Priority Upgrade

The other day I drove to Lindsay to complete a BOMA BESt survey for work. I then drove to Peterborough and spent the night in a hotel before driving to Belleville for a Designated Substance Survey (DSS) and then driving back to Ottawa.
While in Peterborough, I stayed at the Holiday Inn there that I had reserved with my personal information in order to get points on my holiday inn card. Because I had done that, I was registered under my priority points number and upon arrival was upgraded to a river-view room that should have been almost double the price of the room I had actually reserved. It was very nice and once I got a minute to check out the view, I was a little sad that I hadn't brought any of my personal photography equipment. I only had the crappy little cameras we use for work. They are incredibly beat up and don't take the nicest photos, but hopefully you will still get the point of the great view I had, even though it was late January.Please ignore the reflection of my hand and camera and the terrible glare from the sun - like I said, the work cameras are far from the standards of my normal equipment plus I was running behind schedule. Either way, it was a very nice room and I was rather impressed that I got bumped up so easily - go Holiday Inn Priority Club!!

Out of Town Again

Once again Dave has been sent out of town for work. He is going to be doing three waste audits and asbestos update surveys in Peterborough, Lindsay and Cobourg all of this upcoming week. While he is doing all these site visits he will be staying with his parents in Peterborough, which saves the company some money since we don't have to get a hotel room for the week (he will also get to pocket a few bucks as an incentive for doing this).
Unlike previous out of town work Dave has done for DST, it is not one of our bosses that has scheduled all this work for him - it was me. The waste audits he will be completing are part of my job for the ORC. The asbestos update surveys, also for the ORC, are not my project, but were kind of left under my watch while my boss is on paternity leave - well, at least the scheduling of this site visit was.
So, long story short, Dave will be out of town for a week leaving me to figure stuff out on my own. What will I do you ask? Well I have costumes to sew and a house to clean. I also have some free time for friends and catching up with the girls as Dave will be night work for the majority of the week and therefore will not really be available to talk that much either. All in all, not much will be different from when he is here, except I will be a little less happy, and lot more lonely.

Michigan Avenue

Michigan Avenue is the major north-south road in Chicago. It is home to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Magnificent Mile, Millennium Park and the Chicago Water Tower. It also happens to be the place I visited the most during my time in Chicago. This was mainly because it was the easiest place for me to get to as it was literally around the corner from the hotel. It also because Michigan Avenue happened to be incredibly photogenic. I really enjoyed walking the street and since it was populated at all hours, it seemed relatively safe even at night.

Chicago without the Net

I am currently in Chicago for a training course (Asbestos Fibre Counting). I am really enjoying it, more so since I can no do all the components of the course, but have found one flaw - this city has horrible Internet reception at hotels. You either have to pay an arm and a leg for Internet or you get it for free but it is constantly down. I have been able to log onto the net from my hotel for a total of approximately 3 hours. During which I have only been able to talk to Dave through Skype and check my emails a few times. That means that all the planned posts I had (unwritten and therefore not scheduled) were not possible. I will be posting regularly again once I return home, which is tomorrow night, though I am sure it will take me a day or two to get back into it the way I had been recently. For now, all my readers will need to enjoy my previous posts and the few scheduled posts I have, like my features. Thanks for your patience.

Leftovers de Montreal

This is just a couple additional Montreal items that aren't really enough for individual posts.

Dave and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on Renee-Levesque Blvd. It is right near China town but also right near some sketchy alleyways, which made for an odd dynamic. The Hotel itself was really nice. It was super clean and the people were really nice. Like most Holiday Inns, it had free hot breakfast in the morning which usually consisted of eggs, cinnamon buns, some sort of meat (it changed depending on the day) and then the typical breads, waffles, yogurts and cereals. There was also free coffee, and other hot beverages, available throughout the day. I booked our room not really knowing what I was getting, or what I was doing. I just picked the lowest price for a queen bed. In the end we got a really nice room. It had a little kitchenette in it which was really convenient since I ended up making us a microwave lasagna our first night and we were able to buy some fruit and water and keep it in the fridge. The bed was comfy and the TV had cable which was a nice treat for Dave and I. The view wasn't anything spectacular but it was nice, and the fact that we had an actual full door (though no terrace) was rather nice. All in all, it was a nice hotel and I would go there again. Though the valet parking was a little annoying as once we parked the car it was a little annoying to get it back shortly thereafter, though the attendants didn't make it seem like one.
A big feature of the Montreal skyline (well part of it) is Parc Olympique and the tower therein. You can go up the Tower and see the city from above, which would have been really nice, but when we first got there the sky was not nice and later on we were tired and didn't really want to go up. I think there is also some sort of museum at the base of the tower, but I am not sure as we didn't go in. I was able to take a bunch of photographs of the tower from both near the base and from the Botanical Gardens as well. I enjoyed that part for sure. We did however notice that the tower could do with some repairs. A few of the side panels had fallen off and/or were very damaged. It could also do with a fresh coat of paint, but I guess Montreal Tourism money goes elsewhere.
Montreal was great, and we will definitely be going back again - though we may use the transit to get around next time (at least on weekend nights) as the traffic was crazy!