Home again, home again - jiggity jig!!

Well hello there folks! I'm back ... and I know some of you might have thought that I fell off the planet. Well, I felt like I did. I am having a hard time swinging back into the routine of things this fall. I went for a nice walk today and am feeling energized. I hope it'll last!!

Would love to catch up a bit about my trip to Montreal. It was awesome. We crammed about 6 days worth of stuff into 36 hours and it was great. It was just the right amount of time too, because at the end of it, I was getting worried about the baby and wanted to rush home to him. He was okay. He wasn't super, but he was okay. And mom said good that I came home when I did. And he is still nursing, so that was a huge relief!! But, of all things I forgot the breastmilk that I pumped in Liam's freezer .... ugh .... could have been anything else ...

Anyway, back to the trip. We left early a.m. on Sat and cousin Liam picked us up at the airport. We dropped our stuff off at his place and had a little tour of the apartment. The nicest bachelor pad I think I've seen :) Awesome, old building. Great woodwork and a really neat fireplace - with no fire. Just flickering lights. Loved it. I was thinking how nice it'll be to have no toys scattered everywhere all the time. He also had a great home entertainment system .... we are now saving up!! :)

After that, we just roamed around his neighbourhood a bit. Everything that you'd need was within a very short walk. Couldn't believe how much English I heard on the streets. Expected to be lost most of the wkend, but wasn't at all. Got a few treats for the kids in a really neat shop.

Then we went to Saint Joseph's Oratory. http://www.saint-joseph.org/ It was amazing. It was soooo massive, there is really no way to describe it and the pictures just don't do it justice. It is just huge. And the carvings, the doors, the mosaics, all beautiful. Extremely beautiful. Mark really enjoyed it too. It was hard to get pictures inside but it was amazing. When standing under the cupola and looking up, I was dizzy in a few seconds. Really stunning and breathtaking.
While here, we lit a candle for Dana, Liam's brother. He is heading to Afghanistan. He is in our thoughts and prayers. God speed, Dana. We love you!



Then we went out to lunch. We went to Schwartz's for a Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/ . Now normally, this wouldn't be my kind of thing at all ... but my god, was it ever good. It was a "must see" in town. And line ups like crazy, but well worth it. Nothing fancy at all ... even had some flies buzzing around, but the food was super and it was like walking back into a 50s diner. Really enjoyed it.

On the way to the diner, we stopped in different shops and peeked around at lots of things. Fave stop was the cheese and vinegar and meat shop. Man oh man, must have had every kind of cheese and then some. We got some treats to snack on later, we all loved the balsamic vinegar with bread and olive oil. Yum yum.

After the sandwich, we did more window shopping and had some homemade ice cream. Then we went to Old Montreal. Loved the cobblestone streets, although not much fun to drive on. Speaking of driving, what a crazy city for driving. There seem to be literally no rules other than stop lights, and everyone thinks they have the right of way. It was definitely different than back here by a long shot. There wasn't too much traffic when we were out, so that was awesome.

In Old Montreal, we watched a juggling busker and he was quite entertaining. There were many restauranteurs who were inviting us to have a meal in there place, but we were just too full. I wasn't used to that either. They were very friendly, but just unusual for me to see "drumming business" like that. Too bad we weren't hungry. We also checked out some shops here that were almost like art galleries. Which was nice since the boys didn't really care too too much to go to a museum. Can't blame them.

Then we walked on the waterfront. Also nice, with some very interesting views of neat looking structures. Which we tried to find while driving later. We were this close to renting segways http://www.segway.com/ for fun, but even though according to their hours they were open, there was no one there. Next time.








Then we went to the Casino http://www.casino-de-montreal.com/montreal/nav/en/home. Holy crap. It was huge. And a really neat looking building. It took us like 15 minutes to find parking in the parking garage ... and the place was packed. It was sooo mesmerizing. You literally couldn't see your way clear to an exit. I warned the boys not to go further than arms' length from me, or I'd never see them again. And look out. People were in a mad rush. And if you were in their way, they just ploughed you over. They didn't even wait for us to get out of the elevator even though we were blocking entrance. They just went through us.

They had all the typical games, plus Keno and horse racing. And they had slot machines that were 500$ a pop. Imagine!!! We played the nickel machines :) Liam doubled his 4$ and Mark doubled his 50 cents and I lost 10 bucks - ha! But it was fun.

It was neat to see the city in the lights too. Very beautiful at night. Actually, it was a beautiful city in the daytime too. Seemed like a great place to live. I bet that traffic would be gross though. But, I loved it. And I loved the buildings. I don't think I saw any (at least not many) wooden buildings. They were all stone and brick. Which were really beautiful and had some gorgeous detail. And there were some areas where the houses had external staircases leading up to the home. Looked very nice.


We went for a late supper at Baton Rouge http://www.batonrougerestaurants.com/ and had the ribs. Yum yum yummy!! There were fabulous. And I had a sip of red wine that is the first one ever that didn't make me shiver in disgust. So, maybe I am getting there, or maybe I just have rich taste hehehehe.

Then we went back to Liam's place for a tour around the world via shooters. He has travelled a bit and collected some special drinks along the way. It was so kind and fun for him to share. We started off with some Sambuca from Italy, I think. It was yummy. I couldn't stop smelling it for the rest of the night. He also had something called Tutone http://www.tutone.it/edefault.htm which was in a tiny bottle that you just shook some drops into your mouth becuase it was so strong. It had that same yummy flavour.

We had some Opal from Iceland. Mark thought it was vile. I didn't mind it, but it sure did taste like Buckley's cough medicine. I bet it would drive the cold right out of you. And Liam loved it.

We also had some Pisco. That was vile. It made me shiver and want to wretch. YYYYYuck!! But, we fixed that alright and washed it down with some Tutone. Loved that!

After our world tour, we played a game of crib and I kicked the buns off the boys. Yee haw! I don't know that Mark has ever beaten me at that game. I'm not usually lucky at all, but crib must be my game.

Then we retired to the home entertainment theatre. We had a little bit of music culture, and it was great. I am soooo tired of the music I have and am sooooo out of any loops, aside from C100 .... I had my first Xbox experience too. It was fun. What a neat machine. Now Mark wants one :) I played Oblivion http://www.elderscrolls.com/home/home.htm with Liam's coaching and it was pretty fun. The graphics were really amazing. It was hard for me to get used to that controller though. One moved your head, and one moved your body. For me, it was like patting your head and rubbing your tummy!!!

We pretty much did that till we were ready to pass out. Then we all went to bed. Poor Liam slept on the couch so that we could have his bed. What a sweetie! We had a great sleep not needing to worry about any little ones in the morning. The irony of it all is that we could have slept in but were both up by 9:30 am. What a sight!!!

That's it for Saturday's events. I'll catch up again with Sunday's.

A couple of notes - Liam is a super driver, a great teacher, a benevolent host, and an amazing tour guide. Love you Liam!!!