Travel

The weather is a harsh mistress in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  The natives have fought back by establishing a modern wonder, Montreal’s Underground City.  The underground, as the locals call it, is a remarkable pedestrian network of train stations, shops, hotels, restaurants, museums, and more, under downtown Montreal.

The underground city got its start in 1962 with the building of the Place Ville-Marie office tower and underground shopping mall.  That first mall connected to Central Station (subway) and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel via tunnels.  Since then the underground has grown to more than twenty-two miles of pedestrian walkways.

Residents of Montreal are extremely proud of their “inside city” (not all of it is underground), the largest underground complex in the world.  There are more than 150 access points to the subterranean city and more than 60% of the businesses in downtown connect to the underground.  Over 500,000 people traverse the belowground pedestrian walkways and subways of Montreal each day.  Several residential towers connect to the underground as well, allowing some locals to go from home to work to play without ever going outside.

Some of the most stunning features of the underground complex are the subway stations.  Each station is, literally, a work of art.  When the subway was built 1% of the budget for each station was devoted to procuring and displaying art in the underground.  A different architect designed each station in a different style and no two stations are the same.

A number of well-known tourist spots in Montreal are accessible from the underground city.  Things to check out without going out include Olympic Park and the Olympic Centre (built for the 1976 Olympics);  the Place des Artes, home to the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal);  and Molson Centre, home of Montreal’s hockey team, the Canadiens.

What does Santa do all summer?  If you have been asked this question one too many times, this year travel to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada and find the answer.

Bracebridge, just north of Toronto, sits on the 45th parallel, halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.  Since 1955, Bracebridge has been home to Santa’s Village Family Entertainment Park, Santa Claus’ preferred summer vacation spot.

Not sure what to do first?  After being greeted by Santa himself in Santa Square guests can catch a ride around the 50-acre park on the Candy Cane Express miniature train and use it to get your bearings.

Santa is not the only one on vacation over the summer; the elves are too.  The park is full of ways to amuse elves (and children).

Enjoy net climbing excitement in the Elves Island Play Area.  Ride Rudolph’s Sleigh Ride Roller Coaster, the Christmas Ball Ferris Wheel, the Merry-Go-Round, and more.

Children can create customized souvenir crafts in the Elves Workshop and Candy Cane Lane features a variety of skill games to hone hand-eye coordination.  Live entertainers perform at the park throughout the season.

Santa’s Village also features a petting zoo complete with goats, sheep, and deer, though not reindeer since Bracebridge is too warm for those hardy animals.

One of the attractions of this summer home away from the North Pole is warm weather and the chance to cool off in Santa’s Splash Zone.  Work up a sweat paddling around lemonade lagoon in one of Santa’s Paddleboats or relax and let someone else do the work when you take Santa’s Summer Sleigh Jetboat Cruise.

Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec, Canada is aptly named.  Its name derives from the Mi’kmaq Indian word gespeg, meaning “end of land”.  It is the end of an eastern Canadian peninsula, and, more interestingly, just off the coast lies Percé Rock, the far northern end of the Appalachian mountains.

Percé Rock is one of nature’s true wonders, and one of the most photographed places in Quebec, possibly in all of Canada.  The 375 million year-old rock is an enormous limestone slab, 295 feet (90 m) wide, 279 feet (85 m) high at its highest point, and an awe-inspiring 1476 feet (450 m) long.  The rock’s name comes from the French word percé, “pierce”, so-called for the large opening that pierces the slab near the seaward end.

Legend maintains that at one point the rock was pierced in as many as four locations, but historical records only mention two holes.  The second cave, to the east of the one visible today, collapsed in 1845.  The sea stack L’Obelisque at the end of the monolith is an artifact of this cave-in.

For four hours each day the tide recedes enough to allow people to walk across to the rock.  Tourists can walk to the cave, but it is an arduous trek.  A better way to see the majesty of Percé Rock is to take one of the many boat tours that go around the rock.

The village of Percé was once the largest fishing port on the Gaspe Peninsula.  It is now devoted to catering to the tourists who come to see the rock and visit the bird sanctuary on Bonaventure Island.  It is also a haven for outdoor enthusiasts with hike and bike trails, camping nearby, and even scuba opportunities for those willing to brave the cold waters of Gaspe bay.

Drumheller, Alberta, in the heart of Canada’s prairies, proclaims itself“The Dinosaur Capital of North America”, and has the fossils to back it up.

