While in Montreal on our honeymoon, we stayed in an independent hotel.
As with some parts of Montreal, the neighbourhood wasn’t high class, but the staff and accommodations certainly were. Have you ever been offered complimentary apples in a lobby before?
And the prostitutes, down the block at night, won’t say a word to you if you walk by, with your wife.
From Church St. looking northish.
View from our hotel room. We paid a little extra over the Hotwire price to get this room, but it was worth it.
Security blanket Harper
I can’t have this photo, it’s a library.
Saskatchewan in Parliament
Harper in photos in Parliament
Elizabeth May’s seat in Parliament. It’s number 309.
Most times I remember being here, it rained.
April and I are on our way home from Halifax. We woke up at 4;15 to catch the shuttle, which after a short cab ride to catch it was probably not a better deal for two adults going to the airport, than a cab would have been.
I slept through most of the five hour flight, but woke up an hour ago hungry. I brought smores with me, but they wouldn’t let me heat them up for some reason, oh well.
Yesterday we drove from the north shore of PEI, east of Shaw’s beach to the Confederation Bridge. On the way we saw three large foxes in the ditch, near our campsite in the National Park. The bridge was about $20 cheaper than the ferry anyway, and it gave us the chance to go through Amherst to visit Gerry and Inez at their apartment in the Villa. We drove south with the intention to visit the Bay of Fundy, but when we got to Parrsborough, our tourist inclination had declined to the point where we simply drove on to Halifax. We got a good deal at the Atlantica on Hotwire, booked a reservation at The Bicycle Thief restaurant, and walked down the boardwalk. The night started out cool, but got muggy as the sun came out. I walked back to the hotel after getting fuel and dropping off the rental car.
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On the plane the top story is of course the tragic shooting and bombing in Norway. When I first looked at the story on CNN the predictable comments all over it were blaming Al Qaeda, when of course this attack had no hallmark of the Islamist extremist group. The angry anti-Muslim commenters were ironically accusing their ideological brethren of the same thing he claims to have killed 100 people for – perpetuating a war with Muslims in European nations. If you take a look at the KKK in SK during the 1920s, you’ll see these sorts of culture struggles are nothing new, and neither are the whack jobs who exploit ignorance and Christian fundamentalism, and hatred to extend their twisted causes. The right wing needs to look in the mirror and ask if they are willing to again be led by madmen, into random hate killings. The USA is not untouched by this, from the Oklahoma bombing in the mid nineties, to the Giffords shooting a few months ago.
On Friday April and I went to Kensington and its haunted mansion. It’s a historic house from the 1800s, redone into a haunted house and theme park with rides. The best parts were the gardens though. As we got to the end of the outdoor part, the sky opened up and it started to pour. We didn’t do the rides for this reason. The vortex in the London basement had us dizzy anyway.
Down the road at the Cavendish Boadwalk, April took a painful slide down the stairs, without serious injury. We later went to Rachaels and had a great supper
Today we ate lunch at the Red Shoe Pub, owned by the Rankin Family sisters. We drove down the coast of Cape Breton to the PEI ferry at Caribou.
Here is the sunset from Whale Cove Campground on Digby Neck. It’s a nice campsite, and the owners, the Tidds are nice people. We met Vaughn’s sister at her restaurant on Long Island, and while we were scoping out the beach at Sandy Cove, we saw a man walking the beach also looking for nice rocks. The man turned out to be Vaughn’s brother! Certainly everyone in the Tiddville area are not siblings, it was quite the coincidence.
Last night we camped at Inverness Beach Village, and it rained, and our site was flooded beside our tent when an umbrella in another site knocked someone’s hose off their tap and caused too much water to flow down the road and into our site specifically. Fortunately we stayed mostly dry, but our air mattress also developed a small leak somewhere, so we kept having to pump it up. Camping isn’t all fun and games. A trip to Canadian Tire should make tonight a bit better with a new mattress.
I just about polished off a bag of barbecue veggie chips. Beets, sweet potatoes and blue potatoes sliced and fried.
