Montreal Adventures - A Look Back At 2013

With the year winding down, it's a good time to reflect on adventures I wanted to have in Montreal in 2013. Most of the year was consumed with finishing and shipping Batman: Arkham Origins, but I still managed to get out and enjoy myself from time-to-time.

Embrace winter (if it ever comes)

Go skating, tobogganing, maybe even snowshoeing - at least once a week.  Find and enjoy more tea or hot chocolate.

We had a short, fairly mild winter again, so I only managed to go skating three times in January/February, but two of them were during winter festivals: Fête des Neiges and Winterlude. I hope we get the same ice skating path in Parc Jean-Drapeau this year! As for new tea places, we enjoyed tea at Maison du Macaron and at Birk's Cafe. Highly recommend both places!

Embrace summer (when it comes)

Find and enjoy new terrasses.  Eat outside on my own. Finally attend a show at the Just For Laughs festival.  Spend time at the Jazz Festival.  Have a picnic in a park.  Watch the fireworks from Jacques Cartier bridge.  Find and enjoy more shop-made ice cream.

D and I finally went to two Just For Laughs shows - one gala and one of the smaller shows at Club Soda. I also happened to be walking around Place des Arts at the time and enjoyed a bit of the street festival. A friend got some tickets to the Fantasia Film festival and invited me to a film from Taiwan made in the style of a 1950's American musical (but sung in Mandarin). In September, I spent four crazy days exploring Montreal with tourists from the USA and Europe during the MEETin Invasion. That was about it for this goal. Fortunately, many of the other goals are summer-related :)

Walk or ride my bike just for the fun of it. 

This was by far my most successful goal of the year. In the Spring, a friend at work got me to join him on his daily walks at lunch. We usually walk 30 to 45 minutes through either the Village or Old Montreal. Those walks have really helped maintain my sanity. In August, a friend and I started doing major cycling, with our longest ride being about 60km, taking us to and around Iles-de-Boucherville. 

More solo street photography (outside of my monthly MEETin photo walks)

I didn't do any solo photo walks outside of a brief wander around Queen's University campus after the ice storm this week. However, my lunchtime walking buddy found the Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest, so we spent September seeking out and photographing the monuments around work. It was a lot of fun and we discovered some places we didn't know were monuments.

Go to Jean Talon or Atwater market every week.

It wasn't every week, but I did go to the market regularly. As a result, I cooked and brought my lunch to work more regularly.

Go to the Botanical Gardens (my favorite) or some other park once a month.

With Mosaïcultures at the Botanical Gardens this year, the outdoor gardens did not have free admission for Access Montreal card holders from July through September. However, I did get to see the Mosaïcultures exhibit twice this year and it was spectacular! The bike rides usually went to a park, so there were still plenty of nature moments.

Visit museums.  

I took advantage of a web deal and became a member of the Musée des Beaux-Arts this year. So far, I have seen three of the temporary exhibits, my favourite of which was the glass art by Chihuly. I also thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the new planetarium and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Both are worth visiting.

Explore more restaurants, especially in my own neighbourhood and around work.

Sadly, I didn't do much in this area. Most of the new restaurant experiences came from travelling, rather than around Montreal. However, I did finally get to try Les Filles du Roy during MTL à Table. The food is delicious and the historic setting is worth experiencing.

Wear fashionable clothes.  

My wardrobe continues to evolve. I have been investing in some items from Katrin Leblond, a local designer who has a boutique in my neighbourhood. I love shopping there and always leave feeling fabulous!

Do more travelling.

Almost all of my travel was work related, none of which I would have predicted at the beginning of the year. I went to Frankfurt in May, Los Angeles (with a day trip to San Diego) in June, and New Orleans for the annual PMI Leadership Institute Meeting in October. The only vacation travel was spending a week at the same cottage where we spent our honeymoon and a Thanksgiving weekend roadtrip to Bois-Franc and Arbraska tree-top adventures in Rigaud.

Update this blog once a month.

