Montreal



As we arrived at our hotel and looked overhead, we saw swimmers in the glass bottom pool. It was then that I knew Greg made a perfect choice when booking the Westin downtown - location and amenities were spot on.

Our first adventure was to find a little restaurant Greg had visited before, DaEmma, which had a limited menu written nightly on a chalkboard. You can imagine our disappointment when we found it was closed. Not to be deterred, we walked around a bit, went down an alley that Greg "had a feeling about", and stumbled across a quaint little place, Boccata. Amazing choice.

We shared a bottle of french wine and had the most wonderful pleasure of being told the story of the wine's origin and type of wine we were drinking. We shared four small plates - smoky paprika tomato soup, burrata cheese with mushrooms and bread, veal with lentils and parmesan shavings, and scallops with a grapefruit infused risotto. Wow! Boccato's exceeded our expectations. Old world charm, warm fire, post and beam ceiling, menu delivered in the pages of a book and the check was a bookmarker. Simply spectacular dining.

 

Ventured over to a late night spot playing the best mashups. A couple more drinks to top off our evening along with great old school music and we were two happy tourists.

Saturday morning would be filled with little activities as we wandered this beautiful city. Our morning began with a quick trip to Difference cafe for what has been described as a perfect non-touristy place to get a great cup of coffee. With cup in hand, we made our way into the subway with Mont Royal as our first destination for bagels, which apparently is a big deal here. I ordered the Omertà, which I found fitting in light of the recent cycling doping scandals. Full from breakfast, we tried to burn some of our morning food by wandering around this very eclectic part of Montreal.

Hopped back on the Metro toward Little Italy for the Montreal version of the west side market. Bought a neat little cookbook in French - a souvenier, if you will, from our trip. I like the challenge of translating while cooking. The market was full of baked goods, delicious looking fruits, meats, cheeses, and spices.  We enjoyed a delicious cookie while wandering in and out of little stands and stumbled onto a spice shop where we walked away with smoky paprika, cumin and this new spice Zataar, which we sampled in the store. They sprinkled it on popcorn, which gave us the idea to try it on fries when we get home. I'll use the paprika to recreate the amazing tomato soup we had last night. The smoky flavor really made a simple dish like tomato soup come alive.

Later in the afternoon we ventured out to Saint Catherine Ouest, a Mecca for shopping. Before heading there, I had to try this highly recommended coffee shop for a latte. From a blog I had read about coffee places in Montreal, the Pikolo Espresso Bar was noted as full of passion and respect for the latte drink. Seriously? After my first sip, I would have to agree it was worth the trip. The place had a cool, industrial vibe to it and I found watching the barista pretty make a pour the drinks as an art form.

Saint Catherine's was an incredibly long stretch of commercialization. The only positive was that I was able to get in my steps and Nike fuel points from all the walking (7.5 miles for the day at this point).  Greg and I grumbled for a while because we guestimated we had walked more than 7 miles at that point based on the number of steps registered as well as our incredibly tired, aching feet.  But the darn Fuel Band had yet to make goal.  Are you kidding me? At our next stop (a bar for wine, of course), Greg researched and found out the Nike Fuel Band has an accelerometer that registers wrist activity to take into account sports like basketball.  The article he read stated that you gained more points for eating a pizza than walking up a set of stairs.  Ok, we felt a little better then. Since I had walked all day with my hands in my pockets due to the cold, it made sense that I had a low points total since I had no wrist movement. 

To cap off our last night in Montreal, we found a wonderful pizza joint where the food almost rivaled the kick ass tunes spun by the DJ.  I couldn't believe how each song was better than the last and bled right into the next.  I could have sat there all evening with a glass of whatever and just chilled and people watched.  A late night walk around Notre Dame Cathedral made the trip even better.  Thank you, Montreal, for  a wonderful weekend!

Overnighter in Detroit

I have passed through Detroit before, but this past Friday was my first time to stay overnight. Greg needed one more night to reach a certain hotel status, so he challenged us to find a location within a 2-hour driving radius that would be interesting, kid-friendly and fun. Enter Detroit. We stayed at the Westin Cadillac Downtown and it was fantastic. Cool, modern vibe. Very clean. Incredible hospitality. We had dinner reservations at Michael Symon's Roast and it did not disappoint. Meg had a wonderful salmon dish. Greg enjoyed the Beast of the Day. I had Pork Shank Confit. Miss Bridget enjoyed their finest buttered plain pasta. We all shared a side of brussel sprouts that were possibly the best I have ever had.

