This morning, I was awake by 0630 but Brenna slept late again (until 0930). Meanwhile, I went to breakfast (0730), read, did Duolingo, worked on the ND Alumni Notes. I also took care of planning for my upcoming kayak trip. Eventually (1015), Brenna was fed and dressed. After listing off a few activities that she wanted to do that would require a car (most on Mont Royal), I requested that she find a location that was closer to the hotel. She then told me she was interested in visiting the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (she'd noticed it on the map yesterday) so we walked there. It was about 45 minutes away from the hotel but the weather was nice. We just had to make our way to Rue Sherbrooke and head southwest. On the way, we talked about other activities we might do later in the day. When we arrived at the entrance, Brenna bought tickets for us and we went into the first of three buildings that the museum had. For the next several hours, we walked around all of the exhibits (including one special event with Flemish painters). Along the way, we saw some good (famous) artists and some crazy modern things that we didn't consider "art". At one point, we found a restaurant in the main museum building and ate lunch (1245). Following lunch, we continued exploring the exhibit floors in the second and third building. Overall, we did a LOT of walking. After almost four hours in the museum, we finally departed and made our way back towards the hotel. Brenna had a hankering for some "good" coffee ("not Tim Hortons again") so we looked for a local place. This led us through part of McGill University, which was under a sort of lockdown after the Pro-Palestinian rally camp had been removed. Eventually (near the gated main entrance), we found a café called "Second Cup" - fortunately, it had the iced coffee that Brenna wanted. Afterwards, we walked further east to Boulevard Rene-Levesque. On the way towards our hotel, we passed the Courtyard Hotel that I'm almost sure was the place we stayed during our visit in 2006... Brenna was getting tired and wanted to "chill in the room" so, after we reached the hotel (1630), we both took a break. This was a bit disappointing to me because I'd hoped we could go to Notre Dame (for Mass) or to the Lock and Paddle event in the Lachine Canal. Brenna, however, just didn't seem interested in walking around too much more. While waiting for her, I ended up falling asleep again and so did she. I was awake at 1800 but Brenna kept resting for a while. Meanwhile (1900), it started raining and this curtailed plans we had to return to the Festival International Nuits d'Afrique. Instead, we went to a nearby corner store (D & B Depanneur) to pick up some drinks and snacks. Back in the room, we ate, drank and played one of the games (Racko) that Brenna had brought. We had a good time and enjoyed all of the food and fun. It kept raining all evening. We watched some of the local TV and were getting ready for bed (2200) when we suddenly started hearing strange noises outside. It took a bit but we soon realized that fireworks had begun at the nearby amusement park, La Ronde (I guess they decided that the weather had improved enough). We were able to watch them from our hotel room and they lasted for about 30 minutes. Brenna was really glad for this unusual treat. Afterwards, we wound down to bed-time with a bit more television and talking. Both of us were lights out by 2345. Another fun day with my daughter!
