Montreal - Where to Stay

After spending last Friday at the Vermont Brewers Fest Tom and I had plans to head to Montreal for Saturday and Sunday. I am going to do a few different types of posts here split up into eats, activities, and stay. Let's start with where we stayed!

It was up to me to choose where we'd be staying for our one night in Montreal and I was feeling the pressure! I looked at TONS of hotels. Most were pretty typical, nice -- but nothing too special. I was *thisclose* to booking us a stay at a Marriott or a similar chain when I decided to take one last look at Trip Advisor. And there I stumbled upon Petite Auberge Les Bons Matins. I knew right away this was where I wanted to stay.

From their website: Les Bons Matins offers one of the most modern decor and all suites are completely equipped. In each of the luxurious suites you will find a central bar, full kitchen, Jacuzzi, wifi access and a terrace.

And to top it off, the prices were comparable to most regular rooms in the hotels I'd been looking at, plus this included breakfast and cheap on-site parking. Woo hoo! I went ahead and booked us Suite 605 before it got swooped up by someone else. 

The B&B is located just a hill away from downtown Montreal. The hotel is actually converted townhouses, and it felt like we were moving into a little street in suburban Montreal. We walked into a quirky and airy reception room, where were kindly greeted and brought out to our suite. The room was just wonderful. At over 600 square feet our private porch led us into the huge bathroom, equipped with a huge two-person jacuzzi. From the bathroom we walked into the bedroom which starred a fluffy four-poster bed and flat screen TV. You enter the living room through a large open doorway and are greeted by a (real!) fireplace, small kitchen area, and big windows. The walls of the suite were lined with beautifully bright paintings and the decor felt equally homey, cozy and luxurious. That's a tough mix to pull off! You could tell that each piece of furniture was chosen for its individuality and brought something comforting and warm to the room. It's hard to explain, but I wish I could decorate my own apartment this way!

There were just a few things I was nervous about regarding the room: the noise and the temperature. I like to sleep in freezing temperatures and knew a B&B would likely not have individual temperature controls in the room. I have to say I was more than comfortable. Maybe it was the big soft bed, but I slept pretty well and felt cool throughout the night. As for the noise, I didn't hear anything. Maybe we just got lucky in our room or the other visitors that weekend were quiet, but I had no complaints.

Our reservation included breakfast on Sunday morning and we made a reservation for 10 am (the latest you could choose). The dining area was so lovely -- it was sunny, bright and I felt like I was sitting in a small French bistro. We were given orange juice and coffee and had a choice of starting with a waffle or french toast, both served with passion-fruit creme. For the main course we had a choice of several egg dishes. I picked some simple scrambled eggs with bacon and fruit. Tom went with the vegetable omelette. For an included breakfast, everything was surprisingly very delicious.

Needless to say I was so pleased with our choice to stay at Les Bons Matins and highly recommend it. Not only does it offer a beautiful, unique, and romantic environment, it is also extremely close to a subway station and to downtown Montreal (less than 10 minute walk). I hope we have another opportunity to visit! 

Updates

Ugh. My half marathon training is a mess. For the past 7 weeks I have been exercising at least 3 times a week, but am usually only running once or twice. I just can't get in a groove, and this half marathon is quickly approaching (10 weeks away). The fact that I'm still struggling through a 3 mile run is just discouraging.

One of my main problems is that I've been going away almost every weekend of the summer. I can't get myself to run when I'm on vacation, and then I end up going 3 days without exercising and my run on Monday feels crappy. This has basically been the epitome of the last 7 weeks. I know that I NEED to be running 3 times a week in order to get back into running shape, so why can't I just do it? I guess I can just try to take it one week at a time. Here's the schedule for this week:

Monday: Gymnastics class (2 hours)
Tuesday: Run (3 miles)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Run (6 miles)
Friday: Run (2 miles)
Saturday: Rest (in DC)
Sunday: Rest (in DC)

I'm a little nervous about gymnastics tonight because I'm still having a little neck pain. My plan is to just take advil and be careful. I really don't want to hurt myself but I want to go.

Oh, and an update on the diet coke challenge. Since I started it on July 23 I've had one diet pepsi! Woo hoo! I haven't even really been craving it which is super surprising. Hopefully I don't jinx myself now...

And an update on my 26 books of 2012 goal: I just finished book #19, Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Ugh, this was so hard to get through and took me so long to read. I just was not interested in it from the start. Thankfully I finally got through it and have moved onto #20, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This book has some SERIOUS reviews. I'm excited about it!

Gymnastics

I forgot to press publish on this post last Friday, but I don't feel like editing it so here it is!
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Happy Friday! My work day is over but I wanted to get this written before the weekend started.

