Fiancé visa on hold

I called back as soon as I could, August 22, to try to get a new interview date. They said they could now report (?!) our missed interview and I should call back in a few days. I called Monday, Aug. 27, while waiting for my connecting flight at the Montréal airport. I could hear them, but they couldn't hear me. I called this morning, Aug. 29, and they said to wait a few more days. They refused to say why, or exactly when, or even how many days it took the last person who got a new interview date. GRRR!

A bit later, I thought I should try the website where I first chose an interview date —  the one that earlier in the summer was simply showing our scheduled Aug. 21 interview. There was a "Continue" button, then a choice for "Missed interview," and a box to explain why. Once I submitted that, I was immediately able to select a new interview date!

On the pop-up calendar, I tried a mid-September date, but it wouldn't click. I tried several times, as well as different dates. October dates were the same. I clicked forward through November. When I got to December, there were clearly dates available. I chose one of the earliest, Dec. 18th. That worked, and we're now set for a new Juárez interview then.

I have no idea why the first available dates were so far in the future. Is it just happenstance, or seasonal, or Trump's State Dept. cuts, or ... ?

So much more needless delay. Now Victor won't be here until next year at the earliest. Sigh.

Montréal and Québec City — August 2018

Panorama of Old Montréal 

(Click the photo to view it larger.)

Group photo in Québec City

My first time visiting Montréal and Québec City. It was this Road Scholar tour. One reason I did this with a tour group was because I don't speak French!

In each city, we began with a tour by a local guide. Our overall leader and the two city guides were excellent.

The tour went well. There was a bit of rain the first full day, but I never used my umbrella. We focused mainly on Old Montréal and Old Québec City. In our free time, I visited Montréal's Gay Village one day and the Botanical Garden and Olympic Park on another day. I also made sure to try peanut butter dumplings in Montréal.

Besides the standard tourist sights, we had private concerts in each city —  an organ concert in Montréal and a chamber music concert in Québec City.

I have four sets of photos:

• Around Montréal and Québec City (6 photos; view them individually to see the captions.)
• Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (6 photos; view the photos individually to see the captions.)
• Montmorency Falls, Québec City
  (5 photos)
• Montréal Botanical Garden (9 photos)

This was my favorite painting at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts — laugh-out-loud funny. Click the photo to view it larger.

It just so happened that my cousin's daughter Lisa and two of her children were visiting Montréal at the same time! We arranged to tour the Botanical Garden together. Here I am with Lisa and Ben (Emma is taking the photo).