Keeping with our policy of traveling 4 hours or so before setting up at the next campground, Montreal was the perfect stop. Or so we thought. We bumped into what Canadians call a “long weekend,” and this “long weekend” celebrated Canada’s Confederation-Independence from Great Britain. Campgrounds near Montreal were jammed, and finally, on recommendation we found Cameron’s Point Family Campground. A bit further than we liked, but they had space for us.
Know why Cameron Point had a site for us? This campground is almost 90% seasonal campers: remaining sites were small, roadways smaller, 30amp only (which should have been fine) that mysteriously dropped to 20amp (which wasn’t adequate to run both air conditioners and it was hot); poor water pressure, campers that don’t clean-up after their dogs, an outdated and beastly hot and humid bath house, and mosquitos that bit through clothing. Can we tell you how we really felt? I suspect that campers who knew of the campground stayed away! I’m not sure we had much choice; the fear that most campgrounds were already well-booked for the “long weekend” stayed in our minds. We decided to just make the best of it!
We were in arm’s reach of Montreal, and the City just happened to be hosting their annual city-wide jazz festival beginning this very weekend. We had attended some years ago, and felt that it was more than worth our time to check things out again this year. We arrived for the festival way too early for the headliners, but we found a group entertaining families and this made for a good start. Next up was a high school jazz band; we decided to wait to hear them until their second set later in the afternoon, and we went on a rather too-long walk to find us some Montreal bagels (Canadian food blog published soon).
Montreal bagels ended up being our appetizer because while munching away, we discovered that Schwartz’s Deli was only a short Uber-ride. Off to Schwatrz’s we went and, as can be expected, we ended up standing in line for about a half hour waiting to be seated.
While in line we couldn’t help but notice the odd building across the street. Take a minute to check out the picture: between small businesses, bars and restaurants there appears to be an apartment building of some sort, an assortment of adornments in the lot, a sculpture, and an unrelated sign for Jewish monuments. Seems like a story waiting to be written.
We over-ate yet again, and Ubered back to the festival.
There were at least 4 outdoor stages we passed with musicians working their craft, stations misting cool water over the crowd (did I mention we sweated our way through the day? It was hot without cloud cover or breeze), and the usual vendor stands all within the City’s entertainment district. We were disappointed to find that Cirque du Soleil type acts no longer performed on the streets during the festival. But the air was alive with music, and the buzz of the crowd enjoying themselves. The high school jazz band was superb and a pleasant surprise. There were more solos than the expected big band jazz standards! Next up was what turned out to be a kickin’ high-powered quartet that played more blues than jazz. There was standing room only before the group started, and the crowd just kept getting larger and larger in response to these cats jamming. Heads were bopping along with the rhythm, some couples danced in spite of the temperatures well above 37.22 degrees Celsius, and we really wished their hour set would have continued much, much longer. The heat had taken it’s toll by the end of their set, and we called it quits for the day.
The heat was relentless; the next day it was steamy as well. We’re not beach people, and Barbara has a negative reaction to too much sun. What to do? “Avenger’s: Infinity War” was playing nearby, and off to the air-conditioned theater we went. Barbara had been wondering for a while if Canadian McDonald’s tasted differently and there was a restaurant just across the street (Canadian food blog published soon). Check one more thing off of the to-do list.
Since it was Canada Day the campground provided hot dogs, potato crisps and soda as well as a birthday cake. They put on one hell of a fireworks show, too. Guess there were a couple of decent things about the place after all.
Our Montreal experiences satiated our bellies and our musical souls. One more stop before crossing back into the US.
Barbara and Brian
Aimless Wanderings 