Montreal

Who would have thought that French Canadians speak predominately French? Not us, apparently. Everybody we encountered spoke French and English, but French first. The majority of the signs were in French along with stores, menus, and pretty much everything else.

We’re slightly surprised we didn’t have more difficulty getting across the border considering our car license is from CA, and our driver’s license is from CT. They must have decided we’re harmless.

We had a great time. We stayed at a B&B in the Old City (I think) and walked everywhere, except for one trip on the metro. The room was a cute little thing that provided everything we needed in addition to a daily glass of port. The breakfast at this place alone was enough to justify staying there. French toast, eggs (Benedict for me) any way you like, fruit, Belgian waffles, cereal, yogurt. They brought you french toast and waffles THEN asked you what type of eggs you wanted to order for breakfast.

We got around for the day we were there (it takes 6 hours driving to get there, so two of the three days are driving centered). We started off at the Montreal Botanical Gardens which was not quite in full gear outside yet, but the greenhouse and insect exhibits were fantastic. From there we hopped over to Old Montreal, ate lunch and walked around for the afternoon taking it in. The next day on the way out we drove up to the top of Mont Royal for a view of the city.

Besides seeing a few sites, we ate. And then we ate again and again. There was soo much good food. I can now say I’ve had rabbit and it was good. Actually it was delicious. Here are the pictures. I went nuts in the greenhouses and at with the insects. Thank God digital cameras have replaced film.

Mmm. Rabbit.

Montreal hosted the Olympics back sometime before I was born. I caught Elizabeth posing.

These were about the only thing blooming outside the greenhouses at the botanical gardens. This place must be amazing in the summer months.

This goes on for a while…

The orchid house was awesome.

Yeah… it’s a lot of pictures. Imagine if I wasn’t trying to limit myself.

On to the bugs…

Yep. That thing is as big as my hand.

Not much happening outside.

Old Montreal

nicaragua

My time in Nicaragua ended up to be a wonderful experience. I went down there with a group of Family and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Students from Yale. Over the week we saw 120 children at La Escuelita. La Escuelita is a school in Managua that is for children in a poor neighborhood that borders the large oriental market (the largest open air market in Central America). Though public education is free, students are required to buy uniforms, books and supplies. Because these things are expensive many children in this neighborhood do not go to school. La escuelita offers these children a free education (no uniforms required). This was the nursing schools third consecutive year going down there to offer health care to the students at la escuelita.

Nicaragua, though very poor, was beautiful. The people are lively and poetic and buildings are vibrantly painted. I hope you enjoy the photos. All the photos of the churches and vibrant buildings are in Granada one of the old capitals of the country, and the ones of the kids and clinical days are at the school.
🙂

The Tunbridge World Fair

Last weekend we took up Erin’s offer to crash at her family’s place and experience the Tunbridge World Fair with a couple other YSNers. And was it an experience. We saw tons of cattle, pigs (racing!), chickens, rabbits and about everything else that moves. I think I ate more fried food in those 4 hours than I had all year (photo documentation below).  The historical farm part though is always great. It’s amazing to see the ingenious ways people make tools and components of life taken for granted nowadays by hand.

Yeah, I don’t know why, but apparently the local USMC (reserves?) runs the parking/tickets.

And… I’m tired after watching this guy do a few swings.

Interesting, but not nearly fried enough for me.

Now that’s just 400-some odd pounds of plain weird.

*** Disclaimer*** I did NOT eat all of everything below. I might have wished I did, but other people there stared at me funny after I said “sharing shmaring. That’s for kindergartners”.

Now these are vegetables I can get excited about.

At this point in time I had to remind myself this event requires pacing.

Can’t go to the fair and not have a corndog. The mustard was for Dad.

These are special fries. You want to know why they’re special? Because anything covered in gravy is special. That’s why.

At this point in time I’m feeling a little lethargic. I need something to wash that all down and get my system back on track. What’s that there? Sugar with a little bit of lemon? Awesome, just what I needed.

Ok, I didn’t actually eat this. But Erin got some fried dough, and I decided that the existence of fried dough the size of a plate needed to be photo-documented and shared with the world.

An in between heart-attack snack.

Dessert!

The only moderately healthy thing we ate while there, and with the amount of butter on there I’m not sure it still qualifies as a vegetable.

I’m still in a food coma…

Married life

After a long time of silence on my part, I thought it appropriate to write a post. First and foremost our wedding a few weeks ago was fantastic! We had such a wonderful time and it meant so much to us that so many friends and family came from afar to celebrate.

To check out a sneak preview of wedding photos go to Cameron Ingalls blog, if you look soon it should be the first posting. The whole selection of photos won’t be available for a few more weeks.

http://www.cameroningalls.com/blog/

Here is a taste from the blog:

Life since the wedding has been an exciting whirlwind. We stayed in Carmel for two days to decompress a bit and get things in order. We then headed off to St Lucia for our honeymoon and we had a great time laying on the beach, reading books and doing nothing for a change. It was so uncharacteristic for Adam and I to sit around and do nothing for a week, but it was a needed vacation. Here are some photos of St Lucia.

Our room

The view outside our front door.

Our reaction to the view from the patio.

We did lots of reading.

The balcony view.

Our beach.

It was a bit overcast the first couple days, but usually it was great weather.

The view across the beach’s bay.

The Pitons!

We ate a lot of good food.

And occasionally indulged with tropical drinks too.

We then flew straight back to New Haven where a very messy house full of boxes and boxes awaited us. The last 5 days have been full of unpacking, cleaning and shopping. We are exhausted. We were also excited to get back and find our plants thriving. Our garden plot and back yard are both starting to resemble a jungle. I love this east coast summer rain thing- translation: very little watering needed. I start work on Monday and I am so excited to get paid for a change and not have to study for the next few months.

Our kitchen looked like this several times as we brought rounds of boxes up from the basement.

Vermont Part 2

We imposed ourselves upon Erin’s family last weekend for a couple days to escape from New Haven for the weekend. It was quite restful for both of us. We visited a sugar shack, where we bought some syrup and cheese, saw a covered bridge, which was somehow part of the NY Historical covered bridge society (Go figure), and drove through the beautiful country that was springing back to life. Friday night, we went out to dinner with Erin, Katie, and Dan and ate waaay to much food across the river in Hanover (think Dartmouth), I think I’m still sick. We saw the slum (yes, singular) of Hanover, New Hampshire. We went for a great walk out the back of Erin’s house because it opens directly on to the forest. Thanks to Erin’s family for having us.

“Somehow I’m not stressed anymore. Thanks Vermont”. – Elizabeth

Suck it New Hampshire.*

 

*Belligerence towards New Hampshire or any other state presented on this blog is solely the viewpoint of Adam. Elizabeth does not endorse the these opinions.