around montréal, part one

Montréal, a feel of France in North America. Here is the old Montréal (or vieux Montréal as they call it in French), with its old cobblestone roads and colonial buildings:

The old port in Montréal:
We took a cruise ride to get a quick tour of the sights.

The Biosphere:

Some condo-by-the-waterfront. Forgot its name, but the architectural design looks very interesting. Supposed to be designed by a student-architect in a local university (McGill?) many, many years ago... and this architect is now pretty famous, but I don't know his name...

us in montréal

We were in Montréal for the last few days where I had a conference. Took the opportunity to look around the place. Actually Elaine and the kids did more exploring, as I was (trying to look) busy attending some sessions during the conference.

Here are some photos of us in Montréal... will put up pictures of the place later.

A rare family photo during a vacation.... Took this outside the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal. A friendly passerby volunteered to take a photo for us. He led us to the spot where he said was the nicest place for a photo.

A colorful toy shop that stood out among the rows of shops along Rue Saint Urbain:

We had our first dinner in Montréal at a French restaurant, Le Bourlingueur. While Elaine's glazed duck was delicious, my catch-of-the-day didn't taste anything french. Nevertheless, we had a nice time there. (Actually, we had a better time at a Chinese restaurant that is one minute from our hotel.... roast duck, fried rice, 干炒牛河. And then there is a Chinese pastry shop opposite this Chinese restaurant.... so we had egg tarts, char siew bun, 菠萝包 almost twice every day. )

Charis posing along a railway track near the old port in Montréal:

And we rented a bicycle to make the touring of the waterfront much easier. Or so we thought. It turned out more siong than we expected. (This photo was taken before we rode off.)

Watertown, NY

Spent a night at Watertown, NY, 8.5 hours ride from Pittsburgh.

Went to Indian Palace for dinner. Just a 2 mins walk from the hotel.

We tried the chicken curry and "Mixed Grill Bombay" (tandoori) and naan. The dinner turned out to be pretty good - much better than what Elaine had expected. But it was the most expensive chicken curry (US$11) and naan (US$2.50 per piece) that we have ever tried. I was expected the curry to be served in a pail, or at least in a pot, but it came in bowl-size.

After that we went across the street for some friendly ice-cream.
The kids waiting for the Sargent-Major to distribute the loot...

2 clowns

Pirates

Our church organized an outing to watch a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game. (At $10 per pax, plus a free beach towel each, it was a pretty good deal.) It was the 1st time we attended a professional sports event here. Although we "catch no ball" when it comes to baseball, the atmosphere in the stadium was a fun experience for us. Might have been even more enjoyable had the Pirates played a better/winning game that night. The Pirates lost 2-5 that night to the Houston Astros - but they bounced back to defeat the Astros in the next 2 games.


The stadium has Pittsburgh downtown and Allegheny River as a backdrop, providing a pretty nice view:

@ sunset:

Swimmers and divers

The summer really feels like summer. And life is good when there is a pool just outside the apartment, and we go for a dip whenever we can. Next time, we should get a condo. Or a HDB that has a pool nearby. Or live near friends who live in condo.

idling in the wild

Brought the kids to Idlewild last week. It was our 2nd visit, and this time we went with Maddy and family. The girls had a great time going through the Storybook Forest and looking at different storybook characters coming to life.

There was something fun for everyone, including the adults:

Josiah getting ready for take off: