Day 18: Coming home

I haven't created any posts these past few days. Seth and I were just hanging in the city. We also went out with Glen on a couple days for some good food and another tour of the city. And we got to spend time with Seth's uncle Andrew and cousin Brooke, along with Gaby and Nevada. The lovely Alicia meet us at the station this morning to see us off.

Sorry to those who I didn't contact in Montreal. There just wasn't time for everything.

I brought Seth back today and am staying in Toronto for business with Melanie who's coming in from Calgary. I don't know if I'm going to get back to Montreal or not. Overall, this may not have been the adventure I imagined and it looks like the trip is getting cut short 10 days, but it's been a great time nevertheless. Montreal, je t'aime.

The last video is just a few snippets of our last few days. I can't believe I didn't get Seth and Brooke on video together. C'est dommage. Sorry guys.

Day 14: Hanging

Today was a pretty laid back day. We listened to the TamTams: a big group drumming event that happens every Sunday at the base of Mont Royal from noon to sunset. It has a circus like atmosphere. Besides the drummers and dancers you'll find a little hippy market, jugglers, acrobats, etc. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Today was blistering hot however, so there were not as many people dancing as usual. So we took a bike ride to a community pool. It was a crazy place with hundreds of people. Everybody was laid out towel to towe.

We finished our evening with a organ concert at Notre Dame complete with choir and a tour of souvenir alley in Old Montreal.

Day 13: At the Port

I'll let the video do the speaking for the day.

To summarize: We just played around at the port and finished our day with some fantastic fireworks. I love Seth's interpretive dance of our day at the end of this video.

Day 12: Science Centre Trip

It was a relatively relaxed morning. Seth seems pretty content just to hang out with me at our "home". He's been a busy guy, so I don't blame him for just wanting to chill.

This morning they moved the piano out of here. Two guys carried it down the stairs. One guy must have been at least 250 lbs. He was harnassed to the piano and I could just feel the discs in his back bulging as he made his way down the stairs.

The destination for the piano was a third story room just down the street.

Now if you know Montreal, you know that there are a lot of crazy staircases on the outside of every building - usually spiral staircases. So Carolyn has a crane lift the piano to a tiny third story balcony a few doors down. Safety standards in Quebec are a little different than Ontario. In fact, I'd say they are pretty much non-exisitant. So it was with quite some excitement and a little adrenline that we saw the piano hoisted and swung with significant amount of momentum into the doorway of that third story room. A very dramatic morning. Sorry, but I forgot to bring my video camera with me.

In the afternoon, Seth and I went to the Montreal Science Centre. We had an awesome time. We are members of the Toronto Science Centre, so it was fun to play with some new exhibits. Although it's much smaller than the Toronto one, this science centre was very interactive (memories of the old T.O. Science Centre) and surprisingly quiet. Lots of cool projection and touch screen interactivity. I discovered that I have powerful Alpha and Theta brain waves. Beat Seth many times in a Star Wars-like "feel the force" game where we battle for control of a ball with the power of our minds. The Science Center has definitely been the best entertainment value for our money yet.

We saw Under the Sea - 3DImax. Awesome!! We'll have to go back and watch the U2 concert in Imax 3D as well.

Oh yes, they had an Aqua exhibit about water (some great video at that link that shows the wave effects). It was produced by Cirque de Soleil founder. It was very theatrical and utilized some great projection interactivity. For example, the presentation happens in a small 360 degree theatre and at one point you could stand next to the screen and create waves in the ocean by moving your arms in various directions. Cool.

We had some Mexican food for dinner and then headed home. Seth actually went to bed before 10:30 this evening.

I don't think I'll post any video for today. It's mostly silly Seth stuff that belongs in the "how to fold underwear" section of YouTube rather than the "man accidently sets underwear on fire" section. I'll try to produce better material in the future.

Day 11:Biodome and Schwartz's

We got off to a late start this morning. Seth has had some late party nights and he's not used to that. I rented a bike of my own with more than three speeds this morning and we biked out to the Biodome.

