Day 44: Montreal

Dear Gilles,

We bought ourselves a 24hour Metro pass and got on public transit to go to the Biodome and Insectarium.

We met up with my friend at Viau Station and headed over to the Biodome. 

It rained. And rained. 

I tried to get in with my Saskatchewan Science Centre membership - but it was only good for the Planetarium. And the planetarium was not our priority this visit. 

I have a neutral impression of the Biodome. There were a lot of strollers and persons under 4 feet tall. I didn't take a lot of photos. I don't think we need to visit it again. I do think we missed an opportunity of going to Muttart Conservatory in Edmonton. 

Patric tried to melt a handprint into the ice wall. The Arctic display had penguins and puffins and not much else. 

I was impressed with the live sturgeon swimming around. They were a good 6 ft long. 

We WERE impressed with the Insectarium. It's the largest of the four in Canada. It starts with a walk through dark tunnels - built like you're walking through dirt like an ant. It has interactive displays along the way to simulate how flies see through their multi-faceted eyes. Upside down sight and ultraviolet sight. 

Once through the tunnels, we ended up in a 'nest' which served as a gallery for 72 mounted panels of bugs - showcasing camouflage, colour, male/female and all of the fun aspects of seeing bugs up close and fantastically preserved. 

Mom spent a lot of time beside Luc - learning, observing, commenting. And Luc enjoyed the time to just immerse himself in bugs. 

There was only a single ant colony though - leaf cutters. But they had them out in butterfly habitat and it was super fun to observe them. 

Since we're in Montreal - with a built in 'person who knows things' - we went to find some AMAZING donuts at berniebeigne and fresh bagels from the same neighbourhood. I got a maple donut, Luc an oreo donut and Patric got the Simpson's donut (of course). 

Still a misty/wet walk, but not a downpour of rain like earlier in the day. 

We found a restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner - took the Metro back to the hotel to drop the boys off - and then went to the Irish Pub across the street to have a good solid chat and catch up together.