Keith Robertson

“Bay Saint Louis”

We made the short drive (typically just over an hour) to Bay Saint Louis on Monday.  Here’s a map of the drive from New Orleans to the Mississippi coast.

We ran into some torrential rain as we exited on to Highway 90 – the kind where you really can’t see enough to drive.  I pulled off the road for a short while until it abated.

We had planned on lunch at the Barracuda taco stand before checking into our Airbnb at 3pm.  That plan was quickly foiled.  As we pulled in, a guy taking down the menu sign let us know that they were closing up for the season to take care of some required maintenance.  Word on the street was that they had some electrical supply issues.

We rendezvoused with Kenny and Kara and I found Tacos and Beer as an alternative option.  This is a sister restaurant of the place on Saint Charles Avenue that has the long line on Taco Tuesday.  We had never been to either – a mistake as the drinks and food were all very good.  The cucumber and cilantro margaritas were a big hit.

We checked into the house and found it to be very comfortable and exceptionally well appointed, especially the kitchen.  We relaxed by the pool and watched some US Open tennis.

The group (minus sleepy me) played pickleball at the local outdoor court on Wednesday morning.  Then we made the short drive over to Randy and Amy’s home for a highlight of the trip- a boat ride with Captain Randy.

Did you see the fish jumping right at the end of that video?

These guys are always such lovely hosts.  Amy had made chicken salad and turkey mini croissants and cucumber margaritas for the ride.  We anchored up at a quiet “beach” and floated around for a while.  Sandi – there really was no gator risk, at least that’s what they told me.

We met for dinner at Butcher Block, a steak house and butcher shop in the Depot area by the train station.  There was some confusion on the timing of their happy hour.  Kenny and Diana had met the owner, Steve, on a Tuesday morning walk and thought it ran from 5-7pm, apparently actually from 3-5pm.  Oh well.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their meal – I had a beef tip sandwich which was very good, and cheesy as you can see.  Kenny was really looking forward to the beef tip and mashed potato happy hour special.

After dinner we migrated next door to the Hen House, a fancy craft cocktail bar.  The drinks were very good and somebody remembered to take some pictures.

I forgot to mention that Mason drove down to join us.

Thursday morning brought another storm.  We played board games.  Hitster, a recent gift from Sean, was a big hit.  You get a 30 second clip of a song and have to name the artist and put the card in the right place in your timeline.  Highly recommended if you have a krewe that likes music and has some knowledge of music from the fifties until the present day.  Telestrations, a game where you pass books around and have to draw the phrase that the previous person wrote or guess what the picture is, generated some hilarious results.  The girls finished off a “folk art” style puzzle.  There was a gallery full of this stuff on Main Street.

After the storm passed, we rode the golf cart down to the Blind Tiger on the waterfront.  I really enjoyed my redfish tacos and a couple of sips of Mason’s very sweet bushwhacker.  This place has been around for a while for good reason.

After lunch, we drove along the beach road for a while and then circled back to Butcher Block for Kenny’s beef tips.  I actually can’t remember if he was able to get them on this visit or not.  The girls stopped into the wine shop next door and picked up a bottle of a Luxardo liqueur, the owners recommendation on an equivalent to Mr. Black, our favourite coffee flavoured liqueur.  They also got a recommendation for a good local bar.

The Full Speed recommendation turned out to be a great one.  An excellent bar with great cocktails, a local brewery doing a promotion, a wonderful local musician, and a Jenga game.

The brewery had some fun merch and clever packaging – “Mr. Sippi.”

Brandon Kenyon did an excellent set of music on the Full Speed patio.  He started with “What a Wonderful World” and played trumpet and guitar to accompany a very good voice.  Here’s the Levon Helm classic made popular by the Band of Heathens:

And some Garth Brooks for Diana:

The rest of the evening was passed with games and the US Open ladies semi-finals.

We checked out before 10am and had an easy drive home.

Barrel Proof, directly across the street from Bill and Shainey’s place, was our destination to watch the Saints game on Sunday.  Sandi, Nic and Bill met us there – Nic with a huge trough of gourmet andouille and chicken sliders.  Barrel Proof may be my new favourite bar – happy hour prices whenever there’s a Saints game, meaning $6 for their delicious Old Fashioned.  And how could you not like a place that is fine with you bringing in your own food.  It always helps to have a regular customer (Bill) in the group.

The Saints had a lousy first half and an excellent second half, losing by one point in overtime.  Let’s hope we have a lot more of that second half team going forward.

