Labor Day Weekend in Francophone Canada (lots of photos!)

August 29-September 2: Montreal & Quebec City
I had about 5 hours at home between my return from San Diego for CalSAE and our red-eye flight to Montreal for our extended Labor Day weekend trip. Fortunately, we had been upgraded to first class for the first part of the journey from Sac to DC, so we both got some sleep and then nodded off a bit more during the flight from DC to MTL. All was fine and on time with the travel, and we cleared customs very quickly.

We stayed at the Le Centre Sheraton Hotel in downtown Montreal, which was a perfect location for all of our activities and very close to the central train station. Our room was ready when we arrived, so we unpacked and checked out some of the hotel amenities before Mr. E took a nap and I did a YouTube zumba workout (our respective strategies for resetting our body clocks after overnight flights and transitioning through 3 time zones!).

The only specific activity on our agenda for Friday was to go to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to see the Thierry Mugler retrospective.

Both of us were enthralled by the fashions on display, in particular all of the unusual materials that the designer used in his creations.

The Museum also had an exhibition of emerging designers from Montreal, and seeing their works juxtaposed with Mugler's was an insightful way to show the evolution of contemporary fashion and design.

On Friday evening, we headed up to the Executive Lounge on the top floor, which had a wonderful view out over the city and plentiful snacks to provide us with dinner -- including smoked salmon -- yum!

We had booked tickets for a food tour in the Mile End neighborhood on Saturday, so I got up and did a swim workout in the nicely sized pool (with lap lanes on the bottom!) before we returned to the Lounge for breakfast. We lingered over coffee and then took the metro from downtown to reach the meeting point for our food tour, which provided a great overview and history of the city along with a number of tasty food stops -- falafel wrap (lentil salad for me), traditional Montreal bagels, artisan chocolate, gnocchi with a unique tomato sauce, and gelato or sorbetto to finish up. Our guide, Ronny, was both entertaining and informative and very helpful in accommodating my dietary needs.

Given the beautiful weather, we decided to walk the 2ish miles back to downtown, and we got to stroll through a street festival as well as other neighborhood areas. We were pretty full after the 3-hour food tour, so the snacks available at the Lounge were again sufficient for dinner (but no salmon tonight -- drat!).

On Sunday, we had to get going a bit earlier (after another swim workout for me) for our day trip to Quebec City, which we accomplished via the 3ish-hour train ride on Via Rail. The trip was very comfortable, and we once again had lovely weather -- sunny and 70s -- perfect! This was our first time visiting Quebec City, and it definitely lived up to my expectations as being very European and even more francophone (quebecois) than Montreal. We particularly enjoyed seeing the juxtapositions of older and newer architecture throughout the main tourist area in old town, beginning with the lovely train station and fountain in the park across the street.

Unbeknownst to us, the entire Labor Day weekend in Quebec (at least this year) is host to the Arc en Ciel (rainbow) festival, aka Pride. So once again, we got to stroll through a street festival and also see folks dressed in some fun outfits after the parade, which we unfortunately missed, although Mr. E did capture an image of a very cool cat...

Our first stop was the Observatoire, which provided a 360 degree view out over the city. This was a fabulous way to get oriented to the area, and we were especially delighted to see that one of the cities referenced on the western facing side is our very own Sacto!

We then continued with our walking tour, based on the suggested route in our Lonely Planet Guide. As we wandered down towards the harbor, we stumbled across a rather odd sight that turned out to be part of a summer public art exhibition. So of course then we had to modify our walking tour to visit as many of the other installations as possible!

In addition to these special public art pieces, we kept finding other cool creative urban sights, including murals and sculptures and interesting Quebecois residents...

Our final destination was the iconic Chateau Frontenac, which overlooks the river and the city, and where we lucked out on our timing to find seats in the bar area for some refreshing adult beverages. We then headed back to the train station for our Business Class return trip to Montreal, including dinner and unlimited drinks. Definitely a nice way to travel, especially at night, and we were right on time back to downtown Montreal around 9pm. The train station was only about 5 minutes from our hotel -- very convenient!

We had planned to walk up to the top of Mt. Royal on Monday morning before our early afternoon departure, but unfortunately, the beautiful weather took a turn for the worse, as we woke up to rain and mist. Darn! I did a Zumba workout in the room, and then we lingered in the Lounge over breakfast since we didn't have any other plans for the morning. We had a bit of an adventure when the power went out for a bit, but the elevators were working by the time we needed to go back to the room to finish packing and then leave for the airport.

