A post with an international flair

Dan and I just got back from six days in Montreal, and it took me a while to realize why I don't feel all that tired after traveling. Our previous two "big" trips together (without the kids) were to Hawaii and San Francisco, both of which involved a large time-zone change and day-long (or overnight) flights. This one was in the same time zone and only a 1.5 hour flight - awesome! We actually could have driven it (9 hours), but I had a conference to attend and didn't want to use up two days of travel if I didn't have to. Also, it probably helped that we got a full night's sleep most of the nights (although we do have a contract out on a group of  bachelors from the US who managed to wake us up three separate times one night and forced us to switch rooms. Damn Americans.)

Nick met us there (he's our new travel companion - more for Dan, I suspect, than me - and from now on we'll be planning all our travels around where he can meet us, or where he is. Which might backfire when he's doing awesome doctor stuff in Africa or some such place), and he kept Dan busy exploring the city's microbreweries while I was stuck in windowless rooms learning new epidemiologic methods and getting the word out about the College of Public Health at Kent State (and trying to convince senior epidemiologists they'd love to come to work in northeast Ohio).

And we ate, and ate, and walked, and ate. At least two of the three of us had Caribbean, Ethiopian, Tibetan, Portuguese, Indian, Thai, French, and traditional Montreal (ie. poutine) food while we were there. Oh, and we got to experience at least a bit of the Montreal Jazz Festival. Which may have been the only place we didn't eat.

We made it to one of the big markets (oh, and we ate there - shock) which is similar to but smaller than Cleveland's West Side Market.

I already miss using my very limited French and being around people who  first assume I can speak it but aren't annoyed when I can't get past "bon soir". In my next life, I will be multilingual.

 After the rain stopped and we emerged from the market, Dan decided to do some climbing.

And he also found time to visit the Caribbean (but did not pack appropriately, apparently).

Now it's back to a semi-routine, weeding my garden, and preparing for the next trip in this travel-filled summer. Oh, and making life so unbearable for the kids when they don't have camp that they'll beg to be sent all summer next year! Fun times.