Travel Review: A Weekend in Montreal

Due to Daniel's graduate program, we had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Montreal while he attended the American Counseling Association/Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association conference. Thanks to my dad sharing some of his hotel points, and the Holiday Inn being directly across the street from the convention center, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Centreville, right near Old Montreal and Montreal's Chinatown. While it was pricey (we had to pay even after using some hotel points), the location was perfectly within walking distance of lots of delicious restaurants, and an afternoon's entertainment - which was about all we had time for while also juggling Daniel's conference sessions.

This was my first time crossing the border into Canada in my adult life, so that was pretty cool! We crossed at the Thousand Islands bridge, and it was a beautiful, sunny first day of April! We had to wait about a half hour to cross, which wasn't horrible, but did allow time to snap a selfie :-)

From there, we were in Canada! Time for $2 coins, Tim Horton's everywhere, and both French and English!

It was a couple more hours after the border before we got to Montreal. It's always exciting getting close to a city and seeing its skyline! I forgot my camera for this trip, so unfortunately all the photos are iPhone quality, otherwise I would've zoomed for a cooler shot!

Friday night was checking in, and I hit the hotel gym while Daniel went to check out the conference. After that, we wandered out in search of crepes at Chez Suzette Crepes and Fondue in Old Montreal!

I got their Vegetarian Western Crepes which had eggs, some veggies, swiss cheese, and came with a cute little cup of Quebec maple syrup! Daniel went with the chicken and ratatouille crepes, which were smothered in cheese! They also have a pretty eclectic smoothie and milkshake offering, so Daniel tried out their key lime pie smoothie - I stole a sip... it was really yummy!

Saturday afternoon, we had about two hours' time between Daniel's sessions to explore, and then we also had the evening after all his sessions. First, the afternoon! We walked around Old Montreal. I consulted this post for suggestions on where to walk around in Old Montreal, and it proved to be absolutely perfect!

We specifically walked down Saint Paul Street (also where Chez Suzette is!)...

To Place Jacques Cartier...

Saw the Montreal Town Hall...

I feel like these pictures make it look like we go to Harvard! 

Stunning!

From there, we walked over to the Notre Dame Basillica. Wow!

It costs $5 per adult to go in, and it is more than worth the price. They run 20 minute tours every so often throughout the day, so if you happen to time it right, your $5 can also include that! Another time I really wished I brought my camera!

Daniel and I both hold degrees in music and were in complete AWE at this organ... wow!

Another room, another amazing organ

After that, we grabbed some coffee and ran back to the hotel/conference center since it had decided to start pouring on us! Which reminds me... Would highly recommend visiting this city on a good weather weekend, or packing for the weather better than we did. We did bring some layers, but for all of the walking we wanted to do/did, we were not as prepared for cold/rain/etc as we could've been.

With that, Daniel went back into session, and I hung out at the hotel, did a quick run and some homework! Then it was off to dinner at Kyo Bar Japaonais... which I'm pretty sure served me the best food I've ever eaten in my life. I have an adventurous spirit about trying lots of different new things, but new food is NOT one of them, so that tends to leave me eating a lot of the same things, and thus, not experiencing new, delicious food as much as I wish I could commit to. That being said, Montreal has so, so many amazing restaurants, and being outside of America and in such a cultural city really forced me outside of my comfort zone - and right into something delicious!

The concept of Kyo is that it's all small-sized plates, so most people eat 2-3 plates of food, which I can get with - the more variety, the better! Daniel and I ended up each getting two dishes for ourselves, and sharing another one.

Daniel got miso soup, and an udon noodle dish with chicken and kimchi.

Neither of us had ever eaten with chopsticks for an entire meal, but we didn't want to be those stupid tourists from America who asked for silverware (and even worse, ask and get told they don't even have any!), so we stuck it out and it turned out all right!

We split the gyoza dumplings,

And I got a plate of sushi that had beef, avocado, spicy mayo, tempura cheese, and cucumber (which was AMAZING... still dreaming about it), and then I also got tempura shrimp and vegetables.

After dinner, we went to take a walk through the shops and restaurants in Chinatown, since our hotel was right on the edge of Chinatown. We ended up getting dessert treats at Patisserie Harmonie. Chinese treats, where the signs were in English, French and Chinese... talk about cultural!

Sunday morning Daniel had quite a few more sessions until noon. After that, we had a few things we had been thinking about doing - walking by the Old Port of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River, and visiting the Biodome (which looked really cool)... But, remember how we didn't pack well? Well, Daniel somehow forgot to bring a winter jacket, or any thicker winter-ish layers in general, and it was a ripe 18 degrees on Sunday. Coupled with that, Daniel was pretty beat from being up early for conference sessions starting at 7:30AM, so we decided to skip out on doing any afternoon activities and just headed home. We didn't get home until 5PM, so with some afternoon activities it would've been more like 9PM, so it ended up being a decision we were both quite okay with, but I would love to check out those two things if we ever make it up there again, for sure!

All in all, a great city, with a lot to do and see, especially if you like being in a walk-able area.

Travel Review: A Weekend in Boston

In late February, Daniel and I spent a weekend in Boston (which meant really just during the day on Saturday)! We knew we wanted a weekend getaway, to somewhere we had never been together before, and were torn between Philly or Boston, and ended up deciding on Boston since it offered the aquarium, which would be a great activity regardless of weather.

