An Awfully Big Adventure

We had the most beautiful drive from Rhode Island up to Montreal. Once in Montreal we visited all of the historic sites and met with one of Mohammad's friends. Next, we headed off to Quebec City. The Old City in Quebec City is like traveling back in time. Many of the ancient sites still stand.

First stop, Brown University. Us with their famous clock tower.

Beautiful campus. Tradition has it that the main gates, Van Wickle Gates, only open twice per year, once inward at convocation when students pass through on the first day of class and once outward on commencement when graduating students pass out of the gates and leave Brown for the last time. Superstition has it that if any student passes through these gates other than these two times they will be cursed with bad luck. During commencement the band passes through the gates and in order to avoid the curse, any band members not graduating walk through the gates backward while holding their breath.

Second stop, Rhode Island State House.

Next we stopped for lunch right in front of the New Hampshire State House.

Everything is so lush in New England.

This is at the New Hampshire welcome center.

Inside the welcome center their water was green!
It was reclaimed water that had been dyed greed so that you knew not to drink it.

Vermont State House. Look at those tulips!

Finally, Montreal! In front of Parc des Lineaire.

Mohammad in front of Marche (Market) Bonsecours.
Public market and old main market for Montreal.

Rue St Paul, the most popular street in Old Montreal.
A majority of the city's hundreds of restaurants are located along this street.

A water spout on the fountain in front of Notre Dame Basilica.

In front of Notre Dame Bisilique de Montreal with the fountain on the right.
A great bell weighing 11 tons is housed in the western tower of Notre Dame.

The Basilica was first founded by Jesuits in the late 1640's.

Shortly thereafter, in 1657 the Sulpician Fathers (Catholic) took over the church and increased the size.

By 1800 the church was too small to contain the growing congregation, so a much larger church was built in the same vicinity and this is the Notre Dame you see today.

In the 1870's the interior of the Basilica was given a bit of a face lift inspired by the great Notre Dame Basilica in France.

Catholics light candles to symbolize the light of Jesus here on Earth
and also when invoking prayer in order to petition a particular saint to pray with the believer.

The Basilica is quite large.

The themes of the stained glass windows depict the life of the early settlers to the area.

In 1998 this new alter (seen as a staircase behind me) was built in order to fulfill the decree that the priest must celebrate mass facing the people.

The Atwater Market built in the Art Deco style in 1933.

The inner covered halls are lines with fruit and veggie markets along with fresh meat and fine cheeses.

The outer halls of the market are lines with fresh flowers, plants, and trees for purchase.

This sculpture is known as the illuminated crowd.
It symbolizes the flow of man's emotions through time.

In front of McGill University.

Mohammad at the grand entrance gates

Our dinner location for the evening with Mohammad's friend.

The night streets of Montreal

Mohammad and Omid with their giant ice creams.

Chutes (Waterfall) Montmorency

The falls are 275 ft high and 150 ft wide, putting them 98 ft higher than Niagara Falls.

During summer, an international fireworks competition is held at the park with the falls as it's backdrop.

John Keats refers to the falls in a poem of his.

The suspension bridge allows you access to both sides of the falls.

There are stairways on either side of the falls with lookout points.
Unfortunately, a recent hurricane/storm washed out much of the right stairs making it off limits.

Us at the falls, where the sun was definitely shining down on us

Old Quebec City has been preserved in it's old town glory.

The streets are lined with the original buildings. Quebec City, founded in 1608, is one of the oldest cities founded by Europeans in North America

There are so many wonderful French restaurants it's hard to choose where to eat. We settled on Italian.

Many old churches line the streets.

Quebec City is the only city North of Mexico whose fortified walls still exist.
In fact, the Name Canada originally referred to this settlement in New France.

Hotel du Parlement (Parliament Building), built in 1877.

The parliament building boasts more than 24 statues of prominent figures in early Canada.

Looking out of Fleuve St Laurent (Laurent is the original from of Lauren and is a strong MALE name).

Quick story, so Mohammad and I are setting up our tripod to take a picture as this man struggles to ride off on his bicycle with his tiny dog strapped in a create to the back. He nearly crashes into us as Mohammad offers to help him. The man is barking orders at Mohammad in French as Mohammad stares blankly back at him and finally says, "I don't speak French, no French." The man then says in broken English, "English, you know English?". Mohammad says yes and he then explains how his bag is caught in his wheel and he wants Mohammad to help pull it out. It was great watching them try to communicate with one another. I had to snap a photo.

Immediately after the above incident, we were still laughing in this photo.

Chateau Frontenac, the world's most photographed hotel, boasts 611 suites built in 1893.

We had out nice little breakfast of Starbucks overlooking the river in front of the hotel before we headed off.

(Not my picture)
This is a panoramic view of the city from the other side of the river.
The large hotel lit up in the center is where Mohammad and I are standing in the previous pictures.

Quebec City is covered in statues that are tucked away in the most random little corners.

Notre Dame Basilique du Quebec, established in 1647 making it the oldest see in North America. The Basilica just celebrated it's 350 year anniversary and celebrated by installing a Holy Door. It is the first Holy Door to be constructed outside Europe, and the seventh Holy Door in the World. The Holy Door will remain open for the year and then be sealed off from the inside until the year 2025, the next Jubilee. An ancient Catholic tradition.

The funeral chapel of Francois de Laval, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec who was sainted in April of this year.

In the back room there are these giant Styrofoam puppets of nuns and a priest.
Naturally, I had to take a picture with them. They told me how much they liked my "habit" (Catholic form of hijab).

This was probably our favorite leg of the vacation. We took a Ferry from Cape Cod to Martha's Vineyard and then traveled on to Newport, R.I. where we stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast for two nights.

On the ferry out to Martha's Vineyard from Cape Cod.

We pass by the most picturesque scenes

Like this bay and lighthouse

Once on the island we explored two of the five major cities (which are all quite small)

By far, Oak Bluffs was our favorite town.

There are tons of these little beach houses, most are vacation homes.

And the famous Seaview Park lined with perfect little houses

Mohammad wanted to attend the camp meeting

We found the cutest house

We decided if we were to buy one of the houses, it would be this big private residence with the red roof!

Absolutely worth a weekend stay next time.
Martha's Vineyard is so relaxing and the weather was perfect!

In Newport (my favorite city of the trip) we stayed at The Almondy Inn

We had the cutest little room!

When in Newport, you must check out the mansions!

The Breakers was by far the nicest of the three we visited.

The Breakers is a Vanderbilt Mansion constructed in 1893.
The 70 room house was used by the Vanderbilt family as their summer cottage.

The next mansion we visited was Rosecliff.

If you can't tell how big these houses are, just look at that coach light! It is as tall as I am!

Rosecliff was built in 1899 and it's main purpose was for hosting parties.

The grand lawn and ocean view is visible from the main ballroom

You can see The Breakers from Rosecliff (as well as several other private residence mansions).

My favorite of the three was Marble House

Mrs. Vanderbilt used the tea house you see to the right of Mohammad to host rallies for the women's right to vote.

Marble House was built by Mrs. Vanderbilt in 1888 as her private summer cottage.
There is more than 500,000 cubic feet of marble inside the Marble House.