Travel

At Home in Montreal

Hubby-bike-Montreal.jpg

At the end of last week, Hubby and I fled the country for a few days and were able to check off 1/5 of my 30 Before 30 #2 goal: Visit 5 places I've never been.  Since Montreal is only about a 5 hour drive away, we thought it was the perfect location for a quick getaway. One of the highlights of the trip for me was the Griffintown Cafe.  The design-nerd in me had found home.

Griffintown

It definitely had a vintage European- meets hipster vibe to it (without trying to hard or being snooty) and I dug it.

Griffintown-Seating

Not only was the food awesome (Hubby got a gruyere grilled cheese sandwich, and I got a salad with grilled veggies and goat cheese), but they mixed antiques and modern elements in the decor expertly.

Griffintown-Bar

The environment was very casual with chalkboard menus, exposed brick, and vintage-inspired "whiskey" water bottles.

Griffintown-Water

The exposed kitchen sported a punched tin clad vent-hood (which I regrettably wasn't able to get a decent picture of) and mason jars filled with spices.  One of my favorite things probably was the mix of cabinetry.  The kitchen side had light lower cabinets with dark stained doorless cabinets above while the adjacent bar was a mid-tone wood with open shelving.  If it hasn't been obvious with my recent kitchen renovation, mixing tones like that makes me weak in the knees.

Griffintown-Kitchen

My affinity for this cafe certainly wasn't hurt by the fact that it's in a neighborhood with several fascinating antique stores.

The Griffintown Cafe will definitely be a must-stop if we ever take another trip to Montreal!

 

My Buddy the Giraffe

I'm a little off schedule and routine here (and by 'a little' I really mean super duper off schedule and routine), so my posting isn't as regular as I was planning. Please enjoy this un-photoshopped, un-cropped and un-retouched giraffe picture I took at the zoo as an apology (yes we were that close!)

Giraffe Closeup

Any zoo which offers a highly interactive experience with the animals like the Brevard Zoo does is ok in my book. Feeding and making friends with giraffes and exotic birds is my idea of a fun trip to the zoo.

Feeding birdies

They let you buy snacks to feed certain animals so that they come up to you, land on you, nudge you, etc= awesome.

tropical bird

So far we've done a lot of relaxing on this vacation, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm craving some adventuring. Not too much adventuring here on Florida's space coast in the rain, so I think that'll have to wait until the next trip.

We'll have to get creative with our time today, it's a little huricaney (huricaney's a technical word....). Who's up for some puddle-jumping??

Poolside Greetings

My apologies if you saw the half-written post that accidentally got posted. I'm attempting to blog from the ipad for the first time and I blame user error....Plus, I'm distracted. This is my current view.

Florida Pool View

It's been a busy past few days, but a good busy. Before our early am flight yesterday to Florida (and lack of wifi yesterday... Disaster! Don't worry, crisis averted), we attended my college roommates beautiful wedding, AND accepted an offer on Clark(!!!!!!!!!!!). More details on Clark later since it still hast quite sunk in yet. At least when I started doing my ridiculous happy dance, I was at a wedding on a dance floor, so no one was judging... I hope.

Speaking of wedding, the venue was amazing!

Wickham Park CT view

They got married under that arch with an amazing view of Hartford in the background, and she DIYed all the decor. A girl after my own heart, no wonder we worked out so well as roomies.

Hope Flowers

The room with the dj and dance floor was a charming cabin ...

Wickham Park Chandelier

...complete with moose head. Normally I'm not a huge fan, but the groom put his touch on the decor with a baby's breath wreath, so it totally made mr. Moose rise to the occasion.

Wickham Park Moose

Wickham Girls

dress twirl

Beautiful wedding and congrats to the new Mr. & Mrs.!!!!

Maybe tomorrow I should get out of the sun to blog so I can actually see what photos I'm posting... And maybe I'll either figure out the Wordpress ipad ap or blog from a real computer.... Maybe.

Until tomorrow!