I am completely blown away at the city bike paths and how many people actually use them. I find it pretty cools when I see a couple dozen people riding along a bike lane in Toronto, like College St. Here there are hundreds and hundreds of bikers using the city paths. I love it. If it werent' for these paths I wouldn't let Seth drive. Car drivers are too distracted.

Anyways, the Biodome was pretty cool: Four ecosystems set up in the former Velodrome. I actaully got to see the bike track in the Velodrome shortly after the '76 Olympics. It was very impressive. I had my first bad meal of the trip at the Biodome. Don't eat Biodome food. I repeat: Do not eat Biodome food.

Then we rode over to the Insectarium. At that point in the afternoon I crashed. I got very tired and even riding the bike seemed ultra-effortful, even with an additional 18 speeds. We also went through some of the botanical gardens, but I really just wanted to lie down.

Schwartz's Deli was our destination for dinner. Two smoked meat sandwiches, two pickles and a shared order of fries. I told myself I wouldn't go in there. It's not far from where I'm staying and I've passed in at least ten times so far. There are always lineups at every hour of the day. The place has been around for 80 years and I guess it's just become an entrenched tradition for everyone who visits the city to eat there when they come into town. It's probably a childhood memory for the locals. The food was okay. Not great.

The place is completely packed. There are tables of six and eight and the staff sits you wherever there's a free chair, so you never know who you are going to end up eating with. The bus boy was particularly impressive. We watched him clear a table of four in less than 60 seconds with military like precision. He removed every dirty dish in one trip then came back to toss the empty ketchup bottle into a small garbage can from an impressive distance.

And that was the day. I don't know why, but I feel whipped tonight. Hopefully I will have a very restful night's sleep.

Day 10: The Neverending Bike Ride

Seth and I did A LOT of biking today. We headed off to a bike shop to rent Seth a bike just after 9am this morning and didn't come back until about 2:30pm.

We rode up the mountain (sorry Deb, but Seth is much faster than you) and then explored some of the city's bike trails. A trip (by bike) to the Jean Talon market to pick up some fresh veggies and meat for supper and then back home to chill.

It was a hot day, so by the time we got back we were pretty exhausted. I had a three-speed bixi bike and I had a hard time keeping up with Seth on his fancy 21 speed city bike. My legs were spinning those peddles like crazy, but I just wasn't covering the ground like he was.

We were both happy to relax a little this afternoon, but went out again to Indigo to pick up some reading books. (Thank you Charles and Stacey for the birthday gift card.)

I ate very well today. Not that I haven't been eating extremely well everyday, but I ate a lot of good food today. A hearty Nicoise salad at the marche and a great home cooked meal for dinner. Seth was my sous chef for the evening. We had a great steak. It looks horrible in the video, but it was a great meal.

I hadn't cooked beef for years until Glen came to live with us for awhile. He got me hooked again. I made a nice little wine sauce, reduced nicely. I'm amazed at how easy it is to make sauces. Put enough butter and wine in anything and it tastes good.

We finished off our night with the movie Blades of Glory. Quite inappropriate for a ten year old, but hilarious for both of us nevertheless.

Day 9: Seth arrives

Seth is here. We did the train trip back and arrived in Montreal around 5pm.

Seth is very excited about the trip. Although he's been through the States this is his first trip in Canada outside of Ontario. One of the first things we did after unpacking was to go in search of a bike rental for Seth. He want's to bike up the mountain tomorrow. Unfortunately, the bike store just closed before we got there.

So we took a walk down St Denis and went back to Prince Arthur. We ate at out on a terrasse. The food was decent, but unremarkable. The setting was great however and it was an absolutely beautiful night. As we were sitting there, it struck me that pretty much everybody on the street was white. There is just not the same level of diversity as there is in Toronto.

Then we went to St Louis Square at the end of Prince Arthur and had a gelato as we listened to some awesome street musicians.

We stayed up late and Seth just zonked out around 11pm. I'm excited that he's in town and ready to play.

Day 8: Leaving for pickup

Today was a relaxed day. I did a little bit of work today. I love that I can use some incredible technology to allow me to do my work from a distance. By 10am this morning I had conversations with Adnan in Pakistan, Matijs in Holland, Melanie in Calgary and Deb in Toronto.