After dinner, and with very full bellies, we had a pajama party while watching Hotel Transylvania. I told Meg I'd love to see this movie again...and this time, I promise to keep my eyes open!

The next morning, we found a great little breakfast spot - the Hudson Cafe. They are famous around downtown Detroit for their red velvet pancakes. Since every year I celebrate with red velvet cupcakes for my birthday, Greg knew this place would make me happy. And let me tell you, those pancakes were delish! Greg had graham cracker crusted french toast (mmm!), Megan had monkey pancakes filled with bananas and caramel, and B had a very special and gigantic Mickey Mouse pancake. We were all thrilled. The food and service was outstanding. A must place to visit if you're ever in Detroit!

The little trips with family make such wonderful memories!

Fort Collins and Laramie

Fort Collins, Colorado may be my favorite weekend getaway spot. I can't say enough good things about this wonderful town! We arrived Thursday afternoon and thought we'd check out Old Town for a lunch spot. As soon as we arrived, we found out that we were 10 minutes away from the start a Reading Flash Mob. So much fun - we grabbed a free book (which we got to take home), popped a squat around the fountain, and read for 15 minutes. Simple enough. So I found a great little Meg Cabot paperback for Bridget and read aloud to her. A photographer from the Coloradian even took our picture. Unfortunately, another picture made it's way into the newspaper the next morning...but we still had great fun!


Headed over to Coopersmith's brewery off the main square and I had the most delicious vegetarian burrito and a great ale.
Settled into the hotel, scouted around the town, then dinner at Uncle's Pizza where B slept on my lap would round out nicely our first day in Fort Collins. 

Friday began with a trip to Firehouse Books for B to get a Fancy Nancy book and to pose in front of Ladybug Girl picture. If you remember, we dressed as Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy for our Albuquerque 10k costume race in 2010. Firehouse Books is also interesting because the gentleman who designed Disneyland's Old Town Main Square used this building as well as Fort Collins as his basis for style and design.


After we drug B out of the bookstore, we headed over to Fort Collins Bike Library and rented fixie bikes so we could enjoy Fort Collins on 2-wheels. We somehow managed to pile on 12 miles with those little legs of B's. We stopped at Cheba Hut on the Colorado State University campus for yummy subs where Greg told me the meaning of 420. What rock have I been under all these years? And George, quit laughing!


After completing all those exhausting miles on a bike with no gears, we decided we needed a beer. Off to New Belgium Brewery we pedaled! The tour was all booked up, but we got lucky when someone didn't show up and got in to the tour within 15 minutes of arriving. Awesome tour with great samples of Abbey Ale and my new favorite, Shift beer in a can. I have seriously become a fan of this brewery.

Since B was such a sport, we then treated her to ice cream at the uber expensive Walrus ice cream store. Greg is still in shock with the $9 price tag for 3 small cones! But the girl earned her ice cream today!

Dinner was at Rio Grande, a mexican restaurant. After an hour wait, we ravaged the chips and salsa like we hadn't been fed in 5 days! I inhaled so much salsa that I was barely hungry enough to enjoy my spinach enchiladas. And poor B was almost asleep from her exhausting day and long restaurant wait. Time to go home, set the alarm and get ready to run!

The drive to Laramie on Saturday was interesting. We both commented on how beautiful the West is when driving. We even saw a gazelle running! Race was simply fantastic (except for the searing lungs) and can be read here. 

I had emailed the race director requesting breakfast spot recommendations and she really delivered. At her request, we tried out Turtle Rock coffee for great coffee and delicious breakfast sandwiches. Greg got the chorizo, eggs and potato wrap and I got the peanut butter crunch wrap with PB, granola, bananas and drizzled honey. Mmmm! I'll definitely try to make this sandwich again at home!

After the race at Bridget's request, we went back to Firehouse Books for another Fancy Nancy book. And at Greg's request, we headed over to Odell's brewery for some sampling. Talk about luck. Instead of a brewery tour, we got there just in time to enjoy Wendy Woo performing while enjoying so many wonderful beverages! Since it was now raining outside, a brewery with a band was a perfect place to plant ourselves.
 

Fort Collins was fantastic and very kid-friendly. We were a little nervous at first wondering if we'd have enough to do over the 3 days, but nicely filled the units. The food, entertainment and people are some of the best we've found in our travels. We couldn't believe our luck in stumbling across a reading flash mob. We loved our time at all three breweries. And, most of all, I loved that we got to enjoy family time on 2-wheels. 

Can't wait for the next adventure!