November Road Trip Photos

Here are some photos from our previous road trip to Toronto. We stopped by Niagara State Park on our way back to New Jersey and took some photos of the fall foliage and the American Falls.

***************************************

A Fall Wedding

Gracie Pang & Andrei Rjeousski
Paletta Lakefront Mansion
Sunday, November 18th. 2007

An answered prayer, he is to me
My greatest blessing, she'll always be
He is my miracle sent from above
She'll always be the one I love
(an excerpt from the wedding invitation)

It's official! The radiant, beautiful bride and her handsome miracle - Mr. & Mrs. Andrei Rjeousski. Here they were, braving cold winds and unusually cold fall temperatures during the 15 minute outdoor ceremony. Of course, the guests were also keeping a brave face but we had the luxury of gloves & heavy coats. Gracie said that she didn't feel cold because she was too excited and happy. Tee..hee...hee! Now, that's the power of love.

Random photos taken right after the ceremony. Gracie's Aunts from Kuching also made the trip. It was a long flight from Malaysia and understandably they were still jet-lagged. Nevertheless, they looked beautiful and resplendent in their cheong-sams that day. So did Aunt Annie, the mother of the bride :)

Finger food and cocktail drinks while waiting for the bride & groom to have their photos taken by the professional photographer. Gracie's family spent the night before preparing and cooking "ngo-hiang" (savory spring rolls), prawn crackers and satay sauce. An excellent mix of Western & Eastern fare to nibble.

The Reception

The bride's parents, the groom's parents and the special couple at the main table.

Tomato Bonccocini & Asparagus Salad with Aged Tuscan Balsamic Drizzle, Seared Shitake Mushroom, Braised Ginger Coriander stuffed Supreme of Chicken with Miso Glaze and Vanilla Ice-cream Crepes with Creme Anglaise and Fruit Coulis Drizzle.

In between meals, there were several speeches, plus a fantastic slide show of the couple through the years.

The After Dinner Party/Dance

The couple's first dance as Mr. & Mrs. Rjeousski; followed by Gracie's dance with her Dad. Awww...


Who caught the bouquet?




Who caught the garter?




Congratulations Gracie & Andrei, may this be the beginning of a beautiful and wonderful life together.

Baby News

My cousin, Alex & his wife in Winnipeg are first time parents yesterday. Our heartiest congratulations to them on the arrival of their son, baby William.

Gracie, Alex's sister whom we attended her wedding last Sunday is now promoted to the rank of Auntie/Ee Ee. Uncle George & Auntie Annie are the proud Grandparents/Ah Kong & Ah Ma. Last but not least, Alex's Grandma in Kuching the very coveted title of Great-grandma.

P.S. Thanksgiving Week is always busy and more so with us initiating the claims process with the respective insurance companies for repairs. I hope to get updates of Gracie & Andrei's wedding up and running a.s.a.p. but I've a pre-Thanksgiving dinner in the City tonight with my UpGlo group members. So, Friday it shall be then. Gracie, if you're reading my blog, sorry. Please bear with me :(

Shit Happens!

We left NJ for Toronto yesterday morning at 5.35 a.m.. After being on the road for 2-3 hours and literally seeing the rain, sleet, sun & first snow showers passed by, we stopped at Denny's for a typical American breakfast - 2 strips of bacon, sausages, over easy eggs, hash browns and pancakes with a cup of Joe coffee.

This is late fall foliage in Pennsylvania, taken from the parking lot of Denny's.

We finished our hearty breaky and felt good. Then, we hit I-90W and was just about to exit the NY State Thruway near Buffalo/Niagara.

Yes, this very exit.

While we were at a complete stop waiting for our change at the toll booth, this semi/trailer rear ended us. Bam!!!!! The impact was quite bad and we hit our heads on the back of our seats.

The first thing that came to my mind was that the bumper and trunk must be severely damaged. The toll booth supervisor called in a State Trooper/police and the driver of the truck came to see if we were hurt. The driver said that he didn't see us in front of him. Hmmmph! We believed he must be sleepy from long distance driving but he blamed it on the height of the truck.

Our poor car....second rear end accident in 2 years!

