Long weekend / anniversary recap

I apologize in advance for the length of this post :) 

Friday night I spent mostly alone since Ty was out in Calabogie for a gig and got home in the wee hours.

Saturday we were up bright and early cleaning and finishing up packing ourselves and Garett. Soon after, we were on the road to Cornwall to drop off G.

Shortly after we dropped him off, we were on the road to Montreal. There was a ton of construction and long weekend traffic, but we made it without getting lost once (woo!). When we got to the hotel, that was it for our driving, we gave the valet our keys and walked/cabbed the rest of the time!

Outside the hotel

Pool in the hotel

The room

View of Maisonneuve/metcalfe from our window

Room

Shower

Random shot from the bed

The room was so nice--luxury linens, towels, everything. The mini bar and room service was a decent price oddly enough and we enjoyed our time spent in the room!

Shortly after we checked in, we were heading out in the cab to old Montreal to go to La Garde Manger (One of the Chuck Hughes restaurants). 

Handsome hubby with kitchen in the background

Kitchen

This place was so small and cozy, the menu is on a chalk board because it changes so much and the service is amazing. 

I didn't take a pic of any of the food because I was enjoying myself too much, but I will give a detailed description so I can relive the yummy experience!

We shared all of our food to taste more things, so here it goes:

Ty decided to take the deal of a blind menu--where its the staffs favourite picks that make up your meal.

We started with a specialty drink of the night--fresh squeezed lemonade, gin and strawberry dessert wine with a mint lead and a slice of cucumber (amazing). I even had a second one :)

We ordered some wine to go with everything.

They came with some homemade bread and cream cheese they made with paprika and caramalized onion--yum!

Our pre-appetizer arrived--a scallop on the shell and oysters. It took a lot of mental preparation, but I tried my first oyster ever! I was convinced there would be a gag reaction, but the waitress assured us that 1)they have the best oysters in MTL and 2) it's a myth that you swallow oysters whole, you actually chew them a few times. Biggest surprise ever--they are pretty good!!

Then our appetizers came.

I got the Gouda/leak Perogies with the smoked salmon on top in a cream sauce. Ok, I have also never had smoked salmon and yes it was a bit fishy, but they sliced it so thin that it literally melted in my mouth! Yum! And with the smoky like flavour in the Perogies, it was so good!!

Ty got the rarebit with mushrooms. For those that don't know what rarebit is, it's a piece of toast with smokey cheese melted on top--there were mushrooms, lettuce, caramalized onion and one sort of dressing on top of that--to die!!

Then it was time for the main (with a strategically placed 25 min break in between---they schedule you for 2.5 hour slots when you make reservations).

Tyler got the Cornish game hen---I don't know what the sauce it was cooked in was but O-M-G. I have never tasted something so tender in my life.

I got the spicy braised short ribs that come on a bed of creamed corn and a bit of fried bone marrow. The short ribs were literally fall off the bone. The cream corn (which I usually hate) was so flavourful and I had a taste of the bone marrow--which I didn't like just because it left a film in my mouth. 

I appreciated that the main didn't have any sides--keeps you from getting too full and focusing on the meal itself.

For dessert Ty got the caramel profiteroles with the ground hazelnut ice cream---nothing less than amazing.

I got the brownie with homemade marshmallow and graham cracker ice cream (I couldn't finish this even with Ty's help--so rich and decadent). 

Here is what followed ($60 tip not included in that price)

I guess we don't do it often so it's ok-- plus, this was a bucket list item I got to cross off :)

Afterwards, we cabbed back to the hotel to crack open our champagne we got for our wedding. Last year I was pregnant and couldn't drink it, so we decided to open it this year. We only had a bit each and the rest went to waste, but at least it got opened :)

Afterwards, we changed into comfy clothes and decided to walk around on Ste.Catherine street. We got tired of walking so we skipped all the nightclubs and decided to find a whole in the wall little basement pub. We didn't have to look far--we found a place called Ziggys. It was pretty quiet, we made a few friends and met a couple on their first date, so we had a few drinks with them to celebrate the occassion--turns out the guy was majoring in music and played the bass--and the girl was a social work major (which I loved social work classes), so we had a lot to talk about! 

We made our way back to the hotel around 1:45 and slept in until almost 10 the next morning. The valet pointed us towards an amazing breakfast at a place called Universel up the road. Funky restaurant, huge patio and pretty decently priced.

Then we went back to the hotel and napped (yes, we took the opportunity to nap lol). W got up and got ready an hour later and took a cab down to the port and walked around looking at the big ships, the waterways, fountains, watching trains go through, etc. it is truly so beautiful down there. We made our way a few blocks up old montreal and settled on a patio of a tiny cafe called Le Magasin General du Vieux-Montreal. We wanted a big cold fountain coke, but they were out. I wanted a Blt but they were out of bacon LoL aside from that, it was great. We both got the green salad with a tasty vinegrette dressing and the Spek sandwich which was prosciutto, lettuce, tomato, thinly sliced Parmesan and a sundries tomato paste with a nice cold sprite. We relaxed under the umbrella and watched the horse and buggies go by and all the kiddies walking around with their parents (started really missing Garett here lol)

We headed deeper into old Montreal and walked around for a few hours. We walked around towards the hotel (huge walk back to the hotel from old Montreal since we were right in the downtown area). We stopped at a fountain and sat on a bench and chatted a bit, then walked to a little crepe place for a bottle of water and sat on the patio for a bit. So many hidden gems in Montreal! 

Shortly after we were back at the hotel to get ready for dinner. Soaked my feet a bit since they hurt from all the walking and we were off. We didn't have plans for dinner so we decided to walk around peel street and Ste Catherine. We settled on a place called mikes for a laid back Italian dinner (yes, Mikes is Italian. Lol) 

We started with an app plate with everything imaginable on it, then each had a pasta dish and Ty got the creme caramel for dessert but I was too full to have anything. We walked back to the hotel, put on the robes and just laid in bed for a bit watching movies on TV. Around 9:30 I wanted dessert, so Ty ordered another as well. We had room service deliver a creme brûlée for Ty and I had a specialty hot chocolate where you melt milk crumble and brown sugar cubes topped with a white chocolate foam--so rich I couldn't drink it all lol

We were asleep pretty soon after.

When we woke up the next morning, we called room service again for breakfast.

So yummy!

We packed up, checked out, got my car back and were in the road! Monday came so fast, but we were so excited to pick up the G boy and get home! 

We waited out the storm last night, then gave him a bath and all headed to bed pretty early! 

Today is my second wedding anniversary and I can't believe how fast time is passing by. We have everything I could have dreamed to have at this point and I get to share it all with my best friend. I am So lucky and can't wait for the rest of our forever. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend and welcome back to reality :)