Quist World Tour

This year we are visiting Brian’s sister, Julie, and her family to celebrate a belated Christmas. The idea of spending time in Colorado with family sounds great. The idea of paying for 6 airline tickets, not so much. We decided to hit the road. You may know this about us: we are not unaccustomed to a road trip. However, this year we have a special guest—Iko, our exchange student from Japan. Iko has never driven more than about 5 hours in the car. So you can imagine his surprise that we were planning to drive 20 hours, and that 20 hours would only get us partway across the U.S.! And so it came to pass that this unsuspecting young man found himself trapped in a minivan with 5 other people, assorted bags and food supplies, and a ridiculous number of wrapped presents. Two of those 5 people had raging colds, turning our family bus into, as friend Jeff Smits termed it, a germ incubator. Plus, on this particular trip we had more items that could not be stashed under other things, an

If Montreal is Canada’s Paris, then Toronto is Canada’s New York City. Dundas Square instead of Times Square, grand old theaters, trendy shopping, great restaurants, a sea of skyscrapers, and lots and lots of people. There are cranes everywhere; apparently construction is booming. Our hotel room turned out to be on the 20 th floor of the Holiday Inn. I knew it was a 4 person room, and had reserved it as such, but somehow the confirmation only said 2 people. We of course have 5. It felt like we were in a Mission Impossible movie as I tried to move the kids discreetly past the desk clerk. Not to mention the cooler, all of our luggage, and a sleeping bag. The room did have 2 double beds, but the online picture looked distinctly larger than the room that greeted us. Andrew is very adaptable, and he had the joy of squeezing his sleeping bag between one of the beds and the wall. We knew we wouldn’t have much time, so our plan was just to walk around and check things out. Toronto b

Today was our one day in Montreal . The traffic into town went much more smoothly, and we parked in a public parking lot near the old city. We took a walking tour of Old Montreal, which is just a beautiful place. It’s like being transported to a few blocks of an old European city. Brian and I could walk around like that all day. Have I mentioned that we have children? Andrew, our budding architect, soaked it all up. He’s a city boy through and through, in spite of his love for the national parks. Natalie wanted to visit some of the art shops we passed. Allison, however, professed her love for the countryside and flatly told us how much she hated to walk around cities. Oh well. The Basilique Notre-Dame glows inside with rich colors and a front wall that almost conjured up something a Disney designer would come up with, which I’m sure would completely insult anyone who loves that basilica. It’s not because it’s so tacky; it’s just that the lighting above the blue background, with th

Up at 6:30 and out of the campground with our bedroom, living room and kitchen all packed into the van by 9:00. Since we really did nothing the night before to prepare for this, we were pretty proud of ourselves. Especially since we did most of it with minimal yelling and irritation. It was another morning of cereal, until the new neighbors to one side, who we had not met yet, brought over their leftover pancakes and sausage. At which point our children simultaneously thanked them wholeheartedly and wolfed down the leftovers. We hugged our friends goodbye, then we went our separate ways. Off to Montreal . We drove through Maine and New Hampshire , taking a highway that was marked as a scenic drive. It was kind of hard to tell how scenic it was given the downpour we were driving through as we approached the marked off area. We took a look at the radar and weather report for Montreal and the nearby national park that held our reservations, and we both decided to pretend we never s

Our last day in Bar Harbor and Acadia . What to do, what to do? Well, for sure, no sleeping in—can’t waste any of the last day lying in the sleeping bag. Well, really, I could. Laying down in the tent at night with the last of the campfire smells still wafting in, with the wind moving the leaves in the trees, with the kids already sleeping deeply around me, with a book and a clip-on booklight in hand, all is well. And when I wake up, my youngest is laying next to me, many times greeting me with a sleepy smile as I turn over and all of us just closing our eyes again and drifting back to sleep. At some point, someone will be up for good, and they’ll pick up a book and wait for the rest of us to come around. The sun starts to make its way into the open screens, birds trill and call, and blue sky awaits the sound of our zipper door. Mmmm. But we do have a few things to do yet. And so, we pour a bowl of cereal for everyone, brush teeth at the mediocre bathroom facility, and off we go.

This morning the gnats were all but gone—can’t tell you how much more comfortable that makes breakfast time. They must like the heavy, wet air that hung over us earlier. Glorious blue skies beckoned us, which was great since we were getting an early start today. Why the hurry? We wanted to walk out to Bar Island , a small island off Bar Harbor that is connected by a strip of sand during low tide. Getting three families loaded into vehicles and on their way for the day is no small feat, and we actually got on the road on time! Walking along the sand bar on the way to the island, we realized that vehicles can even drive over, as long as they are quick to return. Getting to the island, we started walking to one corner where the tourist info guy had told us we could find rocky tide pools. At first it just looked like seaweed. These tide pools look like puddles of seaweed and rocks, with a good sprinkling of snails and barnacles. At first glance, you think that’s it. But if y

One thing we’re learning on this trip is some sympathy for Pharoah’s Egyptians. The plagues are interesting enough in Sunday school, but seriously. Insects everywhere. Here in Maine , we are treated to a plague of gnats. Especially in the mornings. Apparently they are worse on wet, foggy days, because yesterday they were terrible. This morning they were still awful, but only as annoying as they were because we tried to cook breakfast while every surface quickly covered with black dots. Not my favorite part of camping here. However, today we had clear, blue skies and much drier air than yesterday. The gnats must have found darker, wetter places to be, because they cleared out of the campsites for the most part today. We drove out to the National Park again today, and this time we had long, vivid views of the islands and the water. Gorgeous. We drove up to Cadillac Mountain , clambering over the rocky peak and looking out over an incredible landscape. We each took some family p

