Made it safe and sound into DC

It has been a few days and I have lots of posts to write from our time in Montreal, the challenge is actually finding the time to sit down and write them!

I am hoping to get them done this week, as Joon is starting classes tomorrow bright and early. After 2.5 weeks of vacation, I think this is going to be a bit difficult for him to get back into the swing of 7am mornings, and being out the door by 7:50am to catch the train... He definitely loves his sleep!!! For all of you who have EVER lived with Joon, you know how difficult it is for him getting up in the morning!

We have had a busy couple of days getting settled... the complex we are living in is very nice, but has definitely had its bumps! Our house has NO hangers, one steaknife, no rice cooker, no measuring cups, 4 sets of sheets but no extra blankets, and only enough towels for the two of us! There have definitely been some growing pains!!! So a trip to Target was on the agenda on our first day. The challenge: going to Target from the Metro as we don't have a car here...

The metro map

The metro is actually not bad, once you get the hang of it... there are 5 lines that are all color coded depending on where you need to go. You pay by distance, so if you don't have enough money on your metro card on the way OUT, you cannot leave until you load more cash onto the card... No such thing as free zones or train tickets for not paying a fare, that is for sure!

The escaltor down to the train line... at the halfway point! This thing is HUGE!!! And when on the train, my ears pop like crazy, that is how far underground we are!

We hopped on the train and headed to the Target stop, and then had to walk the 6 blocks to target. All fine for the way there. The way back however was challenging, considering we bought $150.00 worth of stuff, and NOTHING was over $16.00!!! The walk back was intense. It was hot, it was HUMID, there was no shade, and we had $150.00 worth of stuff to carry to the train... definitely a challenge!!!

Joon, loaded up after our 2 hour shopping spree at Target!

The bags, packed...

What was in the bags??? Behold the loot!

However, another excursion to Target is in order for more hangers, blankets, towels, and sharp kitchen knives, unless we can figure out how to get them from the rental company our condo is through...

All in all, it has been a good but busy few days... I will post the tail end of our Montreal trip soon, lots of good pictures and stories to share!!!

Until later,

xoxo

L&J

Sightseeing in Montreal

After breakfast in Mount Royal on the mountain, we took a tour around to look at the views, so the following are some of the touristy things that we did in Montreal with Jinny and Johnny.

The below is the view of the Olympic stadium from the 1976 Olympics

Jinny, Joon, and I overlooking Montreal

Overlooking Montreal

We then headed to St. Joseph's Basilica of Mount Royal to take a look at the church.

Side view of the church, us getting ready to hike to the top.

The hundreds of tealight candles that you could light in memory

The flowers on the grounds...

We also went to the Jean Talon Market, which was an indoor/outdoor farmers market that had the most amazing fruits and vegetables there... I bought some fresh bananas, apples, grapes, and figs - both green and purple. I love figs, and have never had green figs before... they were delicious! We also had a sugar pie, which is a maple syrup and sugar pie. Kind of like a butter tart but without the raisins...

Because of our late night, we went back to the hotel and napped for a few hours before dinner, and went to a restaurant called La Reclette - baked cheese.

My pepper flavoured reclette - baked cheese with a potato...

The group from the bottom left - Tony (Johnny's dad), Amy (J's mom), Norma (J's brother's wife), Mike (J's brother), Joon, Me, Jinny, and Johnny is taking the photo.

Joon and I showing off our cheese fondu. For someone who really isn't a cheese fan, I really had waaaay to much at supper, but I wanted to try things that were authentic to being in Montreal. Despite my dislike of cheese, these dishes were actually really good.

We also polished off a few bottles of wine - rather than supply alcohol in Montreal and pay for liquor licences, people bring their own but don't have to pay a corkage fee, unlike in Alberta!

A great first day in Montreal... I love it here and would seriously consider moving here, even though I speak no more french than "J'mapelle Claude". My name is Claude! Lol.

Hope everyone is great...

xoxo

L&J

Breakfast bagels, fresh outta the oven!!

On Saturday, we woke up not quite so early in the morning after our ridiculously late night before and headed out to a place called Fairmont Bagels... This place is also open 24 hours and has been open since 1912 and is famous for its bagels. The bagels here are freshly baked , hand rolled, and baked in an an original brick oven with an open fire. There are two ovens constantly on the go, one oven for the various bagel flavours and the other for their signature sesame. The sesame bagels, because they are so popular, are always on the go... the benefit of that is that the sesame bagels are always fresh out of the oven and warm... they are to DIE for, I am telling you. I am totally a bread person, and try not to have it around me because I have virtually NO self control. It is a good thing I do not live near this bagel store, becuase I would eat them until I popped. Especially since they are warm, and the cream cheese melts on them. YUM... We took our bagels and headed up to Mont Royal, the "Mountain" of Montreal for a picnic breakfast. It was fantastic.



The first oven baking the various bagels... see the open flame to the left? That is the fire baking the hand rolled bagels.






The huge mound of dough that is being made into hand rolled bagels.



The hand rolled bagels going into the oven. YUM!

1st night in Montreal

Our first night in Montreal was very eventful! Our flight from Vancouver was a late one, with the time change we were scheduled to arrive at 11:50pm. A little delay actually had us landing at 12:15pm. We met up with Joon's sister and brother in law as they picked us up from the airport after a long drive from Toronto - thanks guys! Montreal traffic basically comes to a standstill during the night due to construction, and so it took longer than normal to navigate away from the airport as all the main routes were closed. Eager to experience Montreal's nightlife, we made a quick pit stop at the hotel to drop off our bags, and out we went to check out the nightlife.

