I love Canada?

No, seriously... I love Canada?? Who knew? I guess I never gave it much thought... and my little brother (read: a 28 year old) always referred to it as "America's hat" so it never occurred to me that I might enjoy being in its presence so much. A few birthdays ago I managed to ruin a surprise Ron planned and forced him to go to Montreal with me. Luckily, it was awesome, so he wasn't too mad at me for completely destroying the surprise dinner & party he had planned for me back in New York... oops.

So seriously. Here's Canada... in this order: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto. BLOG UP FIRST: MONTREALLLLL!!!! LET'S GIVE A BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR MONTREAL! wait, what. ok, here:

Le Bremner

Last time we were in Montreal we came across a hidden restaurant called Garde Mange... which we were denied access to! Being the obsessive cool restaurant seeker that I am, I demanded that they let us in this time... to which they politely declined. Hmm. We had to "settle" for the sister restaurant, Le Bremner, which was indeed not settling at all, but was beyond our expectations. A few cocktails & a lobster flatbread in, we were decidedly hooked. We were so stuffed that we COULDN'T FINISH OUR BOTTLE OF WINE. So, I asked them to cork it & hung my head in shame for the walk back to the hotel.

During our day off before the Montreal show, Rp and I wandered around Old Montreal sweating our faces off (Canada gets hot?) & stumbled upon a diner employed by Canadian hipsters that served us grilled cheese: Le Gros Jambon! YES, PLEASE.

So, at this point, I'm pretty happy, but my traveling companion can't take the heat. To make us both happy we scooted down to the waterfront, went into the museum of science and discovery and watched an IMAX about polar bears (in French). Oh, right and we also found this old crazy factory and made up ghost stories about it.

bottled coke @ Le Gros Jambon

Le Gros Jambon

Georgia AND Virginia being represented in a diner in Montreal

haunted factory

and finally, my Lulu Belle of the River walking around Montreal

Ottawa, Toronto, and the live show photos will have to wait... now I must eat! Van call is in an hour and 20 minutes and my clothes are less than organized. 

Off I go!