Come Sit By Me: Volume 93

Welcome to “Come Sit By Me”! It’s our chance to catch up on the little things I’d share with you this week if we could chat on the porch over coffee (or wine depending on the time of day).

Life Lately in a Nutshell.

I finished my Canada trip this week. I had no real expectations of Montreal and it turned out to be amazing. Between the perfect weather, the beautiful architecture, and feeling like the airplane had taken a detour to Europe, I loved it.

But what I couldn’t stop noticing the entire trip were the flowers everywhere. Gorgeous overflowing planters lined streets all over town. Flowers filled window boxes, and even hung on the buildings themselves. I later learned the taxes in Montreal are ridiculously high, which must help keep the flower budget well funded.

The reason for the trip was Baylor basketball, and we got to see this season’s new team play Canadian colleges Friday and Saturday. We also got to sit in on the team’s chapel time and even one of their scouting reports before a game. I always love getting a peek behind the curtain at things like that.

One morning we hiked up Mont Royal for the view over the city, where there was a yoga class going on at the overlook. Hiking up the mountain counted as enough exercise for me since my heart rate maxed out on the last couple of flights of stairs.

We also walked over to the Montreal Botanical Garden, where we saw the incredible living plant sculptures. Thousands of plants are actually grown over sculpture forms to create these huge works of art. The most impressive was Mother Earth in that photo above, a massive woman’s face rising out of the ground with long flowing hair and a waterfall cascading out of her hand. So creative.

Old Montreal was probably my favorite part of the city with its cobblestone streets, old stone buildings, sidewalk cafes, and floral arches. It felt so romantic and European. We stayed right in Old Montreal for a couple of nights after the team left. I loved our hotel even though it had no elevator, which was a first for me. Charming European hotels apparently come with not-so-charming ways of getting your suitcase upstairs.

One of my favorite things we did was the AURA light show inside Notre Dame Basilica. The church is already spectacular on its own, but seeing it transformed with lights and music was pretty fantastic. The show moves in sections, which to me felt like a beautiful nod to creation, the struggles of this life, and ultimately heaven. And if you’re going to put on a light show set to music, the acoustics of a huge historic church with a 7,000-pipe organ is a great place to do it.

After Montreal’s ideal weather in the 70s and 80s, coming home to Texas was a little painful. The heat literally hit us in the face when we walked out of DFW airport at 8:30 at night. Texas I love you, but August here is an exercise in endurance.