I dropped of my suitcase at the B&B where I'll be staying over the next week with Seth. Then I met up for lunch and a tour of little Italy with Alicia, the beautiful and crazy fire-dancing Mexican choclatier. I'lll throw the names of the restaurants in here later.

We had lunch at Pizza Neopolitan. We had a traditional Italian style pizza. Quite tasty.

Afterwards we had a gelato and expresso at another place with a great deal of character - I think it was called Cafe Italia. It's the Italian equivalent of a geasy spoon. Obviously nothing had been changed in 40 years. It was a breakfast/lunch place run by Momma. The fozball table was an unusual fixture in the dining room. And an odd collection of sports photos, articles and artwork filled the walls. Most interesting was the oil of the soccer goalie that was centered nicely below a modest, but sparkling cross.

The thing that told you that you were not in just any diner was the shampoos, shaving cream and shaving brushes for sale behind the dinning counter right beside the shelves holding the open jars of jam and nutella.

Alicia was nice enough to hang out with me while I waited for the train back to Toronto. We sat in a park close to the station. It was a hot humid day and Alicia was a little overdressed for the weather. So we didn't mind when the odd drop started sprinkling down from the clouds. At one point I looked up the street and it looked like a wall of water just 100m away and I mentioned to Alicia how odd it was that it looked like water was teaming down and we weren't getting wet under the tree. Within seconds however that wall of water moved down the street and we got soaked instantly. It was quite refreshing though.

Now I'm on the train home to Toronto to get Seth. (I'm very excited to bring him to Montreal.) This is a really nice VIA train. Wide comfortable seats. There are only three seats across instead of the usual four. And they are actually quite comfortable. As I look out the window, the sun is going down and long thin pink and purple clouds are drifting across a blue sky while the mist rises from the forest clearings. I love travelling by train and am surprised that more people don't do it.

Day 7: Chill

If it's not obvious from the videos, I haven't got much sleep over these past six days. So today was a chill day.

I woke up this morning feeling surprisingly okay after imbibing much more than I'm used to last night. Glen was heading for Toronto on a job this morning, so I left with him and we hung out a had a coffee before he caught the bus.

I changed cafes, caught up on some personal correspondence (I really haven't had time to touch base with my friends), and headed back to Pierre's place mid-afternoon. We played a little road tennis before heading out to see Up, the 3D Disney movie with Pierre and his little girl Arianne. It was Pierre's first 3D movie. (The boy has to get out more often.)

Arianne is lovely and I hope I can get her and Seth together. Her English is no better than my French. So far, I have felt okay trying to speak French when possible. For the most part I don't mind looking stupid. However, for whatever reason, I find that trying to speak French with a ten year old is extremely intimidating. Makes me feel horribly inadequate.

Back to the day's summary... we had a meal at a buffet place - Arianne's choice. And then we came back. Pierre went on a date last night and apparantly it was a very late date. He's an old guy and doesn't have much stamina. ;o) So I think he probably feel asleep putting Arianne to bed at 9pm.

That was my day: Laid back, chilled and relaxed. No video. Maybe a little one tomorrow. Definitely more videos once Seth is here. I'm excited to show him the city and also to take a little day trip to Quebec.

Day 6: The Bike Tour and UFC

Today will be a short post. I had the best photo ops of the entire trip today and I left my video camera at home. Oh well. No video for today.

Today Pierre and I went on a bike ride. We did about 40 km through the city. What's amazing here are the extensive bike trails that go throughout the city. Dedicated bike lanes in many streets, separated from car traffic by barriers. And thousands of people use them. I can't believe how many cyclists there are in the city. Incroyable!! It's great to see.

We went from Ile de Soeurs onto the main island. We wen't across a couple bridges over the St Lawrence River and had the best views of Montreal. We ended up on the Formula 1 track and got to ride around it, although they limit the speed for bikes to 30 km/hr. We went past La Rond and past Habitat 67, two well known Montreal landmarks.

