I am totally out of practice on this as we have not taken a vacation (well does Hawaii count) – for over 3 years. But we are anxious to get back in the swing – so I better at least try to document the highlights of our trip to Montreal a few months ago.
You can see how out of practice I am.
Too many shoes for 4 days! But not enough mouthwash!
We are going to Alyssa Trevelyan’s wedding which got moved from Tiburon California to Montreal Canada when the groom couldn’t get a visa in time to make the California wedding.
Lee Trevelyan, the bride’s grandmother, who sat across the aisle from us on the plane, feverishly reading her romance novel.
The night of our arrival, we check into the Intercontinental and set out to explore the city – and grab some dinner. Fortunately, we are within walking distance of Old Town. And….it’s Cinco de Mayo, so there is partying!
View from our room
Unfortunately not a great picture, but all over Montreal there are images of people projected on the buildings.
And we start out Friday exploring the city. Mary, David, Barb, Jim and I meet up with a tour group led by Ian to explore Mount Royal.
Barb photoshopped either herself or Jim into this
View from the top
After our hike, we split from the group who were going to have a famous smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz’s. A quick pass by the packed deli, and a few of us decided to pass (after all we have to have a negative COVID test to fly home). We decided to stay outdoors and headed on a long walk back to Old Town for lunch.
Sights of Montreal on our way to Old Town.
We come to a restaurant named Jardin Nelson and not only is it Barb’s last name, she remembers eating here on one of her business trips to Montreal a few years before.
This is a set of Do and Don’t pictures from our lunch.
DON’T sit closest to the camera in a puffy jacket, unless you are going for the “Michelin tire man” look
If you are forced to be in the front – DO take your jacket off and sit up straight! (Barb just needed to sit up straight, she wasn’t all puffed up like me.
Well maybe it wasn’t really lunch; just a couple of pitchers of sangria and some cheese. But it hit the spot.
Rehearsal Dinner
Groom and his sister
Trevelyan family
Bride and her brother
Wedding Day
And now it’s the wedding day! But we still have more we want to do before the big event. So we start out on a walk to see the Notre Dame cathedral. Should have been about 1/2 mile walk from the hotel, but somehow I got all turned around and made it about a 4 mile walk. Lots of construction going on in Montreal and we had to detour many times due to closed streets (but that wasn’t our only handicap).
This is where we were headed – NOWHERE! But we finally found it
But now time to get ready for the big event!
Someone needed just a bit more time to apply her mascara and the hotel signage was perfect.
Jim proudly holding his Papa Jimmy Joe placecard
Groom and his sister
Now this is where the story takes a bit of a turn. After a joyous group shot, Barb makes a getaway for the reception.
And walking down these steps, she took a tumble.
And here she is after getting some of her composure and balance back. And trooper that she is – she hung in there for the whole reception. Here she has the bride’s father's attention, Grandma Lee’s wheelchair and her own private nurse, Mary, at her side.
Father of the Bride speech
And the party takes off
As the party winds down- we need to get Barb some medical attention.
We are about to experience socialized medicine. Still in our party clothes in the ER
So after waiting in the ER for 5 hours with Barb and making no progress, Jim and I headed back to the hotel about 3 a.m. to change into more comfortable clothes. But before we left, we found out there was ONE doctor covering the entire hospital from ER to admitted patients….this was going to be a long wait! Barb bonded with the woman with a broken wrist and a guy who was in acute pain from a bicycle accident. No doctor for them either and the bets were no one would be seen until after shift changes in another 5 hours.
I got back to the hotel and into something comfortable and warmer and checked in with Barb before heading back to the hospital. She told me not to come back immediately, that we could wait until later that morning after she was seen. I didn’t need any encouragement to go with that plan. I hated leaving her there, but a few hours of shut eye sounded too enticing.
Day after the wedding – Time for hospital pick up
Mary and I headed back to the hospital about 9 am – Barb had a brain scan and was still waiting to see the doctor. I brought her a change of clothes as she was still in her clothes from the wedding!
Passed these hearts on our walk to the hospital. She got a clean bill of health, but a crazy black eye…and at least she was cleared to fly home in 2 days.
So we Uber back to hotel where Barb crashes, the rest of us grab breakfast and head out to see some paintings by one of the local guests at the wedding. It was a beautiful day so we walked along the canal.
It’s a wonder more of us didn’t fall with this typical terrain.
We pass by the wedding venue from the day before.
We weren’t sure what the weather in Montreal would be, but it turned out to be perfect every day!
Victoria Manning is the artist’s name. She is a local artist from Montreal and Toronto.
Time to head back to the hotel to see if Barb is okay. She rallies and we head out to dinner. We liked the restaurant from the first night so much, we headed back there.
And we end the day and start planning what we will do on our last day in Montreal
Final full Day in Montreal
After breakfast, Jim and I head out on what looks to be a few mile walk to the Biosphere. The rest of the gang Ubers over- good call as we ended up walking over 5 miles!
Mother of the bride joined us! The guys are outnumbered
And finally on to the botanical gardens.
Her eye is improving!
And a final outdoor dinner before heading home in the morning
It was a great trip as a “starter” back into the world of real travel. 2023 will be our year.
This will be my last blog on WordPress – Barb will help me transition to Wix – so drop me an email that says if you want to be included going forward and look for an invite to a new platform in early 2023.
Dedication
To one of my most supportive blog followers….. Lee Trevelyan. She followed (and commented) on my blogs on every trip – and fortunately got to celebrate her granddaughter’s wedding before succumbing to previously undetected cancer just two weeks later. She will be greatly missed.
Comments