sweet caroline

shaub xmas 2007
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

apparently, we underestimated the holiday traffic, even at 5am on december 24, at the airport, and missed our check in, which had to be 45 minutes prior to departure. luckily, the nice woman at the counter found us new flights and didn't charge us extra even though we had discount tickets that were nonrefundable nonchangeable.

while we were flying to miami en route to montreal, amy's--mike's sister--water broke. we arrived late monday night/early tuesday morning to learn that she was in labor and would have the baby soon. amy had a xmas baby--caroline.

we visited them the following day at the hospital and met mike's new niece for the first time. she had strawberry blond hair like paul. they were able to come home the following afternoon. being a newborn, caroline slept most of the time we were there, even whilst nursing. i think there were two times when she had her eyes, which were a dark blue grey, open.

she's quite adorable and not fussy at all--the most peaceful sleeper. with all the excitement, i had a chance to do some cooking for the family. on one of the days, we picked up some challah bread from a deli, and i made some darn good thick-sliced french toast for dinner, which everyone enjoyed.

it was nearing the end of our trip, and amy felt like we were house-bound and not getting any experience of montreal, although we were glad to spend the time with everyone, including the baby. i did a little research on chowhound for a lunch place and google to find a couple things to do. many of the nice french restaurants were not open for lunch or were closed through the holidays until early jan. we narrowed our options down to lemeac and laloux. amy thought laloux was better, so that's where we went.

or so we thought. paul came with us, which was great, not just for company, but as we found out, the resto was not open for lunch, even though the website clearly had a lunch menu, so we went to lemeac, which was plenty delicious. mike had a cheese omelet and frites from the brunch menu. i had seared scallops with mushrooms, kale & creamed potatoes. paul had this black cod with cherry tomatoes. all the food was great. we ended by sharing some profiteroles with vanilla bean ice cream instead of the typical custard and covered with chocolate sauce an almonds. yum!

after lunch, paul dropped us off at the metro, where we proceeded to the biodome, an enclosed dome with 5 different ecosystems. it was fun seeing the little animals, although the monkeys were not cooperating with my picture taking in the low light no flash conditions. some areas looked empty, like the laurentian forest, but we did see a beaver cam with napping beaver. the porcupine with his big coat of quills was even more uncooperative as a photo subject than the playful monkeys.

on the way back, we visited the "underground city", which sounded exciting but was more mall-like than anticipated, and stopped to get bagels from st. viatueur, one of the recommended places. the bagels, cooked in a wood oven, are crunchier and sweeter than the ones we are familiar with here.

during our visit, we also took a tour of paul's & amy's new lab, including looking at the fancy microscopes & various mixing machines. i had some trouble following how the confocal microscope worked, but was curious about what kind of photos you could make with it. i did take some photos of my apparently dry skinned finger through one of the regular microscopes.

it was a nice trip, but we are glad to be home. click here for the photolog of the trip. i swear it's way more interesting than my musings.