Stopped at another well known open air marketing: Le Marche Atwater. Once again, awesome food. For $5 I had a fresh boccacini chese sandwich with fresh tomatoes and basil.

This afternoon, I'm just taking a few hours to rest up before meeting Glen for supper. Afterwards we'll hang out at a bar and watch UFC 101. Should be a great event and I always love watching them with my brothers. Mixed martial arts is much bigger in Montreal than Toronto. They have some UFC superstars here in the city: Georges St Pierre, David Loisseau, Partick Cote to name a few. So it will be interesting to see how this crowd will be, although I probably won't understand what they say in a noisy French bar where everyone has been drinking a little.

No video today. Maybe tomorrow.

PS Glen and I went to a bar to watch UFC, but they weren't showing it. But with Glen's connections, the owner let us up into the secret third floor of the bar and we watched UFC behind a locked door with about 30 or 40 other guys and bar service, ashtrays included. Felt very illegal and very bad, but it was a thrill.

Day 5: Glen's guided tour...

It's Friday, Day 5 of the trip. It has been a very busy time. I really haven't been able to keep up on personal correspondence; just doing what I have to to get by at work right now. So this morning I did a couple of teleconference calls. It was good to talk with Scott, Melanie and Marla from the World Massage Conference. Things are moving along there and we are just finalizing the speaker schedule. Good luck with that Marla!

This afternoon, I met my brother Glen and he took me on a walking tour of Montreal. He's lived in the city for 10 years and knows it well. We walked up past the Plateau and explored Rosemont. He knows his restaurants.

We got papousas at a little Salvadorian restaurant and then checked out the Marche Jean Talon. It's a famous open air farmer's market. Incredible looking food. Obviously, harvest is beginning. I'm amazed at the range of meats available. Rabbit and duck is quite popular in Quebec, but you can get horse, bisson, wild boar, game birds, etc.

The liquor stores are for the most part wine stores. Excellent selection of French wines. Each region of Frace has its own shelf space. In Toronto, my local liquor store has only a 10 ft stretch of French wines.

Otherwise, we hung out on a bar terrasse on Rue St Hubert (aka "wedding dress ally") for most of the afternoon. I was tired of walking.

Montreal is really a social city. People are outside. If a restaurant can put chairs and a table on the sidewalk, they do. In fact, we passed a nail salon that had comfy chairs and a table outside their store.

The bar on St Hubert was bustling, obviously lots of locals and mostly French (from France) and it seemed like everyone knew others. It was a real community gathering place. You never see anything like that in Toronto. It just doesn't exist. The owner came out to say hello to us; the chef came out to say hello. Glen's friend Marc joined us - a really nice guy. And I got to meet his beautiful wife Kato and their cute little girl Abby. It was a great way to pass an afternoon.

Then we ate dinner at a Portugese restaurant called La Cabane on Rue St Laurant. Nothing fancy, just good homestyle Portugese food at a reasonable price.

Enjoyed people watching throughout the day. Lots of beautiful French women of course.

Another observation... It seems as though pretty much everyone smokes. That's probably not the reality, but the French are known as fumeurs and almost everyone on the terrasses was smoking. Maybe that's why everyone here seems so thin.

And yes it's true. The women, everyone actually, has a sense of style. People always dress up to go out. Not to the nines, but you don't see a lot of tshirts and jeans, at least in the areas I've been hanging out.

I drank too much through the day, so I'm pretty zonked. The Haitian cab driver taking me back to Pierre's was happy to help me practice my French, but I wasn't particularly articulate. So far, I've been having an awesome time. I'm so glad I'm here.

Day 4: My Old Montreal office

I had a great night hanging with Andrew, Gabby and Brooke last night. This morning Andrew and I got up early and headed to downtown Montreal.

Andrew`s company has an awesome office in the heart of Old Montreal with a street front location. And he offered me the board room as my office for the day. It was an absolutely awesome environment to work in. The board room wall was made of thick stone with tall floor to ceiling windows on each side looking out into a wide alley that could easily pass for an 18th century street. The building was originally a horse stable at the harbour. And the guys at the office say that it is used frequently as a location for movies. Apparently some scenes from Benjamin Button were shot in the alley.

