Cass World

My cousin Mark got married on July 31st in Montreal, Quebec and me, my sister Deb and my brother Ken flew down for the weekend.

The day started really early with my alarm clock set for 3:00 AM. I was already up though, as usual. Got showered and dressed and packed my last-minute crap into my suitcase. Ken and Deb had just pulled up at 4:10am and we were off to Park & Jet. This was our first experience with P&J but everything turned out and we got a great parking spot, right at the front!

Got to the airport and checked-in with Air Canada. We already had our boarding passes since I got up early the day before and checked us in on the web, so we just needed to get our bags tagged.

We got something to eat at Tim Horton’s and then headed for security. Although it’s been 6 years since I worked as a preboard screener at the Calgary Airport, I still saw several people that I used to work with. Nothing much has changed, they all still have major attitudes and think they have this God-like power over you so I gave them some attitude right back  Little miss bitch didn’t like my attitude but there was nothing she could do about it, I know what and how to pack so that they don’t have any reason to bother me

With just over an hour and a half to kill before our plane boards, Ken watches a movie on his netbook while Deb and I go for a stroll and find things to laugh about.

The flight was OK, we got there safe and sound which is what is important. Deb and I got a good laugh when she asked for a blanket and pillow. Apparently they are no longer free (cost $3!) and they actually managed to be worse than the free stuff.

The flight attendant handed Deb a plastic bag, which she then opened. She pulled the blanket out (it’s more like a sheet than a blanket, really) and a pillow case and was left to wonder where the pillow was. We were laughing about how she just paid $3 and only got a blanket when I looked closer at the bag. It had a little thing on it like a blow-up ball or pool has on it, to close it up after you blew into it. I pointed it out to Deb and we laughed even harder when we realized that the bag was the pillow! LOL!

Do it yourself pillow…that’s why I love Air Canada

We landed, got our bags and rental car and then we headed straight to….Lafleur’s!

We were all very hungry since we didn’t get anything on the plane! We got 2 steamers each, a fry and a drink.

It was all so delicious!! I had forgotten how wonderful the cabbage on the hot dogs was!

After inhaling our lunch in a matter of minutes, we headed for the hotel, the Wyndham Montreal Airport Hotel. I was so not impressed with this hotel! I wrote a quick review on TripAdvisor,which you can find here

After settling in, we headed off to explore a little of Montreal.  It’s been about 10 years since we had last visited and boy have things changed. The thing I noticed the most is how much graffiti there is now!

An old motor lodge that we used to drive by all the time on the way to Gran’s…it’s now boarded up with graffiti all over it

We drove around LaSalle where I grew up and it really affected me after we saw our old place. I started balling my eyes out as we drove places that brought back memories of my mom and dad. This was the first trip back where both my parents were no longer with us and it was just hard for me.

Eventually we made it to Mama Mia’s, a place where Deb used to get her favourite pizza from. She enjoyed it but I didn’t care for it at all. Back to the hotel for some pool time. The only good part about the hotel was the pool. We would be in the open ended part and huge jets would take off right in front of us! Ken went to bed but Deb and I stayed in the pool and hot tub for a couple of hours.

By the time we got back to the room I was starving. We ended up ordering pizza and a sub from Restaurant Tevere on Dorval Ave. This turned out to be the BEST meal the whole trip!

The pizza was amazing!!! Exactly how I remember Montreal pizza to be but with less toppings. Then we ate the sub and OMG!!!  We didn’t know what to eat first, both were so damn good. We totally pigged out LOL!  I haven’t eaten that much food in one sitting in a very long time hahaha.

We woke up the next day, got ready for the day and headed downtown. Both Kira and Dani needed new Crocs and there was a Crocs store on St. Catherine. First up though was breakfast…hot dogs and fries!

We ate at Green Spot, a place we used to go with our dad as kids but the restaurant had moved across the street and we almost ate Chinese Food instead

Here is the new-ish Green Spot (by new, I mean 20 years lol)

And here is our breakfast

We tried some toasties this morning but we all preferred the steamies. The fries were a little weird and a tad bit undercooked. Not as good as we had hoped it would be.

We headed downtown,  parked in Alexis Nihon Plaza and walked up St. Catherine till we found the Croc store. It sure was depressing walking around, it was dirty and gross, not how I remember it at all.

