The Accidental Boilermaker

Sunday we said goodbye to Montreal. I would love to go back someday. Montreal has a nice Chinatown and on Thursday Nate's lab mate discovered this little shop that sold really good Vietnamese sandwiches. I think we stopped in there everyday and on Saturday made sure we had some for the drive back. We got back to the Burlington early, so we decided to check out Lake Champlain and the downtown before checking in at the airport. Even after walking around Burlington, we were pretty early. For a good hour and a half, we were literally the only people in the airport. Our trip home ended up being pretty exciting. We had to run through the Detroit airport to catch our flight back to Indy, but we made it and so did our luggage. Overall, we had a really great trip : )

Saturday was our last full day in Montreal. The one place I really wanted to visit was the Biodome . Originally built as a velodrome for the '76 Olympics, it now houses 5 different ecosystems of the Americas. A golden tamarin in the tropical rainforest. Penguins from the Arctic. The Olympic Tower Saturday night after dinner, we took the metro out to buy some bagels for breakfast (apparently Montreal has its own distinct variation on the bagel ) and on the way, we noticed these very nice bike lanes. Montreal takes its bikers very seriously.

Friday, Nate and I explored Old Montreal. It's where the first French settlers originally landed and started what they called Ville Marie. We had the absolute best breakfast at this cute cafe/bakery in Old Montreal before going to the Pointe-a-Calliere museum . Pointe-a-Calliere is supposed to mark the birthplace of Montreal. Today it serves as a pretty cool archaeology museum that traces Montreal's history from the Native Indians that first lived in the area to the French settlers to modern day. You can go up to the very top of the museum too and get a pretty good look around. The foundations of the buildings on the left actually sit on remains of the wall that once surrounded Ville Marie (aka Montreal). After leaving the museum, we did some more walking around and stopped in this little chapel, Notre Dame de Bon Secours. It's one of the oldest church in Montreal.

Thursday was a big day for Nate. His presentation started at 8:30. It must have gone amazing because everyone else in his symposium group spent the rest of the trip raving about how well he did. I struck out on my own to explore Montreal while Nate was at the conference. I wasn't sure what to do since a lot of museums and stores didn't open till 10:00 but I found a museum at McGill College that opened early and was free! Called the Redpath Museum , it was a natural history museum featuring mostly minerals, animals and fossils from Quebec and Canada, but also some stuff from around the world too. This triceratops was found in Saskatchewan. The mummy is not from Canada but I thought it was cool how they used x-rays to "look inside" so they wouldn't disturb the wrappings. After that, I decided the best time to shop was when Nate wasn't around so I explored the city underneath the city - Montreal's expansive underground shopping network. On my way back t...

Our trip to Montreal started very early Wednesday morning. We left for the Indianapolis Airport at 3:30am. The first time I felt awake enough to take a picture is flying over Lake Champlain to Burlington, Vermont. From Burlington, we drove to Montreal which turned out to be incredibly easy despite the all French road signs. After checking into the hotel, we unpacked a little and then ventured out to find the convention center for Nate and something to eat for dinner. Both endeavors were successful and I basically relaxed in the room while Nate practiced his presentation for next morning. All in all, it was a long, but good day. I promise much more interesting photos tomorrow.