Fall Trip, October 2009

3rd October, 2009
We are supposed to leave for Montreal and Vermont tonight, but looking at the state of our packing it’s hard for anyone to believe that. A friend from Austin was visiting California from Austin and he was staying with us. His flight was in the afternoon from San Jose. We woke, chatted and had breakfast at a leisurely pace, and then when he could delay no longer, we started for the airport. After dropping him off at the airport we went to our nephew’s place to say goodbye because we’ll be missing him for almost 2 weeks. After all this we come back home around 2 0’clock, and decide that it’s high time, the packing needs to be finished right away. So we bring out a rucksack and a carry on and stuff whatever we need to stuff keeping in mind the weather conditions. Then we had lunch and was thinking of whether to take a nap or not when another friend called and said they would drop by. They had something to return. They came around 6 pm and left after half an hour. Lucky for me they came because I could transfer
Flight from San Francisco to Philadelphia and then Buffalo @ 10.45 pm.
Anshu leaves at 11.30, from there we go to orko’s. come back home around 2, have lunch, do the packing.
Rob da and pritha di come around 6 and leave around 6.30.
soon after we start for amit’s where there is a laxmi puja along with khichuri and labra.
We leave their place after 8.30 and then go to tutul’s office to print the boarding passes and mainly to keep the APs which rob da returned.
There was a bit of a hurry initially but the roads were all clear and we reached in time. Parked the car, and took the shuttle to the airport.
4th oct
Reached philly one hour ahead of schedule at 6 am. Tried to take the earlier plane to buffalo but the airlines would charge $50 for each person so we sat at the airport for 3 hours.
Reached buffalo around 11, went straight to hertz, took the car and headed straight to Niagara falls. It was awesome. Did the cave of the winds and then went to the Canadian side of the falls. There was a queue at the entry point, and oh, these new Yorkers charge toll all over the place. God knows how much toll we paid during our entire trip, should have kept an account.
The Canadian side was really beautiful. Had lunch of tapas at one of the places in front of the falls. After lunch went to the maid of the mist. It was awesome. And during the boat ride we saw a rainbow whose arch went from end to end and even under the water. We were soaked wet.
After this came back to usa. This was also a trial to see if we could enter the country with an expired visa. We smoothly came inside without so much as a question raised. Went to boku da’s place for the night. The kids and tutul played ice hockey in the basement. They were all very excited and didn’t want to go to sleep but they had school the next day, so somehow they were put to sleep. After they went to sleep we chatted till 12.
Dinner was a feast with veg chop, macher dimer bora, tandoori chicken, bhaat, daal, palong shaker tarkari, mach, panther mangsho, chutney, payesh. I may even miss something. Oh yeah, chingri mach. Now it’s complete I think and all this was home cooked! Mini cooks everything at home.
5th oct
we woke up after 8.30 and by that time everyone was gone. Had breakfast and made a sandwich with the veg chops and bread. Hit the road for montreal via Toronto. This time the lady at the Canadian customs asked too many questions. The drive was a long one and I got a bit bored. so we went off the highway and near a boat docking area.
Reached motreal around 7.30/8.00 and started looking for hotels on st. denis. This was the downtown area of the city and we stopped at the first hotel we came across. I went inside and inquired about the availability and price. To my surprise I found an Indian grandpa at the counter. He said it would be $80 for two people so we took it for the night. The room was ok but later we found that it was way over priced. One thing which I noticed over there was that the entry to all the hotels were closed. You had to ring a bell and then someone would buzz you in. don’t know why it was like that. Parked the car at the library garage nearby because street parking was expensive. This was suggested by our Indian grandpa who by the thought we were sri Lankans and when that wasn’t correct he was definite we were tamilians. He was from bihar and I should have guessed it from the bright blue colors of the door.
Went out for dinner and had dinner at a crepe place. The two young ladies at the restaurant captivated tutul and so the food tasted amazing to him. The food was really good though. And after the crepes we had dessert, each had his own individual one. I had a lemon tart and tutul a chocolate mousse. Both were delicious.
