Carole and Jay Furr at La Ronde

August 18-19, 2007

On Saturday, August 18, the weather in Vermont was rainy.  Windy.  A rotten day for a hike in the mountains and a worse day for kayaking.  So, we burned some Starwood points Jay'd accumulated in his business travel and reserved a room for the night at the W Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, a couple hours from home, and zoomed up to Canada to spend the day at the Six Flags-affiliated amusement park, La Ronde, located on an island in the St. Lawrence River in sight of Montreal.  As is our custom, we then had breakfast the next day at Nickels, the diner/grill/bar on St. Catherine near a lot of the downtown hotels.  Imagine our horror when we found out the Nickels chain had been founded by none other than Celine Dion.

Jay's favorite moment from the weekend:  after Jay got all excited waiting for the BEST RIDE EVER (the magic teacup ride) and FINALLY getting to climb into a cup (after a wait of, heck, thirty seconds AT LEAST), a friendly Montrealer waiting near the ride called out to him:  "Bonne tasse!"  (Loosely translated: "have a good cup ride, dude.")

Videos from the day:

Carole, full of excitement, studies the park map

Carole in one of the flying swings at the Tour de Ville ride

Carole outside the Spongebob Squarepants virtual reality ride

Carole in a magic cup at the Tasses Magiques ride

Jay chills out in a magic teacup

The wreckage of a closed ride, visible from the 'minirail' train ride that circles the park

Carole poses on the minirail ride with a flume ride in the background

Jay on the minirail

Jay squinting on the minirail

More of Jay on the minirail

Still more of Jay on the minirail

Goliath, the park's newest and biggest roller coaster, which goes out over the parking lot

Carole having breakfast at Nickels

Mmm, Nickels coffee

Huh? What?

Huile "San Gras Trans"! Huile "San Gras Trans"!

Carole poses with a sculpture outside the W in square Victoria (Victoria Square)

Carole again

Carole again

Carole yet again

Ooh la la

Carole and Jay with the sculpture

Carole poses on the funky W "Wonderful Room" bed

Carole on the bed. The transparent-walled shower is visible behind her.

Carole attempts to make contact with the supercomputer/artificial intelligence/special effect in the hall outside our room

Hi, my name is Carole, and this is my friend, Sparky

Jay poses in the shower (view from the bedroom)

Jay in the shower again

This is probably a lot more interesting for the person watching if the person in the shower has the lights on and their clothes off. Of course, it'd also help if the person in the shower wasn't Jay.

Jay really liked the shower.

The W with our red Subaru Forester parked out front. Carole is standing next to the hood.

The minivan in front of us was full of scruffy college kids who must have gotten out to go use the bathroom twenty times in the half hour we waited at customs. Amazingly, they didn't get detained and cavity-searched.