A Visit from Family

Last week my grandmother and aunt came to visit us and we had a fabulous time.  It was nice and comforting to have them here.  We went lots of places, ate great food and played lots and lots of cards.  In keeping with my theme of dating the city, my grandmother and aunt agreed to join me on my adventures.  I was a little worried that I would break my grandmother with a lot of walking so one day we decided to take a double decker bus tour around the city.  The tour was really great we were able to hop off and on the bus and see the sites. 

St. Joseph's Oratory 

One of the stops on the tour was St. Joseph's Oratory.  It was built in honor of Canada's patron saint, St. Joseph by Brother Andre.  In 1904 Brother Andre raised $200 and built a small wooden chapel 15 feet by 18 feet.  Many people came to the chapel to be healed by Brother Andre.  When he died in 1937 a million people came to see his casket.  In 1955 the present basilica was completed and Brother Andre was buried there.  Brother Andre was recently canonized a saint by Pope Benedict.

The basilica has the world's second largest dome (the first is St. Peter's Basilica) and houses a shrine to St. Joseph.  There are 300 steps to climb to get the top.  People will often climb the middle 100 steps on their knees as a penance. 

 Luckily there was an elevator inside so we only had to climb about 30 stairs.  The inside of the chapel was really simple, especially compared to the Notre Dame Basilica, but beautiful.  I was really happy that we went there and that I was able to share that with my grandmother (who is Catholic).  Inside there is also a shirne to Brother Andre that has crutches from all of the people he healed. 

Botanical Gardens

On Saturday we made a trip out to the Botanical Gardens, this is our favorite place in Montreal.  I was a little nervous that it would be disappointing, that there wouldn't be flowers but I was pleasantly surprised.  We could have spent the whole day wondering around looking at everything but unfortunately we weren't able to.  My favorite places are the Chinese and Japanese gardens.  The bonzai trees were out and they had a Lillac Bonzai and a Canadian Maple Bonzai and there was even a tree with pink pine cones.