I made the mistake of staying up to watch the Cowboys embarrassing Sunday night performance against the Giants.  They are such a frustrating team.

My first book this week was “Showdown in Desire” by Orissa Arend, a tennis friend of Kenny’s.  This is a real, physical book that Kenny leant me and so doesn’t work for reading bed.  This is a good description of the book:

“Orissa Arend’s Showdown in Desire is a fascinating story that documents the history of the Black Panther party chapter in New Orleans. The author’s objective, which she accomplishes, is to allow former participants to tell the story of the New Orleans Panthers to provide a more holistic perspective of the party and the issues (racism, police brutality, and poverty) that it combated. In addition, the author tells this story to generate greater awareness of a post-Katrina New Orleans that is still ravaged by the same problems that the Panthers fought forty years ago. One of the standout features of this work is that Arend uses over twenty interviews to help tell the story of the New Orleans Panthers. Arend’s interviews range from former Panthers to high-ranking city officials to police officers (including two who infiltrated the party). Furthermore, the work fills a void in the historiography on the Black Panther party, as very few works examine southern chapters of the party.”
—Journal of American History, March 2010

My second book, this one an eBook that I can read in bed on my iPad, was “How to Kill a Rock Star” by Tiffanie DeBartolo.  I’m not too far into the story and am enjoying it quite a bit.  Here’s an online summary:

“Written in her wonderfully honest, edgy, passionate and often hilarious voice, Tiffanie DeBartolo tells the story of Eliza Caelum, a young music journalist, and Paul Hudson, a talented songwriter and lead singer of the band Bananafish. Eliza’s reverence for rock is equaled only by Paul’s, and the two fall wildly in love.

When Bananafish is signed by a big corporate label, and Paul is on his way to becoming a major rock star, Eliza must make a heartbreaking decision that leads to Paul’s sudden disappearance and a surprise knock-your-socks-off ending.”

More to come on both of these books next week.

Let’s start with something funky and unique from the amazing and ever morphing Herbie Hancock:

An organ jam from Reuben Wilson with some stellar guitar from Grant Green:

And finally, bringing things more current with the soulful Neal Francis.  I promise to make it to Tips the next time he visits:

“Visit to Austin”

On Sunday, after my last post, we watched a couple of interesting things.  This YouTube video of “special places” is amazing – such crazy places where people survive.

Later, Diana had chosen “Project Hail Mary” for us to watch.  I thought this was a serious sci-fi movie, and was surprised at the humour in the first hour or so – Ryan Gosling has such a good comedic sense.  The 2nd and 3rd hours (yes – one of those films that could have used a real editor) got a bit sillier and more sci-fi.  A good movie overall but I would not have wanted to sit through it at the theater.

I’m sure you know by now what a typical Diana Monday looks like.  That’s right – two pickleball sessions.  And then again on Tuesday morning.

We did well at trivia on Tuesday evening, despite ignoring Jack E’s correct answer about the most predominant colour in countries flags – red, not white.

Our first place finish was cemented with a correct answer to the final question:

Add up the answers to these four questions, getting within 5 points of the correct total:

How many Raiders of the Lost Ark etc movies did Harrison Ford appear in?  (5)

How many wives of Henry VIII? (6)

How many 1,000 yard rushing seasons did Derek Henry complete? (7)

How many seasons did Henry Winkler star in Happy Days (11)

The correct answer was 29 and we guessed 30 for the win!  The only meaty debate we add was around the seasons of Happy Days – for some reason I thought it was less, say 5 to 7.  Denny persisted with over 10 and was correct.  Oh, there was a short debate about the wives of Henry VIII – Denny submitted when I shared all of their names.

Wednesday started with a walk/run in the park for both of us, then Diana had yoga and I splintered off to Tartine for coffee and the newspaper.  They had a stuffed baguette advertised that I couldn’t resist.  Stuffed with ham, bacon, onion, mushrooms, fontina and some spicy peppers.  Ridiculously yummy.  It doesn’t look exciting in the photo but I wanted to add it so that I remember to try it again.  This is certainly my favourite breakfast spot.

When I returned to pick up yoga D, this is the sight that greeted me – a bunch of bottoms up in the air.  Apparently that was their final stretch.

We were scheduled to fly to Austin on Thursday afternoon.  Diana managed to work in a morning pickle session before our 2pm airport departure.  Emerging from the Austin airport to hike over for an Uber, we commented on what a change the difference in the level of humidity made.  It was much more pleasant to move around than in New Orleans.

