Bienvenue à Montreal!

We woke up at 4am this morning to head to the airport for our trip to Montreal. While we typically go on longer and more exotic international destinations, Will has been wanting to go to this film festival, Fantasiafest, for a while now and he was finally going to get to do one of his picks!  So while we are mainly here for the Fantasia Film Festival, Will had also promised to have other fun things planned.  In our relationship, the person who picks the trip does most, if not all, of the planning and Will wasn't playing around.  As I was packing last night, Will let me know he already had reservations for almost every meal and he already had places he wanted to go all mapped out so today when he landed, I knew he already had a plan ready to go.  Here's his map.  All those little pins are his.  Man, do I love this guy.

First we stopped at a dumpling spot for lunch. Montreal has a ton of Chinese people so there have been tons of yummy Asian spots but this place is known for their homemade dumplings. They were delicious!

From there, we went to the box office to pick up the movie tickets for our movies this week. While there are probably a ton that Will wants to see, we are seeing just three! 

After checking into our AirBnB apartment, we decided to hike up to the top of Mont Royal, Montreal's namesake. It was gorgeous and breezy at the top and they had great views of the city! 

From there, we walked to the nearby Beaver Lake, which was just beautiful. The area all around the lake was so lush and green and just the perfect spot for the many groups of people who came to picnic and befriend squirrels. 

It was such perfect weather that we even decided to take a break and just nap in the sunshine, right on the grass!  It was so gorgeous out!  Even Will, who hates al fresco dining and getting sweaty and being around bugs, had a great time. Maybe we were just so exhausted from the early wake up. 

After that, we went to a little Japanese restaurant that Will read about online. Apparently there was always a line but it was delicious so we decided to give it a go. Well, it was AMAZING!  We had the white tuna sashimi, beef kalbi, grilled mackerel, and black tea ice cream. It was so delicious I wanted to get back in line for a second go! While we ultimately didn't, we have talked about going again before the trip is over. It was that good!

Now we are back at our apartment to rest up and shower before a 11:55pm film screening!! Let's hope I don't fall asleep!!