This will be the 15th post on this blog this year. It wasn't exactly a monthly schedule, but I'm still happy with the amount of content I posted. I also wanted to make this blog more interesting. I didn't do anything special for that, so I don't think I made much progress on that goal. My weekend at Blissdom got me thinking about what I could potentially do with this blog. I'll do some more thinking this week and include any new goals with my 2014 goals.

As for my 2014 goals... I will be publishing them in the first days of January. If you have any suggestions on adventures in Montreal I should try, please let me know in the comments! I would also love to hear about any of your most memorable adventures this past year.

I hope everyone had a great 2013 and hope you enjoy the rest of the holiday season!

Making The Best Of Business Travel

I didn't blog much in May and June because I was away a fair amount - twice on business.  Like everyone early in their career, I thought business travel would be so sexy.  Then I got a job where I had to travel every month.  That's when I learned that it can take a lot of energy, so I learned a few things about how to make the best of business travel.

Downtown Frankfurt after a day of rain

In May, I spent a week in Frankfurt for work.  Fortunately, D and I spent about 24 hours in Frankfurt about 20 months earlier.  We saw more then than I did in my week in May - I was working that much.  How can you make the best of a situation like that?

1. Bring your camera
• I was lucky to get a room with a great view and was able to go for a short walk around the hotel.  By having my travel camera with me, I was able to get a great shot of downtown Frankfurt on a moody night (above) and feel a little like a tourist during my walk.  During my last visit, D and I saw a life-sized Batman statue on a street I knew wasn't far from the hotel.  So, I was on a mission to get a picture.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find it again - but the quest was fun!
2. Practice your German
• I got to practice - just a little bit. Still, it was fun to practice the language... and help a colleague buy his dinner.
3. Eat like a local
• In Germany, the main meal is traditionally at lunch with sandwiches and cold cuts in the evening.  The company I was working with always made sure we had a decent lunch, often with food Germans typically eat. For dinner, I raided a grocery store near the hotel, buying bread, cheese, wine, chocolate and an antipasti plate.  Yeah, antipasti is Italian, but cultures are crossing borders in Europe, just like in North America.  

Zombies at E3

In June, I was honoured to be sent to E3 - the biggest trade show in the video game industry.  It was a working trip.  I spent a good part of the three days working in the booth, providing support to press VIPs as they played a demo of our game.  I also spent a good part of my time in the hotel room, answering emails and providing support to the team back at the office.  Still, I managed to walk around the exhibition floor and have some fun outside of the show. Best tips from this trip are:

1. Bring your spouse
• This was the first time D came along with me on a business trip.  I am SO glad he came.  We got him a free affiliate pass (he is affiliated with the video game industry), so he got to take in the show floor and do some networking on his own. Still, checking out the show floor and trying out some games with him was fun.  When a show event didn't work out one evening, we decided to try a delicious urban farm restaurant. I love my colleagues, but I have been seeing them a lot lately, so it was needed change to spend some time with my husband in a work context.
2. Finally meet some people... in person
•  In our uber-connected world, we often do business over email, telephone and web meetings. While it can work well for the day-to-day, it still makes a big difference to meet the people you are working with face-to-face. Since my time was limited, I only met with the people I currently work with and past partners I particularly enjoyed working with.  That is a lot more useful and enjoyable way to spend precious time.
3. Take care of some (long overdue) personal business
• Nothing feels better than being able to take care of some long overdue personal business - no matter where you are! It only took an hour and it's DONE.
4. Bad flight schedule? No problem! Visit a favorite place.
• I was booked on the red-eye flight back to Montreal and I couldn't get D on the same flight. Ugh. Well, LA is only about two hours away from San Diego, so I decided to rent a car and spend the afternoon at the San Diego Zoo.  Last time I visited was 2001, so I was looking forward to taking my DSLR and adding to a collection of photos originally shot in film.  In addition, due to an accident on the highway, it took me twice as long as expected to drive to San Diego, but I was treated to a drive through Cleveland National Forest, west of Temecula.  So, the next time you are booked on a less-than-ideal flight, take the opportunity to visit a favorite place or a new place. 

Turtle photo bomber!

Related articles

• Infographic: Business Travel
• Making the Most Out of Business Travel