parc omega...

just before valentine's day, i had seen a viral video on the huffington post of a little girl feeding what appeared to be wildlife from the backseat of a car. there were plenty of comments  saying how irresponsible the parents were etc. etc. but there was one commenter replying to literally every single comment saying "it's parc omega! these animals are totally friendly!" so i had to look this place up. immediately i knew it was somewhere i needed to go. i told dylan about it and he said we should go that weekend, but looking at the temperatures, it was supposed to the coldest weekend of the winter at about -30 degrees. but, the more i looked at pictures, i just couldn't put this place off. the next morning, saturday at 6:30am, we were packing up the car for a drive to montebello, quebec (about 5 hours from us) and then a night in montreal after the parc.

anyways, parc omega is a giant park that you drive through and feed a whole bunch of animals (you can buy carrots for $2 a bag at the gift shop). some are behind fences (wolves, foxes, buffalo), but quite a few just wander around. they are all super friendly and it's quite possibly the best thing i've ever done. we couldn't stop laughing the entire time.

they are everywhere.

here they come!

oh hello.

baby boars. they were so cute.

having the time of my life.

it was even colder in quebec than we imagined. it was nearing -40 and i've just never experienced cold like that in my life. that's coming from someone who actually likes winter and the cold over the summer. my nose immediately froze when we got out of the car and were walking up to the sugar shack and i started to panic because i couldn't feel it when i touched my face! we grabbed our maple syrup taffy and quickly went into the heated shack before running back down to the car.

be careful of these guys! they gave our car a little ram with their horns when they wanted more carrots!

trio.

and because 1 million pictures aren't enough, dylan put together a little video of our day here.

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...

it's the most beautiful time of the year...

here's the last few random photos from our weekend away.

of course, i ordered us a red velvet cake from dessert lady. it travelled to each city with us. and yes, i did put a blurry picture up, because the non-blurry one was horrendous!

old quebec city skating.

continental breakfast. i had more, this is what i could fit in the picture. what? it's free.

transport for christ. sure thing.

new friends.

a stop in kingston on the drive home. checking out queen's university- a potential candidate for dylan's masters. beautiful campus, by the way. but 3 hours away. so my vote is no lol

even though we left montreal at 6am (& it should be a 6hr drive), i was having a heart attack as to whether i would get to work on time (for 3pm). we were making great time and at about 12:30, we got onto the highway in toronto (10km to the exit we needed) and it was at a dead stop. in 45 minutes, we barely made it around a bend. i was terrified that when we turned the bend, i was going to see a sea of cars not moving for miles and miles. after 45 minutes, we moved about 500meters, and got passed the road work (arghhh!!!!), and i got home at 1:30. i washed my face, did my makeup, grabbed a bite to eat, and was basically out the door at 2:30.

and that right there is our anniversary getaway.