Tucson

Temperature today was 83*F

Don't know why this didn't post, should have posted on Thursday 25 Oct 12

Travel day

(Typing while on my flight to Tucson via Houston)

I'm on my way to Tucson where the weather is sunny and 29*C. I just hope it's not too hot, I'm not used to the warm weather anymore... It will be a quick trip, arrive at 6pm Tucson time (8pm Winnipeg time) and we leave tomorrow at 3:45 or so. Purpose of the trip - talk to Bombardier about some upcoming projects and how we can work together on projects next year.

From there I fly home to Winnipeg (yay!) for a weekend and then to Orlando for a business aircraft conference called NBAA.

I'm actually looking forward to the flights to and from these places, gives me a chance to relax and unwind a little bit. It's been a busy month so far.

Yesterday was quite busy - received some training from one of our electrical specialists on how to test aircraft systems for interference. He had me sitting in the co pilot seat and by the end of the test I was tuning radios and watching for any forms of interference. Pretty neat if you ask me.

From there, I had an inspection to do and afterwards left the office to make my way to a career fair downtown.

The career fair was quite interesting. According to Olivier (one of my colleagues here in Montreal) our booth was one of the busier ones. I claim it is because not many people know who we are or what we do. Other companies like Bell Helicopters and Pratt and Witney are pretty well known. We talked to lots of people ranging from new grads all the way to people with over ten years experience. It will be interesting to see if anyone is a good candidate for our open design positions.

Well, time to get back to my book and hopefully an afternoon nap (gotta love napping).

I need more creative titles...

Well, Monday has come and almost gone. Work was busy, as always. It's funny, engineers are notorious for leaving things to the last minute so I thought why not plant the seed that I'm going to be out of the office Tuesday through Thursday the week after? Sounds like a good idea except everyone plans things for tomorrow morning, lol.

So now I will be late to the career fair here in Montreal but two others should be there on time.

Enough ranting about work.

Dinner tonight will be with a colleague from Brazil, Douglas. Douglas was in Winnipeg earlier this year for a project and was lots of fun. We even took him snow boarding to Holiday Mountain where he got half way through his lessons and then hurt his ankle. Douglas didn't let this dampen his spirits though an thoroughly enjoyed the "après ski" portion;)

So I should wrap up this blog and head over to pick him and Bruno up for dinner and hopefully meet another colleague from Winnipeg for dinner after he is done his testing.

Later!

WWG

[Weekend With Gwen]

Good weekend!  Gwen arrived safe and sound at 6:45pm on Wednesday afternoon and was able to stay through the weekend.

Her time here was well spent (I think, I guess she would be the better judge of that than I).  She spent her days shopping at a bi-annual fashion clearing event for Quebec fashion designers/retailers at Marche Bonsecours and just wandering around downtown and checking out the sights and sounds.  I think she enjoyed the Metro, every time she talked about it she would smile from ear-to-ear. 

Eventful things that we did together on Saturday was go to Biodome and then to Old Montreal and Parc Jean Drapeau.  Sunday we took a little driving tour over Mont Royal and then went to the Fairview Shopping Centre and Costco.  Dinner was at Baton Rouge - a Tony Roma's-esque restaurant mixed with a Keg ambiance.  Dinner was great, so great that now I'm over full, still...  must be because my stomach has shrunk a bit.  Late dinners sure have an impact on how much you can/want to eat for supper, even Gwen noticed.

Shopping was successful, Gwen bought one suit jacket at H&M and I bought two suits at Mexx... really wasn't my plan but for 40% off, I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  Well, now I have some options for the career fair on Tuesday and the expo/conference next week.

It was nice to have someone here to spend the weekend with, makes the time pass much faster and things are way more enjoyable having someone to share the experience with rather than just yourself.

Gwen must have missed me, 5 mins into each movie while rubbing her feet she was sound asleep.  Friday I wasn't far behind, must have been 40 mins in and then was out like a light.  Lol.

Well, here are some photos from the weekend.  Time to get ready for bed and the week ahead.

Gwen with Ears

I was going to say "Fruit Loops celebrities" but these aren't toucans,
they are parrots...

Sea Otter posing for a photo

Mr Lynx

Not sure exactly what this was but it was neat

Puffin!

