Chuck and I went to Montreal on Thursday and Friday. Our flight was out of Toronto at 9:30 on Thursday morning. It was a nice, peaceful flight with no screaming kids or crotchety adults. It was a quick, 46 minutes in nice smooth and calm weather. Here I am, proudly showing off the shoe that fell out of my carry-on during our flight.

The Fall colours were a bit further along in Montreal than here in Niagara:

We touched down in Montreal right on schedule. Our plan was to check in at the hotel, then walk over to the bank where we would be having a lunch with some folks Chuck knows.
We stayed in the Queen Elizabeth the last time we were in Montreal. I was quite happy to be back as it was a very nice hotel, right downtown. Here is the view from our room on the 18th floor:

The walk over to the bank was not overly pleasant, as it was quite cold and windy. Fortunately, it was only about 10 minutes away. The lunch went very well – the company was excellent! What a super nice group of people. They informed us of the best shopping spots and some potential restaurants for dinner. I wish I could have taken them shopping with me after lunch. I don’t think they’re boss would have been too impressed with them taking off for the rest of the afternoon, although, he would have been welcome to join us too! Everyone seemed to really enjoy their meal. I’m not a big soup person but that’s what I ordered to try and warm up my innards. I’m still dealing with some pretty bad dehydration, as the MS symptom I’ve been experiencing for the last week has not allowed me to keep in any fluids. I started to crash pretty bad part way through our lunch outing. I was really feeling out of it by the end. After we bid our lovely lunch guest adieu, Chuck and I headed over to the underground mall. It was too nippy to wander around outside. At this point, I was feeling so exhausted and had a really bad headache, so shopping wasn’t all that appealing to me. We still wandered around for a couple hours, but hardly went into any stores. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a Tim Horton’s and I slugged back a large coffee. Once up in our room, Chuck asked me to think of what I wanted for dinner, as he took a nap. I laid there for almost an hour, trying to figure out what I was craving. I was feeling pretty lousy at this point, and the thought of going out to a restaurant wasn’t high on my priority list. the only thing I was actually craving at this point was crackers. I was thinking of how thrilled Chuck would be when he woke up and I told him I wanted to go buy a box of crackers for dinner! We decided to go up one floor to the lounge, to check it out and ponder about where we would go to eat. Apparently the 18th and 19th floors are “special” and they have access to the lounge, which has snacks and drinks available throughout the day. When we got up there, it was like the angels descended down upon me. At the serving table, there it was – a basket full of assorted crackers. A single tear ran down my cheek as I looked up at Chuck. Similarly, he had the same feelings when he looked at the plate next to the basket, which contained large blocks of assorted cheeses. Yes, we were in Heaven. They also had little mini tuna fish sandwiches, sliced bread, fruit, pickles and shots of yogurt. Dinner was served – and with a great view:

Yogurt is one of my favourite foods, so that combined with the crackers was just fine with me. Actually, I had about three of the little yogurt shots, which were in shot glasses. They were so good – I became quite sad when the staff personage came in and said she was taking the food away and would soon bring in the desserts. I begged her not to take the remaining shots away, and out of pity, she allowed them to remain. I’m sure she was quite happy to see that none of them went to waste!:

After our lavish meal, I wandered over to the internet computer to email my little mother. After that, Chuck went online and I picked a book out of the lounge library to read. It was called The Bachelor’s Cat and I read it in about half an hour. After Chuck finished whatever he was doing online, we headed back to the room to call it a night. We were shocked at the height of the bed. We simultaneously made a comment about my mother. We agreed that there was no way she would ever be able to get up on the bed. Chuck took a picture of me demonstrating how my mother would look trying to climb up on the bed:

I think we both slept well. For breakfast, we headed back up to the lounge for another session of free gnashing. I ate a bunch of yummy strawberries and some yogurt, while Chuck had some pastries, cheese, eggs and French toast. After breakfast, he headed out for a meeting. I stayed in the room, listening to my music and reading my book. It was so relaxing! He came back a few hours later and we headed back out to the underground shopping. We went in quite a few stores, but didn’t end up making any purchases. Here I am in Lucky Brand Jeans:
Here’s Chuck waving at his “fans”:

We eventually went outside and down Saint Catherine Street, where most of the shops are. Again, we went in plenty of stores, but all I bought were some sport bras and Chuck bought a Reuben sandwich from Reuben’s Deli. He got it to go as it was time to head back to the airport for our 5:45 flight. The cab ride to the airport was dreadful. It was gridlock – start and stop, cutting in and out – I felt extremely car sick by the end of the drive. At the airport, Chuck sat and ate the sandwich while I wandered into a few stores, trying to distract myself from the nausea. There was quite a long line up for security. When we got up to the front of the line, the officer made the announcement about having to separate your mascara, gels, etc. I loudly told Chuck that he forgot to put his mascara in a separate bag! His hair gel too! It caused a few smiles, for a second anyway.
Our plane was about 20 minutes late, but another good flight. We made it back home safely just before 9:00 pm. It was great to see the kitties and they seemed equally happy to see us (well, me anyway!)
So that was our wonderful trip to Montreal! I think if I was feeling better, the trip would have been perfect!
Today’s symptoms: I’m very drained from the trip – it was well worth it though! I’m glad I’ll be seeing my doctor on Monday to see if she can help me with this MS related bladder issue.
Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/17/2009 7:54 PM