Last night I made some overnight oats, which I haven't had in a LONG time. Into the tupperware went oats, vanilla almond milk, chia seeds, peanut butter, and honey. Sooo delicious.

For lunch I had some mac n' cheese that I made last night. I mixed a whole bunch of peas and spinach into it to get some nutrition in there. I also had a big bag of these amazing snap peas.

So, back to last night! I mentioned I was doing something exciting so I hope the anticipation wasn't too much to handle (haha). After a 10+ year hiatus, I went back to gymnastics!! After doing some research I found a gym at MIT that offers adult classes to community members for a fee. Because I'm 1,000,000% out of gymnastics shape, I decided to take a beginners class even though it was recommended for people who have NEVER done gymnastics before.

I was so nervous about this all week! I think I mentioned this before, but back in the day I was quite the gymnast. I started competing at age 4 and made it up to level 9 (USGA) before calling it quits. At one point I ranked 4th overall and 2nd in beam and floor in NY state. Pretty bad-ass huh? Gymnastics was such a HUGE part of my life for so long -- it was such a part of my indentty and I believe played a huge role in shaping me into the person I am. Gymnastics taught me discipline, commitment, tolerance, persistence and that working hard will get you far. As a child I learned so many valuable lessons from the sport. Unfortunately gymnastics wasn't all good for me. As I got older the pressure of the sport became too much for me and started to make me physically sick. I decided to quit after a state meet gone wrong where I completely choked in my routines and ended the day with a migraine and sick stomach. Not good. I quit when I was 13 or 14 and never looked back. I never once missed competing.

Recently though, I had started to get this itch to get back into the gym. I think part of it had to do with the fact that I was curious about crossfit. Crossfit workouts remind me so much of smaller versions of gymnastics strength days (our strength days lasted 4 hours as opposed to 30 minute crossfit workouts!) and I think started making me a little nostalgic. So that brings me to now. I decided to take the class and last night I walked over to MIT after work ready (kind of) to get back in the gym!


The class:
There were about 10 people in the class -- all ages, sizes and both men & women. Some people had done gymnastics before but most were beginners. I was definitely the only one (besides the coach) who had competed before though. We started with some splits and bridges. My splits are pathetic!! Seriously need to work on those. I was pretty surprised at the flexibility I still had in my back. My bridges weren't too bad and soon I was kicking over and doing "tick-tocks". We also did forward rolls and dives, backward rolls, cartwheels, handstands and strength (push-ups, crunches etc). The class lasted just under two hours.


The aftermath:
I am seriously feeling it today. My neck hurt immediately after the class and is not feeling much better today. As the day progressed, more and more of my muscles started hurting. As I'm sitting here my thighs, hips, abs, all parts of my arms, back, shoulders and neck are hurting.

But it was all worth it! I'm super excited to go back and am hoping to go to another class on Monday!

Lavender

More than halfway through Thursday woo hoo! I am so tired this week for some reason. I'm seriously looking forward to just sleeping in on Sunday.

Last night after work I went to the mall to look for some workout stuff but left empty handed. I then met Tom at Whole Foods for some much needed food shopping. Since it was late we decided to hit up the prepared food. I have no control with the Whole Foods salad bar.

Today has been pretty easy. Nothing too crazy happening at work. I did receive two surprise boxes filled with nice plants as a thank you from one of our portfolio organizations! They sent me this pretty (and awesome smelling) lavender plant and sent my boss a gardenia bonsai tree. I made quite the mess opening them up.

For lunch I got some sushi from the food court. This was a "rock and roll" roll that had spicy tuna, seaweed, cucumber, avocado and tobiko. Yumm! I also got miso soup on the side.

I'm doing something exciting tonight!! Eeek I'm so nervous. I shall write about it tomorrow. Adios!

Breakfast for Dinner

Hello there, happy Tuesday!

Last night I got home from work around 7 and had a 3 mile run on the agenda. When I walked outside it just felt like it was about to start storming like crazy, so I went back upstairs and grabbed my gym badge so I could run on the treadmill. I have no clue why there is no A/C in my gym, but once again I was sweating like an animal. It actually made it fairly difficult to run at times because sweat was dripping into my eyes -- not fun for my contacts! I did get to watch most of an episode of Fear Factor while I was running though. They had to dive into a pool of cow's blood, search for a giant cow heart, shove it in their partner's mouth who then had to spit it into a big container. WTF?? Why do people go on this show? I had to stop myself from gagging a few times.