We checked into the lovely Carpenter hotel and made our way to the Odd Duck to meet Tim and Heidi for dinner.  Tim had been fielding investment analyst calls all day and so we were appreciative that he was able to meet.  The Odd Duck is my favourite Austin eatery and it’s particularly fun when you have four adventuresome diners to share dishes.  So many great choices:

We started with the redfish ceviche with the wonderful watermelon aguachile sauce:

and the antelope tataki:

and the pork belly chalupa:

The antelope was the tastiest of the first round for me.

Tim started the second round with orders of the pork chop and fried quail.  I added the seafood and pork sausage papperdelle:

It was harder to choose a round two winner, but I ultimately opted for the fried quail – so perfectly cooked.

Heidi suggested the olive cake for dessert – delicious.

This was a lovely evening – so nice to catch up over a casual and delicious meal.

Diana hit the river trail early on Friday morning and then we shared a breakfast sandwich before making our way to Blair and Lisa’s compound for a “lite lunch.”

I got kitted out in UT gear and we admired the amazing charcuterie platter that Lisa and her friend had assembled.  Have you ever seen one like this?

We passed a very pleasant afternoon in the backyard of the compound enjoying the pool, cornhole, and pickleball experiences.  The net for pickleball was set up for the first time and fancy paddles broken out of their packaging.  Diana enjoyed explaining the basics of the game to her new converts.

We picked up dinner from a local Italian hole in the wall – all very tasty.  Blair had been saving a bottle of Opus One that we gifted him for Christmas several years ago to drink together.  He clearly stored it well as it tasted even better than I was expecting.

Diana started Saturday with a walk through the new neighbourhood, commenting on the difference that hills made to a route.  We had some migas tacos (perfect – thanks Lisa) after that and then prepared for the “Trifecta” of a day.

1.  Boating on Lake Travis
2.  Dinner at Mexican Sugar
3.  Concert with The Romantics/Christopher Cross/Toto

Over four hours on the lake was plenty for me, and I know Diana would have kept going all day.  We cruised around the lake:

Stopped to drop anchor and float around for a while:

and stopped into Stumpy’s for a snack:

The boat docked, we made a quick change at the resort and were picked up by Sami for our ride over to dinner and the concert.  Mexican Sugar was a very large and pretty restaurant and the food and drinks were fine.  The location was perfect to breakup our commute over to the concert.  The amphitheater was located by the Formula 1 racing track on the south side of town.

The concert was considered “Yacht Rock” – a genre that includes bands like Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, and Christopher Cross.  That’s the reason for the yacht captains’ hats in some of the ensuing pictures.  The first band on the bill was The Romantics.  We only knew two of their songs.  Here’s an interesting version of one:

What’s up with Blair’s vintage Earl Campbell Oilers jersey, you ask?  Well…he saw several videos where Christopher Cross was wearing the same shirt, and was hoping to attract his attention.  Our seats were third row, center with perfect views – that’s how Blair rolls.  Christopher Cross sounds great and broke out his biggest hit early in the set:

The last song was the other huge hit:

And then an acoustic reprise of “Sailing” – even better:

After a relatively short stage change over, Toto were ready to go.  I captured their three biggest hits:

It was a treat to have Christopher Cross, his backup singers, and the guitarist from the Romantics join for the last number, Africa.

We found Sami easily and were back at the resort around midnight.  What a fun packed day, we checked all 3 boxes of the “Trifecta.”  A massive thanks to Blair and Lisa for all of their work coordinating, executing, feeding, and planning.

While we participated in all of that excitement on Saturday, the annual football Hall of Fame induction ceremony was taking place in Canton, Ohio.  A couple of very poignant sentences from Drew Brees, quarterback who took the New Orleans Saints to the Superbowl:

“New Orleans … You accepted me. You embraced me. You believed in me. But more importantly, you entrusted me with the soul of the city. And I would have died to protect that calling!”

And in even more poignant news for me, the EDS headquarters building in Plano, TX was imploded.  I worked there off an on for many years, starting shortly after it opened.  It’s hard to believe there wasn’t a continuing use for all that space.

EDS Plano HQ imploded

Sami, having proven himself very reliable on Saturday night, transported us in style back to the Austin airport for our flight home.  I chuckled at this album display in the airport from local artists – that’s Christopher Cross at the top left and that album has both hit songs that I shared earlier.

