Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Bonjour! Parlez-vous Francais?

Edward, Mallory and I just got back from Montreal, Canada. It was a very relaxing vacation. We slept in late, ate a lot of great food, napped a lot, walked around the city, and enjoyed the amazing weather.

Luckily for us everyone there could speak English as well as French. I was finally able to put my two years of French from high school (13 and 14 years ago when I was a freshman and sophomore) to good use. I had a blast watching Edward try to communicate there. He could hardly understand what the natives were saying when they spoke in English because of their thick accents. He would call me over and whisper, "What's he saying?" when someone was speaking to him. On our last day there, I thought I would order our two donuts in French. I was very proud of myself because I thought I did an excellent job. The cashier smiled great big as she proceeded to check us out. I asked proudly, "Did I say that right?" She replied in a thick accent, "At least you tried."



Mallory snoozed almost the entire time on each leg of the trip. She did great.



This is the Basilique Notre Dame. We tried on two separate occasions to go in for a tour, but there were weddings at both times. Our friends were able to go in and said it was quite spectacular.











This is the Ste-Catherine Cathedral. Those are life-sized statues on the top. We're assuming they were saints.













This was the dome of Ste-Catherine's. This was our hotel, The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth. Our Elizabeth thought that was pretty cool.

I don't know what this building was used for in downtown, but I thought it looked neat.











Part of Vieux Montreal, or Old Montreal

Bon Apetite!

Edward's district manage, Richard, wanted to hold Mallory at the dinner. The whole time he had her I was thinking, "PLEASE don't spit-up on him!!!" Luckily she didn't. However, a lady came up to him and asked if Mallory was his granddaughter. With a taken-back look on his face he told her he was still in his 3o's. OUCH!


Yes. That's right. Those are flowers on our dinner plates.
On the last night of our trips, American Family always hosts a formal dinner followed by some entertainment. As we were walking in to take our seats, our friend Scott said, "Good news guys! We get to eat flowers tonight!"






Scott was actually brave enough to eat a marigold. After swallowing it he said, "Hmm. It pretty much tastes exactly how it looks."





Little Drummer Girl



After the dinner the company provided some fun entertainment. It was a group called the Rhythmics that they brought in from NYC. They were pretty similar to STOMP, creating music and rhythms from everyday objects. The performance was in the Bell Centre where the Canadiens play hockey. It was LOUD!!!!! We were given some earplugs for Mallory. She actually slept through the whole thing. Everyone in the arena was given drumsticks for a little audience participation. Edward couldn't resist getting her involved before the show.