Montreal - Part II

DAY TWO

Weather - about 21 degrees and off-and-on rain


For breakfast we had a fresh croissant with jam, and an apple and cheese crepe with fresh fruit. It was really delicious.

We had planned our day a little better this time and went directly en route to find this department store called "Simons" that is well-known. Apparently I was given a wrong address in my tourism book, and we yet again failed to find our destination.

We did end up climbing a hill partially on its way to Mont Royal but detoured around the McGill campus. We fell in love with the campus and wondered why we never considered this as a potential school when we were finishing high school.

All the buildings were historical and the gardens were so fresh and green.

We next headed down avenue Sherbrooke and found the Musee des Beaux Arts. The gallery was a free entrance - but we were particularly fascinated with the exhibition going on - "Once upon a Time: Disney"

We learned that Walt Disney was influenced heavily through fairy tales and paintings and we even got to see the special Oscar he got for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (there was one big Oscar, and then 7 little Oscars). At the end of the exhibition - we bought two children's books that we will be saving. One was a fairy tale book incorporating the charcters of Walt Disney, and the other was just random stories.

When we got out of the museum it had started to rain, so we quickly found the first restaurant in site and decided to grab some lunch. We ate at Dundee's Bar and Grill and ate some french onion soup, chicken wings and bruschetta.

We headed out again and it wasn't raining so much. We were headed in the direction of the Architecture Musee, and discovered in passing that it wasn't open on Tuesdays. My luck with travelling was running short on me.

After walking down rue Ste-Catherine, we finally discovered Simons and decided to do some shopping. This is a big store, and it's 85% clothes. There were people everywhere and it made it hard to move around.

After Simons we headed to the Underground City and was amazed at how big it was. The higher we went, the more expensive stores there were (DKNY, Dior, etc) plus there was a gorgeous chandelier and I think they were also preparing for a runway show along the stairs.

We headed out back to rue Ste-Catherine in search for dinner. We were trying to maintain the idea of having a different type of food each night for dinner. Monday night was Italian, and Tuesday night turned out to be Thai.

We found this great Thai take-out restaurant and ordered too much food (as always). It was really good, though.

By the time we got home, we were completely exhausted and decided to borrow the cribbage board from the Bed & Breakfast to play while relaxing in bed. I won.

Pictures from top to bottom: Rutherford building near main McGill campus, Will in front of an engineering building on McGill campus; Will with a painting called "Ken Dryden" in the Musee des Beaux Arts; the chandelier inside the Underground City Shopping area

Montreal - Part I

DAY ONE

Weather: Ottawa - raining, about 15 degrees

Montreal - raining, about 23 degrees

We caught our train at 9am and while waiting there was a group of teenagers waiting to go on their band trip for Toronto, which their train left a few minutes before ours.

There was only a few stops between Ottawa and Montreal, and it was such a beautiful ride. Totally stress-free.

We arrived in Montreal around 11:30am and was slowly learning our way around the city. We arrived at a metro station and bought ourselves a weekly pass (totally worth it!) and lugged our suitcase through the station.

I knew what stop to get off at, and had my trusty map ready - I just had forgotten to write down the address of the Bed & Breakfast down before going. I knew the name of it "Le Gite Dezery", and the street it was on - but it turns out my sense of direction is not so good. We headed down the wrong way of the street, and finally asked someone who told us the place was at the top of the hill - not the bottom! The B & B was a little northeast of downtown Montreal - but with metros everywhere - that wasn't a problem

We finally found it - and it was good that I told the owner to check us in at 1pm beforehand, because that gave us time to get lost - which we did!

We got into this really gorgeous room with a couch and flatscreen. It was a very modern room. We headed out to explore the rest of the day out in Montreal - to pretty much learn that most museums or anything we wanted to see - wasn't open on Mondays!

We checked out the underground shopping areas and cruised the streets when it wasn't raining. We decided to head back to our room to actually plan our trip out and see what we could do on Monday. We ended up catching a quick nap (getting lost can be pretty exhausting) and then headed out downtown for dinner! Our plan was to just search for anything that looked good.

We found Guido & Angelina's on rue University, and ended up sitting down just as the hockey game was starting. It was more of a casual Italian restaurant. Will ended up eating a tortellini dish with prosciutto meat. I ended up eating this whole wheat linguine with vegetables (kind of like a pasta primavera) and we each had some wine.

