Last week was good when Mom, Dad and GWEN came for a visit.
I picked everyone up on Thursday night and made sure that they could see me so I made a sign that said "COOLIDGE". They liked it. I also made a sign for my coworker who was on the same flight to Montreal for work. He liked it too.
After all the bags were picked up, we made our way to my car and loaded it all in. I then took everyone on the arrival to Montreal tour which starts with a drive to the Bombardier plants to show where I work. From there, we drove past the apartment and to the look out on Mount Royal. We stopped up there and looked out over the eastern part of the city and a little bit of downtown. After that, we returned to the apartment and got everyone settled in.
Friday I went to work and everyone else toured around downtown and old Montreal under the terrific direction of Gwen. I came home from work early but then proceeded to work for another hour and half, coordinating travel arrangements for 3 people to come to Quebec City for a meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Friday night we met up with the Kohuts who were in Montreal celebrating the triplets 30th birthday and Auntie Marge's 60th birthday. We went for dinner at Steak Frites. I made reservations because I wasn't sure if a party of 8 would be able to get into a restaurant easily on a Friday night downtown. Good thing I did...
The Kohuts thought we were going to the Steak Frites by their hotel (about a 10 min walk away). They found out at there are 17 Steak Frites in Montreal... That was the wrong one. They found out they were at the wrong location when they said that we had a reservation for Gwen, or Adam, or Coolidge. The restaurant didn't have a reservation under any of those names. Eventually they found out where they had to go and hopped in a cab to get there.
For us, I (thought) I knew where I was going. I did, actually, but the map wasn't very accurate. We walked to the corner of St Laurent and St Paul where the restaurant was marked as being. Well, restaurant is more on St Laurent, south of St Paul. Not at the corner. After 5 mins walking around I called the restaurant and they told me the address. We then found the small side door through which we were to enter. So confusing.
Dinner was good, it was a BYOB meaning you can bring your own beer and wine. We brought two bottles and a case of 6 beers. The Kohuts also brought a bottle of wine. My mom likes how you can buy wine at the grocery store, it is pretty convenient unlike the Kohuts experience to find wine.
After dinner, we went back to the Kohuts hotel for a night cap, our second bottle of wine, and then took the metro home at about midnight. The picture is outside their hotel, on a solid ice bench and table.
Saturday was ski and snowboarding day. We left the apartment at about 7:30 which got us to Mont Tremblant at 9:30. Gwen was coming down with a cold and it was taking full force on Saturday. We ski'd and boarded from about 11 until 3:30 with a lunch break at noon.
I was quite impressed with runs at Tremblant, they are pretty comparable to runs in the Rockies, albeit not as long as the ones at Lake Louise. The one run whee we thought of tracking the distance was over 3 miles long and took us about 18 mins.
The drive home was good, everyone got to experience some light traffic on the Met, we were able to do over 20km/h so that is why it is light. Some days it is 5-10km/h...
For dinner we went to Baton Rouge, similar to Tony Roma's. Gwen was pretty under the weather but was a trooper and made it through. We returned to the apartment and had an early night.
Sunday was another touring day. We went to Schwartz's for some smoked meat. This is THE place for smoked meat in Montreal. After we went for fresh bagels at Fairmount Bagel and then return to the apartment to drop off the car.
Next, we hopped on the metro and went back to Old Montreal for some shopping and wandering around. We grabbed an early supper at La Cage Aux Sports and then made our way back home to watch the jets game.
I had to go to work on Monday so Gwen took everyone else back downtown. I met everyone at the apartment at noon and we went to La Belle Province for lunch. After lunch I dropped mom and dad off at the airport and returned to work to do an inspection.
After the inspection I returned home to a sleeping Gwen and curling on the tv. We made supper and then drove 3 hrs to Quebec City for my meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
While I was at meetings, Gwen toured around QC and did some shopping. Tuesday we went out for dinner and drinks with guys from work (2 coworkers from Winnipeg, 2 guys from Tucson and one guy from Montreal).
We made our way back to Montreal Wednesday night amidst the snow and blowing snow. I was happy to pull into the garage at 10:30, it was a tense drive on the 20. Lots of drivers who were not confident in their driving ability, got worse as we got closer to Montreal.
Thursday morning was an early one, dropping Gwen off at the airport at 7am. I got to work early which meant I could leave early, and I did. Left at 4 for a nap and make supper before the jets vs hurricanes.
Geez, busy week now that I look back on it, no wonder I was tired last night... Too bad I couldn't
sleep past 9 am. Oh well, before 11 I had done 4 loads of laundry, drank coffee and ate some breakfast and washed my car. Now, watching the jets game (pic 2) and most likely will have a nap sometime this afternoon.
Hope all is well back home. It is still snowing here...
No comments:
Post a Comment