There was a funny setting on one of the uqam campus. The lawn in front had been adorned with red suitcase belts kind of things. And inside the lawn chairs were placed. Two or three or four together. Each had a year marked on them and none of them faced each other. They all faced away from each other. Probably an installation of some sort.
After dinner we roamed around and looked up hotels, and more or less settled on one. The price was the cheapest but more than that the building and the interior appealed to us. It was nothing fancy or anything like that, but it had those attic type rooms and we were hoping to get one. And every hotel we went into to inquire the first I checked was whether they had free breakfast in the morning. We tried three and all three of them had. Even our grandpa hotel had, but we skipped it.
6th oct
Checked out and made reservations at the other hotel and managed to get a room right at the top floor facing the street!
Went out. walked straight down Ontario street. Had brunch at eggspectation, located in the hyatt building. Then headed for the walking tour which was to start at 1.30 from the notre dame. On the way also passed the uqam campus.
Reached the notre dame just in the nick of time. Our guide was a middle aged man. He was from montreal. He looked sort of funny with his big wide expressive eyes, and the way he talked was quite amusing, in the manner of a theatrical character, moving his hands in every possible direction and rolling his eyes every now and then. But he was a nice man. His ancestors had arrived from france to montreal in 1650. In the beginning I thought that I heard the wrong date but later on I clarified that it was indeed 1650. We went inside the notre dame. What struck me was the fact that the outer façade wasn’t very decorative. Looked very ordinary but the interiors were breathtaking and what was even more striking was the fact that all the intricate work was done in wood! He took us to st. paul street which was supposed to be demolished for building a bridge but at the last moment it was saved due to the intervention of someone. They are now restoring it in the fashion of the old ages with cobbled streets and old style street lamps. This was a tour of the old montreal part with the waterfront and the market place. The bonsecours market as it was called was similar to the ferry building in san Francisco, full of boutiques and restaurants. We went to the city or the governor’s building where the guide showed us his ancestor’s name in one of the plaques there where was mentioned the names of people who had died in an epidemic of scurvy.
After the tour went to the clock tower, did some fall photography. From the harbor bridge where we standing we could see the biosphere which was initially made for the world expo when it was held in montreal. We had walked a lot that day, and came back to our hotel in the evening. Freshened up and changed into fancy coats and stuff. As we came down our hotel steps, a delicious smell of warm pizza wafted towards us from the pizza joint right next door. But tutul didn’t want to go there because we were not dressed for a greasy joint. So we ended up having pizza and wine at a restaurant which cost us $80! The antipasto platter was awesome though.
Came back and plopped into bed.
7th oct
Went down to have our free continental breakfast. Went to the reception where the man asked, tea or coffee? I said coffee, with milk. Then he said, we have croissant, chocolate muffin and blueberry muffin. I asked for a croissant. He put one croissant on the tray, poured some milk from the fridge into my coffee, put a small glass of orange juice and handed me the tray. That was our continental breakfast!
There were predictions of heavy rain and so we decided to take the car. The sky was overcast but it didn’t rain much. It was chilly though. Explored different parts of the city and had dinner at crescent street. At a place called sir Winston Churchill or something like that. Tutul had poutine here which his French-canadian boss martin had recommended. The dish tasted good but after having it he remarked, now I know why martin weighs 250 pounds. It consisted of French fries, with peppercorns and lots of cheese and some sort of gravy. The taste was good though. Something with so much grease and fat has to taste good, right?
Walked around, went into a mall, did some night photography of notre dame which didn’t turn out well without the tripod. It was very windy at this time and at times gusts of wind kept pushing us. Came back around 9/9.30. we were feeling a bit hungry by now and so we decided to go to a dessert place we had seen on the first night, by the name of Juliette and chocolat. We gorged on two separate dessert dishes. I had a brownie with ice cream and melted chocolate. The melted chocolate was so decadent. If you are to enjoy things like this you shouldn’t be a weight watcher, at least for the moment. Because the pleasure has to be guiltless. The taste of smooth, silky molten chocolate slowly dissolving in your mouth…that’s heaven for me.