Jon Cleary, wonderful English born piano player who has resided in New Orleans for 40 years and is an expert on all things funky NOLA style piano, has an album coming soon.  This was recorded from a solo show at the Royal Albert Hall in London.  Hard to believe he sold that out and plays in small venues in his adopted home town.

“I’ve played music to crowds at the Hollywood Bowl, Sydney Opera House and Bertha’s Bon Ton Lounge on Basin Street – all sophisticated, high-class joints. But there’s nothing that gets the spine all atingle and the funk juices bubbling quite like the prospect of getting down at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Fortunately, someone had the good sense to roll tape on that special evening last year, and the result, for your delectation, is a new solo live album that’s coming out on October 2nd!“

A later post from Cleary as he responds to a “badge” from Facebook to congratulate him on being an “emerging” artist:

“It’s not without a degree of curiosity, and even some slight alarm, that I learn today that I’m ‘emerging’.

Just to set the record straight, the last thing you want to do in New Orleans right now – if you have an air-conditioning unit that works – is to ‘emerge’. It’s too bloody hot outside. I will only emerge from the cool comfort of the red room in my house if there’s a life threatening emergency or if my manager Reed calls and invites me to join him for a cold Guinness in the equally cool environs of Markey’s Bar on Royal Street.

Editor’s note: Reed will call.

So, you can imagine my surprise on discovering today that Mark Zuckerberg has announced to the world that:

1) I am apparently a ‘talent’. This is very flattering, Mark. Thank you for the kindly compliment.

2) That I am ‘emerging’. A blatant untruth.

All this, and the further bombshell that Mr Zuckerberg, in his infinite kindness, wisdom and good taste, is awarding me a special ‘badge’. A badge! I do hope that it’s an especially big and shiny one.

I started playing music when I was 5, started playing in public when was 11, started getting paid for gigs when I was 14 and now, at the age, of 63, apparently it’s official, I’m finally emerging.

Mark, I know you’re a clever chap, and I hate to disappoint you, especially after the nice badge and everything, but, honestly, trust me, I’m not emerging, I’m staying indoors as much as possible, here on the couch, where it’s nice and cool. I’m not going anywhere (except perhaps the afore-mentioned Markey’s. Reed?)”

And finally (we’re skipping the Reading portion this week as I have made light progress) Robert Glasper does Radiohead, “Everything in its right place.”

“Montreal Week 2”

On Monday, our first day sans KKs, we made our way back down to Old Town.  We enjoyed lunch on the Terraces Nelligan – a rooftop restaurant with great views atop the Hotel Nelligan.

I tried to order a medium rare burger and was stymied by a Quebec regulation that says any ground beef not ground on the premises has to be cooked well done.  Not fancying that, I opted for a cauliflower steak – yummy.

While I was enjoying that (munched in before realizing I wanted a picture), someone bungee jumped from the crane on the other side of the river – 100% hard No on that activity.

I’ll have a sip of a refreshing beer and try to wash away the memory of the person bouncing around like a rag doll on the end of that elastic band.

Diana enjoyed a very colourful Niçoise salad.

After lunch, we walked around Old Town and took a spin through Notre Dame cathedral.  Not the very famous one, but still quite impressive – particularly the blue lighting.

I always enjoy checking out church organs and this one seemed serious:

This bronze sculpture caught my attention.  It’s called “The English Pug” and is part of a diptych called “The Two Snobs”, created in 2013 by Canadian artist Marc Andre J. Fortier.

Tommy’s Cafe was close by for our after cathedral coffee stop.  And the chair available for “Miss Champagne” seemed appropriate.

Tuesday began with a repeat visit to Chez Greenberg, down the street from the Airbnb.  This time I had a poutine stuffed knish with my macchiato – I recommend this as a good way to try poutine.  Jake Greenberg, presumably the owner, came by to check on the food and we had a good chat.  We told him we were planning on trying Milos for lunch and got positive feedback.  He also recommended Faros – the place we ate at last week with the KKs.  “Best two Greek restaurants in the city.”

We had chatted with two ladies leaving Milos one evening and they raved about the place.  It’s been in operation for many years and has since expanded globally.  We checked with Nick about the one in Miami Beach and he described it as “an institution.”  Okay – let’s see if we can get a seat at the bar and give it a try for lunch.  I started with the house special martini, which came in a fish container.

Our waiter/bartender had been to Miami Beach and to Carbone – still one of our most amazing dining experiences.

Here’s the prix fixe lunch menu:

I started with the tomato (Greek) salad and then had the Dorade Royal (sea bream.)

