As we pulled into Montreal, Tom Tom loast his signal because of the tall buildings. The poor thing had no idea where we were or where we should go. It was like having a blind guide dog, getting a bit of information then walking you right into traffic. We were all on our own now. It was around 8:00 pm, we’d been on the road for 16 hours and luckily we hadn’t lost it yet.
Our first stop was Crudessence, a raw foods restaurant on Rachael Ave. We don’t have a raw food place near us so we had to get there before they closed so we could try it.
Raw food is not the same as sushi. Incase you are not familiar with it, the basic idea is that it’s fresh fruits, veggies and nuts. Nothing is cooked (thus… raw) and at a really good restaurant they can create things that you swear were not only cooked but good old fashioned home cooking! But it’s all fruits, veggies and nuts so it’s very healthy and this place was very good at putting together their meals. It was worth the drive from Bar Harbor just to eat here.
While Sandra was in ordering our dinner, I waited with the dogs in the car. The weather was nice so I had the windows down and I was watching and listening to the people walking by. To my delight about 30% of the people walking by spoke English! I wasn’t as much of a foreigner as I imagined I was! I instantly felt better about my communication skills.
After we picked up our food we headed for the Sheraton. We unloaded our roof bag and put everything inside the car. Aparently we had a “large” vehicle and it wouldn’t fit under the parking garage entrance which was 6 feet high. (the FJ is 7 feet tall without anything on the roof) Luckily there was a taller parking garage next door that was half the price of the hotel’s parking.
This was exciting, the dogs first trip in an elevator and we were going to the 14th floor. For some reason hotels still never have a 13th floor which technically makes the 14th floor the 13th floor and recently every hotel we stayed in had put us on the 13th (or 14th) floor which was funny to me.
The dogs however were unphased by the elevator. I think they were a little tired from all of the driving and were looking for a place to sleep and they were in for a surprise!
The Sheraton had provided us with two dog bowls and a really big dog bed for the pups. The bowls were a little small for them so we used them both as water bowls. Then we showed them the bed! Goblin was in love with the bed, but we wanted to walk them before we went to sleep so we headed back to the elevators.
This time they had a little more time to pay attention and when the doors of the elevator opened in the lobby you could see the shock in the way Duke looked around after stepping out of the elevator. He had no idea where everything went but he was very excited to drag me around town to see what there was outside.
Two blocks down from the hotel there was a really nice park that spanned two blocks. One block was being renovated but the block with a statue of MacDonald (not related to the fast food chain) was still open and the perfect place to walk the dogs at 10:00 pm. We took them all around the park then headed back to our room to feed them and go to bed. It has been a long day.