Wedding, Montreal trip, gets mistaken of living in the boonies, sushi, food, ice-cream, Danforth, dog walking... yup that's pretty much my summer so far.

So at the beginning of July, I went to a wedding for a friend of Hunnie and his brother. I would say it was like a fusion with western and asian. The banquet hall that was really nice. The food...not as much. Some photos I took:



I really liked how the curtains were set up.



Not very much and not very interesting. I didn't really enjoy the wedding, but on another note: I did win the centre piece lol I gave it to the other couple sitting at th table though, since I wasn't sure where I was going to put it. One very annoying thing I find with asian weddings is that a LOT of people like to arrive fashionably late. Cocktails and whatnot starts at 5PM, dinner at 6PM. Half showed up on time, the others, not for another 2 hours. Argh!!

Right after the wedding, Hunnie and I had to race back home and pack for the Montreal trip with my family. We left the wedding at around 11PM, zipped home and was on our way at about 2AM. Crazy, but my mom really wanted to go. lol Sadly, I did not take a picture of my makeshift bed for the ride. Hunnie and I claimed the back to ourselves and I placed blankets and pillows nicely with suitcases barricading us in. When I showed my masterpiece to Hunnie, he gave me a very weird look but it was oh so comfortable.

The purpose of the trip was to go visit my great great great(?) aunt in Saint Sauveur Quebec. At first when I googled up the place, I was disappointed that she was out in the country so I thought there wasn't going to be much excitement but gladly, I was wrong. Saint Sauveur is a tourist attraction, especially during the winter season as there were many of mountains/ hills to ski on. In the summer, there were plenty of other outdoor attractions to check out.

Arriving at around 7AM and trying to find her place.










I felt like I was in toy town seeing those traffic lights. lol

My ggg aunt owns a teppanyaki style restaurant and the food and sushi she makes is mmm mmm mmm...


The sign



The salad she made was pretty good. The dressing had a creaminess to it but a tad on the salty side.


I was hoping for miso



The tuna sashimi was so yummy and the colour was very nice and red. She thought we couldn't handle sushi. Hehehe boy was she wrong.



My ggg uncle making the food for us.

Very fresh scallops. I love them and I'm usually not that big on it.


He also cooked us up some and was about to throw in some salmon and others when we stopped him. Too much food. Too too too much food. We were all fully stuffed.

The decor:







They have an outside patio as well.


Looking down the street.




Hunner peace!! lol


They were discussing about french words and speaking in a heavy french accent. Think Simpsons. lol



Since ggg aunt and uncle's house is too small to accommodate all of us, we rented a motel right up the street. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of it. But never fear! Google Map is here to help!

Motel le Joulibourg
I ♥ Google Map. I really do.


Pretty red house and one of many hills to ski on. Scenery from the motel.

To our surprise; when I browsed through the tourist brochure, there is a shopping outlet not far where we were staying. Now here's my double fail:

The first you can clearly see with the route we took with the red line(click for bigger image)


Fail number 2 was that I thought the day was a Monday when in fact it was a Sunday, so evrything close at 5PM. Monday hours is from 10AM - 6PM. We left at 5:30PM. Yes my two fails.

What I love about this area is that it gives a chalet feel. All commercial buildings are built in a chalet style that makes it such a cute and different environment to be around.



We spent the evening walking along the small street and at the town centre; I think, there was a live show and horse drawn carriage. I really wanted to take a ride in it but Hunnie didn't. Booo



One of the many restaurants along the street.




Picking out our gelato and then sitting out to watch the small traffic. The shop is very cute and the shop owner was very nice. Only 'Comme Ci, Comme Ça' english though, as she put it.
'



Pretty macaroon display

Another part of the trip was the Buddhist Temple that was very hard to find. There's really not much I can talk about it since there was so much to see and lots of walking. Good thing we went early morning so it was as hot as later on in the afternoon. Lots of pictures to see:


My dad happily walks without his cane, thinking that it was just going to be a short walk. Boy was he wrong.


She is very very big.



The entrance



Did I mention this was up in the mountains?























Family pic =)










Start to a very long climb



The statue at the top. We were told it was supposed to be the lying buddha. Nope, not this one. Now the long trek back down.




And that is where the lying buddha is.









This temple was very confusing to find as our navigator kept on telling us: 'no worries, as long as you see a lake on the left side, we're going the right way.'

I forgot to bring along the battery charger for my camera so I really wanted to make the best of it. In the end, I didn't really get much pictures of the trip except for the first day. The day after, my ggg aunt and uncle took us a tour around downtown Montreal. Due to the large size, we went in two cars. He took us to every corner of downtown.

Now here's my rant: is shopping that great there? I don't really think so. They seem to have repeats of stores. One block I will see H&M, Mexx, GAP, a block later I will see another Mexx. Price wise, they all seem to be pretty much the same as Toronto. But then I am not much of a shopper so you really don't have to take my word for it.

One thing I really hate is the street. At one point, we weren't sure if it's two lans or one big lane. At one point there were lines to separate and then they disappeared. Most used it as one big lane and then some people started butting in to use it as two. In Montreal, it wasn't too bad that we didn't speak french but out in some parts in Saint Sauveur, a lady refused to talk to us because we spoke english to her. Really? And its a tourist town too. She was the only problem we came across so it didn't really dampen our mood.

End Part 1 of Summer

Labels: dining, fun, life