Penguins

March of the Penguins
(yes I laughed)

8.5 / 10 (there was a splash)

Emperor Penguin

Biosphere (on St. Helen's Island)

Downtown Montreal from St. Helen's Island
(from this location)

Traffic

Well, traffic was interesting today.  I left work a little early today to get my hair cut at the mall (more on this later).  I ended up driving right in the thick of rush hour I would say.  It took me 20 mins to go maybe half a mile on the service road beside the 40.  I thought, "OMG, how long is this going to take me to get home if I've already spent 20 mins".

Luckily, once we got through the traffic lights (qty 2) I was able to make it home from there in less than 10 mins.  So, 20 mins to go 1 km plus 10 mins to go the other 11.7 kms... I can see how this is going to be frustrating, especially when the snow flies.  Oh well, nothing you can do but wait it out.

So, haircut.  I got to the mall earlier today so that I didn't walk in at closing time (that was yesterday's issue - mall closes at 6pm).  I got the hair dresser / salon / barber (whatever you want to call it) and got in right away.  The guy cutting my hair must have been on a mission, maybe he finished at 5pm because I was in and out in 20 mins.  My haircut looks good but Gwen will be the judge of that tomorrow when she gets here.

What else is new... oh yeah, hockey.  I played with one of Francois' kayaking buddies, TJ, at the Jacques Lemaire Arena in LaSalle QC (driving route).  I wasn't sure what to expect but when I got there, TJ was waiting outside with two other guys (brothers, not TJ's brothers) who were all finishing a smoke before the game.  This pretty much set the mood - I will probably do alright with these guys in terms of skill level and fitness.

The arena was super warm, I was probably dripping with sweat after 3 shifts.  This doesn't mean much, I sweat walking up the stairs in the apartment building...  The game was pretty good.  Our team (The Mighty Chucks) had 13 skaters (3 full forward lines and 2 sets of D).  TJ put me on D - he asked what I play and I told him preferably defense but I could play forward if needed.  "Good" he said, "we are typically short D.  We recruited 3 D this year to back fill our 0 D last year."

Everyone on the team spoke very good English, most of the team was from the West Island which is where most of the English speaking citizens live.

The game was lots of fun, the other team had 8 skaters which meant we should have won but their goalie got lots of amazing breaks (stacking pads, paddle saves, etc) plus they had a couple very skilled players.  We lost 6-3.  I played fairly well, or at least well enough that the team invited me to play full time for the rest of the season.  So this will keep me busy.

Don't really have much else to write about, I'm pretty tired from last night as I got home at 12:30 and couldn't fall asleep until about 1 or 1:30 only to get up at 6:30.  Oh well, lots of time to sleep later.

Lundi diner

Rainy day Sunday

Today was fairly rainy outside, which was fine for me.  All I wanted to do today was:

1. unpack
2. go grocery shopping
3. get a haircut (this mop has to go)

I also was planning on going with Warren to the Montreal Canadien's Hall of Fame, at the Bell Centre.  Since I had a 24 hrs metro pass, as long as I left by 2:00pm I would only have to pay one fare.

So, after my cup of coffee, I figured I better get started and unpacked my boxes.  Unpacking went fast but I soon realized that I had to iron my work clothes as they had been crammed into my tubs for about a week.  This could wait until after the Hall of Fame.

I ate a quick lunch and then hopped on the Metro and rode from the Snowdon Station to the Lucien L'Allier Station.  The metro ride allowed me to type up my first blog (well, about 80% of it, I had to finish the rest while watching TV).  After 15 mins on the Metro, I got to my destination and got off.  I entered the Bell Centre and attempted to find the Hall of Fame.

As there were no signs indicating the Hall of Fame, I asked one of the Security Guards in the Habs merchandise store.  She told me that its on the opposite side of the building (of course!).  So, with instructions to go out the door, turn right, walk, turn right, walk and then the entrance is just before the stairs I headed to the H of F entrance.

As I entered the H of F, I see the name of another Metro Station (Bonaventure) which was one stop further than the one that I stopped at.  Oh well, it's not like I was late.  Warren met me at the entrance and we proceeded to go through the H of F taking various photos:

Entrance to the Hall of Fame

The Rocket's Jersey

Jacques Plante's contract with Buffalo in 1953
($125 per game plus $500 bonus if he is with the team
and the team makes the playoffs)

Jacques Plante's Mask

Game Worn Jersey

I couldn't not take a picture

As part of our entrance, we also purchased a tour of the Bell Centre - very worth it.  The tour lasted about an hour and took us from seats in the 100 level (cost $175) to the Press Boxes (which surround the entire arena) and then down to the Canadiens Alumni Room and Habs Dressing Room.