This time there's 2 deep puncture "wounds", probably from the screws on the semi's vehicle registration plate, a long "gnash" line on the back and a scratch on top of it. We were quite surprised that in spite of the hard impact, the damage was minimal although heart breaking to see. Adrian works hard to keep the Toyota Camry scratch free from careless drivers at parking lots and shopping carts. This is a big whamy from a semi/trailer! Poor him :(

We are really thankful that we bought the Camry instead of keeping the old beat-up Honda Civic. If it had been the latter, we would have to cancel our trip and maybe end up with half a car. I supposed we should be thankful that we are not badly hurt and it happened at the toll booth while the speed was not as fast as on the highway.

So what does this all mean now? More work for us next week when we get back to Jersey. Quotations, adjuster, etc., before we can get Camry a new butt. *sigh*

Montreal - Day 3

Day 3 brought us to Montreal's Olympic Park, Biodome and Mont Royal (St. Joseph's Oratory).

The Olympic Park is over 30 years old, home to the 1976 Summer Olympics so I expected it to be a little run down and less sophisticated. I thought by putting such expectations beforehand, I wouldn't be too disappointed when I visited the place. The Park looked abandoned but something was going on over there. There were signs of construction everywhere. No doubt that the Park is going to have a face lift soon.

We took the 2-tiered cable car to the Observatory and took some photos of the City and the Biodome (see below) which houses several interesting exhibits & aquarium.

The Montreal Biodome

Moi outside the Biodome, a long shot

Adrian just outside the Biodome

Stuffed animals exhibit in the Biodome...

In honor of the Year of the Pig (2007), here I am with a stuffed Wilbur, oink!

After the Olympic Park, we drove towards Mont Royal and grabbed a quick lunch on the way. Not knowing where to eat, we thought a short stop at McD's for a light munch made sense. Nothing could go wrong right?! Well, not this time.

First, our soda was flat. No bubbles at all. Second, they ran out of ice so we had to slurp room temperature soda :(. Thirdly, their fries was flat as a deflated tire and to top it off - drum roll please! I saw a kid hurled big time in front of the store counter. Yup! His entire lunch was on the floor in just seconds. They were so short-staffed that day, nobody was interested in cleaning up the mess. Yuck, yuck! Please do not ever go to McD's at Mont Royal Park.

On that note, we quickly left that sorry place and drove on to Mont Royal. We reached L'Oratoire Saint Joseph du Mont-Royal in less than 10 minutes. Ahh...what a sight to behold after such an unpleasant lunch experience.

This is my picture perfect, postcard view of the Oratory. It would have been a better photo if the man in blue shirt wasn't waiting for the shuttle to the Basilica there. Grrr..!

We climbed many, many stairs...pant! pant! Thank God for escalators inside the Oratory. Yes, it's a very sophisticated and modern Basilica.

View of the top (Basilica) - front garden

One of the prettiest and most serene area of the Oratory is the meditation garden depicting the last 12 hours of Christ's life.

Here are the disciples dozing off in the garden...zzz!

Lots of sculptures around the garden. Here's another of JC carrying his cross.

After the Oratory, we drove back to Mont Royal Park trying to find the gigantic cross by the mountain. Unfortunately, it was no where to be seen so we decided to go back to the City. In the evening, we took a stroll through McGill University; whereby we saw a typical college scene. An open field party with co-eds smelling of booze and other booze related weirdness.

Further down the road, we came across some modern sculptures such as this one. Its supposed to depict human reaction when confronted with some kind of danger??? Interesting...

This one is of Adrian trying to steal the boy's apple although it looked a bit like him touching something else??? Maybe he shouldn't have touched the apple.

After the long walk, we had a nice dinner at Quartier Chinois and called it the day.

Au revoir Montreal!

Montreal - Day 2

Parking meters in Montreal are placed all the way to the wall because it snows so much here that plowers would just mow down these meters in the thick of a snow storm.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the streets of Montreal isn't as crowded as I imagined it to be but there's a reason to it. Half of the population are underground. We explored the Underground City on Day 2. A great excuse to get out of the sun and window shop! Yes, window shop only because the US Dollar is now almost at par with the CAD. So, any major shopping is out plus taxes are ridiculous here. Having being spoiled in New Jersey (no taxes on clothing under $300), I wasn't used to seeing GST & PST totaling 13.5%. Yikes! Restaurants are the worst since you have to add tips on top of these taxes.