The below picture is from a club that is called Super Danse Contact, which basically translates to Super Lap Dances... Yup, it was a strip club. Joon thought it was hilarious enough to take a picture, because the neon ladies have neon hands slapping their derriers as they shake their booties... pretty funny...



Our next stop, which by the way was at 3:00 IN THE MORNING, was at DUNN's, which was a 24 hour restaurant that specialized in Montreal Smoked Meat. It has been open since 1912...We had to try some, but it comes in three different cuts of smoked meat. Lean, medium, and fatty... I made Joon try the lean, but Johnny went with the fatty cut... the difference was night and day... I didn't even take a picture of the lean sandwich, as it was an insult to the smoked meat sandwhich. Here is Jinny, modeling the fatty smoked meat, looking fabulous at 4 am in the morning after working all day and driving in from Toronto...



YUM!!! We called it a night shortly after this, since it was 4AM in the morning, and we had a full day planned the next day!

Birthday Supper at the Imperial

Happy Birthday to Joon!!! We celebrated Joon's birthday tonight with supper at a chinese restaurant called the Imperial Palace in Richmond, British Columbia. We eat at this restaurant very often, as the food is delicious, the service is good, and we like to go there. We also had our wedding reception at this restaurant back at Christmas in 2008.

Anyways, back to Joon's birthday. We went for supper at 7:30 and we were begining to be hungry. We had lunch at 12pm, and it held me over pretty much right up until supper, but when the food began to arrive, I realized how hungry we both were!

Since we were at the Imperial for such a special occasion we went all out... Lobster, steamed Rock Cod, Peking Pork Chop - Joon's favorite, crab and egg fried rice, and leafy greens (can't remember the chinese name)

Pic of Joon and I... Mr. Birthday himself!

Lobster, peking pork chop, and the leafy greens (from top right)

Crab and egg white rice

The four pound lobster that we ate... I missed the picture of the lobster when it was alive, but it is custom to view the lobster and agree upon the one that is about to be consumed. Same with crab. Nothing like viewing supper in its living form!!!

Steamed rock cod. The whole fish is steamed with the bones in, head on, and tail still attached. Then, the head, tail and spine are cut out by the servers. This looks disgusting, I will admit, but the fish is delicious. It has taken a lot of years on my part to eat this without feeling a little bit queasy!

Close up of the peking pork chop - Joon's favorite!

Mr. Birthday enjoying a bit of dessert. Mango pudding in the shape of Hello Kitty.

Ma and Ba... Thank you for raising such a great husband, son and man...

Leafy greens

Mango pudding dessert in the shape of hello kitty...

The always present red bean dessert. I actually like red bean dessert, but Joon HATES this dish... I have to admit, this is definitely an aquired taste. Since it is usually the only thing offered for dessert, I learned to like this dish a long time ago...

Red bean pan fried pancake... not a good dessert. This was the first time I had ever had this dessert, and I did not like it. It was extremely doughy with a red bean paste in the inside...

All in all a pretty good meal / birthday supper. We had a very chill day... a few errands this morning, lunch at Hon's noodle house, coffee's at Starbucks, and naps all afternoon. All in all, not bad. We are off to Montreal tomorrow for the last leg of our holiday before heading on to Washington, DC.

Have a great evening and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOON!!!

Happy Birthday Babe!

It is my fantastic Hubby's birthday today... 31 years ago his mama brought him into the world and I am so happy she did!!! He is the best - really and truly, and I am so thankful he is in my life! I am not sure I know who I am without him...

Happy Birthday babe, hope your day is great!!!

We are heading for lobster dinner tonight, yum yum. I will be sure to post some pics of the birthday boy and the delicious meal.

Hope everyone is enjoying August 20th as much as we are!!!

xoxo

L

Touristy Activities

This morning I woke bright and early to check out the gym at our hotel in Woodburn, by the outlets we were at yesterday. To my disappointment, the gym was very very crappy... only one old stair stepper and an eliptical. I really wanted to run, so outside I went. I find that a good workout first thing in the am puts me in a much better mood, especially when on the road, so I *think* I logged about 2 miles (3.2 km) in about 25 minutes outside before breakfast. It is hot in Oregon, so any later and this would have been unmanageable.

We had an early breakfast and hit the road at 9am, heading to the coast. We planned on stopping in Newport Oregon for lunch, which was Mo's Annex - a seafood place with the typical chowder, cioppino, and seafood melt's on the menu. I am always amazed when in the states at the AMOUNT of food and the GREASINESS of food when in a restuarant. There is a reason that obesity is on the rise in the USA, let me tell you. Our lunch could feed a small nation! I took a picture of our view from the table. There were two boat that pulled up while we were there and they unloaded rock cod fish and dungeness crabs by the bucketfull... and then proceeded to steam and gut them right there on the doc. Very close to the food chain, let me tell you!!!

After lunch we headed to the Oregon Coast Aquarium Centre, which hosted many of the local under the sea creatures that live local to the coast, as well as some of the more exotic species. We took a picture of the Japanese crab which can live up to 100 years. They were HUGE. We also saw some Nettle Jelly fish, an octopus, and sharks...

From there we stopped at the Yaquina Head Bay Lighthouse, which is the number one tourist destination in Newport. The lighthouse is at the top of a long twisty road, and as we were driving up, you could see the two seperate weather systems as we left the low level of the coast and climbed up into the fog. We climbed down to the beach, which is unique to Newport because instead of sand, the beach is made up of volcanic pebbles that has been eroded to smooth round rocks by the pounding water onto the beach. It was certainly a neat sight to see!

A long day of exciting sights. We are spending the night in downtown Portland, and have another full day planned. Off to bed, with more to come tomorrow.

We are back in Canada tomorrow, so until next time!

L&J