The Cloud is Better than the Closet

It's now April! However, my interest in getting our old, personal videos online has been re-awakened. This is primarily due to having a near-empty, 1TB drive in the new computer, a processor with six cores, and the addition of real video editing software.

It was scary having around twelve SD cards sitting in a drawer with a couple of years of our precious memories. Jay takes video whenever we travel. Adobe Premiere Elements is much better than trying to use free software to combine clips.

This morning, I worked on a video from our trip to Montreal, Quebec last August. The software dutifully sucked in the files from a directory on my hard disk. It also found photo JPGs which can be saved in the Canon camcorder. It put them in the middle of the video! I had to re-render after I noticed the boring, slideshow in the middle of the action! I did upload them to Flickr though and that's how they're at the top of today's entry.


Our trip coincided with Montreal Pride. The video last about 24 minutes.

Day 8 of 8 - Getting Home

Considering the amount of work that was accomplished today, we did little. Thank you, WestJet!

Our flight wasn't until 17:00 Montreal time. So we got up as usual and checked out of our Airbnb before noon. We spent some time at the Eaton Center food court. It lies right on the Metro Green Line halfway to our destination station. The 747 bus got us to the airport a bit earlier than needed but it was a pleasant place to spend an extra hour. The weather was overcast and humid and so different from our time on Mount Royal yesterday!



I took this photo from another gate. We were on a 737 but we noticed a lot of cute Bombardier planes which ply the clouds between Montreal and nearby destinations such as Ottawa. The domestic part of YUL is nothing special, but it seems to work. I'd rather have dependable service than fascinating decor. We'll be back in less than a month. This is the terminus city for our Boston to Montreal cruise next month. We were in port in Skagway, AK on my birthday and we'll be in Bar Harbor, ME on a different Holland America cruise for Jay's.

Our flight and SkyTrain --> Bus --> SkyTrain back to New Westminster was easy and uneventful.

Day 7 of 8 - Mount Royal

Explore this 360° photo I took at the Mt. Royal Chalet
The weather forecast showed it was going to be a great day with no clouds and a high of about 28°C. We took the opportunity to do the Mt. Royal Park. This area sits in the middle of Montreal and is accessible directly from stairs from Peel Street in downtown. McGill University campus abuts it. However, we took bus #11 to the top from the Mount Royal neighbourhood and walked the steep stairs for lunch downtown.

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Day 6 of 8 - Green, Orange, and Blue Metro Lines

The weekend has ended as has Pride. We decided to get out to see things outside of the downtown core. It was cloudy this morning but things have cleared up since then. We ended up riding around the Metro system for a great part of the morning.



The city of Montreal is on an island. We found that the Metro system's Orange Line actually goes north onto another island. We did that and walked back across the bridge to Henri Bourassa and the station there. We do have a bit of a fascination with public transit systems. We've explored the subway systems in many major cities around the world.

By the time we were ready for a late lunch, we were near the Eaton Centre food court again. Today, we ate at Tandori, an Indian fast food place.

Day 5 of 8 - Bonne Fierté, Montréal!

Happy Pride, Montreal! It was a long day and a long parade.





We were at Vancouver's not so long ago and it was a pleasure to be in this city today. I'm happy that my country is diverse and encourages it. I'm also happy that politicians here do not fear to show their support.

Day 4 of 8 - The Olympic Stadium and Community Day

We've been walking 8 to 10 kilometers per day lately, so we sleep really well. As it is not really necessary to get onto this time zone, we've been staying up late and getting up even later.

Our 3-day transit passes ran out last night at midnight. We were contemplating whether we'd renew today and decided we would. So when entering our station at Papineau, we chose to head in the opposite direction to downtown. We recall the Olympic Stadium from our last visit. Presently the Biodome is closed for renovation and will reopen in December. We knew that but wanted to just walk a little extra.



Following the exercise on an overcast day, we went directly downtown and within the Metro underground we found the food court for lunch. We then walked the length of the pedestrian sections of St. Catherine Street through Le Ville. This was the designated Community Day and it was packed with locals and tourists.

Montreal is a fun city and would be my next choice as place to live in Canada. Of course, that is only because we now leave for winters. I'm not sure I could do winter in the type of cold weather which occurs here. The Metro may offer a chance to stay underground for shopping and restaurants, but one would still have to come out occasionally. Brrrr. I don't want to even think about it.




As is normal for this trip and when we're home, we had some time for a nap. In the evening we went back to the Pride grounds in the park. It is nearly in our neighbhourhood. So much diversity!

Day 3 of 8 - Downtown and St. Catherine Street

We got up a bit earlier this morning. We headed downtown but by transferring to the Orange Line first. The goal was to walk explore the downtown a bit.




Yesterday was lovely and today cleared up nicely too. It was a little more humid today. Lots of renovation is taking place on St Catherine Street through the downtown section. In front of 'The Bay' it wasn't possible to cross the street directly due to fencing. After, we ate lunch at a Thai fast food restaurant in the McGill Metro underground.

Later, we popped back several stations and exited near the beginning of the Montreal Pride pedestrian section of St. Catherine Street.





It was much more crowded than we expected. Tomorrow is the main Community Day. I'm sure we'll see even more people at it.



The activities at Faubourgs Park were more muted than last evening. What a neat venue for Pride!

Day 2 of 8 - Old Montreal

I didn't get out of bed until 9:20. That sounded really slothful until I realized that meant it was just 6:20 back in Vancouver. It's obvious we're still a bit on west coast time.

We did head to the old Montreal as soon as we were moving.





We spent time walking to Montreal's Notre Dame and then to Vieux Port de Montreal. We'd not seen the giant wheel here and decided it was a beautiful day for a trip on it. Actually, one trip comprises three resolutions.





We grabbed lunch before walking through Chinatown and back to our Metro line. We picked up a roasted chicken and the fixings to make some awesome chicken sandwiches for dinner. However, first, we took a late nap time. It felt necessary as we'd put a lot of kilometers on my Miband and my trusty sandals.



We did visit the celebrations at Fierte MTL. I could not believe how many people were out to see some Drag Superstars with Sasha Velour. The park was over capacity and that means thousands!

Day 1 of 8 - From YVR to YUL

The alarm rang at 5:20. Ye gads, is this how the masses live? It's been almost five years since an alarm clock buzzed for Jay or me to get up for work. How annoying it'd be to wake up this way!

We easily caught a passing SkyTrain at 6:25. We did a #100 bus to the other SkyTrain line and easily got off at the airport before 7:45. Neat not to have to bring along passports. We sort of associate flying with having them in hand.



WestJet boarded quickly and ably flew us to Montreal in little over four hours and a half. Getting the main bus from the YUL to downtown seemed a bit chaotic but easily manageable. We chose the #747 which ended at the Lionel Grouix Metro Station, as our eventual destination station was Papineau, also on the Green Line.



Our Airbnb was about a 20-minute walk not far from the corner of La Fountaine Park. The keys were waiting in the mailbox and the AC was running when we got in at about 18:25, local time. That is not bad considering it was only 15:25 in Vancouver. We like the space we have for a week. It's bigger than we need but has all we require.



We walked back towards our station to Metro, a big supermarket chain and bought things for breakfast. We were pretty hungry as we'd only snacked for lunch on the plane. Our place is very near to the Parc des Faubourgs, the grounds for the large array of Pride activities this week. The TV seems familiar with all our Canadian networks but when walking outside we are aware we're in a vastly different city.