We had no room for dessert - as we had a pretty late lunch (around 2pm) - which seemed to be the case for the rest of the week.

We headed back home as we had to prepare ourselves for the long day we had planned for Tuesday when more things would be open.

Pictures from top to bottom: Will in the front of our Bed & Breakfast Le Gite Dezery; Our bedroom in the Bed & Breakfast Le Gite Dezery; Will on the train to Montreal, before the train got full at the Ottawa Station.

Talk about irony....

Oh man, the Stanley Cup Finals happening to your home team is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I had attempted to get any tickets to a game, but it was sold out within 4 minutes!

So, although we were unsuccessful in purchasing tickets, Will was determined to still be with tons of people for the games. This past Monday, he had to work at night, so he was unable to go anywhere.

But, last night, he and some friends headed to Scotiabank Place to watch the game and he was found to be one of the "rowdiest fans". As an award, he would automatically receive tickets to a Stanley Cup Final game, but first he had to compete with 2 other "rowdy" fans for a plasma TV.

He didn't end up winning the TV, but he got the tickets, and as soon as he opened them......he realized that they were for the ONE game where we wouldn't be in town. We are heading to Montréal Monday morning, and the tickets were for Home Game 2 (Monday night at 8pm). He tried to ask to see if there were any tickets for Home Game 1 (Saturday night at 8pm), but they said there was none left.

How often can you say that you got Stanley Cup Final tickets for free? And then, not be able to go. Talk about irony....

5km

So, I made it. I actually crossed the finish line alive, and breathing.

I recently ran in the MDS Nordion Ottawa Race Weekend - but I'm not as big a trooper as others, and only ran a mere 5km with Scott.

We didn't even get to start the race until 5 minutes after it started as there were thousands of people inching their way closer to the starting line.

When we did finally get started, we had to avoid all the walkers and people with strollers that were at the beginning of the line.

I think we ended up running more than 5km if you include the distance going side to side weaving in and out between people and the bit at the start.

Overall, it was a pretty warm day. The race started at 5pm, which is when it is supposed to be cooling down, but once you got the sun reflecting off the Rideau Canal - you could feel it just getting more and more hot throughout the run.

I'm quite happy with my time. I wish I could've been quicker, but with little training, and slight asthma, that will take more time. I am anticipating to possibly walk the half-marathon next year, but who knows. Maybe it is the spirit of the weekend's run that is getting me to say this. That would be quite an accomplishment, should I complete that!

I ended up with a finishing time of 35:38.7 attempting to sprint ahead of Scott with 200m left. Unfortunately I saw him pass me right at the end so that he could have a finishing time of 35:38.4. I couldn't believe he beat me!! I really thought I had him beat! Well, there's always next year!

Tulip Festival

This past holiday Monday - Will & I had the privilege of having a day off together, and it was a beautiful day at that! It was the final day of the Tulip Festival, so we headed to downtown to see what was left of the gorgeous flowers!

We had headed down and to our surprise arrived to Parliament Hill just as they were doing some procession with cannons. We had just noticed several people gathered over in one area and went to see what it was, and finally after poking my head out, it was cannons - and they were very loud!! I eventually had to walk away in midst of the shots, as each one was giving me a slight jump in the heart.

We walked along behind the Parliament buildings checking out the view and just basking in the beautiful day. We headed down towards the locks where there was a boat in midst of getting through. It takes a long time to get through these, I don't know if I would have the patience for owning a boat in Ottawa.

We finally made our way to Major Hill Park where all the festival activities were taking place. We got to see wonderful large painted tulips that were so artistically decorated and we saw so many real tulips. There was also many international stations which offered so much information and food from their culture.

After checking all this out, we headed to the market and did a little bit of shopping. There is this really fascinating store on Sussex that I am absolutely in love with. And surprisingly enough, I ended up buying an umbrella from there (I was really wanting one of those umbrella's with a cane-like handle) as I was starting to need one.

We headed back towards Parliament for one last look at everything (and I was attempting to show Will that there are cats that live there) and we were totally exhausted by the time we got home, but it was such a great day!!

Self-Control

I have been faced with many encounters lately where I am required to use my self-control. I never actually thought I had any, so it amazes me to see how well I am using it.

