atwater market

I always find that after any sort of vacation, short or long, it takes me a few days to get back into our routine at home. To top it all off this mini-vacation ended with the passing of our dear fur companion Boo so it’s been even more of a challenge this week.

So lets talk about Montreal! Neil and I went up a few weeks ago for his half marathon but we spent most of our time traveling there, at the race expo or at the race so we were unable to explore the city.  This fall was our first trip since October of 2010 due to immigration (Neil getting his greencard) and pregnancy.  Fact: Neil and I ran off to Montreal after only 3 days of dating (hmm..maybe I’ll share our crazy love story someday). Crazy, I know but it just felt right and here we are 6 years later happily married with a beautiful baby girl.

Anyways we decided to find a place to rent in Montreal on airbnb.com (our new love since having a baby, my second -formally first love- is hotwire). We found a nice little place that one of Neil’s co-workers had actually stayed at in the Plateau area of Montreal.  It was the perfect location because it was 5 blocks from our favorite restaurant Aux Vivres and only a few blocks from two metro stops.

This time we decided to head up on Saturday morning rather than Friday evening and Neil took Monday off so we had three wonderful days to enjoy the city. We started off Saturday with a stop at the Atwater Market to check out the stalls and get a bite to eat. Neil and I ended up picking up some beautiful Brussels sprouts, mushrooms and garlic to use over the weekend and we shared a yummy tofu satay sandwich.

Edie hung out all bundled up in my poncho.

After shopping E had some lunch of her own and then we headed to the apartment.  Unfortunately it took us 35 minutes to drive 4 miles due to some horrible traffic and E let us know she wasn’t a fan of the traffic either.

Once we arrived and unpacked at the apartment we headed out for a walk.  We stopped at a few stores and hoped to stop for a beer at Dieu Du Ciel but when we arrived there it was packed and baby + pack brew pub = no go.  So instead we headed back to the apartment where I fed E and Neil headed out to the beer store to pick up a few Quebec brews for us to try.

Once E was in bed and Neil was back from the store we ordered take out from Aux Vivres.  Unfortunately by the time it arrived we were both too hungry to bother taking photos.  We ordered the Kosmos plate and the cold plate and they were both new to us and absolutely delicious.

After dinner we shared a beer and played a few rounds of cribbage before heading to bed.

Stay tuned for part two!