Montreal Recap

It was still dark and early when Megan came to pick me up in an Uber so we could get to the Island Airport to head to Montreal.  Brighter as we drove up.  We had picked this airport given the chaos that has been happening with Pearson.  This was a great choice as we had a relaxing breakfast and coffee once we easily made it through security. 

Beautiful morning to see Toronto from the air.

After we got into the city and dropped off our bags at our hotel we walked over to Sainte-Catherine Street.  Our other friend Cindy was flying in a bit later. 

Pretty flower stand by the church. 

We found a cute coffee shop for our second breakfast.  Then we sat on McGill's campus near Roddick Gates, where Megan did her undergrad, and chatted.  It was so pleasant to be outside, taking it easy, and not having to worry about work or kids or anything. 

We did a bit of shopping and then walked back to the hotel meet up with Cindy.  We got lunch at The Warehouse on Crescent.  We have been to one here in Toronto and although it is a chain, it's reliable and the food is cheap!

After lunch we worked our way back through the shops on Sainte-Catherine Street and a bought a few things.  We had dinner at Gibbys steakhouse.  We like places like this, institutions with fabulous service and the little touches, like the sorbet between courses to cleanse our palates. 

It is inside an old stable.  This is the inner courtyard looking out into the street.

After dinner we walked down by the water and through Old Montreal.

The next morning we had coffee and pastries at La Finca.

Then walked down to Old Montreal for the morning.  This is the Court of Appeal of Quebec.

We thought about going inside the Notre Dame Cathedral but the tour was $15 per person.  As I was walking over to check the price I said I would go if it was $10 or less, so never mind then. 

We went back up to Crescent Ave. to eat lunch.  We wanted a patio and Wienstein and Gavino's fit the bill. We all enjoyed our Aperol Spritz's!

And pizzas :)  (and wine)

More shopping as we made our way back to our hotel.  We got dressed up for dinner again and walked to Old Montreal to eat at Jacopo.

We sort of randomly chose this because it was Italian, in Old Montreal and walkable from our restaurant, it took reservations, and the menu had lots of choices.  It ended up being an amazing pick.  We were right on the Place Jacques-Cartier so great for people watching and the patio had heaters so even as the sun went down we were very comfortable.  We had good service, yummy food and wine, and we had a leisurely meal and didn't feel rushed out.  Highly recommend.  The inside was really cute too!

Sangria :)

We got some ice cream at Mlle Catherine across the street.  Megan got pistachio gelato and Cindy and I got soft serve.  I'm not usually a fan of soft serve but the coffee flavour was amazing! 

Megan flew out early on Sunday morning but Cindy and I had the whole day ahead.  It also happened to be Cindy's birthday.  We had brunch at Du De Lorraine

We thought we would walk over to Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, but the front was all blocked off under construction and it was a long way around to go another way.  I think there was a shuttle but we didn't bother checking it out. 

Then we went over to the Plateau area to check out some shops there, then went to Starbucks so Cindy could get her birthday drink.  Again, it was nice to sit and relax with our coffee/tea and not have to rush off anywhere.  We shopped around again for a bit, and I got a few more things to cram into my suitcase later.  We didn't really have any more shopping to do so we decided to go to Top Gun Maverick.  It was so good!! Highly recommend and a highlight of the weekend. 

After the movie we got back to our hotel, grabbed our bags, and headed to the airport. We had an awesome Uber driver that took us a 'secret way' and we got past so much traffic, then I had Nexus so I barely had to wait in security (and non-Nexus Cindy said her line wasn't that bad, that's right, I left her alone).  We grabbed some poutine and beer before boarding our flights. 

What a great time to get away with some old friends!  We met in September of 2004 which is way too long ago to do the math on how long we have been friends...but at any rate we are very fortunate!

Friday Favourites

 

I'm off to Montreal for the weekend, so excited to be doing something different :) and enjoying part of our great country, including practicing my French again.

We went to the school on Wednesday to watch E's dance performance.  There were about 3-6 people in each group and it was two classes.  No one's performance was for a whole song so we got through it in about half an hour.  It was nice to be at the school in person again!  The other parents we were sitting with thought to pick up their daughter from her class to watch her older brother so we did the same with Q.  He thought this was pretty special. 

E's group did Blinding Lights by the Weeknd, and although I am slightly biased, I do think their group put in some of the best effort of the bunch. 

I finally got to donate some gently used toys.  The Ukrainian Congress of Canada is taking donations for displaced Ukrainians so I took them there along with a bag of kids clothes and a bag of my clothes. If you see anything here that was a gift from you, know that they were well used but we just grew out of them now.  I'm glad they are going to new homes.

Team huddle at soccer. 

Our tradition of going out for supper on Wednesday while Dave is golfing. 

I got a new office at work, with a window!

My new view :)

There is a Farmer's Market outside of my office on thursdays.  I didn't get anything this week but I scoped it out - empanadas, patties, butter tarts, donuts, and other treats. 

So excited to see Her Majesty on the balcony of Buckingham Palace yesterday for the first day of her Platinum Jubilee.  She looked lovely in blue.  

