Montreal - A Mix of Old and New

I was born on Groundhog Day in 1977. 40 years later and my Dad is taking me on a tour of Montreal. We came in yesterday and have a hotel near the Bell Centre. The plan is to go to two Montreal Canadiens Games on Saturday and Sunday which meant we had Friday free for some sightseeing. We started with a short cab ride to the Notre Dame Basilica. It was originally constructed between 1824 and 1829 though it has gone through many additions, renovations and repairs since that time.

Dad and I spent much of our time admiring the craftsmanship that was required to build it. I stopped for a speaking tour and a young kid asked how much it would cost to build. I already knew the answer was 'we don't really know'. So much labour went into the original work that it would be impossible to price it in today's dollars. The most intriguing thing to me was the fact that the floor sloped towards the alter yet the way they built things you can hardly tell. It's only when you compare a person standing at the front to one at the back that you clearly see the difference. All before computer aided design.

After we finished admiring the church we went on a walking tour of Old Montreal. Living in BC you're only exposed to architecture back until the late 1800's. Montreal takes us back a few more centuries. The buildings are a mixture of ages and some look like they've been heavily modified over the years. One of the buildings appeared to originally be all rough stone work before adding a new fascade and brick work to add on additional stories. Most buildings also had to be heavily supported as the walls started to bow outwards. Fun to see what construction looked like hundreds of years ago.

Also in old Montreal was the present day city hall. Built in the late 1800's we were able to go inside and see where they hold council meetings. We also took some time to check out the court house. The front door was about 25 feet tall and made of steel. With very few windows and thick stone walls I feel it was actually built to handle the zombie apocalypse or some other event where high ranking officials need a safe place to go.

Our final destination was the old Montreal Forum. Unfortunately neither me nor my Dad ever got to see a game played here. It was closed in 1996 and turned into a movie theater and shopping mall. I don't think it's coincidence that Montreal hasn't won a cup since. They've destroyed a sacred hockey location. They did try to keep some things in place. There is an atrium area with a museum to the Habs and you can see the original roof beams as well as the approximate location of centre ice. Maybe this will be the year the Habs christen the Bell Centre with a cup.

Turning 40 in Harrison Hot Springs

This year is a fairly significant birthday for me as I turn 40 despite only feeling 39. My Dad is taking me to Montreal over my birthday weekend so the family had to find another time to celebrate. They surprised me with a trip to Harrison Hot Springs two weeks before. Harrison is quite close to us and we talk about going there often. Kerry let me know that we were doing something but wouldn't give me any details. I didn't expect an overnight trip and had no idea until we got in the car and started driving. Once we passed the Abbotsford Zoo and I saw that Pooh bear was coming with us I knew we were going someplace overnight.

It is February so swimming in the lake was out of the question however we stayed at the Harrison Hotel which includes three pools fed by the hot springs. The springs themselves are around 140 degrees Fahrenheit but they add cold water and the pools are closer to 102 to 106. It was a bit chilly in the outdoor pools but the indoor pools were excellent. The pools are quite old now however they've maintained them very well. The only drawback during the weekend was that the pools were open to 11:30p so it was pretty loud after 10:00p. Other than that it was a great birthday surprise.

A White Christmas

This Christmas was fairly typical for us. It started with our new tradition of searching for our Christmas tree. We don't quite have a traditional location yet. We got our first tree from the same place we get our pumpkins. We got our second tree from our local nursery and this year we got our tree from a farm near the pumpkin patch. It looks like a great location, with gentle sloping hills full of trees and the trees are very nicely. Unfortunately it has a 'No Dogs Allowed' rule so I don't think we'll go there next year.

Once we had our tree it was time to decorate it. Callie had pulled out our old artificial tree so we actually had two trees up. She wanted to do the old tree with home made decorations. She started with popcorn and we added some paper lanterns as well as some Japanese lanterns from the garden. We also decided it would be a good idea to decorate with some emoji's which are simple pictures people use while texting. Callie picked several smiley face and puppy emoji's but Carter decided he wanted to use the poo emoji. It was fun finding out some people still think it's just a picture of ice cream.

We also took our annual trip to the Vancouver Christmas Market. Ordinarily we go with Barb and Reg but they wanted to stay behind and look after the dogs so it was just the family. They moved the market this year down to Jack Poole plaza which is located on the water near Canada place. There were a few significant differences from previous years. There was a lot more room which almost had a negative effect since it didn't seem as cozy. It also didn't seem to include a reduced cost ticket to Flyin' Over Canada. We've gone the past few years to that because it includes a piece where you fly over the North Pole. Maybe next year.