So I had the day to get caught up on some work and meet with people. Better yet, I had the opportunity to go to some of the nearby restaurants for croissants and cafe. These were the best croissants I`ve had in the city yet. Had lunch at the Marche de Villette. It`s a crazy little place started by a Frenchman from Alsace. The servers all know Andrew and they are all super friendly. They made a point to sit two beautiful French girls right next to us.

Then I headed over to Pierre`s place. Il est comme un frere d`une autre mere. It was really good to see him again. He lives on Ile de Seours (Nun`s Island). Although it should probably be called Ile de Townhouses, it`s a beautiful little island. It is very quiet, has a small forest and lake. After dinner we walked around most of the island. It`s a great wooded bicycle/walking path right on the St Lawrence. We stopped at the point of the island and could see the south shore of Montreal and hear the rushing of the Lachine rapids. It was a mild night with the moon shining brightly off the water and the sounds of crickets, frogs and other noctural creatures filled the air.

Getting back to the house at midnight, there was not a car on the street. It`s a quiet quaint little community and I can see why he`s stayed there for the past 20 years.

I haven`t slept very much for the past four nights and I think I`m going to sleep very well tonight. Tomorrow I`ll hang out with my brother Glen. It`s been a while since he left Toronto, so it will be good to spend some time with him tomorrow.

Videos are coming soon. I promise.

Day 3: Biking up the mountain

Another great day in Montreal. The key is starting off with a good cafe and croissant.

Today we tackled the mountain. Montreal just installed communter bikes all over the city - Bixi Bikes. In the heart of Montreal you'lll find these bike stations every couple blocks. For $5 a day or $28 per month you have unlimited use of the bikes. Thing is, you can only take them for a half hour at a time and then you need to stop into a station park your bike and grab a new one. You can keep them longer, but it costs you a few dollar more. (Toronto, get with it!!)

So Deb and I picked up bikes around the corner and headed up the mountain - Mount Royal, that is. For those of you who don't know Montreal, it's the big huge mountain right in the middle of the city.

It was a beautiful sunny day. I think it's 6.5 km up the mountain, I'm not quite sure. In any case, when you are biking up a mountain in a heavy three speed, it seems like 12 km. It was a beautiful winding trail through the woods. At certain points I had concerns for Deb's wellbeing. Mostly I didn't want to be responsible for her having a stroke half way up the hillside. Getting the body back down the hill would have been way too much work.

Fortunately, she's quite durable and she made it all the way to the top with very few stops. Yay Deb!!

Going down was much more fun. It was a long, long glide. I couldn't believe how much distance we travelled. We just kept going down, down, down.

When we got to the bottom there was a large yoga class going on at the foot of the statue. Looked painful, but fun. I'll have to give it a try before I leave.

I saw Deb off back to Toronto and Andrew Fishman at his office in the veille ville (Old Montreal). Photostockplus has an awesome office in a building that is likely hundreds of years old with two foot thick stone walls. I'd love an office like that.

It was good to catch up with Andrew and to meet his partner Gabby who was absolutely lovely. The BBQ Master cooked up some Flintstone sized steaks, as thick as my raw zucchini lasagna from the night before and with a bit more of a chew. Makes me feel manly again.

Brooke, Seth's cousin, joined us. She is 10 years old and has the personality of a rambunctious 90 year old with mild dementia. Very entertaining. Can't wait to get them together next week.

What's in store for the next few days? I don't know. I need to do some work tomorrow, so I'll find a nice cafe and make it my office for the day. I'll be getting together with Pierre Blais tomorrow. He's a brother from another mother. He's been instrumental in speading chair massage in Quebec and is the first Massage in Schools trainer in Canada. I'm reallly looking forward to catching up with him. It's been far too long since we've seen each other.

Day 2: The Old Port

The adventure continues on Day 2...

Deb and I were both exhausted this morning. I stayed up too late... AGAIN and neither of us slept well. But we were up bright and early and ready to begin.

