Last Monday we packed our bags and headed North, for a quick visit so he could meet his potential employer. We decided fairly last minute when we would be leaving, so Monday morning I was poking around on the internet looking at hotels, and Nate suggested priceline.com's "Name Your Own Price" offer. Now you have to understand something- overall I am not too much into "luxury" things. If you gave me a gift certificate for a day spa, I wouldn't know what to do with it. But I do like a nice hotel room. My inner cheapskate (who pretty much runs my financial life) won't allow anything above Motel 6 on a regular basis, but I figured, hey, why not try this name your own price thing? So I said that I wanted to stay in a 3-star hotel for $60 a night, thinking nothing would come of it.
And then priceline told me that they would put us here for $60 a night [normally $140!!], and I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.
Then I found out it had an indoor heated pool.
We started packing:
This is The Chicken in her carrying case.We left around 2, I believe, and stopped several times along the way (little Chickens will do that to your driving habits, you know.) Nate and I both got hungry someplace in the wastelands of upstate New York (why is New York the only state I've ever heard of with an "up" part? No one talks about "upstate" Pennsylvania...), so I talked Nate into pulling off at an exit that advertised Food. Once we had exited, the signs happily announced food in either direction- only 4 miles! Ha. We drove for a little while and came to a... "town"? Does a small collection of houses, all asleep for the night, and one or two random industrial facilities comprise a Town? There was no McDonalds in sight, and in the true spirit of roadtrip joviality, I pestered my husband for a few minutes about the impossibility of an American community subsisting without a McDonalds, and how surely, there must be one... just around the next corner... after all, the signs DID promise food. He didn't share my optimism, however, so eventually we decided to return to the interstate and keep trucking. Note to self: 2 1/2 hours of Route 87 in NY have very little in the way of "facilities." Be prepared!
Eventually dinner was at Friendly's in Plattsburgh, NY, home of SUNY Plattsburgh, the usual assortment of chain retail facilities one finds in a college town, and not much else. Nate and I chowed down on some tasty hamburgers and ice cream, while Madelaine enjoyed a spoon (and the adoring attention of our waitress):
We crossed the Canadian border without incident and arrived in Quebec: home of seagulls, old snow, and hard-to-interpret pictorial road signs. We decided the picture of an open tin can and the judge's hammer coming down could only mean one thing: Tin cans must remain FIRMLY SEALED at all times in Quebec.Upon arriving in Montreal, we promptly got lost. EXCUSE ME. My husband has never gotten... uh... The L Word. Rather, he was "exploring in a creative and nonlinear fashion an alternatively distanced route to our destination." We did get the chance to drive through a very nice suburb with some brick houses of varying architectural styles, which was the only non-downtown area I got to see while in the city. Upon arriving at our hotel, we were greeted by valet parking, warm chocolate chip cookies, and THESE fabulous looking beds:
And, yes- they were as comfortable as they look!
The next morning, Nate's potential employer picked him up so as to go visit the research center and things, and I stayed with the Chicken. The first order of business of the day was to find some Food- at home I normally eat breakfast first thing, but we didn't want to try to bring food across the border (too many rules! too much hassle to figure out!) So we had nothing in our room (except coffee; a blessing). The room service breakfasts were insanely expensive (disadvantage of Fancy Hotel: they assume you can afford to buy breakfast and thus don't serve free donuts in the lobby), so I decided to go downstairs to the restaurant to see if there was something little I could get "to go" back to my room. With the baby I realized it would be easier to just sit at a table, though, so I ended up ordering a lovely delicious breakfast that cost quite more than I'd care to think. Thankfully during this time, the baby's morning poop did NOT leak out of her diaper- because I'd left her diaper bag in our room, and I do not know how I would have coped with a blowout in such a fancy/ non-child-oriented area. (Everyone else there was a French-speaking adult in trendy clothes.)
After brunch we returned to our room, and the Chicken nursed to sleep for a nap while I tidied up a bit and checked out some local TV and a magazine featuring Montreal attractions. Right away I scoped out the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Free admission! On the same street as our hotel! (though a mile or two away). When Nate came back, he agreed we could go, so we set off to find the Metro station for a short subway trip. This turned out to be (to me) one of the most intimidating parts of the visit. I'm so glad Nate was with me. I don't know about you, but to me, learning to navigate public transportation in a new city is usually a mildly stressful event (and this is true even after using the systems in Chicago, Atlanta, DC, Houston, New York, etc.) But learning to use the public transit system when all the signs are in another language ranks up there as a Very Difficult Event, for me anyway. We were in the main Metro system downtown, and I think there was more than one train system going through the building (maybe longer distance commuter trains as well as local subway trains?). Also, the whole thing wasn't handicap accessible, and we had Madelaine's big stroller to wrestle around. Eventually we bought two tickets from a man at a booth, wrangled our way through some turnstiles, and boarded the correct train. We eventually arrived at the museum fairly late in the day, just about an hour before closing, but still had a nice time poking around the second floor of (what I think was) the smaller of the two buildings:
(The other building, across the street, with the bookstore, which we also visited)
(The other building, across the street, with the bookstore, which we also visited)Here's Madelaine (on her 8 month birthday), enjoying her first museum visit:
Okay, it's getting late, so I'd better wrap this entry up. Hmmm... we ate dinner at a quirky little place near our hotel advertising an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet for 7.99; the buffet turned out to be rather meager, but the menu also featured fillet mignon. It had more than the usual sense of "atmosphere," too (or I guess the term I'm looking for is "ambience":
After dinner we bought some lovely pastries at the bakery next door. The next morning, we checked out and left for home.A few more pictures for your enjoyment:
The view from our hotel room
If we end up moving here, it will be quite the adventure.
Love, Neb
2 comments:
Nate's commentary....
I knew there was no McDonalds even when I exited. I was humoring you.
The chicken played with a spoon at Friendly's, but she spent a good deal of time with the pictured straw. I also remember she was quite frigid.
In the Montreal area I wasn't lost. I knew my direction, route number, and where I was on the map even though you were the one holding it. (Lost technically means not knowing where you are; not knowing how to get where you want to be is more akin to confusion and sometimes called Boston.) The highway signs up there are about as good as in New Jersey, so it's rough to follow them. When I figured out what was wrong and decided to turn around, I happened to pick the only exit that went on and off only one side of the highway. I fixed that mistake by going back onto the highway in order to get the next exit, and I was successful... after missing several stop signs and missing the poorly marked on-ramp once or twice.
Still later a similar thing happened again, although getting back was less in my control and the exit only occurred because of the poorly translated hotel directions. From there I was was finally on the detailed map and I was prepared to cross the canal and take surface streets to downtown except for a particular someone telling me all about my last mistake and how I really should go back to the highway and follow the directions that I thought I had followed. That person knows who she is, and knows that she was too scared to try driving there herself :)
Does Houston currently have a functioning public transportation system? In other words, has the "___ days since a collision between a car and light rail" sign ever made double digits? Busses that don't go anywhere useful don't count.
Hey! The non-stop buses to Downtown work quite well!
As for the train... I think it has actually reached double digits now. At least it's gone to double digits before the news brings it up. :P
Kat from Texas
Post a Comment