Anniversaire Aeureux à Nous

We were determined not to celebrate our first anniversary in the library (even though as hers will tell, it might have been the more practical decision). One of the great things about Albany is its location. The Adirondacks and Catskills are just about an hour away. Vermont and New Hampshire (which, by all rights, should be beautiful this time of year) are just a few hours away. The city and Boston are only about three hours away and Montreal is about four hours. The only question was where we were going to end up on our anniversary.

We drove north through the Adirondacks, across the border into Quebec, and into Montreal. We arrived early in the afternoon and set out right away to explore the city. We started off following a walking tour in our guidebook. We started on Notre Dame drive at the statute of the town founder Jacques-Cartier. The building in the background is the oldest bank in Montreal.



Continuing down Notre Dame drive we came to, not surprisingly, the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Montreal.



The inside was impressive, but as you can see, it was a bit dark. Most of the pictures came out blurry. Yea, I could've opened the flash, but it seemed a bit disrespectful to everyone there who was praying (it is, after all, a church). The downside is that it cost $4 (Canadian) to get inside. It's not a whole lot, but I hope they didn't charge the people who were there to pray.



Shortly after leaving Notre Damn, we passed a French book store. It eventually dawned on us that this was a law bookstore. Among the other books, you can make the civil procedure code for Quebec.


Not bad a town hall eh?



One of the best parts of the trip was our little wine and bread picnic in the park. We picked up a cheap bottle with a twist off cap (we really need to start packing corkscrews) and asked the woman behind the counter if it was legal to drink it on the streets. She didn't say much, just placed a brown paper sack in the plastic bag with the wine.

Next, we visited a small candy shop that had a few large rolls for sale. We told her we wanted two rolls and nothing else. She seemed very disturb and offered us, in broken English that matched our broken French, if wanted jam on it. We politely refused. She asked if we wanted something to drink. We said no. She was becoming increasingly distraught. At first we thought she was just trying to sell us something else, but it became clear that she really didn't like the idea of us eating bread by itself. Finally, we held up the wine and said "avec vin."

"Ah! Vin! Vin!" The woman seemed relieved and almost overjoyed. We took our bread and wine to a park in the old port and enjoyed a ghettorific anniversary picnic eating our dry bread and drinking our wine from a paper sack.



After our snack, we wandered through the streets and stumbled upon this church that was modeled after St. Peter's Basicillica. Inside was a beautiful alter. They were just concluding a small mass when we walked in.



Eventually, we stumbled on the Centre Bell, where the Montreal Canadians play. Yes, it was the Canadians who beat my beloved Los Angeles Kings back in 1993 to win the Stanely Cup, but they are the freaking Canadians! At one time, this team had won more championships (24) than any other professional team in North America. Since 1993, the New York Yankees have won four World Series to bring its total to 26. As it so happens, the Canadian's home opener was the next day. Scalpers wanted a premium for tickets but said if they couldn't unload some tickets just before game time, we might be able to find a cheap pair.

We finished the day with a delicious Mexican meal (yes, good Mexican food in Montreal). The next day, we decided we hadn't walked enough and decided to walk up Mount Royal. This small mountain in the middle of town provides a great view of the city. We could've gotten to the top quickly by walking up a set of steps, but we opted for the gradual switchbacks instead. The paths were beautiful with the falling leaves.



When we made it to the top, we were treated to an amazing view of the city.



After Mount Royal, we went back to the Centre Bell and eventually found two tickets for the game. The scalpers all seem to work together and one guy knew of a pair of tickets he could get us from someone else. We stayed with one guy while the other tracked down the tickets. As we stood there, we started wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. I quickly passed my wallet to Hers just in case they decided to try and jump us. In the end, we got the tickets and everything worked out fine. We were a little concerned that the tickets might be fake, but they scanned our bar code and let us into the building.

The game was fantastic. The Canadians fell behind early, but there was a great fight in the first period that lasted a good five minutes or so. The Canadians tied it up late and had some good chances to win it in overtime. Unfortunately, Ottawa won the game in a shootout after a scoreless overtime. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures from the game. Cameras are not allowed. A lot of people did smuggle cameras in, but I didn't want to run the risk of checking a camera somewhere were I didn't speak the native language.

We left early the next day so we could take a scenic route home through the Adirondacks. Along the way, we found Ausable Chasm. We didn't have the energy to walk it (plus, I think you had to buy tickets to get in) but we had a great view from the bridge.


It was nice to get away from the school for a weekend. As you can probably tell by the lack of posts, however, we had a busy week when we got back. It was certainly worth the extra work though.