montreal...

to end off my reading week, i had booked us a quick getaway to montreal for the weekend. it's nice and close, just over a 5 hour drive, canadian currency, no passports required, yet a nice weekend away. we stayed at the boutique hotel chez swann and loved it. there's only 23 rooms, the staff are lovely, and the location is absolutely amazing - right downtown, a 2-3 minute walk to it all.

early mornings.

 that's a big glass window on the left, which is the shower..sexy ;)

 the lobby.

the hotel itself.

beautiful old houses.

the rain was picking up here.

the best poutine.

 i found cronuts!

delicious? you betcha.

unfortunately, we didn't have the greatest weather, however, that didn't deter us from heading out. friday, we checked out all the stores downtown, i bought some hunter wellies (super excited, it seems to be raining a lot her lately and my feet will now be happy) and we lucked out that roots was having a sale. we separated once we got into the store, only to meet up holding the same sweater in different colors for ourselves. i guess we have similar tastes! we still went ahead and bought them. later that night, we saw the movie gravity (very good!). 

saturday was a wet day to say the least, raining nonstop morning to night. we wandered around the underground mall, took a long walk to la banquise for poutine, walked some more, and headed back for a nap after hitting up a bookstore. we also went to the casino, although i can't say i would recommend it, it was just a sad, depressing casino, despite being huge. we broke even plus gained $10. woohoo ;)

after a light breakfast, we packed up sunday morning, but before getting on the highway, made one last stop at la cornetteria for their cronuts. comparable to the nyc craze, they were absolutely amazing.

until the next road trip...

bluest of blues; tobermory...

oh tobermory, what can i say about you besides the fact that you are so incredibly beautiful and amazing. although the area where we spent most of our time isn't technically tobermory, it's the bruce peninsula national park, i think most people generalize it all as tobermory. even though it's a 3.5 hour drive away, we knew we probably wouldn't get there for an overnight trip this summer, so we decided to take a friend and just make it a day trip. the friend we took just moved here from the uk about 2 months ago (his girlfriend was working and couldn't make the trip), and we've only known them for about a month. he was laughing that we considered 3.5 hours to be a day trip and said that he could drive across the uk in that amount of time!

i didn't know a whole lot about tobermory going into this trip, just that it's been a place i had wanted to get to for years. i knew there was a grotto and crystal clear water. gps first took us about a 20 minute drive further than we intended, but we did get to see a lighthouse, the beautiful water and make a sandwich on the side of the road. once we figured out how to get to the grotto, we drove there only to find that the park rangers were turning everyone away because the parking lot was full! (note: it's part of the bruce peninsula) they told us to try again in a bit, and in the meantime we went to a nearby beach called the "singing sands", which was ridiculously windy and a little cold. after about an hour, we tried to get a parking spot again to no avail. we went to the bank and tried again. still no luck. by this time it was about 4:30. the rangers told us that we could just keep circling if we wanted, so that's what we did. after going by them about 5 or 6 times, they finally told us there was a spot available! once we parked,  we had a 45 minute hike ahead of us to the final destination of the grotto and indian head cove. it's quite a nice flat walk along the lake, until you get to the end; then you're scaling rocks and climbing up and down cliffs. but, it is so worth it. this place is absolutely beautiful and i had no idea that a place with water this clear existed in ontario, let alone only 3.5 hours from toronto. and bonus, there's no fish, not even minnows!! well, i'm sure there are when it drops off and the water gets darker blue, but not in the clear part.

ready for a complete photo overload?! it was all too pretty to narrow down.

country roads and clouds along the way.

#arewethereyet?

lots of tourists at tobermory!

 first time laying eyes on the clearest water i've ever seen.

seriously though, are we in the caribbean? 

 singing sands beach.

 sand bottoms and shallow water.

along the 45 minute walk (once we parked) to indian head cove and the grotto.

 the beautiful indian head cove.

 trying to find how we get to the grotto; not easy.

 time to head into the FRIGID 65 degree georgian bay water.

 new best friends haha

 it was weird going into water that cold. my body could handle it, but it actually took my breath away and i had a hard time breathing for a few minutes. i think the coldness shocked my organs ;)

 oh, here come some waves.

tearin' me down. the slippery rock bottom was the main culprit.

 loving life.

:)

i think it's high time i stop here and leave the grotto for monday's post. it was so crazy and cool, so of course i got snap happy!

road trip to ottawa...

late thursday night, we made an impromptu decision to go to ottawa to visit dylan's friend and make it one last hurrah before dylan starts straight nights and takes tonnes of weekend overtime. sad to say, but it took me 25 years to visit the capital of canada.

parliament.

centennial flame.

being a tourist.

this derpy unicorn is on the front of parliament. so random and funny! anyone know the significance of this?

library of parliament.

these are the parliament cats. those little houses were built for them and this man comes and volunteers every day to feed and socialize with these stray cats who just stay here all day, every day.

thanks for holding my purse!

knocked out.

boys being boys.

byward market.

it was a quick visit (leaving 6:00am saturday morning (getting there at 12pm), spending the night at his friends, and then leaving after breakfast on sunday), but a fun one. the city is pretty, and reminded me of old quebec and even the meatpacking district in nyc a little. now that we have a car, i'm sure we have many road trips ahead of us, when we have the time of course.