When I got home I was drawn immediately to the jar of pickles in my cabinet (probably from all the salt I sweated out). I also was digging some breakfast for dinner -- I cooked up two eggs and served them open-faced on toast with ketchup and hot sauce, with a bunch of purple grapes on the side.

I was up late again watching Downton Abbey! This is bad. The episodes are sooo long! But i love that Mr. Bates -- he is such a cutie but I want to strangle the person that's messing with him (I'm on episode 1 of season 2)!! I think the next show I'm going to watch is Newsroom. I haven't seen anything about it but people keep mentioning it to me.

This morning I had the usual cheerios and a banana for breakfast and am about to go out for lunch and get a salad. Yesterday I had Chinese food for lunch and realized that I didn't eat one vegetable or fruit the entire day (until dinner when I had grapes, I don't really count pickles as vegetables). So weird! Definitely planning to stock up on those veggies today.

I'm going to the gym straight from work for some cardio and then to trivia! I've been studying up on olympic history in order to prepare like a huge nerd.

Oh yea, I signed up for Foodie Pen Pals today! I'm super excited and am brainstorming lots of fun Boston treats I could send around. Yay!

Return of the Diet Coke Challenge

Okay, so...that Diet Coke Challenge I attempted to follow back in January. Miserable failure. So I'm back at it!

Why, you ask. I stumbled upon this article. All I can do is try again, right?

The Challenge:
Drink 1 diet soda or less per week for four weeks (July 23-August 23).

Simple. Here we gooo!

Vermont Brewers Festival

I had such a fun weekend! Once again I'm expereinceing all of the symptoms of the post-vacation blues. Guess that means I've just gotta start planning the next one!

On Friday Tom picked me up from work around noon and we were on our way to Burlington, VT! A while back we bought tickets for the Vermont Brewers Festival and planned to spend the night with Tom's friends who live in Burlington. He picked us up some delicious sandwiches from Flour Bakery -- the grilled roast chicken with brie, arugula, roasted red peppers and caramelized onions for me. He also made sure to grab some of Flour's famous sticky buns. These buns were featured on BOTH Throwdown with Bobby Flay and The Best Thing I Ever Ate -- how have I not tried these yet??

We arrived in Burlington around 5, freshened up and headed over to the Festival! The Festival featured mostly breweries from Vermont and a few special "invited guests" from other states and Canada. Upon entering each person was given a very cute glass and 15 drink tickets. 

On the car ride up I attempted to strategize a plan of attack, but ended up just deciding to get beers only from breweries I had not heard of (or tried) before.

With about 50 tents set up along Waterfront Park overlooking Lake Champlain, the location of the festival was just gorgeous. I've only been to indoor beer fests and this one really took the cake on location. The weather was perfect for being outside at night and while there were lots of people at the festival it never felt overcrowded. 

Towards the end of the night we were able to watch the sun set over the lake -- it was really stunning and I can see why people continue to return to this festival year after year.

As for the beer, it was fantastic as expected. The brewers were so friendly and the pours were generous. Some of the most memorable beers I had were collaborations, particularly Captain Jack's Scurvy Syrum (collaboration between Kingdom Brewing and Vermont Beer Company, special recipe of smoked malt and fresh spruce) and Juhlia (collaboration between Zero Gravity Craft Brewery & Earth Bread and Brewery, Finnish rustic beer brewed with juniper and fermented with bread yeast). I probably tried over 40 beers -- including tastes of Tom's choices -- and wish I could remember them all, but unfortunately my memory faded  with every beer I tried. Oh yea! I really should have bought some lottery tickets because apparently it was my lucky night. In a span of 10 minutes I found $30 and 8 extra beer tickets on the ground. Go me!

Of course every beer festival needs some food to go with it. About halfway through I heard that there was a jerky tent and I may a beeline for it. Say hello to the lovely Mr. & Mrs. Jerky.

Can this be my job?? Tom and I picked out a bunch of different jerky and I was in heaven. I LOVE jerky and have considered paying over $100 to get some biltong (a type of jerky) shipped from South Africa!

As we were leaving the festival around 9:30 a food truck selling Thelma's Bread Dough caught Tom's eye. Bacon and cheddar wrapped in fried dough? Yes please.

The rest of the night was pretty blurry! We went to a bar (the name of which I don't know) and then headed back to Amanda and Andrew's for some late night pizza and finally, sleep! I love Burlington and am so happy we got to visit in the summer. Yay Vermont Brewers Fest!

Short Friday

I'm off to Vermont in a few but wanted to give a quick update!

Last night after work I went to a meeting where the speaker (a career coach) gave a presentation about finding the career that most fits your strengths, passions and values. It freaked me out a little bit because I've been having major career anxiety lately. I'll go into that more when I have some time.