This year we got a special treat of snow during the holidays. The first flakes came down in mid December and it remained through the new year. I can't quite say we had a white Christmas since it didn't snow on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day however we got a great snowfall on New Years Eve. It snowed about 20 cm and I was out in the evening before midnight shoveling. The snow stuck to everything and with our LED Christmas lights it was a very peaceful evening in the snow.

Oliver's First Snowfall

We've had about 30cm of snow over the past week and Oliver got to experience his first snowfall. He reacted as most dogs I've had have reacted in the past. He is very confused with the white stuff covering all of his normal scents and he tries to uncover everything with his nose. There was already about 3 cm when I let him for the first time and it was hard to get him back inside. He sniffed and ran around the entire time.

When Callie came home there was even more snow and the two of them had great fun running around in the back yard. Oliver was due for a hair cut and long hair on dogs that don't shed is very good at collecting snow. By the time he was ready to come back in he had snow balls all over his feet. Luckily we have a hot tub and a very quick dunk of his feet had him clean and ready for a towel. The snow is still around on December 21st. If it gets cold again soon we might have snow on the ground for Oliver's first Christmas.

Las Vegas

In November I got the chance to go to a conference for work. The conference was related to one of the software vendors we use for designing changes to our electrical system including dams, substations and transmission lines. Now that I've explained what the conference was about I should probably mention that it was in Las Vegas. It may seem odd to have a work conference in a location like Las Vegas but it actually makes a lot of sense. In the off season there is a lot of hotel space and they have some excellent conference facilities.

My room was a bit over the top however it was in the hotel where the conference was and it was a very good deal. It seems all the rooms in the Palazzo are laid out like this. It was definitely nice enough to want to bring the family back at some time since they've offered me a 3 nights for the price of 2 deal for a future visit. The room had two levels with a full living room area. The bathroom had both a shower and a tub and even had a makeup area separate from the double sink.  Definitely more room than I needed but I wasn't complaining.

The hotel is relatively new to the Las Vegas strip so everything was very well thought out. The  pool area was amazing and was a string of five or six pools on the fourth floor roof. It was November so it was only about 20 degrees at the peak of the day but the hot tub was warm enough for me to spend a bit of time in. It was obvious I came from the north since I was the only one out there. Apparently 20 degrees just isn't warm enough for people in Las Vegas. 

The conference was a great learning opportunity for the work items I was there for and it was also fun for my outside of work interests as well. They had whole sections on 3D printing and manufacturing as well as CNC mill's demoing the creation of parts out of solid aluminum. The most interesting cross over was the use of artificial intelligence to create a piece of furniture. They use the computer to come up with thousands of variations of a chair and then they picked one that looked good and used the software to print the parts in metal. It was a nice looking chair. Not too long before people are not involved in the process at all.

I did do a bit of gambling at the slot machines however Las Vegas isn't as interesting a town as a place like New Orleans or San Francisco. I did get to enjoy some music at the Rock and Roll Marathon that was happening on the first night I was there. I also got the chance to go on the 'High Roller' which is a giant Ferris wheel that gives great views of the strips. It takes about 40 minutes to go all the way around and you are in a car about the size of your living room with a dozen other guests. It was all part of the conference because they had rented out an entire street including pubs and restaurants for the evening. Some great food was available including Kobe Beef Sliders and some excellent Mexican food. It was a great trip.

Carter's Stick Fort

Surrey has plenty of park space but it's not the type of park space where you can walk into the woods and build a fort without someone assuming you are homeless and getting you in trouble. This didn't stop Carter and I from enjoying the task of building a fort. He noticed several dead branches from some recent tree trimming and we brought them home to build a fort in the yard. A simple structure that Eeyore would have been proud of. Carter really seemed to enjoy it so I think we will try to do something similar when we're in Prince George next year and possibly even try to get him into Scouts.

Carter's Birthday

I almost forgot to blog about Carter's birthday which would be about par for the course unfortunately for Carter's birthday. It's in mid-September and with back to school we just don't seem to have as much time to prepare for it. Originally Carter was going to do something like bowling or a fun park but at the last minute he decided he wanted a Pokemon party at home. He only recently got into Pokemon with the release of the new app you can play on your phone. Somehow in a very short period of time however he's managed to memorize most of the 500+ different types of Pokemon.

Callie really helped out with the planning for the party. Her and Carter looked up Pokemon related things to do online and Callie helped with the refreshments including Squirrel Juice, Charmander Cheetos and Nidorina Nachos. Carter did all the goodie bags and made a personalized Pokemon for each one. Pokemon was the theme for gifts as well which suited Carter just fine. We are still playing the phone game and he checks every day to see which Pokemon we've captured.