2006 Tom and Daddy Trip
Montreal
FDR, Upper New York State, Montreal and the Warped Tour
Diary
I'm working on this in July 2007. I don't remember all the
details but I remember enough to give a decent synopsis
of our trip. The main reason we selected Montreal is that
16 year old Tom really wanted to go to the Vans Warped
Tour. And it truly was a worthwhile event.
For Tom's version of our Warped Tour and Trip 2006 experience and
some photos click Tom's Warped Tour 2006.
Tom created this file in the summer of 2007 to record his version of our 2006
trip (and I added my own recap at the end).
Up and out on Thursday, August 10th. Our first destination
is Hyde Park, FDR's Home and now a national historic site
that includes the grounds, the home/museum, and the FDR Library.
On the way there, shortly after we crossed the Hudson
60 miles north of New York City, I let Tom drive a little. He's
had his license for a few months. I take a short nap in the
passenger seat. Tom stops at a light and I open my eyes
slightly and peek around. What is that! I sit up, wide awake
and instruct the startled Tom to take the next left. He
does, and we enter Marist College, in Poughkeepsie New York.
Marist College, home of the fighting Red Foxes. I had
always wanted to visit here. Its a surprisingly attractive
campus, bordered on one side by the Hudeson River. We find
the bookstore and I finally buy a Red Foxes polo shirt.
A nice start to our trip.
Marist College, on the Hudson
A short time later we are at Hyde Park. We browse in the museum,
wander around the grounds, and visit the Rose Garden where we
pay our respects at the graves of President and Mrs. Roosevelt.
FDR's Home
Roosevelt grave site
We drive further north and stop at Saratoga Springs. What
a nice place. We windowshop, and spend a bit of time in an
interesting used record store. A quick look in a few bars
followed by a single beer in an Irish pub that already had
live music going early in the evening - oh, they were just
practicing. We finally hit the road intending to drive "just
a little bit" and find a reasonable hotel -- but we can't find
anything until we are through the Adirondack Park, and just about
90 minutes south of Montreal.
Friday and Saturday we get to know Montreal. We have no trouble
or lines at the border and are checked into our hotel early.
Our hotel is south-east of the city. We drive to the start of the
Montreal subway system just about 7 miles from our hotel, on our side
of the river, and take a train into town. We each get a three
day pass, perfect for us.
The first stop after our station is on Ile des Soeurs (Sacred Island?).
This is the location for the Warped Tour, so we got off and looked around.
The island also has an amusement park that Tom enjoyed the next day.
During our first two days in Montreal we:
- Have some nice meals in Montreal.
- Wander the shopping areas.
- Enjoy street performers.
- Stroll through Chinatown.
- Visit the Notre Dame Basilica.
- Experience the BioDome, an indoor "zoo"; we didn't especially like the
rainforest area on this hot summer day but we did enjoy the "cool"
penguin and puffin exhibits.
- Tom spent an afternoon and early evening in the amusement
park, while I did a little bar hopping.
- Visit Olympic Park and take the tram to the top of the tower
for a nice view of Montreal. The second of the two photos taken from the top
of the tower shows the Ile des Soeurs.
- Have a drink at the Fouf's bar - Tom heard that this is where
the Warped Tour bands hang out - it's a bit of a rough area and the
bar maid asked Tom what kind of beer he wanted. But I said
"root beer". The place was huge but mostly deserted that afternoon
we were there. Some guy wandered by our table and asked us if
we knew where his table was -- I think he was in the wrong bar.
There were many bars along this strip.
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Sunday, the 13th was Warped Tour day. The Warped Tour is a touring
music festival, featuring upwards of 100 bands, with multiple stages. At
the Montreal venue there were about 80 bands, 7 stages, and about
15,000 in attendance. Montreal was the last stop of the 2006 tour. Check the
Wikipedia description for more detailed info. For the full story of
our Warped Tour 2006 experience and
some photos click Warped Tour 2006.
Tom created this file in the summer of 2007 to record his version of our 2006
trip (and I added my own recap at the end).
|
Monday we head back south. It took us about 2 hours to get
through the border crossing. Once through we had clear sailing.
We took a detour and visited the Lake Placid area, where we had lunch.
We next drove down to Albany where we had designs on another LP
store, but they closed 15 minutes after we got there. Stopped
for a visit with Mags, a Notre Dame buddy, and had great pizza and
fun discussions of Zahm Hall, roto baseball, and music. We stay in
a hotel a little south of Albany.
Tuesday we drive home. Altogether a relatively short but eventful trip.
Here's some of our ticket stubs:
End of 2006
P.S. The photo of the basilica is upside down. Ha! Just seeing if
you were paying attention.