The view from the 100 Level (Bench Side)

The view from the Press Box

Jean Beliveau's Sofa

The workout room

The Dressing Room (under renovations)

Interesting facts from the tour:

1. The Bell Centre is the largest arena in the NHL with just over 21,000 seats.
2. Front row tickets go for $450 a piece.
3. There are two levels of box seats; costs are not disclosed but you must buy into a 5 year commitment.  There are 8 "walkup" box seats that people/companies can rent for a game; cost = $12,000 for the game, there are 12 seats in the box and you can have upto 20 tickets.  This price does not include food or booze.  30 shrimp cost $100.
4. There are some reserved press seats in the press box but most seats are "walkup"; press typically arrive 3 hrs before game time in order to ensure they get a seat.  Press eat for free, booze not included.
5. The Molson Company sold the Habs to Gillette in 2001 for about $250 million.  Gillette sold the arena naming rights to Bell (don't know the year) who owns the rights until 2014.  Jeff Molson bought the Habs back in 2008 for about $575 million (this includes the team, arena and arena event revenue).  
6. The Alumni Room is available for any Habs Alumni who played 48 games or more for the Habs.  48 games was chosen as the eligibility number as this was the number of games played in a season back in the Original 6 days.
7. Jean Beliveau has his own sofa in the Alumni Room that only he and his wife sit in.  Out of respect, no other player sits on this sofa.

After the tour and after we finished going through the H of F, Warren and I departed ways and I returned to the apartment to go grocery shopping, make supper and then iron my clothes.

Pretty laid back Sunday.  I guess I'll have to get my ears lowered tomorrow after work.  Now, time to relax and get ready for another week of work.  And get ready for hockey tomorrow with the Mighty Chucks at the Jacques Lemaire Arena in LaSalle.

Samedi

(Saturday en francais)

(I'm typing this while on the Metro, just have to love smart phones)

Saturday was a pretty relaxing day. Got up at about 10:30 and slowly got ready for the day. Leftover pizza for lunch and played some PS3 with Warren while Ashley studied.

At about 1:30 or 2:00 we got on the metro and went to Olympic Park to see the Big O and the Montreal tower. I got a daily metro pass, valid for 24 hrs, for $8 which is a pretty good deal if you plan to take more than 3 metros in a day.

The metro system here is great and with the Snowdon metro station 5 mins away (considering having to wait to cross Queen Mary) it is very convenient and will great for Gwen when she gets here Wednesday evening.

When we got to Olympic Park, we went inside to see the Olympic Pool and take some pictures outside:

Montreal Tower

Olympic Pool

Afterwards, we went up the Montreal tower and took some pretty cool pictures:

Mount Royal

Downtown

Jacques Cartier Bridge

We went to the Maurice Richard Arena to take some pictures of the Rocket's bronze statue:

We assume this is the Rocket's hand print (look at those sausages)

We then proceeded to walk to the botanical gardens only to turn around and walk back to Olympic Park as Warren and Ashley felt that $15 to enter the gardens was a little too much, I don't blame them, I don't think we were prepared to spend 3 hrs walking through the gardens, me less-so as I had done this one week prior and 6*C warmer.


We continued exploring around Olympic Park 

and saw this area which we could not figure out what it was used for:

There were some seats and astro turf but everything seemed so random that it didn't make sense. The only thing I could come up with was perhaps it was the finishing point of the Montreal Marathon.





Since it was about 4:30, we decided we should probably start to make our way downtown where we would eat dinner. We took the metro (pros at this point) and got off right beside City Hall.

We walked down towards the Old Port and watched a street performer who was really good (yes, we all supported him with a few bucks spare change).  

"Korea" riding his pony

Afterwards, we got our desert (before supper) - beaver tails. Mine was called Le Québécois and had sugar and maple syrup, delicious!

We then wandered around and found Le Cage aux Sports where we ate dinner.

