Weekend Update: Labor Day Weekend Part Three (Yes, there is more!)

Saturday night and back in Burlington, my aunt Valerie and uncle George hosted a family gathering so we could all hang out. It was sooo much fun! I love going to their house for many reasons - first because it's where my grandparents used to live and is a part of my childhood memories. Second because it's so homey and comfortable and never gets boring! Valerie is an expert gardener, so the backyard was filled with flowers:

Among the gardens in the backyard are a few farmyard friends:
And for fresh eggs every day:
Stacy and I got this picture in the vegetable garden among TALL stalks of corn (and sunflowers in the foreground):
Mom and I were excited to see each other!
Auntie Valerie - the gracious host of the party. Thanks to her, everyone had a great time and left with full bellies!
Everyone was so happy to see Jay. I am ALWAYS happy to see him :)

Jacques and Stacers:
Uncle David (my godfather) and Aunt Lisa. Thanks Aunt Lisa for dragging him out of the house :) I think he actually had fun even though this picture doesn't really look that way!
Jackie, Jenny, Uncle Ronnie, Justin and Mikey:
We broke out the fireworks!!!
I had to take this picture. Remember the one I took in this post? Well, this is much more comfortable!
I will leave you with this picture. We were using a little pitchfork like thing to roast marshmallows and it made us think of American Gothic. What do you think?

Photo Source

Weekend Update: Labor Day Weekend Part Two

Jay and I planned this Montreal trip back when we decided we were going to Vermont as a mini-vacation to celebrate our first anniversary. Jay had never been and I have missed the frequent visits that I used to make while living in the Burlington area. It's just an hour north of Plattsburgh, so it was an easy drive:

Crossing the St. Lawrence into the city:
We arrived at the hotel after a little unplanned driving tour (I had printed out directions before we had changed the hotel we booked - oops!). We stayed at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth and were very pleased with the location, room, and service. Not only was the hotel conveniently located at the heart of the city (and on top of Central Station and connected to the underground city), but it was also the site of the John Lennon and Yoko Ono Bed-In for Peace where they recorded the song Give Peace a Chance. Their room, 1742, was just doors down from ours - 1756. Of course I had to take a picture :)
After a mini-nap, we got ready for dinner. I had done some research before our trip and made reservations at Au Pied de Cochon, a highly recommended "unique restaurant experience" in the city. Well, let me tell you, it was very interesting and I'm happy to say that Jay now deems it his best dinner ever! We hopped on the metro after a little shopping in the underground city and made it just in time for our reservation.

We started off with Foie Gras Cromesquis which were little cubes of foie gras that were battered & fried so the foie gras liquified. We were instructed to pop these dice-sized munchies into our mouths and quickly close our lips so they didn't "pop out"! It sounds really weird but it was actually quite good!
Next, we had our appetizers. Let's just say we ordered way too much food! This picture below is of the Plogue a Champlain which was a crepe, layered with thin slices of potato, then bacon, then foie gras (that big thing on the top) and then topped off with an amazingly delicious maple syrup reduction. YUM!
We also had a delicious raw tuna dish (I'm not a big seafood person at all, but it was sooo good!) and Duck Carpaccio to round off our appetizers.


For my main course, I had the PDC Melting Pot which was basically pork prepared in 4 different ways on top of mashed potatoes. I really enjoyed 2 of the 4 items - the others, not so much. See that black thing on the left? It was blood sausage. Need I say more?
Jay had the Beef Tartare which was sooooo good!
Enjoying ourselves...
For dessert, Jay had Creme Brulee and I had the Pudding Chomeur which was amazing!! I am definitely going to make it at home as it is the perfect maple syrup dessert! mmmmmm!
Saturday morning, we got up pretty early and wandered around on St. Catherine Street looking for a place for breakfast. We found a nice little patisserie and enjoyed panini, pastry and espresso.
After breakfast, we shopped St. Catherine Street. Jay has been on a never-ending search for a new pair of shoes as well as a new suit. We found some good options, but ended up empty handed. The search goes on...


I had to grab a picture of this sign on a stairway exiting the underground :)
We grabbed our car and started driving toward Old Montreal. Here is a shot of Mount Royal:
Notre-Dame Basillica in Old Montreal:
I just love the cobblestone streets in this section of town. You really do feel like you are in Europe, especially with everyone speaking French!


You can't go to Montreal without enjoying Poutine - a popular treat in the area that is made with french fries, gravy and fresh cheese curds. So I ordered some for lunch. So good! You definitely can't get poutine in Arizona but I wish I could!
Jay got the Smoked Meat pizza which was very interesting (pickles on pizza?) but tasty nonetheless!
We spent our last $5 Canadian on 2 scoops of ice cream before heading south to Vermont.
Before getting too far out of the city, we made a pit stop at Tim Hortons, a well-known coffee/donut chain in Canada for some much-needed coffee after a very long day.
Wow. You think we like food? I swear we did more than eat during this trip - really! Ha! Well, that's all for now. Much more to come and I promise less food, more people in the next post!

Weekend Update: Labor Day Weekend Part One

Jay and I headed back east for an extended Labor Day weekend. We hadn't been back to Vermont since our wedding last year and were excited to be welcomed with beautiful weather! We flew into Manchester, NH on Wednesday and made it up to Burlington by around 8:00pm. We headed directly to the Inn at Essex for dinner with Leah & Greg, Krista & Christian and Emily (Geoff was home with Sophia). It was so fun catching up and hearing about what everyone was up to! Unfortunately, it was so fun that I forgot to take a picture :( I did, however get a picture of me and my niece Bella at Leah's that night. We were very happy to see each other!

