Pre-Cottage 2009

We head to Long Point, Lake Erie today after work. It is an annual thing now, us visiting Chris' cottage and it is a holiday I start counting down to as soon as we get out of the driveway after the trip. Every year, we pack up the car (though the first year we rented a vehicle) and make the 8 hour drive after everyone is done work. We land in Paris and then head to the cottage the next day. Previously, we have stayed until the holiday Monday and then made the drive back without Chris as she stays longer with her family, but this year we will be staying an extra two glorious days as per Jerrica's suggestion.
Another sort of tradition is the addition of one person each year. The first year it was just Dave and I and then the second year we brought Jerrica with us. This year, we are bringing Justin with us. We will be picking him up along the way and he will spend the 5 days at the cottage with us, it's very exciting.
Today we will be leaving work early unlike previous years, and picking everyone up then heading out of town, hopefully before the traffic picks up, it is a long weekend though so it is pretty unlikely that we will miss the traffic jams altogether.

Wild Wing

Dave and I went with our co-workers to Wild Wing a week and a half ago. They boast the best chicken wings and have 101 flavours (or something equally ridiculous). Dave got a wing sampler (20 wings in 4 different flavours) while I 'chickened' out and got fish and chips (I also just wasn't in the mode for wings). He was extremely pleased with the wings and wanted to go again soon.We went again yesterday evening and we were both very satisfied once again. We both got wing samplers and I ventured out of my comfort zone and got some 'different' flavours. I did however, get two of my favourites, honey garlic and mild, but also got salt and vinegar (chip) flavour and lemon pepper flavour. The latter was my least favourite as it was simply far to lemony but the salt and vinegar was surprisingly delicious! Of course the honey garlic and mild wings were both scrumptious, but that is to be expected. I was very pleased with my dinner and didn't come close to eating all of them so now I have leftover wings for later on. If you are a fan of wings, I strongly suggest you go and try out Wild Wings - you won't be disappointed.

Fear

Fear is a funny thing. Put in a fearful situation, some people freeze right up while others get so full of adrenaline that they are able to do the wildest things. I am afraid of some pretty normal things, come to think of it, I don't think there is anything that I am afraid of that the 'normal person' is not.

Things I am afraid of (in no particular order):

• sharks;
• vast amounts of natural water (large lakes, oceans, etc);
• being completely and utterly alone in the world (not being the last person on earth, though that would qualify, but more like having no one who loves me or who is there for me, etc);
• the dark;
• the unknown;
• extreme heights (everyday heights do not scare me, but abnormally high things do, like St. Paul's Cathedral or the CN Tower);
  
• scary/horror movies; and
  
• drastic change.

There are others, but I cannot think of them right now, so they can't scare me too much - or they scare me so much that I choose not to even allow myself to think of them right now. The thing that usually gets me more scared than anything else, is me. My imagination can get the better of me and that is why I find horror movies so scary. It usually isn't the movie itself but rather my imagination afterward.

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!

Botanical Gardens

So I have been saving one of the best locations for last. I partially saved it for last because it is the place where I took the most photographs and therefore had the greatest amount of editing to be done.The Botanical Gardens was absolutely gorgeous. It was a slightly rainy day, but that didn't hinder the photography or the experience at all. The foliage within the greenhouses were vibrant and beautiful and despite the fact that you are not allowed tripods within the greenhouses (for space reasons) I was still able to get some nice shots. Dave and I were also able to set the camera up on rocks and take some semi-long exposure shots. There weren't very many people there, so that helped with the longer shots as well.I think one of the more interesting greenhouses was the ones with the bonsai and the Chinese equivalent, penjing. There was a little robin in the one area that I thought was fake. I stared at the little guy and moved my camera near him and he did not move. We walked on and when we did walk back, he had moved to a new location and was wandering around the little trees. It was very spooky, but he was adorable so I forgave him for it.We eventually found our way out of the greenhouses and walked around the exterior gardens. They were just as nice and they were in extreme humidity so both Dave and I were able to stop sweating so much and my camera was able to stop fogging up every ten minutes or so. We walked around the 'normal' gardens and found our way over to the Chinese exterior gardens. They were simply breathtaking in their beauty. Dave asked me to take as many shots as possible of the architecture around the gardens and I did not object. I'm not entirely sure what my favourite shot is from that garden, but I am putting these ones on this blog and I am sure the rest will eventually make their way on to my photography blog in the near future.We then walked over to the Insectarium which is located on the garden grounds. It is a small little pavilion similar to those at the Toronto Zoo, and is absolutely stuffed with one man's collection which he donated to the gardens. They have since added to it and are displaying live insects as well, but the majority of it apparently all belonged to one man whose name I forget right now. There were some really neat looking bugs on display, both alive and dead, and some absolutely massive ones! It was pretty neat, though I hope I never run into the vast majority of that collection in the wild.