As we were flipping through the menu, we noticed that they had "Kamikaze Wings" and that you apparently had to sign a waiver. So, we thought we would try them and attempted to order 4 wings, the minimum. As we ordered, the waiter looked at us and was like "are you sure that you want them" to which we answered "no but thought we would try". The waiter cautioned us saying that there is a guy upstairs who ordered them and is actually crying. So, we decided to go with the Upper Cut wings which were just below the kamikaze wings by about 3 cayenne peppers (which are indicating hotness - the "hot wings" had 4 cayenne peppers, upper cut had 6 and kamikaze had 9).
We got the upper cut wings and had a bite, pretty good I thought. The waiter came by and asked how they were, we told him good and he said "still want to try the kamikaze?" We said "yeah sort of just to say that we did". So he brought out some kamikaze sauce and we dipped our wings in. And... WOW! At first, the hotness was relatively calm but the BAM it hits you, and stays... For me, my mouth was on fire for about 20 mins. I thought that the cooked broccoli would be a good option to try and clear the burning in my mouth but this was a bad idea - the broccoli was probably the hottest item on my plate which only fuelled the inferno in my mouth. Luckily, the Rickards Red cooled things for a bit.

After dinner, we came back to the apartment, Warren and Ashley packed their bags and then I drove them to their hotel downtown.

Afterwards, I came back to the apartment and the quietness / noises that I will learn to get used to over the next few months.

Busy week

Well, in case you were worried about me no need to fret.  This week was quite busy and I didn't have time to blog.

Let's see, where did I leave off.  Oh yes, got to Peterborough.  Meeting went well, our customer is looking at some pretty major projects next year which will keep us very busy.  It sounds like I'm going back in November to do some process mapping exercises with them.

The drive home was as eventful as the drive there.  I arrived back in Montreal at about 9:45pm and then proceeded to unpack my car and get settled into the apartment.

Overall, apartment living isn't too bad.  It is taking some getting used to the noises (with hardwood floors there is lots of noise from the neighbours above).  I still need to figure out where everything is but for the most part I think I have found what I need, at least for right now.

On Thursday, Warren and Ashley came to Montreal.  Warren is a family friend of Gwen's and new addition to the Winnipeg Flyers hockey team in my absence; Ashley is Warren's fiancee who is taking Optometry in Chicago and is righting her Canadian accreditation exams in Montreal on Monday and Tuesday next week.

Warren brought my hockey equipment with him so that I can play hockey on Monday night (and sounds like if I can prove myself on Monday, they might have a full time position for me).  I picked them up from the airport and they stayed with me Thursday until today (Saturday).

Thursday, we went for dinner to a Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Hoa.  It was a pretty decent restaurant, you could tell because most of the clientele was of Oriental descent.  I thought I had ordered a chicken stirfy; what I got was a seafood stir fry with scallops, crab, shrimp and something else which I am assuming was squid or octopus.  I figured it wasn't worth my effort to send it back so I ate it, and it wasn't that bad.

Afterwards, I did my best to take Warren and Ashley on the "Romance Tour".  Almost every time I would come to Montreal with my co-worker, Doug, he would take me on what he called the "romance tour" - starts with dinner, then get bagels from Fairmount Bagel and drive over Mount Royal.  So, my version consisted of dinner, drive over Mount Royal get bagels and then drive back over Mount Royal.

As we are driving over Mount Royal, we stopped at a lookout point so that Warren and Ashley could see the Montreal skyline at night.  As we pull up, we notice that there are "some" raccoons at the lookout point.  As we get out of the car, we notice that there isn't just "some" rather "lots" - probably 15 or more raccoons were there, wandering among the various people.  Some people were actually petting the raccoons, something I would never do, even though they may look pretty cute.

Friday was a fairly typical Friday.  At work for 8:30 and finished work at 7:30...

For dinner, Ashley found a place called "Amelio's" which apparently is a pretty good pizza place.  The restauarant is towards downtown so we took the metro.  The restaurant is a pretty small, quaint pizza joint that you would probably walk past if you weren't aware that the place was there.  We got there at about 8:30 and the lineup was quite long so we stood outside.  Most restaurants in Montreal are BYOB so Warren and I went to a Depanneur (convenience store) just down the street to grab some beer.  We got back and were standing in line for maybe 2 mins and then the busboy came and put up the closed sign - the restaurant closes at 8:45.  But, before the busboy left, he opened the door and told us and the party of 5 (ha, no not the show...) not to worry and that we would get in.

We got in ahead of the party of 5 as there was table for 3 that was ready.  The pizza was terrific.  When they brought out the pizza, they brought us two spoons.  We couldn't figure out what they were for, but after asking the waitress we learned that the spoons were to be used for dishing out the pizza (like a spatula).  Pretty smart - so we each used our spoons to dish out our pizza.

