Monday, September 24, 2007

We are back from Montreal!

PHOTO to post soon...The view from our Hotel room, Down town Montreal, Canada.
Andrew and I had a wonderful time on our trip to Montreal. We celebrated our five year wedding anniversary, eating belgian waffles and walking the streets of Montreal.

It was beautiful everywhere we went. We went to the St. Josephs Cathedral, Notre Dame, Hard Rock Cafe, and old montreal. The locals are all bilingual, speaking both French and English. The signs are mostly in french, such as the Stop sign pictured below. "Arre`t"

The entrance to St. Josephs has three levels of stairs to walk up to get to the Cathedral. The locals call the stairs "miracle steps." Some people kneel on each step praying on their way up the stairs. For those who want to by pass the kneelers can walk up the steps to the side of them and head sttraight up to the top. Once we got inside the cathedral there were hundreds of walking canes and crutches hanging in the alcoves of the walls from people who did not need thier canes any longer after walking up the "miracle stairs."


I made it to the top of the miracle stairs!

I took a photo of this Monk who was walking so peacfully down the stairs. He is holding some roseary beads in his hand.

The next day we went to the Imax theater, down by the water. We watched a 3D film about the dinosours. 3D has come a long way from the Back to the Future days. Instead of wearing the blue and red lenses the 3D glasses are clear lens and the 3D effect comes right up in your face and I found myself reaching out to touch the dinosours tail, and caught Andrew doing it a few times too. The show was very realistic.

Andrew and I spent the day on Thursday at a park which resembled a park similar to New Yorks Central Park. There was a beautiful lake for people to paddle boat in and also feed the ducks and coy fish. Much to my surprise there were seagulls there also. The Seagulls reminded me of Morro Bay.

We were walking down town Old Montreal, and I had to take a photo of the Salon across the street. It is called, SNOB Salon. I guess in English translation this salon is for snobby people to get thier hair styled at??? Funny. Next door the cafe should be renamed as Brat Cafe, to set a theme.
The night life of Montreal is down town on Crecent street with pubs and restaraunts to hang out. Andrew enjoyed a Sam Adams and I had my Appletini. Next door to the bar was a Hard Rock Cafe where I collect my sovenier pin.


I was taken away by the beauty and intricate arcetectural detail of the Notre Dame. The Notre Dame is a replica of the one built in Paris only 2 feet shorter. See photos posted. The cathedral looked like a castle both inside and out. Photo of the streets in old Montreal on the corner where Notre Dame is. The Notre Dame is a replica of the Notre Dame in Paris, except it is 2 feet shorter. This the inside view of Notre Dame, so magnifisant and looks like a castle.


photo of the side of the Notre Dame, magnifisant stone figures. Here is a close up of one of the statues.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

We are in Montreal Canada!

Andrew and I are celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary. We traveled to Montreal Canada and are having a lovely time.

We made it to Montreal safetly. It is a very nice Marriott and next door is a Hilton which we will end up staying for free starting Tuesday using Andrews Diamond Member Points and we are staying the 1st two nights free using my Marriott gift card which I got from work. Our cell phones are roaming so it will cost too much to use our cells here. So we are communicating through emails instead.

I ordered Partridge (bird) for dinner tonight, it was delicious. Andrew ordered a lobster with chant rel mushrooms pasta, which was also good, and we shared a caramel flan with fresh fruits for dessert.

We will be checking out the old Montreal, St. Joeseph Oratory, and Notre Dame to name a few places.

There was a snag in our travel arrangements that we are squeezing by on. My maiden name
is KING typed on my Passport and I go by HAY (married name) on the plain tickets!!! We have been sliding through by bringing along our marriage license. UGH! So far so good. If I can't get back into the USA on Saturday, we will have to become Illegal Aliens! Just Kidding, no worries, it will some how work out.

I emailed this to my dad in-law and he replied back saying he will take care of our new car for us if we get stuck in Canada and can't get back to the states...joking back I replied saying that he could just arrange for our new car to be shipped to us. Oh and can he also ship our dog Duke out to us? That would be greatly appreciated...HAHAHA. No worries though the marriage license is working and getting me past check points with my maiden name not matching up with my current name on the plane tickets. We will (should) be back to the states on Saturday as planned. Then it will back to work for the both of us as usual. LOL.


I will post photos later at the end of the trip.