We slept at Leah and Greg's (with the windows open!!!) so we could get an early start on Thursday morning. Here is my handsome husband enjoying the fresh air on the ferry as we cross Lake Champlain to New York.
And here are the reasons we crossed the lake:

Julie and baby Finley who turned 4 weeks during our visit.

Awwwww! He was so tiny!

Poor Michael still had to work on Thursday, so we met up with him for lunch and got Michigans. For those of you that are not from the northeast, they are basically hot dogs with a meat sauce on top. Click on the link for a detailed history. They are very popular back home, and especially in Plattsburgh. Of course, I had to take a picture - looks kinda like one in my last post...I think I see a trend here....

Here is my favorite picture from the whole weekend. Finley would crack a little smile every once in a while and so I was determined to catch it on camera. I sat there waiting and finally got the shot!
Is he not the cutest? Oh, and he happens to be sporting an Amie original and is lying on the quilt I made! Love it.

Michael made a delicious dinner for us all when he got home from work. The beer on tap in their kitchen was a nice compliment!
Friday morning we took it easy and eventually made it out of the house for a delicious picnic lunch. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye and snapped a few parting pictures before heading to Montreal:

More to come soon - stay tuned!

Weekend Update: L.A. Road Trip

Well, THIS is how my weekend started on my way home from work on Friday:

It was only 116 degrees out and I had to pee! I was driving on the 60 when I realized the noise I had been hearing was my car and not the junky car that was driving behind/next to me. Getting a flat tire while driving has always been a fear of mine, so I'm kinda glad that it happened in order to help my nerves. It just made a repetitive sound (Jay later told me that that's the main indicator of a flat) and the driving felt weird. So I slowed down quite a bit and got off at the first exit I could. Jay was flying so I called AAA (that's what we pay them the big bucks for, ya know) and they came within about 20 minutes. Jay put 4 shiny new tires on it today and I'm good to go!

Now, on to the real weekend. We left early Saturday morning for L.A. Jay's boss' wife was throwing him a surprise birthday party and we decided it would be fun to go. We were also happy to escape record heat (even though L.A. was experiencing record heat too - it just wasn't as bad as in Phoenix).

About 50 miles (give or take) east of L.A., we saw huge clouds of smoke over the mountains. It's wildfire season here in the desert, so it's not uncommon to see this time of year. More on the fire later, but here is what we saw rolling into town:
Our first stop in town was Fab Hot Dogs. We had seen this place on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Friday night and figured we'd check it out since it wasn't too far from our hotel.
We hadn't really thought of the fact that there would be a crowd (we weren't the only people who saw the show by the way - whadda know). Let's just say we had plenty of time to go grab a beer at a bar down the street while we waited for our dogs. We got back just in time and this is what we had:
Left to right: Mine - The Ripper (deep fried dog) with cheddar and onions, Jay's Chicago dog, and Jay's "Bald Eagle" which is a Ripper with a house-made mustard relish on it. You can see in the picture that Jay was waiting patiently to dig in :) They were very good and I definitely recommend you check it out if you are in town (it's in the Reseda area).

Afterwards we had a much-needed nap to sleep off the big lunch and then got ready for the party. We had watched the news while getting ready and found that the fire was rapidly spreading and only 5% contained. Evacuations were happening right by the boss' house in La Canada (pronounced La Can-yada by the way - I really want to call it La Can-a-da though!). Driving up there, we had to detour a little bit around closed roads. I could see several tanker planes diving into the fire and releasing retardant (the red stuff). There were at least 5 aircraft I could see right in the action, and I'm sure there were several others in the area. Here is a photo still a little ways from their house:

This picture was taken from their backyard...
...as was this:
Luckily, the boss and his family hadn't gotten evacuated yet (they are ok) and the party went on. It was a great time and nice getting to know Jay's co-workers better. It was soooo smoky out there that we had to put our clothes in a separate bag Sunday morning so they didn't stink up everything else we had. Several guests at our hotel were evacuees and I'm not sure if it's because they were staying there or what, but the entire hotel hallways and lobby smelled like smoke Sunday morning too. This fire is now well over 100,000 acres (it was just around 20,000 on Saturday) and has taken several homes and the lives of 2 firefighters. I pray that firefighters get it under control soon before there is anymore destruction to people and property.

Sunday, Jay and I had brunch with an old friend of mine. Jonny and I went to junior high school together and have gotten back in touch through, you guessed it, Facebook. He has been in L.A. for about 10 years now and so I gave him a heads up that we were coming and they invited us over! It was so nice to catch up (it had been 17 years since we'd seen each other!) and see their beautiful home in Woodland Hills. It was built in the 60s and they have done some great renovations. Jonny's husband Jason made the most delicious bacon & cheddar quiche, potatoes, salad and sweet bread! It is moments like this that really make me glad that Facebook exists. It was so nice to be able to have a connection after all these years!

Jonny, Me, Jason

After filling up on brunch, we headed back home. The smoke was worse than ever, so it was nice to finally get out of the haze. We stopped at the outlets in Palm Springs for a little (unsuccessful) shopping and made it home around 6:30 which was really nice - gave us time to eat dinner and decompress after all that time in the car!

Tomorrow is our last day of work before we head back east to visit family and friends! It might be a little while before the next post, but we're sure to have some great pictures and updates!!