A Winter Day in Montreal

We spent a lazy morning in the apartment happily watching the snow fall lightly outside. Lounged around with the fireplace on, dark, rich coffee in our cups, and reading, A hot bath got us moving and a breakfast of shredded wheat and good blueberries stoked the fires. So after a few housekeeping chores we were off for a walk in the snow.

Checked out the newly opened Scandanavian Baths on the first floor of our building. Dry and steam saunas, cold and hot pools, and massages. We plan to try them out while we’re here. Sounds delightful especially on a snowy, grey day. Then we walked (carefully) through the slush, snow, and ice to 157 where we found the little apartment in good shape (and warm thanks to Roland who came in yesterday and turned on heat and water). We tidied and readied the place for Jerry and Carol. It’s really a lovely, cozy place.

Once finished there we walked to the local Dep for a Gazette and then down St. Francois Xavier to St. Jacque and the ATM (or MAC machine as they are called here) at Bank of Montreal (one of my favorite buildings in Montreal). We had an early lunch at our favorite Dim Sum place in Chinatown. La Maison Kam Fung. We arrived at 11:45…not a moment too soon…at around 12:05 I looked up from my plate of ricenoodle shrimp and realized that the very large room was almost completely full…it had been half empty when we walked in! This is one of our favorite places and we never miss going there at least one time on each visit. Excellent dim sum with an emphasis on shrimp, scallop, and port,. Great noodles. Fabulous dumplings. Pleasant wait staff rolling the carts filled with interesting looking goodies. We always play dominoes and have tea and coke. And periodically look out the large windows that line two of the 4 walls…today we looked out at snow as it fell on the street below.

Jerry had noticed an IGA grocery store on the corner at Rene Levesque. We needed some cream cheese and rye crackers to go with the smoked salmon we bought at Costco yesterday. It is a great grocery store…good fruit and vegetables (bought a few figs, kumquats, a quebec apple of some variety, and a few pears). It smelled of fresh croissants. Good selections of coffees and cheeses. And its in walking distance of the apartment.

Then it was home for a nap, reading “My Sister’s Keeper”, and watching the light fade as night comes on. Waiting to leave for airport to pick up Carol and Jerry…whose plane is late. Coming in at 8:40 at Dorval.