I was back in Montreal on the weekend, this time for the db festival. Technically, I joined this crew way back in the spring but I've only made it to a handful of practices and haven't had a chance to race with them before this. I flew in around 1:00pm on Friday but the rest of the crew had chartered a coach with BMO and weren't arriving until around 7:00pm. I had lots of time to shop along St. Catherine. French Connection is selling t-shirts that say "FCUK MONTREAL" and I considered buying one for about 1/10th of a second. In the end just knowing that they sell them is enough.
I was looking forward to a great dinner with some decent wine but the crew decided to go to the Bar B Barn. Oh well, it's a good place to go with a large group.
What I love about the Montreal db event is that the races are far apart (1st at 8:30am - 2nd at 3:30pm) so you can leave the basin for a few hours. Marisha and I headed up to St. Laurent for more shopping. She got some great outfits. We both bought tote bags that we're pretty pleased with because our purchases kind of exceeded the available luggage space (this is the bag Marisha got). I had only packed a knapsack for the weekend and it was already completely stuffed. Anyway, our races went well, we had a fabulous meal at Bueno Notte (worth checking out as a restaurant & a nightclub if you're in town). The next day we placed 3rd in the A final and we were able to walk directly onto an early flight home when we got to the airport. The difference between getting home at 6:00pm or midnight for me! The only down side of the weekend was that one of the paddlers had her wallet stolen in a bar. She didn't notice until we were getting out of the cab but a couple of them went right back to the bar to see if she'd left it on the seat...The bar, Vol de Nuit, was pretty sketchy so no surprise when they dumped the waste bins in the washroom and a purse and a wallet full of credit cards (but empty of cash) fell out. Unfortunately they weren't hers but it gave a pretty clear indication of what had happened to it. In order to get on her flight the next day without photo id and credit card, she had to file a police report and bring a copy to the ticket agent.
When I got home the dog-sitters, Kaylynne and her sister, were just leaving. They told me how the dog was and how BBCC regatta went and it wasn't until after they took off that I noticed they'd cut the grass! With the 3-wheeled lawnmower!! Also, I'd left some cash on the counter to pay them for the weekend but they didn't even take it all - left $10. Sheesh, just cutting the grass was worth more than that to me!!