Everyone keeps telling us that Montreal has a very early and short fall, followed by a long and frigid winter. Having spent 23 years in Cleveland, I like to think that I am a warrior of the cold (even though I never fail to shiver and complain the first time each season when I step outside and feel a cold wind on my face) and that I will be able to face the Montreal winter with no problem. Armed with fuzzy socks and lots of cold weather running gear, I should be okay.
Regardless, we are loving the heat right now. Maybe me, more than B, since I spent the summer in Alaska and didn't get that searing sun all summer. We have been spending a lot of time exploring the city, by bike and by foot, to get a better idea of our new city.
This weekend, we took advantage of B's free Friday and hiked up Mont-Royal. Okay, so it is technically not a mountain, just a large hill, and there is not really any hiking required...but when you take the stairs up to the top rather than using the path? It felt like I was back on Gavin in Alaska. Oh, my glutes! Oh, my calves! I saw runners taking both the path and the stairs, and decided that three weeks is more than enough time to declare myself moved in and acquainted enough to know where and when to run. I've realized that despite it being a huge part of my life, I have yet to talk about running on my blog. It is still in its infancy, so I think now is the perfect time to start. I went for some runs this weekend, so I'll write a separate post on that.
Back to our adventuring on the mountain. We packed some snacks and hiked up, made it to the plateau park at the top, and napped in the sun and watched as the all-too-friendly squirrels harassed us and others for food. We played some frisbee, and decided to take a different way back down the hill - er - mountain. The mountain is pretty big, and is considered the center of the city, so there are paths that lead all the way around so that visitors can enter from dozens of streets at the bottom. It's a pretty confusing set-up (planned by the same engineer that designed Central Park, I'm told), so much so that there are street signs for the major paths. There's a really cool interactive map found here where you can learn all about the museums, park, and the mountain itself.
We decided to go on a dirt path, which led to another dirt path, which led to another...you see where this is going. We ended up basically bouldering down a pretty huge rock face, not because we were lost, but because we thought it would be interesting. Foolish, perhaps, since we were both wearing sandals, but we won't go there. I didn't take my camera out while we were climbing for what I feel are obvious reasons, but unfortunately the picture I took at the very bottom of the hill doesn't seem to accurately depict the scale of the hill or the ridiculousness of our choice.
Later in the evening I completed a short run, just to get myself kickstarted.
We finished the day with a low-key dinner (homemade pizza, wahoooo!) and a movie at home.
Saturday we went biking around the city a bit. No pictures, unfortunately, but I can tell you that we had a good time out. I went for another run, this time with B in tow. We came home and had leftovers, and B spent the rest of the night working on writing papers and annotating articles. Rough life!
It's Sunday night which means I am looking at the fridge and trying to decide what to do about dinners for the week. I definitely need to go to the market again, because we are out out out of food.
I'll let you know what great stuff I find!
Regardless, we are loving the heat right now. Maybe me, more than B, since I spent the summer in Alaska and didn't get that searing sun all summer. We have been spending a lot of time exploring the city, by bike and by foot, to get a better idea of our new city.
This weekend, we took advantage of B's free Friday and hiked up Mont-Royal. Okay, so it is technically not a mountain, just a large hill, and there is not really any hiking required...but when you take the stairs up to the top rather than using the path? It felt like I was back on Gavin in Alaska. Oh, my glutes! Oh, my calves! I saw runners taking both the path and the stairs, and decided that three weeks is more than enough time to declare myself moved in and acquainted enough to know where and when to run. I've realized that despite it being a huge part of my life, I have yet to talk about running on my blog. It is still in its infancy, so I think now is the perfect time to start. I went for some runs this weekend, so I'll write a separate post on that.
 |
| View from the top |
 |
| Basic map of best areas to cycle throughout the park |
We decided to go on a dirt path, which led to another dirt path, which led to another...you see where this is going. We ended up basically bouldering down a pretty huge rock face, not because we were lost, but because we thought it would be interesting. Foolish, perhaps, since we were both wearing sandals, but we won't go there. I didn't take my camera out while we were climbing for what I feel are obvious reasons, but unfortunately the picture I took at the very bottom of the hill doesn't seem to accurately depict the scale of the hill or the ridiculousness of our choice.
Later in the evening I completed a short run, just to get myself kickstarted.
We finished the day with a low-key dinner (homemade pizza, wahoooo!) and a movie at home.
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| Jumping excitedly about great dough. |
It's Sunday night which means I am looking at the fridge and trying to decide what to do about dinners for the week. I definitely need to go to the market again, because we are out out out of food.
I'll let you know what great stuff I find!
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