Diana had the phenomenal octopus, followed by lamb.

Fortunately the desserts were small.

Don’t miss the baklava ice cream.  Here’s a silly picture on the way out.

What a wonderful lunch all around.  We decided to try and make a reservation for dinner later in the week.  I think I heard something like “It’ll be our way to celebrate our last night in Montreal.”

After lunch, we watched the Spain vs France World Cup game.  I had high hopes for an exciting game but France seemed flat and tired, ultimately losing to Spain.

In the evening, we made a pilgrimage to find Leonard Cohen’s grave.  It was quite an uphill trek at the end of the walk to the entrance of the Mont Royal cemetery.  We came across this church on the walk, not Notre Dame but the location of that picture of the girls with the young men in tuxedos.  Or at least that’s the latest cover story – something about they were putting on their ties and getting all ready for a wedding, and offered to take the picture.  Hmm.

Here I am checking out the family plot.  Leonard is buried in a pine box next to his parents,  Nathan and Marsha, as well as his grandparents and great grandparents.

Diana captured some pictures showing how beautifully the cemetery plots are kept.

We heard thunder rolling on our walk back but did not get any heavy rain or “squall” – there were a few “squall warnings” during our stay that seemed to amount to nothing much.

Wednesday took us over to the Botanical Gardens – some of the largest in the world.  Research showed that we should visit the Japanese garden, the Chinese garden,  and the Alpine area – we set off in search of those.

The Japanese area sported some very old bonsais:

The Chinese garden had interesting buildings and water features:

We came across oodles of lovely flowers on our meander through the gardens.  Hydrangeas:

Balloon flowers (platycodon grandiflorus), native to East Asia:

Pom pom or ball dahlias:

We both agreed that our favourite section, not mentioned in my research, was the Lilly and brook garden.  Amazing colours and very extensive.

The Olympic stadium was next to the Botanical gardens – here’s a picture of the tower attached to it.

Some facts about the tower:

In the evening we tried another of our Uber driver recommendations – the Atwater cocktail club.  This was a speakeasy style place in the downtown area known as Atwater.  I had read that entry was by an alley behind the Foiegwa restaurant.  The one alley that I found looked a bit dodgy but closer inspection of the graffitied door revealed the “ACC” sign – must be the place.

We risked it, opened the door and headed inside to the fancy club.

We perused the detailed cocktail menu – most were less than $20 Canadian and made our choices.

The food menu seemed to have all of our favourites at once:

We started with chicken liver mousse, then beef tartare, and finally black truffle spaghetti.  So rich and decadent and all wonderful.

Our waitress, Ashely, gave us a post card with some of her recommendations on places to try.  We did try at least one of them.

What a nice touch from Ashley.

Diana decided to summit Mont Royal by the stairs on Thursday morning.  This took her a little bit higher than the terrace we reached on our first day in Montreal.

Some details on the stairs.  Good job Diana!

I think all that stairclimbing work was worth it:

We wandered the neighbourhood in search of a lunch spot, and ultimately ended up back at Bishop and Bagg for a burger at the bar.  It was interesting to observe their display of over 100 gins.

The evening brought a highlight of the trip for me – a visit to the Upstairs jazz club. Their logo is upside down because the club is actually downstairs from the street level.

There were only a few tickets left when I bought ours and so I opted for bar seating.  That turned out to be a great option – high stools so that Diana could see well and an amazing view of the stage.

We had wonderful service at the bar with great drinks and food.  I had a drink called Le Vieux something (don’t remember the word).  It was Canadian Club whiskey, Drambuie and ginger beer.  Like a slightly modified Rusty Nail and delicious.  We split a salad and a seafood pasta that was excellent.

And then the band!  A very good tribute to the Buena Vista Social Club.  This was an album from 1997 by Cuban legends with Ry Cooder.

Here’s the Upstairs version:

Friday was a busy day.  We visited the Terrasse William Gray, an Ashley recommendation, for brunch.  This was quite similar to the Nelligan terrace with excellent river front views of the Ferris wheel and Cirque du Soleil.

We shared a salad and you’ll be surprised…another tartare.  Both delicious.  Montreal really is an amazing food town.

The boeuf in the description reminded me of the boys in Paris as youngsters and the kick they got out of the McDonalds ads in the Metro – “100% pur boeuf.”

We wandered through Old Town after lunch, making a stop at Wolf and Workman before heading back to the Airbnb.

