyone because at one point, it looked like the entire trip was going to be a wet one. We never needed them - thank goodness! It was chilly in the mornings and evenings (40s), but warmed up to the low-mid 60s many afternoons, which with the sun, felt quite balmy. We wore and shed many layers throughout the day. We had hats and gloves, but didn’t need them as much as we would have predicted, and the kids got down to t-shirts a few days after some running around. The cities were both pretty casual and while we brought some “handsome clothes”, we prioritized comfort and harmony over wrestling Ryan into said handsome clothes most days.

Boys:

• 2 jeans, 1 cords, 1 chinos, 2 sweatpants
• 3 sweatshirts/sweaters
• 4 long sleeve shirts
• 2 short sleeve shirts
• 6 underwear, 6 socks
• 2 PJs
• Patagonia down sweater
• Raincoat
• Rain boots
• Running sneakers, Adidas sneakers
• Hat, gloves

Girls:

• Same, with one dress/tights swapped in for one pair of pants/shirt

Mom:

• 2 jeans, 1 black jeans
• 3 long sleeve shirts, 1 short sleeve shirt
• 1 chambray shirt, 1 blouse
• 2 lightweight layering sweaters, 3 warmer sweaters
• 1 set of workout clothes
• Patagonia down jacket/raincoat
• Vest
• Running sneakers, Adidas sneakers, black booties, rain boots
• Hat, gloves

Dad: on his own :)




Lodging
This was our first experience doing Airbnb and it was great! There were pros and cons to our specific apartment, but the experience was seamless and we always prefer having a little more space and kitchen amenities. We stayed in a suite-style hotel in Montreal though, and that was great too.


In Quebec City, we stayed in an Airbnb in Old Quebec City. The location was amazing. We walked everywhere and were right in the heart of the old city. Parking was not ideal - we knew it was off site, but did not realize how small the parking garages would be. The minivan just fit, and we would have had a problem if we had brought my Infiniti. Our Airbnb host was responsive and provided clear, easy to follow instructions.

The apartment was a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom with kitchen and laundry (neither of which we took advantage of in our 2 night stay). We put the kids in one bedroom, which had the laundry room adjoining, where we set up Henry’s travel crib. The downside to the apartment was that the master bedroom did not have a full wall - it was one of those setups where the wall ended about 2 feet short of the ceiling. Unfortunately since the kids like the hallway light on to sleep, it meant it was basically broad daylight in our room all night. We also didn’t do melatonin at bedtime, which we usually do on the first night of a trip, and I totally regret it. The kids were wound up (even though no one slept a wink the entire drive) and had a really hard time settling down. We switched things around the second night, keeping Henry in his “laundry room” and moving the kids to the master so we could have the regular bedroom with walls, and everything was much, much better.

In Montreal, we stayed in a hotel in the downtown area. It was so family friendly! We were blown away when we checked in and they offered the kids a welcome gift - they rolled out a full size wagon, overflowing with toys, and let each of the kids choose something. They weren’t anything fancy - Nettie got a pack of 12 glow necklaces, Erin got a PlayDoh set, Henry chose a cement mixer (of course), and Ryan picked some sort of ninja guys. But it made such an impact - they were thrilled and it gave us all some much needed normalcy and down time to chill out and play with toys in the room for a bit. We had a family suite, which had a kitchen, living room with sofa bed, a full bedroom, and an alcove area with another bed. We took the bedroom, put Henry’s crib in the entry way area, and rotated each night with one big kid in the sofa bed and two more in the alcove bed.

Lessons Learned

This was a totally doable itinerary for an extra long weekend. It was a really good decision to do the longest drive on the first day. We had toyed with going to Montreal first since it’s closer, but are really glad we drove all the way to Quebec instead. It was helpful to be able to tell the kids when we arrived that the longest drive was behind us, and it was nice to know that we were making our way closer to home the rest of the trip.

I admit, I’m not a big road trip fan. Zach would prefer to drive everywhere over flying, and I just don’t love spending that much time in the car. But it was totally fine and now we know the kids can handle it. We relied heavily on technology, especially on the first leg of the trip - I think the kids watched 3 movies on the way up to QC. But we dialed that back a bit on the way home and leaned on a few new car activities that we had purchased for the trip, and that worked out fine too.



We stopped at Flume Gorge on the drive up, which was about 2-2.5 hours into the 7ish hour drive. It almost felt too early to stop, and we spent about an hour there, which felt too long. But we loved it and would totally recommend. It felt like more of a “destination”, and part of the trip, rather than just another rest stop for food and bathrooms. Totally worth it.



Phones work in Canada, and we relied on them a lot for navigation. We only turned our phones on once in Paris and a handful of times in Italy, but we found maps a little harder to use in QC (construction road closures didn’t help our cause), so the GPS came in handy.



Never, ever bring only one scooter again!! I think 90% of the arguments on this trip were caused by the fact that we opted against a stroller and instead brought one scooter for Henry. Big mistake!! Either he was still tired and could have used a stroller (we did walk 8+ miles every day…), or the big kids were angling for turns on said scooter and Henry didn’t want to share. Either way, someone was basically always mad about it. Next time, I would bring a stroller along, and either bring 4 scooters or none. Lesson learned.

I might flip flop our time and spend 3 nights in QC and 2 nights in Montreal, but it’s hard to say. We loved QC - it had that very European, old city feel, and we loved wandering the streets, popping into the shops, and exploring the walls and landmarks. Montreal also felt very French (maybe even more so?) but very modern - I think it was Erin who said it reminded her of NYC. There was a ton to do there, which is how we initially decided to spend 3 nights, but it felt more like things we would do at home in Boston - science museum, etc. It’s hard to say - there were things we would have liked to do in each city that we ran out of time for, so both have tons of options and resources. Just two very different feels.

