Seeing places in a different light

A lot of our trips to Montreal in the past have been doing a lot of the same thing.

We check out Old Montreal during the days, go to the Old Port, maybe venture to Mont Royal or walk around downtown and shop a little. This year, I wanted to do a bit more and thankfully we did.

I'm not saying we didn't do the normal things -- because we did -- but we did check out some other things for once. And actually stopped to "smell the roses" per say.

We went out to Olympic Stadium this year and took a tour, which was interesting. It's a shame the Expos aren't still there as I would have liked to have taken the tour when they were still there. And maybe be allowed on the field.

We also went to some well-known places to eat (such as Schwartz's), which gave us the chance to explore different parts of the city. Walking up St. Laurent was interesting and going through the French quarters when heading to a place for top-notch poutine was excellent. It's very colorful down there and the buildings are pretty cool (probably should have taken some photos, eh?)

We still did the normal stuff at night (drinking our faces off), but we did investigate some other places (such as McKibban's, which is a fine pub).

One thing we did was checked out a comedy club. Out Wednesday night at the Mad Hatter's, we ran into this group from a place called the Comedy Nest. After striking up a conversation, we found the one guy was the headliner. So they invited us and we went the next night (we also went Friday for open mic).

That was a great time and one to remember. The headliner's name is Steve Caouette. He's from Maine and if you ever hear he'll be near you, check him out. He's an absolute riot and well worth going to see.

We also met some other people and went out for drinks that night and had a blast.

Something about this year really made it all click. Seeing different things with the good mix of doing some old things we know work well. And one thing is for sure -- I'll be back. Maybe in December!