We had reservations for dinner at Milos in the evening.  Everything was fine, but not up to the amazing experience that we had at lunch.  Diana had a lobster and I enjoyed halibut.  Both were good but not at the outstanding level we had anticipated.

After dinner, another musical treat awaited.  The “Candlelight” performance of Abba and Queen songs.

This is a concert (apparently they have them in New Orleans sometimes) where a string quartet performs the music of Abba and Queen.  Here’s the order of performance:

I thoroughly enjoyed the arrangements:

A very busy and enjoyable day all around.

We were due to pack up and leave on Saturday.  Around 2pm, just before we ordered an Uber to the airport, we received notice that our flight was canceled.  Oops!

Not able to extend the Airbnb or find a room at any others close by, McD came up with a great idea – let’s stay at that really nice Nelligan hotel where we had lunch.  Booking was easy and we were checking in less than an hour later.  This was an old school luxury hotel – they had thought only I was staying and so stalled a bit at check in to make a “profile” for Diana.  I suspect what they were really doing was updating the welcome card on the petit fours.  We were escorted up to the room so that we could be shown the amenities – I don’t think I’ve had that since the Park Hyatt in Sydney many, many years ago.

We had dinner at Mignon across from the hotel and it was another delicious meal, including oysters of course.

Diana was out early on Sunday morning to explore the Old Town area some more.

We took advantage of brunch on the lovely Nelligan terrace.  The bacon Benny was just what I needed before setting of to try and make it home a day late.

I had checked transit time from the Nelligan to Montreal airport (YUL) in the morning – 20 minutes or so.  Our flight was at 5pm and so we ordered an Uber around 2:30pm.  As we departed the hotel, it showed the better part of an hour to the airport – hopefully we had enough wiggle room.  We did – the traffic entering the airport was ludicrous – 2o minutes to go less than a mile, but they had Global Entry and TSA pre at the airport and you actually cleared US customs in Montreal – who knew?

We did have a tiny snafu at airport security.  The bagel spreader souvenirs were not permitted as carry on items – such dangerous weapons.  Diana decided to go back out and check her back – no problem, she made it to the gate in time for boarding.

Our flights to Chicago and then New Orleans were fine – the usual sitting on the tarmac waiting on a gate routines.  We were home a little after midnight – tired and happily reflecting on a great trip.

My book this week was “Who is Maud Dixon” by Alexandra Andrews.  You may remember that I read her “The Fine Art of Lying” a few weeks ago.  All the reviews said that this was a much better read.  I agree with the reviews for once – much deeper characters and better humour.  Here’s an online summary:

“Florence Darrow has always felt she was destined for greatness, but after a disastrous affair with her married boss, she starts to doubt herself. All that changes when she sets off for Morocco with her new boss, the celebrated but reclusive author Maud Dixon. Amidst the colorful streets of Marrakesh and the wind-swept beaches of the coast, Florence begins to feel she’s leading the sort of interesting, cosmopolitan life she deserves.

But when she wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car accident, with no memory of the previous night—and no sign of Maud—a dangerous idea begins to take form. . .”

I enjoyed this article about attempts to create a Scottish Music Hall of Fame.  I’m all for it.

Scottish Music Hall of Fame article

Something Moroccan related for Maud Dixon:

“Montreal – Week 1”

I enjoyed this online story, celebrating a truly amazing individual:

One of Britain’s biggest mazes is celebrating Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday by creating a spectacular design in the shape of a mountain gorilla.

Wistow Maze in Leicestershire, England, came up with the design to pay tribute to the legendary broadcaster who hails from their local county, having grown up near the University of Leicester.

The popular award-winning attraction features a winding labyrinth that stretches for three miles and takes around two hours to walk.

After my posting last Sunday, England beat Mexico 3-2 with Harry Kane scoring 2 goals, all while down to 10 men for much of the game.  It was a very exciting and entertaining match.

We watched the movie “The Choice” on Sunday evening.  This was our third attempt and we were successful in finishing before Diana “fais do do.”

There were more good sporting opportunities on Monday.  The great British hope, Fery, made it through to the Wimbledon quarterfinals in entertaining fashion.  Later in the day, the USMNT was dominated by Belgium from start to finish, ultimately losing 4-1.

I watched “Still of the Night” in the evening – a movie from 1982 with what I thought was a 25 year old Meryl Streep, turns out she was 33, alongside Roy Scheider.  This was very much a noir style mystery with an early eighties feel.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.