I will share more photos and details of our highlights and activities in each city separately, but would highly recommend this trip! It was a lot of driving, but doable, and an awesome way to have a very European experience just a few hours from home.

Under the Tuscan Sun

Wednesday

After our week in Florence, our last stop on the trip was the Tuscan countryside. Ahhh, it was so beautiful, the scenery almost looked fake.


Before we got to the beautiful scenery though, we had to get out of Florence, which ranks among the most stressful moments of the trip! Let me save you the trouble and let you know that rental cars are not allowed within the walls of the old city. We didn't know this, so Zach walked out to the Avis place to pick up the car while the kids and I stayed back at the apartment to pack up. He got the car, found out he couldn't drive it to us, and had to walk back - probably a 20 minute walk. Adding to the stress, it had started raining and we were bumping up against check out time and we hadn't eaten lunch and had promised the kids one last gelato stop that we quickly realized we wouldn't be able to fulfill. Tensions were running high! Thankfully our apartment owner was super sweet and helpful and called us a cab and helped us bring all of our bags downstairs while we waited for Zach to get back. We took the cab to Avis and then played the fun game of Tetris trying to get all of our belongings into the car - when they say mini-van in Europe, they mean MINI-van.

Once we were locked and loaded, we hit the road! We were heading to Al Gelso Bianco, in the Tuscan town of Barberino val d'Elsa, where we would be staying for the rest of the trip. It is a working vineyard where they produce olive oil and wine and we were looking forward to a totally different experience out in the countryside. We decided to take a slightly circuitous route in order to see Pisa on the way.

Pisa was a quick stop but really cool to see. We thought the town was a little sketchy and there wasn't much to it, but once we parked the car and walked to where the Leaning Tower is, that was pretty neat. You have to be 8 years old to climb the tower so only Zach and Erin went to the top, and they said you could definitely feel the leaning from inside. We popped into the beautiful church, took the requisite photos, had a sub-par gelato, and got back on the road.






The kids were fascinated and stressed out by the fact that we were doing all of our navigation by paper maps and directions print outs since we didn't have our phones turned on. We were pretty proud of ourselves, even though we definitely circled through a few rotaries multiple times while we tried to figure out the signs!

We arrived at Al Gelso Bianco in the late afternoon, and thank goodness we made it in daylight because it was definitely down a winding country road! The kids were immediately excited and it was a great change of pace to get out of the city and into the sprawling grounds of the vineyard/farm. We had packed lots of leftovers from our chef's dinner the night before so we spent the rest of the afternoon getting settled, exploring the grounds, running around and meeting the farm animals. The kids were particularly fond of the two farm cats!




We were glad we had brought food and basics from Florence because the apartment was very minimally stocked. We had actually snagged a roll of toilet paper to take with us and didn't need that, but didn't have any paper towels, hand soap, or obviously any food items waiting for us.

Thursday

We woke up to rain on Thursday morning, but it worked out well because we had scheduled our cooking class and that turned out to be a perfect drizzly day activity. We ate breakfast in our room from the provisions we had packed from Florence and headed over to the cooking class kitchen at the farm for a 10am class. We were in class with two other families - two moms traveling with their kids - and the kids were happy to have others to play with. The class was awesome! We made pesto, pasta, gnocchi, and a delicious apple cake. The kitchen was super cute and everything was really hands on and geared toward families.








After the food was prepared, we had about 45 minutes of free time while it cooked. During this time, they hosted a tasting of their house made wines and olive oils for the adults while they sent the kids off to explore the grounds - this was rather nerve-racking for me as they ended up all over the mountainside looking for animals and out of my sight, but the older kids in the class took care of them and Zach popped out to find them as needed.




When everything was cooked, we all came together for a hearty lunch of all the food we had prepared and wines we had tasted. It was delicious and such a cool experience!!




After class, we headed back to our apartment for some rest/quiet time and then did some more exploring on our own.






We knew we needed to find food for dinner, but when we headed out to a local pizzeria for an early meal, it wasn't open yet. Italians don't eat dinner at 5pm like Americans do! We were afraid to be driving around in the dark on those winding roads, so decided to hit the grocery store instead. We poked around the little towns nearby, got a gelato, and stocked up on provisions for dinner and breakfasts. We were enjoying the slower pace and open space to run around so the kids were happy to have this downtime at the farm while we ate in.

Friday

The kids would have been content to chase the cats around the grounds for another day, but we decided to discover a bit more of Tuscany on our last day. We headed out to Siena, which was an easy drive south. It was another cute Tuscan town - we went out for lunch, got gelato, did some great souvenir shopping, and climbed to the top of another tower for a beautiful view. The church was incredibly beautiful and it was really cool to see where they run the Palio horse races. Admittedly, everyone was a little burned out by this point in the trip and the weather was a little chilly and raw, but it was a worthwhile day trip and totally doable in an afternoon.












There had been a mix up with our reservation at Al Gelso Blanco so we ended up having to move to a different apartment for our last night, which was annoying but actually worked in our favor overall because we had packed everything up and were ready for our sunrise departure to the airport on Saturday morning.

Saturday

We left as the sun was rising and drove all the way back to Florence for our flight to Paris, and connecting flight to Boston.




Our overall itinerary was such a perfect mix of big city (Paris), small old city (Florence) and countryside (Tuscany). We loved every bit of this trip and couldn't recommend it enough!