Montreal

Last week I was lucky enough to be on vacation.  And doubly lucky in that I was actually able to go somewhere on my vacation: Montreal, Quebec!  Why Montreal?  Well, Muse is on tour and Montreal was the city that best worked out for me, my sister, and my brother-in-law to all go see them (they live in Central New York, which, relatively speaking, isn't that far from Montreal).  Plus, it had been over a decade(!) since I'd been up there and I quite like the city.  I also have a friend who lives there, so it was an added bonus to get to hang out with him.
I headed north to my parents' house on Saturday and Sunday Martha and Ed came and got me and we were off to the great nation of Canada (with a brief stop in Potsdam to go Eben's Hearth and see all the new construction at Clarkson)!  We didn't do much on Sunday except check in to the hotel and grab dinner with my friend, Blue at The Three Brewers (very tasty!).  Monday, though, it was time for a little sightseeing!  And me, being horrible about such things, only took pictures at the first place we went to, St. Joseph's Oratory. 

We were also lucky to have very nice weather

Blue had recommended we check out the oratory, but I also wanted to go there so I could get this picture:

Look at that lovely young couple!

And why did I want that picture?  Why, because I had this picture, of course!:

Look at that lovely young couple!

That would be my Grammie and Grandpa at the same spot, some many, many years earlier. 

We didn't go see the reliquary, but we wandered around most of the rest of the basilica.  It has a huuuuuge organ.

I don't even know how you'd play that.

And, naturally, quite a few pretty stained glass windows.

Ed said the color theme reminded him of the Scarlet Monastery

The oratory also has a museum, which houses approximately one bajillion versions of the nativity from all over the world.  They range from very simple depictions:

From Eritrea

To very fancy-pants:

Who knew Jesus was born in a very gaudy palace?  Thanks Poland!

From cute and simple:

Don't remember where this was from.

To horrifying:

Gaah!  Curse you, South Africa, marionettes are creepy!!

Abstract:

Yep, those are bowling pins

Silly:

If you can't tell, those are snowmen.  USA, keepin' it classy!

Overly complicated:

This is just one side of this one from Germany, and the whole thing is this busy.

And just plain pretty and tasteful (this was one of my favorites):

Don't remember where this was from, either.

There were a lot more, and I took pictures of many of them, but I think you get the idea.

And since this is where I stopped taking any pictures, I'll just kind of gloss over the rest of the trip.  We went to the planetarium next, which was super neat.  We got there in time for the English presentation and the played around with some of the interactive exhibits for a while.  Then it was back to the hotel and dinner at the Irish Embassy Pub & Grill where Ed got their peanut butter bacon burger, which I find the concept of to be horrifying, but Ed said it wasn't bad.

Tuesday!  I was in rough shape from trying to keep up with people who have longer legs than me and who also have been running races.  But, I hobbled along and tried to keep my complaining down to a minimum.  Ed really wanted to see the Formula One race track out on Ile Notre-Dame, so we headed out there.  He thought it was pretty neat.  I thought it was a road and thus not particularly interesting.  La Ronde is out there, too, but unfortunately doesn't open until May, so no roller coasters that day.  After wandering around the track for a while, we all decided we were pretty tuckered out and headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit for the concert that evening.  We stayed at the Hotel Espresso which, while not the fanciest of hotels, was reasonably priced and about two blocks from the Bell Centre, so we were able to just walk on over for the concert.  And the concert was sooo great!  Our seats were pretty high up, but we were off to the side of the stage, not all the way across the arena, so we could still see pretty well.  It was a lot of fun!  The 2nd Law isn't Muse's best album, for sure, but those boys sure can put on a show.  Poor Blue had originally planned on going with us, but got stuck having to go to class, so we hung out for a while after the show.

Wednesday!  Time to leave Montreal and head back home.  Blue took us to breakfast at Chez Cora where I had an incredibly delicious crepe full of raspberries and cream cheese.  And then it was time to go.  Unfortunately, we hit road construction and a huge detour, so it took a lot longer to get back than anticipated, but we went straight to Stefano's where we had garlic knots and pizza, which made it all better.

Thursday!  Back to Virginia!  Ugh, that's a long drive.  But I stopped in Richmond on the way for dinner with my friend Josh, so that made it a lot better (and also allowed me to avoid the worst of the traffic on 64).

Friday!  Yeah, I didn't do much.  I played Dishonored and did a little housework, and that was about it.  And Saturday it was back to work.  I really had a great time in Montreal.  Hopefully I'll be able to get back there (and/or Ottawa) again sometime before another decade goes by.

Chicken Stir Fry

Today's "tasty recipe with about a million ingredients" is chicken stir fry!  There's a lot of prep work involved, but once you have everything chopped, minced, sliced, and grated it's pretty easy.  Here's what you need: 2 C broccoli florets; 1/4 C peanut oil; 2 Tbsp minced garlic; 1 Tbsp grated ginger; 1 onion, sliced; 1/2 C chopped scallion; 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1/2" chunks; 2 Tbsp soy sauce; salt and pepper; 1/2 C chicken stock.

Cook the broccoli in a pot of boiling water for about 2 minutes and then drain it and set it aside.  Over high heat, put half your oil in a large skillet.  Swirl that around for a bit and add in half of the garlic and half of the ginger and stir that around for about 15 seconds.  And in the onion and stir that around for about 2 minutes.  Now toss in the broccoli and scallion and stir it all around for about 5 minutes (your broccoli should be tender, but don't let it cook so long it gets mushy).

Turn the heat down to medium and remove all the veggies.  Add to the pan the rest of the oil, garlic, and ginger.  Stir that a bit, then add in the chicken.  Turn the heat back up to high, let the chicken cook undisturbed for about a minute, stir, and keep cooking the chicken, stirring occasionally until the chicken is no longer pink.  Should take about 5 minutes.  Now put all the vegetables back in the pan, stir it around, and add in the soy sauce.  Sprinkle it all with salt and pepper and add the chicken stock.  Keep cooking on high, stirring and making sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan, until the liquid is reduced a bit (say around a minute).

And you're done!  I recommend serving this over some nice jasmine rice.  You can also put whatever else you want for vegetables.  I just happen to like broccoli.  Enjoy!