Belated Birthday Post

A week ago I celebrated my birthday in Montreal. While my wonderful, wonderful was going to talks at the conference that brought us to Montreal, I was out exploring.
First stop: The botanical gardens. They were a short metro ride from the hotel. The gardens were absolutely worth the trip.

Then I walked all the way to the Lululemon store and H&M and Zara and about 30 other places. Then I went for a run. The hotel we stayed at had an "in house runner" named Claude who leads runs on Wednesdays and Fridays. I figured why not?! So I went down to the lobby at 4:15 and saw another guy dressed in cotton shorts, t-shirt, etc and we waited for Claude. The cotton guy said I looked like a serious runner. :) Claude showed up dressed in a white singlet, white leggings and a garmin.(he runs marathons) He asked us how far we wanted to go- (I was expecting 4-6 miles since it was advertised as an hour long run) Mr. Cotton said 4-5 miles. So we took off towards this. (Parc Mont Royal, notice the very small cross at the top)

Around 4 miles we hit the summit. I felt good, and was wondering if there was a shortcut way down, but was secretly hoping for a long run... (Montreal is so beautiful)

Then we jogged around the cross.

I picked up the pace for a few K's with Claude down the Mont, and made my way back to the hotel while Claude ran back to Mr. Cotton to finish out the run with him. I ran without water- luckily there was a water fountain around mile 3.5. (and that it was less than 80 degrees, and like 50% humidity- otherwise I would have died)

So for my birthday I ran the farthest i've run since May 28. 9.3 miles, or 15K. The nice 1 hour run I was expecting turned into a 1:30 run up the Parc Mont Royal. It. Was. Awesome! The calf is still tender, but it was a confidence booster since I havent run more than 7 miles at a time since my calf exploded.


Later on, I had a nice birthday dinner with my wonderful, wonderful and then we went to a club for the conference party. I would say it was a birthday success.

What are some of your favorite birthday memories?

~for me, this year was awesome. Being able to spend your birthday with someone you love is always amazing, no matter where you are.

Montreal Part 1

Day 1

Our ride- had to walk to it. I felt special like a world leader because they never seem to use jetways to get onto planes. When was the last time you saw a president or royalty using a jetway? Never. Yeah i thought so. :)

In da tiny plane. Like a G6...



We walked about 7 miles and saw a lot of downtown Montreal. It is a beautiful, clean city and everyone speaks french! I took 3 years of french in High school. I cannot speak it now because I learned Spanish and am learning Portuguese (and who the heck speaks french in Florida?) and those destroyed any ability I had to speak French. However, I can still read it, and that proved to be useful on more than one occasion.

Cathedral Notre Dame. WOW. This Cathedral is so ornate and beautiful.

(HDR photo - 3 photos combined into 1. light-medium-dark exposures)

I liked the statues on top of the buildings.

and not on top of buildings.

Im sure I was the 1st person to ever do that...

Brutopia was a nice way to refresh after walking all day. They brew their own beer! WHoo Hoo!

I had their Stout and their Cherry Wheat. YUM

(Me in my hoodie. A fashion faux pas haha)

The people in Montreal seem to care how they look. I didn't see anyone dressed in pajamas or looking totally sloppy- instead they wore colors, dresses, *gasp* and nice shirts, pants and heels *gasp* and looked great and fashionable. Perhaps this is normal outside the USA? (Mexico aside- where I lived for 2 years and most people wore shorts and t-shirts because its 100+ degrees 11 months of the year) But in other places Ive visited outside the USA (like Sweden, France, Germany etc), people care about their appearance. I also did not see many obese people in Montreal.Why are we so content to be comfortable here? Comfy doesn't have to mean sloppy....

Next up:

Mon Anniversaire! (my birthday to those non french speakers out there :)