Route de Dump

After our visit to MacDonald Campus (see blog below) we next went exploring in Hudson Quebec, a cute little town very UNfitting of the title to this post, Route de Dump - I will explain in a minute. Hudson stretches out long and skinny along the banks of the St. Lawrence and has the the most amazing houses and yards, many of which look out onto the water. We would have been content to live in just about every single one if we could!

The purpose of our trip to Hudson was to visit this antique market called Finnigan's Market. Steve - with all of his "crowd issues" - was a bit apprehensive about wandering around looking a "junk" for hours in the 33 degree heat of yesterday but, with a bit of persuasion and lots of food in his stomach, even he was charmed despite that he referred to it as Finnigan's Wake for the rest of the day. Finnigan's was located in the middle of a farmer's field and antique sellers were set up both in the old barn buildings and all across the field. There were so many different things - old knobs, furniture, trunks, bikes, skates, jars, china...you name it, Finnigan's has it! We are so going back in the fall!

Our plan after Finnigan's was to check out Hudson, head to the beach and then have dinner before going home. Unfortunately, we were finished cruising Hudson in about 3.5 seconds (turns out that there are more houses than downtown area and the beach was non-existent). So, like all good adventurers we consulted the map and continued on our way, this time to Cornwall, Ontario to check their famous fort which Steve believed was there.

Turns out that Cornwall is more aptly referred to as Cornhole and that their famous fort, is really a living museum (very cool) located 30 minutes further from the Hole. Anyways, by the time we realized this we did not have enough time to make it to the Fort. In an effort to salvage the situation we went knocking on the Hole's tourist information centre but even they couldn't think of something fun to do there.

Again like the good adventurer's we are, we consulted the map and decided to drive home along the road that ran by the river to check out all the cute little towns. This time we even consulted the Cornhole guidebook to make sure that we were headed somewhere worthwhile. While somewhat nicer than the Hole, our adventure turned out to be a succession of little towns along a route we nostalgically refer to as "Route de Dump". (Turns out that Alberta does not have a monopoly on rednecks either.) By the time the lights of Montreal greeted us we decided to scrap plans for dinner out and went home for stir fry. We finished the day with the movie Bon Cop/Bad Cop - super funny rent it if you can and or need a complete lesson in how to properly use the words tabernacle and chalice...hosties [sp?] - and went to bed with renewed optimism for our next excursion.

Hence, all photos in this blog are of Finnigan's market and Hudson except for the one of the gas sign which was taken in the Hole and represents the first time that we have paid under $1 for gas in months because, yes, we spent about $20 bucks driving to the Hole and back.

For My Gran

Yesterday Steve and I went exploring and stumbled across MacDonald Campus. MacDonald campus is a part of McGill located outside of the downtown in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.

The campus was born in 1906, when Sir William Christopher Macdonald gave 300 acres of farmland and a $2-million endowment to McGill University with the idea of creating a revolutionary school that would "improve the lives of rural people in Quebec." Modeling the school after McGill, he established a farm laboratory where scientific farming could be tested and taught, the School of Household Science and the School for Teachers, because Sir William had the vision of schools becoming not only training centres, but the centres of the social life of the community as well.

When the doors first opened in 1907, 115 students were enrolled in the School for Teachers, 62 in the School for Household Science and 38 in the School of Agriculture.

Why this short lesson in history is exciting (besides the fact that I have a very useful degree in Canadian History) is because my Great Grandmother, my Grannie's mom, came over from England to Montreal to attended school here before the First World War broke out. I'm pretty sure that she was a student in Household Science.

I'm not sure where she stayed when she was here but I thought it was neat when we stumbled across the building Brittain Hall - maybe this is where she lived when she was here!

The St. Lawrence

We were down by the mighty St.Lawrence river a couple of nights ago enjoying the warm weather. I still cannot believe how big it is - every time we are down by the river or crossing over it we try to guess how many North Saskatchewans would fit into it. Last count we were at 50! Any guesses?

ps. the green on the far bank of the first picture isn't the other side - it's an island!

I know I Shouldn't Brag...

But, we've had hot weather out here now for quite some time and Montreal is simply beautiful in the summer.

May Super Long

We decided to celebrate May Super-Long the weekend before the May Long Weekend. The weather was hot hot hot, Steve was done marking exams and had a small reprive from thesis writing, I was not especially busy and Jenn and Dom had a couple of days of freedom. So...we started our weekend on Wednesday! We barbequed, ate in the sun, hiked (as evidenced in the blog below), drank summer drinks on our patio and then went to Quebec City for the weekend! YAH MAY SUPER-LONG!

Hiking

We ventured out to Mount St. Hilaire for a hike. In and around Montreal there are a number of "mountains" that were formed when magma hardened the landscape and then the surrounding landscape eroded away leaving the "mountains" behind. Mount Royal, the mountain on the island, is one of these formations.

We also went out to Oka for a different hike (yes the Oka made famous for the stand-off in the 1990s, also famous for its cheese) and hiked in the provincial park up to a lookout over the St. Lawrence River. The trail wound its way through the trees past a number of small chapels all the way to the top. We ate Oka cheese and bagette at the top.

Amy and Jenny's Stagette (hereafter the "Stagette) - Part One - The Brides

We celebrated two upcoming weddings last weekend - Amy and Ryland June 30, 2007 in Regina and Jenny and Glenn December 31, 2007 in Vancouver. They are going to be such beautiful brides as you can see by the stagette apparel (which I should also point out is now owned and worn by the beautiful Amalie Snowdon).

Our night consisted of bowling and ringpops, cooking classes with great food and drinks, games great conversation and a surprise visit from the beautiful Maxwell Joseph Wiart.

Happy weddings ladies.

The Stagette - Part Two - More Bowling

While some of us really rocked the bowling others, not so much (Jody). Nonetheless, we still love all those that threw more gutter balls than strikes as it's not about who wins the event but who has fun at the event!

The ring pops were also one of the best ideas ever - yah Jess!

The Stagette - Part Three - The Cooking Class and Meal

After returning from a very intensive bowling match we were treated to a cooking class from two NAIT graduates who showed us how to prepare warm goat cheese salad with wild boar bacon mushrooms and pine nuts, fresh pasta with two sauces - roasted tomato and bechamel, herbed chicken skewers, vegetable skewers, and chocolate fondue with fruit for dessert. The food was absolutely amazing and we learned some cook kitchen tricks.

The Stagette - Part Four - The Evening Entertainment

The evening ended with a couple of different games and prizes as well as a visit from the darling Maxwell Joseph Wiart, who was accompanied by his proud mama and papa. Julie - next time a bit more effort with the sculpting if you want to get a prize.