Montreal Day 1

Wednesday 5/19:
The airport was busier than I thought for such an early flight. Highlights include trying to check my bag onto a Hong Kong flight, not taking off belts and shoes for security, and the flight itself was pretty entertaining thanks to the flight attendants. It was the Canadian equivalent of Southwest Airlines, so the flight staff was fun and told jokes, and didn't have any of that fake courtesy you find on most flights. There was a small mechanical problem with the terminal tunnel when we landed, but for the most part the flight was good. I had a middle seat and still had plenty of room. I always find it strange that the flight from Toronto to Montreal uses a big plane but from Houston to Toronto you are on sardine can.
We checked into the Holiday Inn Express close to noon before heading down to Vieux-Monreal to walk around. This hotel is so much better than the Best Western. I have a suite and the location is only a pleasant 20 min walk to the waterfront and the event hotel, which we couldn't set up until 5. That left plenty of time to wander.
The group walked close to the waterfront, where I had meandered about last year, and ate at a terraced restaurant named Jardin Nelson. I had some Montreal red beer and a 4 cheese pizza, one of which was goat cheese. Nothing comparable to the two previous meals, but still tasty. A little pricey too, but it was a really nice atmosphere with live music. The also had a "Tex-Mex" chicken, red beens, and sour cream pizza...
After lunch we made our way to Notre Dame, but didn't feel like paying the entry fee, so we just looked at the outside. As luck would have it, there was a port-a-potty outside, but due to construction I couldn't get the cathedral in the background, only a cool looking clock tower. I got a really strange look from the team when I requested the picture, but we laughed about it.
We walked down towards the water on the same side-street past the Christmas shop that Dan, James, and I found last year. I ducked into a small church that had 9 model ships hanging from the ceiling, just like in Copenhagen. We then made our way to the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel where we were running the event to coordinate set up.
It sucked, the event staff was terrible, didn't listen to what we wanted, and undid a lot of the things we set up ourselves. They had logistic problems with our keal cases too. I hope we never have to rely on using a big fancy hotel again, it was much better before the Montreal office closed.
We showed up late to the big team dinner with the Montreal team from setup again. I had snails in a garlic-basil sauce as an appetizer, and venison sausage with a side of french fries cooked in duck fat for the main course. The duck fat didn't really affect that taste, but made the fries really crispy, which was good. I washed everything down with another Montreal red beer before topping the night off with a chocolate marquis in caramel sauce. The conversation at this dinner was good, but not as good as Toronto. Since we arrived late, we sat together, so I didn't get a good chance to mingle with the Montreal team until late. I got back later than I would have liked and really could have used some extra sleep, but it was a fun night.