We were in our hometown on Friday afternoon, so it ended up being a five hour drive out on Friday night. We stayed just outside the actual city, and had a nice, easy start Saturday morning, including hitting up the (actually really nice!) hotel gym, before we headed in to Boston for lunch, activities and dinner!

We did elect to drive and pay for parking while we were there, rather than taking public transportation. Their tickets for their trains and buses were actually quite pricy, so driving ended up not being too different cost-wise for us personally, and was obviously much more convenient!

The first place we stopped to park was under Post Office Square. Both of the locations we parked were underground - I'm not sure if this is just the norm in Boston, but it was really interesting, from a city planning perspective! If you're going to the New England Aquarium, they have a lot of garages they work with for discounted prices, so we had a short walk to the Harbor area, and then they stamp your ticket when leaving the aquarium and your whole day of parking is just $8!

Post Office Square

Walking around!

Before going to the aquarium, though, we went to Faneuil Hall Marketplace, home of the iconic Boston stop, Quincy Market. We lucked out, and even though it was February, it was a beautiful 50 degrees out, so it was a great to walk-around and get lunch in Quincy Market from the millions of choices!

I'm a big lover of Shark Tank so we stopped at the Wicked Good Cupcakes stand to get cupcakes in a jar. Daniel got Red Velvet and I got Cinnabon flavor with cream cheese frosting.

And, of course, walked around to all the different shops!

From there, it was off to the New England Aquarium. I had been here before on a school trip in high school, but Daniel hadn't ever been - and he's the animal lover, so it was a "must go". The price is a little steep, and we didn't get tickets ahead of time online even though you could, because I wasn't sure what the point was. Well, it turns out the point is not having to wait in line. We had to go through a queue in an entire tent and tented hallway before we made it to get our tickets... Probably at least a 25 minute wait. It was fine because we weren't in a rush, but I would definitely recommend buying your tickets online ahead of time to avoid this. They also have bundles for whale watching and IMAX movies!

Touch tank!

From there, we left our original parking spot under Post Office Square, and went to park at the Commons! I wanted to get dinner at a place we ate on our high school trip called Fire and Ice... it's the kind of place that is so amazing and delicious, you can't stop thinking about it, and I haven't for 5 years!

It was awesome to park at the Commons at dusk. We got to walk through the entire Commons to get to the restaurant, which was amazing and so beautiful. We had a bit of time to kill before our reservation, so we made a coffee stop as well.

Even took in a beautiful city sunset...

Then it was dinner time - I 1000% recommend going to Fire and Ice if you're in the Boston area, but make a reservation; we heard someone get told it'd be an hour and a half wait while we were checking in for our reservation, and we even had to wait fifteen minutes after our reservation time because it was that busy! That being said, it is "all you can eat" for roughly $17 a person (I believe that's what it was), so in the scheme of nice dinners in a major city, it's very reasonable! What happens is you get to fill a bowl with all of your choices of meat, starches, veggies and sauce, and then go to a circle of grills, where someone takes your bowl of food and cooks it - it is entertaining and skillful work that these chefs do! There was 4-5 of them handling 30+ people's food at once, all while being watched!

The lighting was dim so I took limited pictures, but I did snap one of my first plate of food... A. MAY. ZING.

Tri-colored pasta, steak, water chestnuts, green peppers, onions, baby corn, and a sweet garlic sauce

After that was our walk back through the Commons - this time at full darkness, with lots of twinkly lights, super pretty!

And that rounded out our day in Boston! The next morning we hit the hotel gym before checking out, and then we were on the road. It was nice to see the city, and take in some of the sights without a huge hit the wallet. There's a LOT of historic sites/tours in Boston, but we elected to skip those in favor of a more low-key day, hitting a few of the major tourist stops like the market, the aquarium and the commons.

It was the perfect mix for a weekend getaway! 

San Diego Vacation Highlights

In the beginning of January, Daniel and I had the good fortune to visit our friends Laura and Mitchell in sunny San Diego - a welcomed escape from winter in Syracuse (though it's been markedly light this winter!). You can read more about our trip in my post about our visit to the Channel Islands. This post is just a brief representation of our trip through photos, with short captions.

Flying out:

Great company for exploring and fun:

Balboa Park:

Amazing sunsets:

Chasing waves and playing at the beaches:

So much interesting wildlife (helps when your primary company hold Animal Behavior degrees!):

My first time touching the Pacific Ocean!

Seaport Village:

And, of course, the amazing San Diego zoo - my bird nerd was in heaven, and I enjoyed it too!

Overall thoughts:

It's crazy how different the West Coast is from the East - and how different San Diego was from even San Francisco when we went there (guess we have a trend of having friendships with those in "San"s!). I think my favorite part of San Diego was how active and outdoorsy the real tourist attractions are - from walking through Balboa Park and Seaport Village, to engaging with the natural wildlife at the beaches and tide pools, to the conservation wild at the world renowned zoo, it was a must-do vacation for anyone who likes to stay active and out in the wonderful California sunshine! On top of it all, going in January was AWESOME. Channel Islands National Park wasn't busy, and the amazing, ever-popular zoo was practically empty, despite it being a super sunny, 63 degree day (heaven to a New Yorker!). 

Loved it!