Just northwest of Drumheller is the Dinosaur Trail, a 32-mile (50km) circular drive along Highway 838 that will lead visitors to, among other things, the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology, and the World’s Largest Dinosaur.

The Royal Tyrell Museum has a wide array of exhibits.  The Hexen Science Hall features an interactive display to demonstrate basic scientific concepts.  In the Preparation Lab, visitors can watch scientists prepare fossils for study or display.  The Burgess Shale and Devonian Reef exhibits offer a look at life under the waters of Canada’s prehistoric oceans.  In the Cretaceous Garden, Museum guests can walk through living history, a garden filled with the same plants the dinosaurs ate.

The main attraction at the Royal Tyrell is Dinosaur Hall.  The Hall is full of mounted dinosaur skeletons, and is the largest exhibit of its kind in the world.  Walking, swimming, and flying reptiles are all present, including the Albertosaurus, first discovered by Joseph B. Tyrell.

Farther down the Dinosaur Trail visitors will find themselves confronted by the World’s Largest Dinosaur.  The Dinosaur is an 86-foot (26.2 m) concrete and steel Tyrannosaurus Rex.  He stands four times taller than the real thing did and visitors who climb the 106 steps to the viewing platform in his mouth will enjoy a magnificent panoramic view of the badlands.

For dinosaur lovers, the two-hour trip to the Tyrell Museum’s Field Station at Dinosaur Provincial Park is a must-see. It functions as a base for continuing scientific study in the area and has skeletons on display in an exhibit building.  Visitors can also make reservations for a bus tour to areas of the park being excavated, areas not available to the public any other way.

Denver, Colorado, is one of America’s most beautiful cities.  It’s also a city where within minutes you aren’t just out in the suburbs, you are out in the mountains in the middle of nowhere!  This city of strong contrasts is a great place to spend a vacation as it has something to offer everyone from the very young to the not so young.

The fact that gold is the foundation on which Denver was built is very much in evidence around the city with various landmarks being the product of the gold boom era – from the house in which Molly Brown lived (now a museum that recounts her rags to riches story through narration and artifacts), to the cathedral that she helped finance with the money made from the gold her husband discovered in his mine.

The capitol building is a beautiful piece of architecture but if you have enough energy to walk up to the top of it’s dome, you’ll be rewarded by being able to stand on the spot where Denver’s “mile high” city nickname originates – you’ll be standing one mile above sea level.  The view from the top is well worth the climb!

Most cities have malls; Denver takes it that one step further.  The 16th Street Mall is a mile long, and even has its own shuttle bus to transport you up and down as you shop.  The mall isn’t closed in as most malls are, and with cafes and fountains it’s a great place to sit outside and people watch in the afternoon.

Home to the Denver mint (no samples given), Denver museum has a dinosaur skeleton as one of it’s major exhibits and if the weather isn’t playing nice, the Children’s Museum of Denver is a fun place to take the kids until the sun comes out again.   When the weather changes, the Denver zoo and Six Flags Amusement Park will help keep boredom at bay!

Whether you’re interested in architecture, history, thrills or the natural environment, you’ll be sure to find it in Denver.

Bents Old Fort is a reconstruction of a 1840s trading post.   Now under the watchful eye of the National Parks Service, the original adobe fort was one of the few white settlements on the Sante Fe trail west of Missouri.

Although the Fort may not be worth a detour to many people, if you are in the area, and have any interest in 19th century US frontier history, Bents Old Fort not only shows the physical layout of how such an establishment was run, but also gives a good indication of the kind of natural elements the people who managed and traded at the fort lived with.  With summer temperatures that can go above 100 F, and winter ones that can drop to 0 F during the day, the very brief quarter of a mile walk down the path from the arrivals area, to the fort gates, is a good indicator of how tough people had to be to cope with weather extremes.

At the fort today there’s a 20 minute video presentation that tells the fort’s story, and there are demonstrations and exhibits.  You can take either a self-guided tour, or alternatively join a guided tour which in the summer are lead by living history interpreters.  There are a number of special events that happen throughout the summer, some of which are specifically aimed at kids, and a visit to the national park website will identify when these take place.

Whether you have an interest in military life of the time, the wagon trains, the explorers who opened up the west, or just want to give your kids some kind of “live” history experience to help their school studies – look around the store to see what kind of diet those who lived in, or travelled through the area lived on - a trip to Bents Old Fort will have something to interest you.