For starters, I have been hesitant to start up with biting my nails again, and I know I still have one to go, but because the others have grown to an appropriate length - the habit disinterests me. It took me awhile to get to this stage - as growing up that's all I could ever remember doing.

Also, I have looked into eating healthier, and I completely cut out any sweets with the first two weeks cutting out starch (including pasta/rice/bread). This has been extremely difficult for me, but I have prevailed - and have not cheated. I can't completely say that the thought of eating anything sweet disinterests me - as that would be a lie, but I have made the proper choices with eating, as there is so much temptation around me at work, and at home (and especially when you can smell a pizza in the bus terminal). I have never given up sweets completely before, but I have found to be a lot less hungry throughout the day - so I would say that cutting that out really helps with my energy and my focus.

Warmer Weather

With the warmer weather arriving, and everything growing again - we are being blessed with the wonderful world of construction.

I am working on a street where a new building is being built from the beginning stages, and we're at the stage where the construction crews need to use dynamite to create new holes to enforce the building.

So, every few hours we hear the sound of a loud whistle (kind of reminds me of The Flinstones) blown several times to warn of the blast, then a loud "boom", which shakes the office building like really loud thunder, and then another whistle.

It was fine the first day, but after a week of it, it's starting to give me a headache daily.

There's also road construction everywhere and the sound of dump trucks rolling down the street.

I just want to sit and enjoy the warmer weather and all it brings with the new life of spring. Being able to sit outside and read a book, and go for a run, and enjoying the scenery!

But, I guess that I will have to live with both sceneries/sounds as I don't think anything will really change in the future.

Hockey Pools

Well I must admit it..... I suck at hockey pools!!! All my players keep getting knocked out of the playoffs...

In CBC Hockey Playoff Pool you begin by picking 10 players before the playoffs begin.
For the next round (Conference Semifinals), you're allowed to only switch 6 players
For the next round (Conference Finals), you're allowed to only switch 4 players
For the final round (Stanley Cup Finals), you're allowed to only switch 2 players

My problems began early. I had originally picked players from different teams so that I would have atleast some people left playing in the next round.

After the first round - I had 7 of the 10 players finished in the playoffs.
After the second round (after already having a player who I had to keep from the round before) - I had yet another 7 of the 10 players finished in the playoffs.

So now, I can only make 4 changes to my roster - when there's 7 of them not even playing anymore!!

I have determined that this is not a good playoff pool for me!! I wonder if I'll have any left the next round - maybe I'll just make sure I have one from each of the 4 teams left, and then I'll be sure to have players playing in the Finals!

Spring Weekend

This weekend was soo beautiful....

Saturday was warm but the wind had this chill about it. After doing some well-needed spring cleaning in the house and the car, we headed out downtown as Steph had an ultimate frisbee practice. We went walking about the market and Sparks Street Mall attempting to warm ourselves up. With a quick detour at Costco to get bagels, we headed home to rush ourselves some dinner as Steph & I headed off to a movie while Will stayed home to watch the hockey game. Will had seen Spiderman 3 earlier that day and said he absolutely loved it! Steph & I saw Disturbia. It was an OK movie, but it seemed to be very predictable. It's not one that I would buy.



Sunday we headed out for a run (more like a walk with gasping breaths for me) with the Running Room. Then Will & I headed to Bayshore to return some things and then we headed home, only to head out again to play frisbee. My arm is still hurting from throwing the frisbee too hard! I also have a couple of bruises on fingers while attempting to catch the frisbee. Then we came home, and had a BBQ (which is our new favourite thing) and relaxed the rest of the evening.



Overall a really good weekend, and I hope for many more (a little warmer) to come this summer. I cannot wait to head back downtown to check out the Tulip Festival.

Happy Sunny Day

Happy Sunny Day to everyone!

Well, atleast if you live near me, it is a happy sunny day!

I'm so excited that temperatures have been warming up so that I can enjoy my B-B-Q and do more things outside, rather than staying in.

It is hard to tear myself away from the TV some nights, as I am addicted to some shows which are now almost finished, so I have to see what happens in the end.

I have been trying to run more - not just with the Running Room, but on my own (such self-control I have) and this way I can discover my neighbourhood, because a lot of the streets there are very confusing, and don't all lead to where I want them to.

Enjoy the day, be outside...

Happy sunny day!!