Family and racing?? Part 1

First stop Montreal! I lived in Montreal for 4 years while I went to McGill. I love Montreal. 2 days there just was not enough, but we did manage to squeeze a lot in. We arrived in Montreal on Friday afternoon, and after a small rental car snaffoo, Russell and were on our way to my Uncle Rick and Aunt Joelle's. This was Russell's first chance to meet any of my Montreal family, and he fit in great as usual. Had a yummy dinner with Ro and Al, Rick, Joelle, and Daniel. I was a little bummed that my other cousins were away for the weekend, but it was great to see everyone that was there. Family really is something special, even if you don't see them very often, it always feels like home.

The next day we woke up to home made pancakes! Yum! First order of business after that was to put our bikes together. It's always fun to showcase the bikes to people who haven't really seen downhill bikes before. They really are impressive machines, sometimes I forget that. Rick and Joelle both took a few turns around the yard, and thankfully nobody went over the bars using the brakes. Bikes are fun! I wish I had pictures of this! I think all the pics were taken on Rick and Joelle's camera. Maybe if they see this they will send me some.

I was struggling to decide how to spend my one day in Montreal. There was so much I wanted to do in so little time!! I knew I wanted to go visit Bridgette (another cousin), but I also wanted to make it downtown to take a little trip down memory lane. So we did a quick stop in to visit at Ro and Al's to see Bridgette and then headed downtown for a smoked meat sandwich and some Canadian beer. Russell got to hold "bluey" the bird at my cousins house - possible highlight of his time in Montreal.

Smoked meat for lunch was delish, and it was a real trip to drive back through my old stomping grounds on St. Laurent and then out through NDG on the way back to Rick and Joelle's. It made me really miss Montreal... I would live there again in a heartbeat if I could speak better french. It also made me feel a little weird inside because I feel like such a different person than I was then. I guess that's what growing up does.

We also did a quick tour of Mont Royal where I pointed out 2 of my apartments to Russell and took in the views of my uncle's awesome Antenna!

Unfortunately, after this, we had to get going to Quebec City. Sadface. I definitely could have stayed there for the whole week we had off... but we had other places to go and people to see!! So after some goodbyes, off we drove in our minivan into the sunset. A big thanks to Rick and Joelle for putting us up. It was fantastic to see everyone. Miss you all...