We had an early start on Tuesday, 6am in an Uber, to catch the first of our two small (American Eagle) flights to Montreal.  I watched a movie called “The Christophers” on the flight from New Orleans to Chicago.  This starred Ian McKellen and a leonine looking lady (stand by while I look her up..), Michaele Coel, in a story about an aging artist, forgery and the greed of his children.  It was a quiet, “adult” movie that I enjoyed quite a bit.

A long layover in Chicago was eased by the Admirals Club with good coffee, creative food, and excellent WiFi.  We were able to watch Zverev defeat Lehecka, and some of Argentina vs Egypt (Messi missed a penalty.)

Diana had an impressive set up on our next flight (Chicago to Montreal.)

Mimosa, book on iPad, Wimbledon on phone and texting on phone.  Check, check, check, and check.  All taken care of.

All that multi-tasking was stressing me and so I went old school, finishing off my Violent Femmes book from the book store talk several weeks ago.  I enjoyed the read and am looking forward to referring to my marked up sections when I listen to the album next.

It was quite a trek from the arrival gate, through immigration and out to the Uber pickup area in Montreal.  Our Lyft (much shorter wait time than Uber) driver dropped us off in the alley behind our building rather at the front door.  That was pretty disconcerting but he was sure it was the right place and we figured it out after he left, dragging our luggage down the alley, past the famous bagel place, and around to the front door, where we were able to easily gain entrance to the lovely Airbnb.

Next stop – the local stores for some supplies.  There were several small grocery stores very close by and a liquor and wine store right next door.  Easy peasy.

After our pre-dawn start, we opted for a nice early night.

We awoke early on Wednesday morning.  I went back to sleep while Diana explored the neighborhood.  She did report back on a restaurant that she found that ended up being very good (more to come.)

Later in the morning we headed out on an expedition to summit Mont Royal, the mountain/hill that Montreal is named for.  My research showed that Chemin Olmsted was a pleasant and meandering trail with a light gradient, passing Beaver Lake before arriving at the Mount Royal chalet and terrace.  That was all true, however, the weather was not what my research had indicated – hot and humid, and not the cold, crisp respite from the New Orleans swamp that I had hoped for.  Oh well, I took a few breaks to cool off and ultimately summited.

There was an interesting statue as we entered the park.

Diana was not a fan of my “bucket hat” and particularly the orange colour.  I stuck with it all the same, and was delighted to find a tribe of my people on our ascent.

Here we are up on the terrace with a view of downtown Montreal.

Kenny and Kara (henceforth known as the “KKs”) arrived around 5pm and seemed not to much the worse for their day of travel.  We started their first evening with dinner at Molenne, the restaurant that Diana found on her ramble.

This was an excellent dining experience all around – fun and attentive service and wonderful food all around.  Kenny’s raw scallop was a big hit, as was Kara’s clam pasta dish.

I loved my cod in mushroom sauce and McD couldn’t resist the bison tartare.

Kenny found an excellent stop for dessert on the way home.  Some wonderful cakes and after dinner drinks.

The KKs were at it early on Thursday.  They got some bagels from Saint Viateur and then navigated their way down to Old Town and the Riverfront district on foot. We arranged to meet them at Maison  des Eclusiers by the riverfront and enjoyed our first taste of poutine.

What is poutine?  I’m glad you asked – fries, cheese curds, and gravy with various other optional toppings.  I thought it was relatively tasty but didn’t need to order it again on the trip.

Fred texted us that his favourite stop in Montreal was Pub Saint Pierre.  We hoped to camp out there and watch the France vs Morocco World Cup game.  Alas, that was a no go.  They were fully booked with supporters of both teams and so we had to vacate our table before the 4pm kickoff.

There was a decent rain going when we were ejected from the Pub, and so we made our way back to the Airbnb to prepare for dinner.

Dinner was at a lovely Indian place that Kara discovered, Le Taj.  A fancy/cool setting with very good food.  We enjoyed onion bhaji and samosas to start, followed by chicken korma, lamb vindaloo, mixed grill and garlic naan.  Lots of yummy food and plenty of leftovers.  Nice job, Kara!

We headed back downtown on Friday morning.  First stop was the Crew cafe, a coffee shop in a very fancy, old, art deco style Royal Bank of Canada building.  The lines for coffee were too long, but the building was worth the visit.

The World Trade Center building was next door and we gave that a quick visit.  Long enough for Kenny to purchase some cool new shoes, and for me to snap some pictures of a part of the Berlin wall.