Yesterday we spent the day driving from Waltham , Mass. to Bar Harbor , Maine . We stopped briefly outside Orchard House in Concord , Mass, the home of Louisa May Alcott. We got there around 9:25. The house museum opens at 10, and the employees were just arriving. I’ve never seen museum employees move so fast—they high-tailed it form their cars to the door, slammed it shut and locked it from the inside. I was just beginning to take it personally when I realized that another car had just shown up, and that they must have early birds all the time. Natalie and I prowled around the outside for a few minutes, peeking in the windows, and then we hopped back in the car to hit the road. After a stop in Belfast , Maine , for lunch in a picturesque little town. Kept driving towards   Bar Harbor, and on our way we saw a familiar van heading a different direction—Kurt and Katy, who we were meeting in Bar Harbor were barreling down the wrong highway searching for a grocery story they’d hea

Boston . Home to clam chowder, the Red Sox, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and one of the greatest accents in the world. Also home to the Freedom Trail, a trail that makes its way through the history of the American Revolution. We drove to Boston and managed to avoid any really terrible traffic. Somehow found a public parking lot with some not-so-affordable spots still open. And we bravely walked out into the sunshine. It was warm, to say the least. We stopped off for lunch at Faneuil Hall Marketplace, or Quincy Market, depending on whether you ask me or Brian. We’re both right, even though neither of us really quite believes it. Good thing for us we all took the anti-grumpy pledge about 5 days ago, an event that we all remind each other of frequently. Have you ever noticed that if you make a promise, and other people continue to remind you of it, it becomes even harder to keep that promise? Yeah, exactly. We knew we wouldn’t make it through the whole Freedom Trail in this

Today was our last day here in Cape Cod . It’s been sunny and hot, and pretty dang humid too. We started the day off in such a beautiful way—we skipped morning. I know that is sacrilege to many of you, but to me that’s a sure sign of vacation. We slept till 9 (in a tent with 5 people!) then cooked up a huge breakfast around 10:30 to fill the black hole that is currently our 15 year old son. We had no big plans today; today was a bonus day. We had thought we would stay somewhere between Niagara and Cape Cod, but last week we decided to get to the Cape a day early, giving us this extra full day there. We’d considered a ferry to Nantucket , but it would cost about $200 for all of us, and besides, Allison had made a friend on the playground the night before who was expecting her at 10 AM sharp. I took the kids to the town of Brewster to do some souvenir shopping, leaving Brian with his book, blissfully ignorant of what we were doing. Then we all got in the car, stopped for a

Back at camp, we found that things were wet, for sure, but nothing we couldn’t air out today. We put everything out to dry, and then we went to the beach. The Cape Cod bayside beach is not exactly Lake Michigan . We paid $15 just to park at the city beach, and we then walked past the parking lot port-a-potty and onto a small patch of beach, crowded with people from all over the world. We set up our chairs and spread out our towels and sent the kids to the water. This didn’t work so well, as the sand was covered with seaweed that wrapped around their ankles, and it felt slimy as they stepped through. They were not impressed. We were a bit surprised that Cape Cod gets so much press, when it is clear that Lake Michigan is better swimming. Not to mention that the whole shark thing still had Allison shaking. We found out this morning that there was a shark attack on Cape Cod 2 days ago, but we did our best to distract her from figuring out what we were talking about. We perse

After spending Monday on the road driving from Niagara Falls to Cape Cod , we set up our tent and had a beautifully comfortable evening settling into the campsite. We walked down to the campground’s pond, where the sun was setting over the water, and another family was catching frogs with a net. A little girl ran over to show her frogs to our kids, and when she uncovered her bucket, they both hopped out and away. Natalie caught one, and the other sat about a foot into the pond staring at us. The girl got the net from her dad and recaptured her victim. Tuesday morning came, as did the usual groans that we were just having cereal at our campsite while the smells of bacon and eggs rose up from sites all around us. We packed for the day and went to explore the Cape Cod National Seashore. The Seashore is a long strip of surprisingly hilly land, dotted by salt marsh ponds full of green swamp grass and serviced by one main highway that is frequently jammed with cars. We asked at the

Niagara Falls. Haven for honeymooners, a check on the bucket list for mature travelers. While we may still be in love, we are past the honeymoon stage, and not quite to the more mature traveler category. We are in that category that is smiled and cringed at in equal measure—the traveling family of five. I already knew from past experience that Niagara is a dream town for the diehard tourist—Ripley’s Believe-it-or-not, Planet Hollywood, wax museums, casinos, towers, you name the cheesy destination, they’ve got it. The last time we came this way we had two toddlers, and it was a freezing cold, cloudy October day. We pulled up into the lot, parked immediately and walked to the falls, where we were almost the only ones visiting. So this was a bit different. It was sunny and super hot, and the rainbow in the mist was full and defined. Lovely. The force of the falls is breathtaking, and the mist like a rain shower was a joy in the hot weather. People crowded the fence along the