Even the escalators had graffiti on them!

I remember playing in this little gazebo when I was young.

Today was the day that the Iphone 4 came out in Canada, can you tell? LOL

We found the Croc store and bought our girls some new Crocs and some Jibbitz too. We didn’t feel like walking around anymore so we decided to go see a movie. We saw Inception at the Scotiabank Theatre and although it was good, I didn’t care for the ending.

We were a little hungry so we walked down a bit further to Dunn’s.

Sounds crazy but I’ve had better smoked meat sandwiches in Calgary LOL! The fries were yummy though but the service sucked!

We decided to take the Metro back to Atwater. It had been over 20 years since I was on the Metro and nothing has changed, not even the smell

Back to the hotel and back in the pool. We really enjoyed watching the planes from the pool!

We ended up ordering another pizza later that night from Tevere’s again. It wasn’t nearly as good as the night before, sadly, but it was still good!

The next day we got showered and ready and went our for breakfast….can you guess?

Yup, hot dogs and fries at La Belle Province!

The fries here were amazing, best ones of the whole trip! We met up with our cousins and friend and started chatting. Before we knew it, it was almost time for the wedding and we still had to get ready LOL! Good thing I showered that morning!

All dolled up with a place to go…back to LaSalle for Mark & Sarah’s wedding.

It was nice to see the family again but at the same time it was sad because my parents weren’t there.

A couple funny things…turns out the church they got married in, well, I had been in it before, many times actually. I went to catholic school in Lasalle and this is the church where we went all the time with my school and where my friends had their first communion!

The other funny thing,  I went to school with the maid of honour, Andrea! As soon as I saw Sarah’s parents walk her down the aisle, I knew that the bride was Andrea’s sister. In fact, not only did we go to school together but we were pretty good friends. I remember going to birthday parties at her house and I have photos of her at my bday parties Small world eh?

My cous, aunt and uncle.

Sarah walking down the aisle with her parents

Andrea, the girl I went to school with, is to the left of Sarah, the bride.

After the ceremony, we headed to the reception hall. We got to chat with all our family and we had the best table, thanks for our cousin Kim!

It was nice to catch up with all our cousins. It had been so long since we all had seen each other. On the other hand, it was pretty sad because this was the first time we had seen most of the family since my dad passed away. It was weird and hard to see his brothers and sisters and not have him around.

Around midnight I was getting pretty tired and I was pretty sore from sitting all evening so Ken and I said our good-byes while Deb stayed to party a little longer

It was a beautiful wedding and Mark and Sarah looked really happy!

We stopped at La Belle Province because we were craving some subs, unfortunately these subs were horrible! They had this disgusting sauce all over them and we couldn’t finish them

The next morning, I woke up pretty early as Deb was praying to the porcelain Gods for several hours. Guess she partied a little too much!

After making sure she was OK, I got showered and dressed and met up with Ken. We wanted to bring home some egg rolls so we drove over to Pavillion Wong and ordered 60 egg rolls LOL!

They smelled so good we couldn’t even wait to get back to the hotel to start eating them LOL!

In hindsight, we should have ordered 60 each, they were soooo good!

We got a late check-out so Deb could rest a little more and then we packed up and went to Restaurant Tevere for lunch. It was pretty good but still not as good as that first night.

After stopping to get gas and Lotto Max tickets, we returned the rental car and checked in for our flight.

At this point, I really was missing home, I just wanted to be back with Rob and Kira. I even was done with the food, instead of grabbing a smoker like I had planned, I went to Tim Horton’s and got a yogurt LOL!

Thankfully, the plane wasn’t full and we were able to grab some seats at the window so Deb could have the whole row to rest in. I watched a couple of movies and finally got home around 8:30 pm.

Rob was DJing so I wouldn’t be able to see him until later but Heather was sweet enough to bring Kira to our house so that I could see her when I got home! Poor pumpkin got bowled over by the dogs because they were so excited to see me too but she was OK after a big hug and a snack LOL.  She absolutely loved her new Crocs and she wore them for 5 straight days

Rob got home a little early which was nice and we cuddled and fell asleep together.

It was soooo good to be home again