April and I showed up in Montreal yesterday afternoon, after a few nights in Ottawa. While in the capital, we toured Parliament, and I saw Elizabeth May’s desk, tucked away in the back corner away from the Speaker’s chair.
I also used Bixi bikes at $5/24hours to get over to Hull quickly, and took a bike through the rain in my Maid of the Mist poncho too.
In Central Station in Montreal, there was a bar with this phone booth on the ceiling.
We stayed at hotel Zero 1, a newly renovated, trendy hotel where my cousin and her partner works at reception. They have coffee table books in the lobby, mint water, and apples for guests.
April and I woke to the Changing of the Guard ceremony out our sunny hotel window on the 25th floor. Last night was a thunderstorm with some clouds that looked threatening.
Saturday we got a day pass and went to the Rideau Centre and April asked for a Playbook in the Apple Store. We caught a bus over to Ikea and walked around, then bused over to Little Italy where we had supper at Giovani’s. Then we took the O Train down to South Keys and used some of the cheap movie tickets we picked up at CAA to watch “Green Lantern” [6/10].
We’re on the bus now, soon to be back at our hotel if all goes well.
Yesterday we ate at Yesterdays. Two nights ago it was @ 360 in the CN Tower, with appetizers in The Keg in Waterloo. The night before that we had supper with April’s long time online friend Lore, and my longtime online pal and Progblog master Scott @ East Side Mario’s.
We camped in Arva, where there is a flour mill from 1819, still powered by water. We tried the Poutinerie, but April likes any other poutine better. I tried it, and it tasted almost like it was off.
Flew to Toronto on Monday morning, and slept along the way, still only giving me a few hours of sleep, as I was wound up and doing chores I hadn’t done due to wedding preparations. Rented a car downtown after taking the TTC, and went back to the airport to pick up our friend who was on layover to Madrid.
We shopped at Yorkdale, and at at an Italian place with good food and good rating on Urban Spoon, and went back to the airport. We drove up to Richmond Hill and spent the night after talking in tbe Man Cave.
On Tuesday we met ACotta, drove to London, and camped at a friend’s.
Wednesday we went to Niagara Falls, then met Scott in Woodstock, and ate at East Side Marios. We almost ran out of gas, and put $59.59 into the tank of our Mazda 5.
I only attended some of Mosaic in 2011, which let me keep my spending on it to under $50 this year. I made it to the Korean and Brazilian pavilions which were new this year, and the French one returned too.
I enjoyed the Brazilian a lot, although the sound system was too loud in the Multipurpose Room as usual. The pea soup was good at the Francophone pavilion, and I filled up on a heaping plate of spicy extras at the Korean.
I took a water cup with me from pavilion to pavilion to save $1.50 on bottled water at each. Most pavilions were good about providing tap or fountain water when I asked.
I saw Dwain Lingenfelter leaving the Italian show after I arrived there. The atmosphere at the Italian club is always nice, it’s easy to talk with friends there, and the displays, food, and snacks are great. My friends and I went to the Greek and Ukrainian shows next. The Greek’s was toned down from last year’s, and the Ukrainian dancing was top notch as always.
On Friday me and my friends went to Jesse’s parent’s farm outside of Welwyn, SK. Along the way we saw the wind farm at Moosimin, including a vertical axis turbine on a tower. The vehicle wasn’t comfortably large enough for five men, but we made it work. We even figured out how to pair a Bluetooth iPod with the stereo system — read the manual because six computer degrees and a certificate isn’t going to cut it with a Mitsubishi.
On Saturday we went to an auction sale in town, and toured St. Lazare, Rocanville, Welwyn, and the PCS mine outskirts. Flood waters are everywhere. We also did some target practice, rode golf carts (with only minor incidents of which alcohol played no significant part), and checked out the Regional Park.
It was the coldest June day I can remember. We spent some time indoors in the evening, and saw “We Are Marshall” [8/10], but missed the first half hour I think. It was on a CBC station that had too many commercials for Lloydminster, including one with deer driving a car that hit a human, “It’s almost like they want to get hit,” exclaimed the deer!
I’ve been without internet for more than 30 hours as I write this. I considered checking email, but don’t want to respond right now anyway, so why bother?