Anyway, back to the Underground Pedestrian Network. Below the City, is a vast network of walkways with thousands of shops, restaurants, entertainment outlets, cinemas, etc. and connection to several metro (subway) stations. With 20 miles of passageways, you can really spend the entire day underground!

Metro/subway underneath Eaton Center (mall)

Metro station at Bonaventure

Time to surface to the streets....

We took a walk along the shores of St. Lawrence River. It was a beautiful day and just perfect for a leisurely stroll. The Clock Tower was erected in 1919 as a landmark to the port. Next to it is the Jacques Cartier Bridge that connects Montreal island to Jean-Drapeau Park (home of the Grand Prix of Canada).

Plaque on the Clock Tower placed in memory of sailors who lost their lives at war.

View of the port and City from atop the Clock Tower.

Hochelaga - Ville Marie - Mont Royal (Montreal) la nuit

While exploring St. Lawrence River, French navigator Jacques Cartier discovered a village called Hochelaga in 1535. He met some Amerindians who led him to a mountain he subsequently called Mont Royal. Many years after that, Sieur de Maisonneuve founded Ville Marie and this area later become Montreal.

Montreal may have many names in the beginning but one of our "must-do" while traveling is taking photos of historical buildings at night. La nuit, these buildings somehow appear more mysterious when illuminated. Now, I must credit these photos to Adrian since he was the one that took the time to ensure that they were blog worthy enough.

Bonsecours Market

Notre Dame de Bonsecours Chapel

City Hall

Notre Dame Basilica and its "And there was light - sound & light show"

La lumiere fut?! What's this? The lights on the top right was missing and I really wasn't interested in paying another CAD9 to see the light show inside. However, I was a fooled into believing that the lights spiraling out from the windows would be stronger just like the brochure. Hmmph! False advertising, indeed.

Jacques Cartier Place

Montreal - Day 1

We practically breezed through the Canadian check-point at Champlain and arrived at our auberge around noon.

Our hotel. Clean, reasonably priced, great location and very friendly staff. This B&B has great croissants in the mornings!

Bathroom - bright and cheery. Bath towels are thick and nice smelling; unlike some hotels' heavily Clorox-scented towels.

The mattress was "Tempur-pedic" like although I doubt it's the original. Bed could have been better if it was a Queen size instead of a double/full.

Our very own kitchenette and mini fridge.

Best of all, free Wi-Fi and a nice spacious work desk to match.

We quickly left our bags at the auberge and started exploring the City. So off we went...

Ok, left or right??? Where should we go first? Everything is in French but Montrealers are very tourist friendly. I think we got away with murder just because of our looks. We even had people asking us if we needed help. Fortunately, we met a very efficient tourist staff at the rest stop earlier on and he circled all the spots that we should visit. Merci!

However, I also quickly discovered the dark side of Montreal. Homeless people sleeping in random corners of abandoned buildings and some very openly. Beggars asking for spare change along the Rue. And, yes. They begged in French. Truly, it sounded glamorous even though the act wasn't.

Anyway, we started our exploration at the Old Port & Old Montreal. Cobblestone streets and historical buildings. Yes! That's my kind of town.

Ben Franklin stayed and dined here - at the corner auberge at Old Port.

This is the Marguerite-Bourgeoys Museum (a contemporary art museum).

Notre Dame de Bonsecours Chapel with a big figure of Christ facing the Old Port.

Bonsecours Market or Marche Bonsecours along Rue de la Commune.

Carriage ride at the cobblestone Rue St. Paul.

Quaint shop signs and the state flag of Quebec - Fleurdelisé.

Al-fresco dining at Old Montreal.

Notre Dame Basilica at the corner of Rue St. Sulpice & Rue Notre Dame.

Inside the Basilica, after paying CAD8 per entry. A suggested donation would have been more appropriate, I'd think!

Noel is a X'mas shop that's everything X'mas throughout the year. Yup! Even when it's 80 degrees outside, it's still X'mas inside Noel.

Wherever there's a City, there's a Chinatown. Wherever there's a Chinatown, there are Falun Gong followers. Montreal is no different.