We started off to a trip to a little cafe at the corner of St Urbain and Mont Royal. Beauty's Luncheonette on the NE corner was recommended, but we went kitty corner and started the day off with my favorite breakfast: pain au chocolate and cafe au lait (actually my favorite breakfast would also include baguette with butter and jam). The perfect way to start the day.

Instead of going back to the house to properly prepare for our day, we just went. The forcast said a 40% chance of rain, but we just saw that as a 60% chance of no rain. As luck would have it, we did get rained on without umbrellas or rain jackets, but we continued on.

The sun eventually come out and we spent a great day exploring Old Montreal. We visited Notre Dame where we got an impromtu concert from a group of kids (that looked liked they were forced there by cross point). It's a magnificant structure and I think I might go for mass on Sunday to listen to the organ and full choir.

We went to the Pointe a Calliere Musee whcih was really quite fascinating. Afterwards we ate some lunch at the James Rooster. It is one of the old buildings with thick stone walls. We ate and lounged in the magical courtyard while sucking back some Sangria.

Then I needed a nap on the grass across the street along the port. Feelilng a little refreshed we continued our exploration of the port. Lots of great stuff for Seth to do when he gets here.

We were really tired by the time we got home, so we put our feet up for a bit and then went looking for a place to eat. We were going to go back to Santropol to tackle one of their sandwiches, but we happened upon a raw, organic, vegetarian restaurant. Deb just happens to eat raw vegetarian food. Quelle chance!

It had only been open for two months and was hopping with a suprisingly healthy looking staff and patrons. A lot of the time vegetarian restaurant staff look rather anemic - like they could use a good hunk of flesh. Not the case here. In fact, given my experience at Live in Toronto and this restaurant, if you want to meet beautiful, healthy women, then raw food restaurants may just be the place to do it. The food was awesome. Very flavorful. Once again I think I made a better choice than Deb. Still both meals and the appetizer were delicious.

Alicia, our fire dancing room mate is performing in Toronto in just over a week, so I offered her my apartment while I'm away. (Maybe I'll do what Carolyn does and rent it out on Craigslist for the rest of the month.) She's a very sweet beautiful girl. Too bad I can't hook her up with Chef Jon.

As of about 9pm I still didn't have a place to stay tomorrow night, but I connected with Andrew and I'm going to go over to his place tomorrow to hang out with him, Gabby and Brooke and have a sleepover.

I'm going to bed now. I've been taking some videos and will do my best to add some to the blog tomorrow. Goodnight.

Day 1: We're here...

Deb and I arrived in Montreal mid-afternoon. We were both exhausted. I was still packing my suitcase at 2am this morning.

But we were both excited. Deb doesn't take holiday's often enough and this was only her second time travelling by train.

I'm just excited to begin a little adventure. Here's my plan...

I have only the first two nights of accommodation booked at a little B&B (without the breakfast). After that I have no itinerary and absoutely nothing booked. The idea is just to see where life takes me, to meet people, practice my French and have an adventure.

I'll be going back to Toronto mid-month to pick up Seth and bring him here for a week or more. I'll have to plan a little more for that week.

Today Deb and I explored our neighborhood. I think we're in the plateau, but not certain. We're staying near the corner of St Urbain and Mont Royal, right at the bottom of the mountain. Carolyn who owns the house started renting out her son's room for some extra money when he was staying at his Dad's. One thing led to another and now she owns some property and rents out the rooms in her home inexpensively and call her business the Urban Haven. The third room in the house is occupied by Alicia a fire dancer and aspiring chef.

We ended up going to a restaurant called Santropolo just a couple blocks down St Urbain. It's a quirky, funky little restaurant that was crazy busy. We sat out on the great terrasse in the back. It was great little spot with lots of trees bedecked in Christmas lights and a fishpond. It was very lush and secluded. We had some great vegetarian pies. I made the better choice with the mushroom cheese pie while Deb had the autumn vegetable pie. The sandwiches being served to the other guests looked massive (and yummy) with laptop sized slices of bread.

After dinner we took a walk and then went back to the same place for dessert. Now were back at our rooms and I'm ready to crash. Just have a little work to do first.