trip to Montreal

Casey and I took a week off work last month and headed back to the heartland for a few days. I spent some time in Madison, which was great. I saw a lot of people, returned to the beautiful Wisconsin river, played with kittens and puppies and babies (well, just one, and he was actually sleeping), went to Noah's Ark (finally!), ate at the Weary Traveler and The Old Fashioned (in the same day!), and rocked the trivia (wearing my Gloria Vanderbuilt jeans right now! symbol=swan. We didn't actually win at trivia because of some grave underestimations in the worth of the Snapple company (apparently a lot more than $15 million). Turns out the ol' Reed College liberal arts education has a few cracks in it.) Unfortunately, I was having so much fun, I didn't return home with any pictures!

We were a little more diligent with pictures in Montreal, where we went to Annia's wedding.

It was great seeing all sorts of high school friends I hadn't seen in years. Casey and I also had the chance to explore Montreal some, and we had a great time. I recommend Montreal for vacationing, it's really easy to get around (there are even bikes as part of the public transportation) and there is plenty to do.

The first day we were there, it was raining, so we headed up to the world famous biodome. It was originally part of an Olympic building, and like many cities, Montreal has to figure out what to do with the crappy Olympic buildings dotting the landscape). Some of the olympic buildings are still actually used for athletics. Here's me in front of one of them:

The biodome had 5 ecosystems, some of them related to Canada and Montreal. Here is the St. Lawrence ecosystem. This beaver made a beeline right towards me and Casey.

Then flipped around and swam away.
This little guy was cute!

This bobcat just sat there and looked mad.
Here's Casey in his natural habitat.
We then went to the botanical gardens next door. They were huge and really nice. They even had a huge decorative produce garden that Casey liked. Here we are in the Chinese gardens.
Finishing the Borscht course at Annia's polish wedding.

We actually left the wedding before midnight to take the Metro home. The band was still there. It was shameful, but I was drunk and tired and we had to fly home early the next morning (which was miserable, as always).

All in all though, Montreal was a great time!