After the meeting I went to the Red Sox-White Sox game with my roommate! We sat right behind home plate which was very cool.

While there I ordered my signature chicken fingers and french fries with a pool of mixed condiments. I am such a freak. I mixed ketchup, honey mustard, hot sauce and barbecue sauce in there.

My roommie ordered a sausage. Isn't she cute?

The game was pretty boring until the last inning where the Red Sox took the game with a 3 run homer at the last second. I'm not a fan of the Sox  but you can't help but get excited in moments like those.

I got home around 11 and got ready for my little weekend trip today. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! T-minus 5 minutes!

P.S. I redid the look of my blog yesterday and added some pages to the top. If anyone reads this and has an opinion on the new look let me know :)

Fro-yo for Dinner

I can't even look at my last post without my mouth watering for oysters...Mr. TKO you have created a monster!!

I caaaan't wait for tomorrow to come! I'm heading out of work early to go to the Vermont Brewers Festival in Burlington and then spending a night in Montreal. Ahh! I can't wait!!

But back to today. Random thought: I am SO happy I don't have a car. Will I ever want one again? I feel like I've been hearing so much lately about people needing to get work done on their cars...maybe I will never move out of the city. According to some website I read yesterday Boston is the #1 place to raise a family which I don't really understand, but I'll take it.

Last night I had to stay at work fairly late which was fine by me because of the crazy storm happening outside. I had a 5 mile run on the menu for the night and was feeling very nervous about having to run it on the treadmill. There wasn't a chance in hell I was going on a run with a "tornado warning" in the vicinity. I got to the gym around 7:30 and hopped on a 'mill for a 5 minute warm-up. About an hour later I was done, and ya know what, it wasn't too bad. I ran the first 2.5 miles pretty quickly and felt myself rapidly dying out. I decided to slow down and then run the rest with a 2/3 minute run, 1 minute walk cycle. It worked out really well and the time flew by. It helped that I was watching Big Bang Theory -- I'm pretty good at reading closed captions while running, who knew!? I was finished at the gym around 8:45 and really hungry for dinner. I was SOOO hot though that I couldn't even imagine going into my kitchen and cooking something. I was legit dripping sweat off every part of my body by the time I left the gym. Apparently I sweat like a beast when I run inside but not much outside...anyone else?

So between the heat and the sweat fro-yo was screaming my name. I'm an adult, I'll eat ice cream for dinner if I want to!

I decided to go to this new place down the street called YoBerry. I thought YoBerry was self serve but instead you pay a certain price for a sized cup, then $1 for unlimited toppings. Sounds good to me! I went with a cookies & cream and salty caramel pretzel (yes you read that correctly) swirl with about 4 different toppings. The staff puts it together for you which was giving me anxiety ("how are they going to give me enough gummy bears!?!"). I didn't put on nearly as many toppings as I would have if I was doing it myself which is probably for the best. Forgot to take a picture until I was halfway through...woops! 

By the way, those gummy bears were BOMB. They tasted like tropical starbursts! Also, random fact: my roommates and I were considering moving into an apartment that is in the same building as the fro-yo place. I would literally have been eating it every.single.day.

When I got home I showered and passed out after watching about 3 minutes of Downton Abbey. Guess I was tired?

This morning I woke up feeling good. I started off the day with my normal cheerios and milk + some fruit that I stole from a work meeting earlier in the week. 

Can I please have someone cut me melon and pineapple every week?? Pretty please??

Lunch was also stolen from the work meeting: this AMAZING quinoa salad + chicken + some lettuce I added in. 

Oh, and more fruit, obviously.

The meeting had Tremont 647 cater and everything was so delicious. I packed up a giant tray to take home with me to eat for the rest of the week. I've never been to 647 but I definitely want to try out Taco Tuesday there. Or maybe restaurant week?

Now I'm cruising through the day at work, can't believe it's almost 2:30. Tonight I have a meeting at 5:30 then I'm going to the Red Sox game. Woo woo!

[Almost] Wordless Wednesday

Hii! It's already Wednesday woo hoo! Here is a nearly wordless Wednesday weekend update! Does that count as a tongue twister?

Peek of healthiness in the midst of an indulgent weekend

Baked rigatoni from Eastern Standard. mmmmm.

List of Oysters from Legal Harborside

Oysters!

Harpoon Brewery Tour

XL Wianno oysters -- splenda packet for comparison!!

Museum of Science - Science Social

Another healthy bit -- that's dark chocolate covered edamame mixed into the nuts

More Science Social