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:
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| Montreal Tower from the Botanical Gardens |
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| The Colour of Fall |
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| This one's for you Dad |
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| This one's for you Mom |
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| This (artsy) one's for you Gwen |
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| More Colours |
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| Montreal Tower from the Chinese Garden (Jardin Chinois) |
After I was finished, I was quite anxious to see if:
- My car was still parked on the street
- If other cars that parked near me are still on the street
- If I have a ticket
Answers:
- Yes
- Yes
- 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.
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| Skyline (Left) |
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| Skyline (Right) |
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| Olympic Stadium |
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| Jacques Cartier Bridge (La Ronde Amusement Park is in the background) |
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| 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.
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