Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Because I Know You're Dying to Know!

Well, we made it to Montreal and back again!
Thanks to a free flight from WestJet (since I share the same name as our newly-defeated Prime Minister), Mrs. Martin and I jetted off to Montreal for lunch yesterday.
“It was lovely, dahling!” he said, in his best Mr. Howell voice [hint: think Gilligan’s Island).
WestJet has some nice planes – leather seats, seat-back TV monitors with a cool link that tracks your current flight speed and altitude on a Google map.
“Let’s get this Boeing going,” said the Flight Attendant, who really should have had a job at Yuk Yuk’s or something. (For example: “In the event the cabin pressure should drop during the flight, $100 bills will drop from the overhead compartment.”) So, off we went.
I wish the cabin pressure had dropped.
The taxi to downtown from Dorval – Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport ("P.E.T." as the Quebecers call it in their humorous way... ask someone who speaks French) cost $35. Our particular driver did not speak English and I didn’t try to speak French – this was for the sake of National unity. We made it anyway.
Once in the old city we walked all over.
Is it just me, or is Montreal the quietest city on the planet. You could hear people speaking in normal conversational tones two blocks away! It was oppressive! I felt like we were in the movie Truman or something. Anyway, lots of nice old buildings.
We ate at a little spot called "a propos..." and it was! Perfect lunch – smoked salmon on bagel with cream cheese... don’t ask me to write it in French.
After lunch we walked up to Rue St. Catherine, then McGill University, then some other street that I don’t remember. We peeked into a few nice hotels like the Ritz Carlton... they were nice, but give me the Royal York downtown Toronto any day.
Dinner was the highlight.
Even though we were only one of two couples in the entire restaurant, I had the best pasta I have ever eaten in my whole life (with apologies to all of the nice people that have served me pasta in their homes before!!). I mean, I cannot even describe to you how wonderful this was. It made me wonder about food in heaven...
By this point, our legs were getting tired, so we stayed in the lobby of the hotel where the restaurant was and sat by the fire. A calm ending to the day. The nice fellow at the hotel flagged us a cab which ended up being a limo which was really nice. That ride went too fast! The driver even shared his chocolates with us – okay, that was a little odd.
We got to the airport, boarded, waited for a new flight plan due to the inclement weather, taxied to the de-icing spot, and turned around and went back to the airport. The drunk on the back of the plane had vomited all over and was causing a fuss. Pleasant! So, they brought in two security dudes, two paramedics, one cop and a clean up crew. Then we de-iced, re-fueled, re-taxied, took off and landed in Toronto exactly two hours late.
But who cares (besides JLF81 the babysitter).... I was with my bride! My most favoritest person in the world.
Such is the life of the jet-set crowd!

P.S. Clicking on the pictures will give you a better viewing... except for the one with me in it!

11 comments:

  1. LOL. Hilarious! You gotta send that that synopsis to WESTJET, Paul.

    Glad you enjoyed your time in Montreal (although Calgary woulda been better).

    One correction. I believe it was Thurston Howell III you were impersonating, not Colin Powell.

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  2. Glad to hear you had a good time. My apologies for holding up the plane - I'm a nervous flyer. ;)

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  3. SpudMan - D'oh! You're right! How could I confuse that? Good old Thurston... I might go back and edit my post out of respect... and leave your comment so you get all the credit!! Next time (next time?! - PM is retiring!) it is Calgary!

    Tim - It is good of you to confess this event publicly. I didn't want to say anything, but I guess people would have figured out the whole thing once they noticed how quickly your live-blogging of our day stopped. Hope the night in the clink did you some good?

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  4. Meh... what do I care? I was reading Dever and blogging... stay away and let me read your books anytime! :)

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  5. "Hope the night in the clink did you some good?"

    It always does! Except for when those French guys started beating me with a hose.

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  6. Glad you both had a great time. I have two qestions. First, were you able to drop off any 'million dollar bills'(well I guess they are in english so Im not sure how they would have 'panned out')? and second, jlf81..which books did you read? :-) Great pics and story, isnt it wonderful when food makes you think of Heaven and our Creator..He is so good!!!

    Twin#2

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  7. Correction #2: It is "Truman Show" not just "Truman"!!!!!

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  8. "First, were you able to drop off any 'million dollar bills'"

    Des bills d'un million dollars?

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  9. Twins,
    Actually had une bill de million in my sweaty palm (along with two twenties!) to give to the first cab driver... until he began muttering away in his broken French about some palais du justice.
    I decided to keep the tract and try it on someone else, but alas, it is still in my wallet!

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  10. batman,
    Of course it was Truman Show.


    (A purposely vague comment that does not admit of error while not sounding too self-defensive.)

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  11. Twin 2:

    I was reading the Deliberate Church. I only got through the first half of it, though, because I didn't get to start reading till the kids were in bed.

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