We then made a decent hike over to Rue Crescent, a “super cute street with bars and flower boxes.”  The street also sported the first of two Leonard Cohen murals.  I think it’s a very well done representation of the Canadian gentleman.

I first discovered him in my mid teens via the “Greatest Hits” album.

Look at that list of songs!  “The Partisan” and “Suzanne” were my youthful favourites.

We made our way from the mural over to the Boulevard Saint Laurent, which we believed would ultimately take us close to home.  There we found mural number two:

Do you think he might be a bit of a big deal in Montreal?

We stopped at a cafe for a lunch snack of Breton style galettes, sitting outside on the street.

Kara wanted to try the world famous smoked meat sandwich from Schwartz’s deli down the street from Cafe Breizh.  This wasn’t overly appealing to me but tasted good – somewhere between pastrami and corned beef.  This place is very popular – seems to have a constant line out the door.

After that sustenance, we hiked onwards to the Avenue Mont Royal, a pedestrian street (mostly.)  Kara browsed a used record store and we ordered up macchiatos from a coffee window.  We stopped into a little Chilean place to try and watch the World Cup game.  They had it on but didn’t serve any wine or beer.  I ordered an empanada – very good with a delicious sauce.  When I complimented the sauce, the owners told me they brought the recipe from Chile and gave me a little sample to take home.

After a quick freshen up, the girls walked around to the Sparrow, a restaurant/bar with an amazing oyster happy hour – $1 Canadian/oyster – that’s $0.70 US.  Granted, these are the smaller, PEI oysters, but those are usually even more expensive than our local gulf varieties.  I prefer the small, briny ones, but most others like the gulf ones.

I think you can tell from these pictures what the girls thought of the experience:

There was a small music club across from the Airbnb and the girls alerted us to the band playing that evening – Kataklysm.  I listened to a few seconds of a track – do so at your own risk.  There was an interesting Nordic/French band playing later in our stay.

Kenny and I joined the ladies at Sparrow and gave them an excuse to order some more oysters.  The place did make a very good gimlet.

The oysters weren’t enough to sate everyone and an Uber driver had recommended Fugazi pizza – handily just across the street from Sparrow.

That place made a tasty pizza.

I was amazed at the number of pizza, bagel and coffee shops in our neighbourhood.  It was a younger area from a demographic perspective, but still – how much pizza can one eat in a week?

The KKs were excited to try the local ice cream before leaving.  The line wasn’t too long.

Some down memory lane ice cream pictures:

The KKs went off early to summit Mont Royal – successfully completed.  Diana went out for a wander and I walked down the street to Chez Greenberg for breakfast.

Something about Montreal – everybody knows how to make a macchiato.   The special thing at this place was the latke with schmear, smoked salmon, chives, onions and crunchy things.  Different and delicious.

I rendezvoused with my spouse and we went to Bishop and Bagg to watch the Wimbledon ladies final.

It looked like it would be over before the KKs could join us.  Fortunately the match became competitive and needed a third set to decide.

The ladies went out for an extensive walk prior to another Sparrow happy hour, while Kenny and I watched the World Cup game at the apartment.

You’ll have to ask them about the background on this picture.  The one I got seemed quite fishy.

And then back to Sparrow to discuss the cover story.

We tried a well recommended and reviewed neighbourhood Greek place for dinner – Faros.  Again – great service and delicious food.  I tried something new – squid stuffed with cheese and veggies.

Diana had a grilled octopus, Kara lamb, and Kenny steak.

There was an interesting option where you could select a very fresh fish.

The bus boy was helping us with coffee and desert and recommended the yogurt plate.  Great recommendation – we all enjoyed it a lot.

And we were not done at that.  A fruit plate appeared.  We asked questions about one of the melon looking fruits and the owner/chef (for 30 years) came out with an explanation and then reappeared with another exotic melon that he wanted us to try.  What a great experience!

Somehow, on returning to the Airbnb, we got on a favourite show from our childhoods kick.  We watched Lancelot Link and the episode about the “Hong Kong Sneeze” – one of Kenny’s favourites.  Then I shared some Magic Roundabout, The Herbs, and then we finished with the Pink Panther for Kenny and my Dad.

The KKs left us on Sunday.  We sadly moped around and watched some Wimbledon.  In the evening, we couldn’t resist revisiting Molenne for a reprise of that ridiculous raw scallop, bison tartare, and spaghetti clams trifecta.  Just as tasty.

I finished up John of John by Douglas Stuart this week.  Not one of my top reads of the year, but as I said last week, some interesting things about life on the islands.