By January 2021, I allowed myself to start dreaming about what a vacation could look like. One that wasn’t confined to a few hours’ drive to a remote place where we could hunker in a cabin. We had a family wedding in Chicago in October, so I used that as our jumping-off point. I wanted to go someplace that felt truly foreign (read: speaking another language), but I also didn’t want to book plane tickets just yet. So, Montreal rose to the top of the list.
Several years ago, one of the best trips I took was a train trip from Toronto to Vancouver in the middle of winter. As a Minnesotan, I was a bit ashamed that was my first trip to Canada. Since then, I’ve been wanting to traverse to the more eastern side of the country. It proved just as lovely, and doing it via car allowed us to make pitstops in places I’d never heard of:
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario: This is where we entered Canada. I’d only ever heard of Sault Ste. Marie because of the Ticket to Ride board game. Unfortunately, we arrived after sunset and left before sunrise.
Sudbury, Ontario: We stopped for donuts. Jason was in love.
North Bay, Ontario: A tourist town right on Lake Nipissing where we had a lovely patio lunch on main street.
After about 8 hours on the road, we stopped in Ottawa for ramen and free night at the National Gallery of Canada. I was surprised with how lively and wonderful Ottawa was, and also at how quickly everything switched to French just outside its borders.
In Montreal, we stayed in an extremely minimalist Airbnb apartment in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood that overlooked Park Ave, just a block from Mont-Royal Park itself. From there, we walked most of the city: through Downtown to Old Montreal, then around the trendy Miles End neighborhood. We spent our last day wandering around Petite-Bourgogne in the rain, which was probably our favorite find with its art galleries (1700 La Poste’s Gilles Mihalcean exhibit was surprising and funny), immaculately designed restaurants, and sleepy-chic feel. We also drove out to Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67, a concrete modular housing project he designed for the 1967 World’s Fair. It was probably my favorite building of the whole trip.
During our time in Montreal, we ate bagels, yes, but we also had the best dumplings of my life, literally hand made at the table next to us by the Chinese proprietors; Greek food as a stray cat wove through our legs; Australian desserts as we tried to catch up on Great British Bake Off; and the babka of my dreams from Hof Kelsten bakery.
It rained most of the time we were in Montreal, but it was gorgeous nonetheless. It had more gorgeous plant shops than any city I’ve been in; some well-curated design shops (Paperole was a favorite), fun vintage boutiques, and plenty of third wave coffee shops. The last morning, I got in a run to the top of Mont-Royal for a sunrise view of the city and McGill University before we hit the road for Vermont.
Vermont was the only New England state I hadn’t checked off my list, and it was the 43rd state I’ve been to. We stopped in Burlington to check out its famed pedestrian shopping boulevard and the views of Lake Champlain. Friends who used to live there had alerted us to the best bagel sandwich shop — Myer’s Bagel Bakery — tucked in between a used bookstore and vintage mall in what looked like one big machine shed.
Another friend recommended Vergennes Laundry, which turned out to be a gorgeous bakery in a Vermont town of about 2,600. From there, we did some market research at Middlebury’s campus (we both work at liberal arts colleges) and of course made a pitstop at Monroe Street Books, a pretty great used bookstore.
After a short pitstop with friends in Western Massachusetts, we were back on the road. I’ve always been curious about outstate New York. On our way to Letchworth State Park — the “Grand Canyon of the East” — we drove through Albany, made a pitstop for coffee in Troy at Superior Merchandise Company, and got fittingly got a use George Saunders book in Syracuse. Just like in Canada, these mid-sized cities were a little rough around the edges and suffered from too many decades of underinvestment, despite some creative entrepreneurs trying to turn things around.
Letchworth State Park kind of snuck up on us. You drive through corn fields and then bam, there it is, a huge stretch of scenic wayside overlooks bordering the steeps gorges cut by the Genesee River. I’ve never been to Niagra Falls, but the three big waterfalls in Letchworth, with far smaller crowds, kind of scratch that itch for me. It was stunning. We stayed in a log cabin built by the 1935/36 Civilian Conservation Corps. It had been updated with a gas fireplace insert, but that was about it. We hiked to all the falls, then curled up in front of our fire with books, feeling rather road weary at this point.
Our last stop was Chicago for a family wedding, then home. I’ve never been so eager so see my stepkitties and eat vegetables. While I’m glad we did this road trip, I do think I prefer flying in and having that extra time in a spot. The rural nerd in me appreciate the chance to jump out and explore the less visited sights, but being on the road as much as we were was hard on the body. Plus, Jason started a Dan Carlin multi-hour podcast early on, and so it was a relief to have a relief from Japan’s involvement in WWII. But, it is good prep for our next big trip: Japan!