So, How Would You All Like To Hear About Montreal?

So, I know I’ve been posting my NaNoWriMo story for the past couple of days, but I’ve been telling my friend in Canada about my trip to Montreal and I’m thinking you all might find it interesting as well?  Alright, so here goes…

Okay, here is the story of my trip to the best of my memory. I’ll only recount the Montreal related parts in detail as the rest of it is fairly mundane…  (And by mundane, I mean Shawn unwrapped his beer and was stoked.   He played a video game and we cuddled.   We walked his dog and ordered Pad Thai.   We ate Pad Thai and cuddled while watching ESPN.   Shawn went to the gym with Brent and I watched a cheesy sorority movie on Netflix while he was gone.  Shawn came back and we had a tickle war while watching more Netflix (Undercover Boss, I think) and I elbowed Shawn in the face because I flail my limbs.  And then we had a tickle war while watching Zombieland on Netflix because men don’t learn to stop tickling you after an injury.  Then we went to dinner and the story picks up here…)

I got into upstate New York on Wednesday (the fifth) and five of the eventual seven people who would be going all had dinner together at a restaurant that is apparently known for its breakfast… I had a falafel and it was awesome. We discussed the trip and I mentioned a few of the things my Canadian friend suggested that I wanted to do. Everyone was down with walking around Old Montreal at some point. Shawn mocked me for wanting to visit Mount Royale (“You realize the humor in a Colorado girl asking to see a mountain, right?”). We confirmed our itinerary (leaving around 10 am the next morning) and went back to Shawn’s and watched Robin Hood: Men in Tights on Netflix. We all also made a promise to do a passport check before we left.

In total, there would be two girls on the trip and, eventually, five guys (though two of them weren’t at dinner/movie and beer at Shawn’s.)  Shawn offered his male friends a sip of the beer I brought him, because it was apparently too precious to give them their own bottles.

So, as planned, we headed out the next morning around 9:45 after our passport check with each other to do our weird carpool. Shawn and I picked up the guy closest to his house (Seth), then we stopped to get coffee and scones (because yummy), and then we went to the second driver’s (Brent) house and Seth moved to Brent’s car. Brent has a Yaris (which Shawn and I mocked the entire trip) and was driving for gas mileage. Seth was the other preferred driver, also for gas mileage, but everyone had decided that Shawn was driving for his winter driving experience/four-wheel drive and the storage capacity of his car. Shawn has an Xterra. Everyone was splitting gas, so Shawn was more than happy to drive.

The carpool continued as we picked up the other girl (Blair) followed by the last guy coming with us in our carpool (Ryan). The final member of our party (Anthony) would be arriving a day later from Boston.

After meeting up with Brent, I facilitated passport check and Seth realized he didn’t have his, so after picking up everyone else (and doing a passport check for both of them), we had to go back and get it.  I felt bad for not facilitating a passport check with Seth when we got him originally.

By 10:30, we were leaving. Our cars were Brent, Seth, Blair, and Ryan in the Yaris and then Shawn, me, and everyone’s luggage in the Xterra.

We stopped at a McDonalds/food court rest stop and Blair and I bonded over our love of pink (she was wearing a bright pink coat and I had on a pink scarf) and our female solidarity with all the boys in attendance. Shawn ordered wraps and let me have a bite. (I think this was maybe a half hour into our trip)

We stopped at a gas station and I bought Shawn a green Monster after having a hard time deciding between the normal sized can and a larger one. (Maybe an hour)

We ate lunch at a subway when Brent finally had to fill up gas. I had a meatball marinara, because yummy. Shawn tapped off his tank because he could. (This was around 1:30, I think?)

Shawn and I made a promise to each other not to get sick while we were up there.

We drove around the thousand island area and all the houses on the little islands were pretty. The Canadian border patrol asked a lot of questions. I don’t think they liked Shawn and I being all the way from Colorado. Anyway, we made it though and the bridge across the border was very pretty.

We stopped for gas past the border and Shawn was incredulous about it being $1.13 per liter or something like that. (I think that’s equal to about five dollars per gallon or something like that with the exchange rate being pretty much equal)

It started snowing as we got into Montreal around rush hour….

Funny moments in the car during the Canadian part of our drive:

Me: Aww, it’s a beaver on a stick!
Shawn: *cracking the hell up for like ten minutes*
Me: Shawn! Not like that! An actual beaver!
Shawn: *still laughing*

He subsequently sent a message to his friend which said “Beaver on a stick.” His friend replied “That’s how I like my beaver. Where was this?” And that’s pretty much how that went…

After passing our second Tim Horton’s:
Me: Tim Horton’s. Take a drink.
Shawn: That sounds like a horrible game that no one wins.

We passed a boutique de dollaire and that made my day (cafe Starbucks Coffee was a close second the next day).

Let’s see… Rush hour was pretty gross and Brent is a horrible rush hour/carpool driver. He passed up on like six exits into the downtown area before choosing one and then we had to backtrack through the city.  He also whipped into, and out of, lanes in the tiniest spaces which left Shawn no adequate room to follow with his car being probably three times larger.

By the way, there’s these stop lights that flash green before turning yellow and they are absolute genius. Absolutely genius!

Oh, Shawn’s Xterra is lifted and has ski racks on top, so it’s pretty tall. We get to the hotel and Shawn attempts following Brent’s car into the basement self-parking garage.  The Xterra hit the top of the hanging sign.

“It’s fine.  The signs are always lower than the actual bays.”

We get down the ramp and Shawn sticks his head out the window as he examines the bay.  His car definitely couldn’t make it under the door to the garage. He had to back up out of the garage slope, causing the five people behind him to back up as well, and into the street at that. His car was then forced to be valet parked on the first level (for $30 per day instead of ten) and it was the biggest car up there. We accidentally left some luggage in there, so Shawn and Ryan went to get the bag while the rest of us dealt with the luggage and checked in. The people in one of the cars behind Shawn and I passed us in the lobby and I laughed about it quietly… Though they looked a bit disgruntled.

Next Time:  We have a Colorado-style beer race, in which I don’t lose, and Seth learns the difference between English and American, much to his embarrassment.