Well - it was such a busy couple of weeks that we didn't even have time to post! Okay - hold on to your horses, as this will be a long one...
Louise and Phil arrived on Tuesday - in on a flight around 8pm - so we stayed up that night chatting and having a few drinks - just catching up really. Wednesday Sara had to work, and the Irish decided to sleep in (jet lag!) - so Seth didn't do much that day - he did drive them around our 'hood - looking at all the houses we can't afford! Thursday, Seth took them to the Hockey Hall of Fame, which sounded like a fun time. Another non-eventful night though - Sara made a pasta dinner and we all watched Survivor. Friday finally came - the first day of our Montreal trip - we left pretty much right after Sara finally got home from work - doing the full 5-hour drive straight there - nightmare.
Getting in just after 1am, we were all pretty shattered, drank a few beers and went to bed in
hopes of getting up early to do all the touristy stuff we wanted to cram into one day. Well, 10am is early right? Haha - so we were all starving and just started wandering towards St. Catherine Street to find somewhere to eat - ended up at a pub/pizza place - it was okay, but not great food. After that we went to find out about the tour buses - the easiest way to get a 2-hour snapshot of a city! There was only one tour operator still running though - and it was a 3-hour tour - we didn't really want to eat up that much time, but we did want to get the tour done - so we decided just to go for it. It was pretty cool - although we all took a few cat naps on the bus - well, that is except Seth - who knew he was such a tourister?
So here's a pic of Sara and Seth in "Old Montreal". We kinda wished we had more time in here - it was all narrow streets and plenty of cafe's and shops - looked like a very interesting area to explore. The tour tooks us to the Olympic park and past a
number of churches and the university - we did stop at one church, but can't remember what it was called.
Going up to Mount-Royal and looking down on the city was probably the best part of the tour - it was really cool. Here's Louise and Phil on the mountain.
After the tour, we did a bit of shopping, but we only had about an hour of
shopping time available - so we quickly did Simons, Roots and a few other smaller shops. Found a convenience store to buy 'refreshments' on the way back to the hotel and went back to get ready for dinner - that turned into a 4-hour long chat-fest where we all had a few drinks before trying to find somewhere to eat. Luckily, we ended up finding a great little Italian place called "Bellagio" right near the hotel - fantastic dinner had by all!
That night we went to Crescent St to find some fun places to party - that street is happening! We all had a blast, and I wish we had pictures - but the Irish brought their camera, so we'll have to try and get the pics from them.
The next day was painful for us though - everyone was pretty hungover. Because of that, we didn't do the additional shopping that we thought we would be able to do before we left Montreal - but probably better on the pocketbook in the long run. We drove straight to Kingston, after a pitstop at Pete's Smoked Meat Diner - a little place on the way into Montreal that Seth found a while back and apparently has the best smoked meat sandwiches and poutine - too bad Sara couldn't try it - but there was no way to keep that down.
We arrived at Seth's parent's house close to 5pm - they had dinner waiting for us (roast beef dinner) - class! It was a nice, quiet evening - just what the doctor ordered. We sat around and chatted and watched a couple of movies before going to bed at a reasonable hour. The next day we finally got out and about by around 1pm - we were going into Kingston to do the 'touristy' stuff. Kingston has actually got some interesting places to see. We went to Bellevue house (Sir John A's home in Kingston) - toured around that which was fun. Then we did the Penitentiary Museum - which was really quite interesting. We drove them around Kingston, showed them Fort Henry, the waterfront, Queens, and last but not least - Wilton Cheese Factory for curd!
That night we went to Sara's mom's house for dinner - this time it was John's shish-kabobs for dinner - yummy! We chatted for quite a while after dinner, so didn't get on the road until after midnight - getting into Toronto at 3am - tiring, but nice to have the Tuesday to relax and do nothing before Sara & Seth went back to work on the Wednesday. Seth went to the hockey game with Rob on Tuesday night and Sara, Louse & Phil went to see an early movie - the Departed - amazing movie - see it if you can!
Wednesday night was pretty low-key, then we went out for the required Fynn's visit on
Thursday night - it wasn't too late of a night though - saving up our energy for Friday. We spent that night up at the Firkin (although Seth had to leave early as he was working on Saturday - poor guy - he was exhausted!). Saturday was pretty rough - but we had to go out and get costumes for the Halloween party we were going to that night. What kind of costume do you do when you're super hungover - Pirates of course! So we all got dressed up again - and headed out to Scarborough to Kelly & Steve's for one of the best parties we've been to in a while - it was great for Louise & Phil to see everyone!
Sunday was very low-key - we needed to recover! Monday and Tuesday seemed to go by in a blur - Louise + Phil's last two days were spent shopping (for them) and working (for Seth and Sara). Tuesday night turned to be a late one - we stayed up chatting forever - trying to fit it all in I guess! So Louise and Phil left on Wednesday afternoon and to be honest, our tiny little apt feels empty without them now. It was a great couple of weeks - we had a tonne of fun and it was really fabulous to get a proper 'catch up' with them - since most of our visits have only been a few days here and there - more partying than just hanging out.
So that's been our life in the past 2 weeks - now you can understand why there was no time to post an update until now! This past weekend was quiet for us, we went to see Marie Antoinette last night (how did I get Seth to go - I have no idea) - not a great movie all in all. And now I'm all in preparation mode for the shower I'm hosting next weekend for Liz - I hope it's as fabulous as I've promised her it will be!
That's all for now - love to everyone - we'll post an update next weekend and let you know what else is new!
This weekend was the bridal shower that I hosted for my best friend Liz - preparations started on Friday night, getting a lot of the food prepared and the house decorated. Lisa Deir came over with her roommate to help on Friday night, which was much appreciated and reward with many glasses of wine - ouch.
Melissa came over slightly early too - so she helped a tonne as well - it's great friends we have! The theme was "Sex and the Kitchen" - a play on our fave show, Sex and the City, so the food was all cocktail munchies and there was an assortment of flirtinis and rasptinis - very yummy - see below for the recipes.
fondon't. Yup, we filled the butane to high, and there was an out of control fire under the pot - so the chocolate burnt and the fire would not go out - funny now that I look back on it, but very stressful at the time while everyone was arriving and the phone was ringing off the hook with the buzzer etc. So desert turned into just plain fruit - oh well, at least we had a lot of it!