Afterwards, we came back to the apartment and proceeded to play a game of  "Settlers of Catan".  I've heard many people talk about this game but for some reason thought it was like a combination of Risk and Pokemon - I don't know why...  The game was actually quite fun, you roll dice and build settlements and roads based on the resources that you gather from the roll of the die and where you have placed settlements.  I had the classic case of beginners luck and almost won the game, if it were not for Warren having an "extra point" card that he drew.  Otherwise, I stood a good chance of winning...

As for Saturday, well, I will blog that tomorrow with some pictures.

Hope all is well back home.

Thanksgiving photo from the Spencer / Gibbs family

Caption from the email:

"On Thanksgving we welcomed a Jets fan in our midst. (Adam is beside Alan)"

Really wish I had my jersey...

Eastern traveller

Well, I made it to Peterborough. The drive was fairly uneventful, door to door was about 5 hrs which is pretty much what Google maps said.

5 hrs driving by yourself is pretty boring, I don't know how you did it Dad.  Then again, I guess that is why you had a CB radio, so that you weren't stuck talking to yourself, carrying on arguments...

Here is a photo from the trip, I believe I was still in Quebec when I took this picture.

My route consisted of:

• Aut 40 O (for you non Quebecers that is "autoroute 40 ouest (west)"
• Aut 20 O
• The infamous hwy 401
• Highway 28
• Highway 115 North

Traffic was as I expected, fast but smooth flowing.  At the turnoff for hwy 28, traffic was definitely getting busier and three lanes probably were going to remain until you get to Toronto.  There was some mild construction that probably added 10 mins to my trip.  There was a good section where they were milling that had us down to one lane and stopped for a short period of time.  However this was better than east bound traffic that was slowed up by a wide load that was clipping pylons ;)

Things I learned on my trip:

1. Canada's first PM was from Kingston (pop quiz, what is his name?) (geez, I act like my mom, a teacher... Lol)
2. Ontario uses roughly 150 pylons per km in construction zones.  This is for both sides of the lane, not considering the opposite lane of traffic. Yes, I counted these for 0.5 km and then did some simple math to approximate.  Really, I was thinking "they must have millions of these pylons" and, after my approximation, I would have to agree with myself (good thing, would have been a long ride if I started arguing with myself).
3. I still love my car. Used half a tank of fuel for 450 kms.
4. Fuel is cheaper in Ontario, prices are roughly $1.20 / L.

Well, I should get to bed, going to be a long day tomorrow.  Meetings mid morning and in the afternoon plus the return drive which I hope to start before 3:30pm.

Next post will be from the apartment, maybe with some photos.  Or, maybe not. Maybe you have to come and visit to see the place;)

So long hotel, you were good

Monday, Monday, Monday

Ah, Monday's... at least this one is a long weekend Monday, my favourite.

I guess I should start off with a recount of yesterday's events.  Started off with more laundry and packing.  Then, with everything packed in my car (except some food, camera, gym and work clothes and laptops) I made my way over to Francois' apartment to move most of my stuff in.

I had to park a little ways away as there was no pay parking out front.  The walk wasn't too bad except when I had to carry boxes in.... needless to say I was a little "warm" to the point of sweat almost dripping off of me.

After the "move", I accompanied Francois and his wife Christine (and daughter Ada and Christine's cousin Hailey) to Christine's Aunt and Uncles place for thanksgiving dinner.  I was quite surprised that you could get to such a secluded area on the Island.

Everyone was very welcoming and accommodating.  I guess Francois "mentioned" that I'm a Jets fan and they took this as the prime opportunity to pull out ALL of their Hab's merchandise and put it up EVERYWHERE.  Francois told me on Thursday that I should wear my Jets jersey, which I do have with me for such occasions, but I forgot my jersey in one of the boxes at Francois' place.  Man, I sure wish I would brought it because absolutely everyone was commenting how I must feel out of place or how I need some Habs gear.  I reluctantly used a Habs cozie on my beer, this could easily be explained by "I had to have a drink to get over all of the Habs stuff" - Francois has a great picture of me looking unimpressed with my cozie (all for show of course).

Everyone in attendance was wearing Habs gear - Francois even brought his Guy LaFleur jersey.  Even Ada was wearing Habs booties.  Don't worry, I took note of all the gear and will proceed to approach merchandise distributors with some great ideas that the retailers out here have capitalized on for the last 103 years (snuggie blankets for babies, lunch boxes, etc) - this will be my retirement fund.

