On March 2, Ryan and I headed to Montreal for a long weekend without the kids. We left on Friday afternoon and drove down the 401 to Brockville where the kids stayed with Auntie Krista. After about an hour, we were back on the road and by 8 p.m., we were checking into our hotel in Old Montreal.
To be honest, after a long drive, our Friday evening in Montreal consisted of finding somewhere for dinner and then crashing back at the hotel in front of the TV.
After a sleep that wasn't interupted by children ;-), we met my friend Laura and her husband Matt for brunch at a nearby place. Laura and I have been friends for 25 years, but with life as it is these days, we don't see much of each other anymore. So it was nice to spend a few hours with them.
After that, Ryan and I wandered along St. Catherine's Street for awhile and did some shopping before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. You see, the purpose of our trip was to go to a Habs-Leafs hockey game at the Bell Centre. One of Ryan's sub-contractors sent him and his boss four tickets at Christmas for the two of them (and their wives) to attend the game (with someone from the company, of couse).
We were first taken to dinner at the restaurant in the Bell Centre where, by chance, Henri Richard was also having dinner. And yes, I was one of those people who went up and asked to have my picture taken with him. (Although I at least waited until he finished his dinner!) Henri Richard was one of my father's favourite players growing up and I just had to show him that I met him. He was very nice and very gracious about having his photo taken.
After dinner, we went down to our seats -- which were in the third row! I have never sat that close in my life (and probably never will again) and it certainly is a lot of fun to watch a game from that perspective!
Unfortunately, the Habs losts (or as Ryan would say, fortuntely the Leafs won) but it was still a lot of fun!
The evening ended with drinks at a local bar.
Sunday was the only day we didn't have any set plans so we rolled out of bed in time to have 'breakfast' at Schwartz's at noon! Mmmmmm, smoked meat sandwiches.
After that we decided to go for a drive around Mt. Royal and then, since it was such a nice day (cold, but sunny) we walked around Mt. Royal for awhile.
Later that evening, we had dinner at a restaurant in Old Montreal and then tried to find a bar. But unfortunately, being a Sunday in March meant that most places in Old Montreal were closed. So we grabbed a cab downtown and looked for somewhere to go there. Places were open, but again, being a Sunday in March, meant they were all pretty dead. After about half an hour, we gave up our search, grabbed a bottle of wine from the liquor store (which was still open) and went back to our hotel and watched a movie.
On Monday morning, we hit Schwartz's again for breakfast (and this time it was even before 11 a.m.!), grabbed several dozen bagels from Fairmount and headed home.
We picked up the kids in Brockville and were told that they had a fabulous time. They got to play in the snow and make a snowman (something they haven't been able to do in Toronto this winter); and they went to the Science and Technology museum in Ottawa. Auntie Krista even admitted that although she was exhausted after the weekend, she'd still take them back again for a weekend (phew!)