With some extra time, we decided to check out the Air Canada lounge, which provided us with some nice snack options that provided our lunch. We had a lengthy layover in Denver as well, so we again took advantage of the United Lounge for drinks and food.

All of our travel went smoothly until... we got back to Sac and discovered that Odo (our car) was dead. Yikes! What happened?! Mr. E called AAA for service, but then we also realized that the airport might have its own support, since we couldn't have been the first people to have car issues. And sure enough, I was able to contact the Parking Services team, and within 20 minutes we had cured Odo and were on our way. Bleah to AAA for having such a long wait-time for service! I cancelled that request to avoid any charge, and we got home to the kitties just after 10pm, about an hour later than we had anticipated.

A great weekend overall (despite the car issue at the end), and now we'll know where we want to stay and what else we want to explore when we make a return trip to Quebec City!

Active August: Travel Updates

After a relatively quiet July, our August was very active! Mostly work-related travel for both Mr. E and me, although he did spend some time with family and friends as well, and we ended the month with a Labor Day long weekend visit to Montreal and Quebec (that's a different blog post... with pictures... coming soon!).

August 6-11: Mr. E to Chicago & Miami

Since I telecommute on Tuesdays, I was able to drop off Mr. E at the airport for his early afternoon flight to Chicago. He spent one night there and then headed south to Miami for several days for work before returning to Chicago for the weekend to see family and friends.

August 10-13: ASAE Conference in Columbus, OH

I drove myself to the airport on Saturday morning to meet up with my co-worker for the flight to Columbus for the ASAE Annual Meeting. Unfortunately, our connecting flight in Phoenix was delayed by almost 3 hours, but we made do with the temporary Escape Lounge to bide the time.

Mr. E and I both have a fond spot in our hearts for Columbus, as we took several trips there together back during grad school. And I proposed to him in that State Capitol building! We haven't been back for quite awhile, so I enjoyed getting to re-know the city and see all of the new development. The opening night reception was outdoors at the Science Museum, and the design feature different neighborhoods of Columbus each with their own unique food and drink offerings. Very clever and very fun, and I particularly appreciated the non-meat based offerings.

I unexpectedly ran into people I know from other organizations (GPA, NVPCA), which was a lovely surprise. And I also managed to connect up the very first night with A, formerly of ACU and a partner of CPCA, who is now working at ASAE. So great to see her and feel a connection to my "past life" in the health center world! I'm missing some of that right now...

All of our travel back to Sac was uneventful, and Mr. E picked me up on Tuesday evening at the airport since he had arrived home on Sunday night and found the car at the airport where I'd left it for him.

August 18-20: CalSAE AMC Retreat in Temecula

I had an early afternoon Sunday departure to San Diego with my boss for the AMC Retreat in Temecula, about 1 hour from the Ontario airport. The program was at the lovely South Coast Winery Resort & Spa, and the host venue put on a very good show for all of our guests.

On Sunday evening, I met up with A, J, and A at a restaurant in Old Town Temecula, and it was so wonderful to catch up on life with them and see how big A is growing. She's like a real little person now!

I had a beautiful swim in the large outdoor pool on Monday morning amidst the fog and slightly cloudy sky, and the Retreat began with lunch and continued through the afternoon. Our evening started with a tour and tasting of the nearby Carter Estate Winery and finished with an al fresco dinner on the elevated deck of the South Coast restaurant, overlooking the vineyards.

The retreat ended after lunch on Tuesday, so we headed back to the airport and spend our wait time in the Escape Lounge. I'm such a fan of these new airport lounges that are accessible to anyone for a small fee! Mr. E picked me up again at the airport in the evening.

August 28-29: CalSAE San Diego Member Forum & SoCal LevelUp

My co-worker B and I set off on Wednesday morning for the San Diego Member Forum, which was hosted by the San Diego Dental Society. The gathering was relatively small, but everyone who attended was very engaged and seemed to appreciate the facilitated discussion and networking opportunity.

We then drove about 90 minutes to the Newport Beach to the Renaissance hotel, where we stayed overnight in anticipation of our SoCal LevelUp event the next day. Our rooms were quite large and lovely -- top floor on the corners with great views in each direction and huge balconies. The proximity to the airport made things a bit noisy, however, when the floor-to-ceiling balcony doors were open!

The hotel offered a free airport shuttle, which was very convenient, so I was able to use that form of transportation since my co-worker was taking a later flight. I needed to be on the earlier flight in order to get home in time for our long weekend travel plans to Canada! More on that later...