All the way back in May was the month we made this awesome trip to Montreal. This was a vacation filled with a lot of “firsts”. For the first time we visited Canada, first time we were introduced to Podcasts (TEDtalks to be more specific), firs time we were introduced to Scandinavian/nordic spas, a Nordic circuit that consists of a series of treatments that starts with working up a sweat in a wood-heated sauna, then plunging into a cold-temperature river (or, at a spa facility, in an outdoor cold water pool), and finally relaxing in an outdoor steam bath – IT.IS.HEAVEN!!!!!!! We have NEVER experienced the type of relaxation that this kind of treatment gives, we HIGHLT recommend it. As soon as we were done I was literally doing a search on Google for this type of spas in the Bay Area. There are a few, but the only close to the one we went was The Refuge in Carmel, CA. All we have to say is THANK YOU, Carriers (our amazing hosts) for all these NEW experiences!
Montreal is very european, filled with gorgeous architecture and amazingly delicious food. Oh! the food!! If it wasn’t for us having amazing hosts who speak french, I don’t know if we would have had ANY idea what to order. I will confess though, I had Veal for the first time, and on my defense, I had NO idea what kind of meat it was 🙁 (yeah, NO idea!) It was so sadly delicious :/. We did the Mile End Montreal Food tour and we recommend it. It was a great way to try a variety of local food and at the same time walk around at least one of the many neighborhoods.
Enjoy these photos and hope they inspire you to visit this part of the world!
Poor pig! That thing must have weight a ton!
These are some samples during the food tour. This pasta was soon good!!!! 
Its hard to picture this same city completely filled with snow during winter. We hear winters are harsh in Montreal 🙁
We then headed to Quebec City for the weekend and it was much chillier and cold. Here is where we tried tuna tartar, beef tartar and wild boar tartar.. yikes! My favorite was the beef tartar 🙂
Our Canadian/Mexican hosts! Love this photo!!!
So, this was a very unexpected and last minute destination. We were taken to a Cidery near Montreal. It was so much fun! I love the country side, so we really enjoyed not only the drive, but visiting this beautiful orchard. Ari, we have YET to open our sparkling cider! 
And because I don’t usually carry my “real” camera with me, here are a few iPhone photos 🙂