Have a nice weekend!

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.

Pandemic Update

I haven't checked in on the pandemic front for awhile, and part of that is because it's been a few weeks since COVID has played any sort of central feature of our lives.  I know that people are still getting sick and we still have hospitalizations and even deaths being attributed to COVID.  I hear all of the time "COVID isn't over" and I guess I agree with that, but in a way it is over or at least it's just one of the many things we navigate in our lives, but no longer the main thing dominating the news and our day to day lives. 

Back in March, the mask mandate for indoor spaces was lifted in Toronto, and it was at that point that we took our masks off here.  We asked the kids if they wanted to keep wearing them and they didn't.  Now I will say that shortly after taking our masks off we all got COVID.  We believe it was from a kids' birthday party where there were about 60 people in a party room at at community centre, so not really surprising.  I do not regret our decision to take our masks off.  I felt like most places where the risk of contracting COVID was highest were places where we were still taking off our masks to eat and drink (like we were doing at the birthday party anyway) and the other places where we didn't remove our masks, like quick trips into the store where you're constantly moving around, the risk was lower anyway.  Plus I didn't know what else I was waiting for to take off my mask, so it was time for us.  I see many people still wearing them on a regular basis, even outside when they are walking alone, to each their own, everyone has a different risk tolerance. 

Mask are still required on transit, although I see more and more people each day who are not wearing masks.  Whenever I see someone on the subway without a mask, I think "did they change the rules? Did I miss something?" But no, they haven't changed the rules so I'll continue to wear it on transit for now.  The distancing stickers on the seats have been removed for awhile, although I find many people are still wanting to sit alone and put their bag on the seat next to them.  I do sit next to someone if there is an empty seat which I actually thinks makes more sense than cramming everyone into the aisles to stand.  

For the most part, COVID is not affecting my day to day life, and isn't that great! On the days I work from home or bike to work, I don't need to wear a mask at all, and the kids don't need to do any health check forms to go to school.  Most people I speak to are pretty unconcerned with COVID and for the most part I'm just overhearing people talk about getting COVID and how their symptoms were pretty mild.  Dave had to test to go to Chicago a few weeks ago, but I'm going away this weekend to Montreal and it's nice to know I don't have to think about testing.  Hopefully the testing requirements for other countries will be lifted soon.

Now I'm not naïve to think COVID has actually gone away for good or will ever completely disappear.  We may be faced with some other variant in the fall that makes us take a step back, but I have to believe we are in a place where "normal life" can resume.  I definitely see more people making their way downtown to work, although certainly not to pre-pandemic levels.  We have a hybrid work policy where everyone goes in three days a week, and I know other offices have the same sort of thing but still many where employees aren't needed to come in on any regular basis so far.  It will be interesting to see how numbers of people downtown look in the fall. 

Our provincial election is today and our current premier Doug Ford and his Conservatives certainly faced a lot of criticism on their management (or mismanagement, depending on who you talk to) of the pandemic and although I did not vote for him (last time or this time), I honestly don't know how else we were supposed to handle it.  Our long term care homes definitely suffered and our health care system was stressed (both of which are under provincial jurisdiction) but were there any better decisions that could have been made at the time we were in the thick of it all, I don't know the answer.  We'll see how Ontario feels about it all.  I have a feeling Doug will be back for a second term, but that will probably be it. 

Last year I wrote about COVID habits to keep (click here) and I think I still agree.  Although I don't really care about how many people are in the stores. 

Why June is the Best Month

To start, I have some disappointing news - the Union Station Summer Market is not happening as I originally thought, boo!! I was so excited but I guess I was looking at an old website.  I was expecting them to start building it this week and when I didn't see any activity around Union Station, I had to double check, and I can't find anything about 2022, so no market :(  I know that you're all disappointed too, haha.  I'll just have to get my OG Chicken Sandwich to go and sit outside by myself!

So aside from that, June is my favourite month and it starts today!  This is why I love June:

An obvious one is my birthday is in June!  I think this is the perfect month to have a birthday since it's equal distance from Christmas. So presents every 6 months, haha!  

The weather always gets nice and hot in June and triggers lots of late afternoon thunderstorms.  

Father's Day is fun to celebrate because we always try to do something that involves physical activity and drinks outside - often a bike ride to a brewery or patio.

Because school is wrapping up there are always lots of fun activities and dress up days.  It also means I get to do one of my favourite instagram posts of the year - comparing the kids first and last days of school.

The city is alive as people start to emerge from winter (and a usually cool spring).  It's like the perfect balance of people.  Torontonians are still in town and not at the cottage in June, and there aren't too many tourists here yet (just kidding, we love you tourists!). 

People are keen to get together before the summer, so there are lots of patio lunches happening. 

It's Pride Month which means our city is decorated with rainbows everywhere.

We head out on our first camping trip of the year, usually to Algonquin or Sandbanks.

The Blue Jays are always fun to watch in June.  Sometimes their season peters out as summer goes on, but in June it's still exciting!

Honourable mention to fresh Ontario asparagus!  Bonus, I heard today it helps with hangovers, who knew?!