Montréal

Last week Alan and I were lucky enough to get away for 5 glorious days to Montréal for the annual ICMA conference. Usually this event happen in some okay place but this was by far the best location yet. We farmed out the boys and left the girls to fend, once again, for themselves. They all survived and I think, even enjoyed us being gone a bit.

We stayed at the Queen Elizabeth in downtown Montréal - a lovely hotel. We learned upon arrival that it was the place of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's famous "bed-In" in the 60's? Weird. Since I am such a Beatles fan NOT, this did not add to my excitement. (But for the two readers of this blog- who might be fans, I thought you could possibly be impressed)

Okay, so Montréal is beautiful! We made an adventurous visit to the Temple (French session-- all in French- kind of interesting, but wonderful). Ate at divine restaurants. Fumbled our way through the French menus- I actually didn't do too bad. I guess all the French backs of cereal boxes I read growing up paid off. We had lunch with random missionaries we found on Rue St. Katherine, attended the BYU MPA alumni dinner/church service- always a pleasure to visit with other LDS City Managers and their wives and share war stories. ;-) Walked and walked and walked all through old Montréal. Vistited Mount Royal, Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal, and shopped. Well, actually Alan did most of that. I did much more of the latter while he was in meetings.

A special treat for me was to catch up with 2 girlfriends from years ago. I still can't believe they made the trek (flight) from Halifax, and (drive) from Ottawa to get together for the day. Good girls. :-) We had a sweet time lunching, shopping, walking and just catching up on each others' lives. These girls were part of the heart and soul of my teenage-hood (is that a word?) We shared lockers together -for 6 years, late night slumber parties, band trips, orchestra trips -- ooh scary chill just went down my spine--boys, (yep, we knew some) senior trip to Hawaii - umm yes, there were parents there.....somewhere. All good stuff. Can't wait to get together again.

Clearing customs at 2am. If you click on the picture, you'll see Alan really isn't as tired as he appears. It's just that my old camera (hint, hint honey...) sometimes acts up. But, this was the best shot I have so it will have to do.


Ferrari atop Mount Royal. We just had to take a picture for Brayden. Some how this has become his dream car. - Can't imagine why.

Notre- Dame Basilica of Montreal . A bit chilly inside, but visually breathtaking from every view.


View from Mount Royal (I'm smiling because I am wearing new comfy shoes purchased from said shopping trip below)

Some great friends who know how to shop.
One store-- 6 pairs of shoes. Bliss

Old Montréal

Okay, now this place was heaven. Everything on the menu was chocolate of some sorts.
Yes, this was our dinner one night. Just divine!