Dinner was great - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, mushroom cheese cake (almost like a quiche) and sweet potato casserole (yes mom, I said the "C" word, don't tell dad).  Dessert was a mixture of nanimo bars, apple strudel and pumpkin cheese cake that Christine made (delish!).

I met all kinds of people, of which I only don't remember one guy's name...  Everyone was super friendly and everyone spoke English.  Christine's family seems more English than French - her mom is from Thunder Bay; I don't remember where her dad is from.

We got back to Francois' place at about 10:30 last night.  Francois gave me a set of keys to the apartment and I wished them a safe trip and to keep in touch.  I then proceeded to walk to my car to take my $52 parking ticket and drive to my hotel.

About the ticket (I should have taken a picture), there were 4 parking signs.  Since I got there in the afternoon, I was concerned with "how long can I park here".  Mon-Fri you can park for 1 hr between 9am and 6pm; Mon-Wed-Fri you can't park on the one side of the street for certain hours; Wednesday had some other parking restriction.  All these were great, meant I could park there for free to unload my car.

Well, I failed to see the top sign that said "No parking 6pm to 9am" - I can't even claim that I couldn't read the sign, it was symbolic no parking and hours in 24 hr time...  Plus, I wasn't really thinking 4+ hours in advance and what consequences this will have for me.  So, long story short (or maybe long...) parking ticket.

Today was supposed to be filled with an inspection - the one that was supposed to be on Saturday was pushed to today.  Except, last night at 7pm I got a text from one of the people at Bombardier saying "no inspection tomorrow".  So, FREE DAY!

As I woke up at 9, I looked outside and saw blue skies and no clouds.  Temperature today is to be 11*C.  Perfect, I'm taking my camera and am going to the Botanical Gardens (right beside Olympic Stadium).  Gwen and I came here back in 2007 when I came to Montreal with (then) ACTS.  However, that was summer and this is fall... :D

After a  25 min drive from the hotel to the Gardens my GPS wants me to turn left into an "emergency vehicles only" driveway.  I obey the signs and didn't do this, plus I obeyed the "no U-turn" sign.  Instead, I loop around and come back the opposite direction on the street (Pie-IX) to, what? free parking on the street?

After my episode from yesterday, I was a little hesitant with whether this was actually free parking.  As I pulled up and parked in front of a Jeep, 4 other cars pull ahead of me and park.  Well, I must be ok then.  I proceeded to grab my camera and went to observe ALL OF THE STREET SIGNS.  According to these signs, no parking from 6am to 10am Mon-Fri.  So, (local time being 10:40am) I'm safe.

I proceeded to wander through the botanical gardens taking various pictures for the next 2.5 hrs.  Here are a few:

Montreal Tower from the Botanical Gardens

The Colour of Fall

This one's for you Dad

This one's for you Mom

This (artsy) one's for you Gwen

More Colours

Montreal Tower from the Chinese Garden (Jardin Chinois)

After I was finished, I was quite anxious to see if:

1. My car was still parked on the street
2. If other cars that parked near me are still on the street
3. If I have a ticket

Answers:

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No

Excellent, otherwise this parking thing in Montreal is not for me and I will definitely proceed to use the metro from Francois' apartment (well, I guess my apartment in 31.5 hrs).

For my drive back, since the weather was still great, I figured it would be worth the drive up Mount Royal.

I got to the look out and thought "hmm, I wonder if they actually check for parking stubs..." but figured I better not test my luck.  I plugged in $0.50 and got 15 mins of parking time.  Enough for me to snap about 35 pictures of the Montreal skyline.

Skyline (Left)

Skyline (Right)

Olympic Stadium

Jacques Cartier Bridge (La Ronde Amusement Park is in the background)

Biosphere (Expo 67)

Now, I'm relaxing in my hotel room thinking I should order pizza - I don't have much food left here, I took it all to the apartment as I'm going to Peterborough tomorrow afternoon for meetings on Wednesday.  Plus, what goes better than beer with pizza?  I need to finish my 4 bottles of Stella - can't waste any as they were only $1 each... lol.  That is one thing I do enjoy out here - you can get great deals on booze in the grocery stores.  This is good because fuel is more expensive (I spent 136.9 / L last week, not terrible when I still got 58MPG on the tank - I love my Jetta)

Have a great end of your Thanksgiving weekend, I'm thinking of you back home.