8th oct
Headed for quebec city, because we had nothing more to explore in montreal. The road was very nice with fall colors stretching for miles on both sides of the road. At times it rained very hard and visibility was very poor. It was a bit scary but thrilling. Reached quebec city around noon, went to the information centre. Gathered a map. Then had lunch and started exploring. It was a very old city, and its past history was still there with all the forts and the buildings.
I have this habit of buying magnets and when we bought a quebec city magnet we discovered a street on the magnet which we hadn’t been to and probably wouldn’t have, but for the magnet. It was called petit champlain street and was filled with shops of all types…a very busy place, filled with tourists and people. we were deciding whether to stay back in the city or move on
Finally decided to move on because there was nothing much to do and we had to reach Albany the next day by 2 to pick up konkona who would be joining us from new York. So we drove on and stopped at sherbrooke, close to the us border.
9th oct
Entered the us customs. The man at the centre was a young man, very chirpy. He was surprised that we had come from California in this cold chilly weather. But the fall colors are beautiful. Yes, he agreed. When we saw tutul’s visa had expired, he said so. Tutul explained that he still had a valid I-97 and he said ok. The way he said ok sounded very much like that he didn’t know this rule. He asked his supervisor who was around and his supervisor okayed us. So we got to enter usa again. We entered through 91 in vermont.
Went to the Vermont info centre where the lady gave us a map and marked out 100 which was in peak at the time. it was not an interstate and went north-south. We took 100 for a while and then charted our own route from the map to reach Albany in the shortest time, and even then we were more than half an hour late. Had my first sub during this drive.
Picked up konkona and went to benington where we were staying. The motel couldn’t find our reservation. A desi lady came out on ringing the bell who knew nothing. She just made another reservation and let us stay. Didn’t even tell us the amount we would have to pay. All she said was, you stay now, pay tomorrow. So we stayed. The room was nice, with doors on both sides. And there was a pond in the area which looked very much like the ponds in the horror movies where people are killed and dumped. The weather was foggy and cloudy and drizzling with rain and that gave the area all the more a feel like a horror movie.
We went out to the downtown area and they were having a moose festival there. All over the place mooses were painted in different types and later that weekend they were to be auctioned. We spotted quite a few and konkona documented most of them.
10th oct
Drove around on route 100. But the weather was bad with rain and clouds. Had lunch at a small town called Jamaica, where I had a bowl of chili. It seemed like a family owned thing where the entire family was involved in the business. A couple was performing in a side room. Both of them had a wonderful voice. They sang song of san Francisco and after the song was over, the lady said it feels like san Francisco outside. And konkona said you people, bring rain with you whenever you come here. The last time we came to new York in april, it rained so heavily that we couldn’t go out for the most part.
After lunch I drove for a while. It was fun driving on the mountain roads, but the rain took away some of the fun. After a while I had to give up because a large number of cars had lined up behind me.
We continued on 100 and after a while konkona drove with the same results. We stopped at a place where it was sunny and there was a lake with the reflection of the fall colors. The mountains seemed bright in patches where sunshine had struck. Entered new York state and stayed at queensbury for the night. Had dinner at red lobster, again for the first time.
11th oct
Went to lake George and the Adirondacks and then started for Albany around 1. Reached with a few minutes to spare. Then started the long drive back to buffalo. Went to see Niagara again, by night. Tutul wanted to the Canadian side again, but I refused. There was no point in going at this time. Our flight was the next day, and if for some reason we got stuck…
Had dinner at hard rock café, again a first for me.
Repacked and arranged everything in our hotel
12th oct
Woke up at 4 am and headed straight for the airport. Never reached the airport so much before time. Reached home at 1 pm, pacific time.