Catching you up

I'm sure I have lots to share from the last two weeks. I wrote in a journal while honeymooning, so I'll start by sharing my entries with you. Arthur and I will eventually get to all the photos that we need to upload to share with you from the wedding/honeymoon/reception.

May 21, 2008 (Wedding Day)
The day started out well with me being the first customer at the grand opening of Sonic in Thomasville!! It's always good to begin your day with a cherry limeade. Things went smoothly getting to Atlanta and we arrived at Piedmont Park before 7 pm. Wesley and Margaret, however, did not arrive until after 7:30 pm. (They had lots of traffic coming from the other direction!) Those hanging out in the gazebo cleared out for us to perform the ceremony. Cleve stood in as Arthur's best man and Donna Furrow was my matron of honor. Arthur was so anxious to say the vows that he said "I DO!" before Wesley was ready for him to! Wesley didn't bring his camera so the whole event was captured on my point and shoot camera. (Good thing we brought it along!) After leaving the park, we all went to Fontaine's for dinner. I changed out of my wedding dress while Art was driving to the restaurant! hahaha

May 22, 2008
We got up super early to catch the plane at the Atlanta Airport. My personal tote bag was stopped at the security checkpoint and ran through the x ray machine twice. Several officials gathered around to determine if I had a pocket knife based on a mysterious item on the screen. I couldn't figure out at the time what it was causing concern. (Afterwards, I got home and found a tampon in the side pocket that had been there for who knows how long!!! So that must have been the mystery!) It ended up that our seats had to be assigned at the gate, so our names kept popping up on this screen for the cleared list. Arthur was asleep on the plane before we ever started taxi-ing down the runway. We had a "sandwich au jambon" at the airport deli, Cafe Metropole. We bought tickets for L'Aerobus and experienced a terrifying bus ride. After arriving at the Ritz Carlton, the guest services coordinator sent us chocolate covered strawberries for staying with them for our honeymoon. We ate at the Sir Winston Churchill Pub for dinner and turned in early for the evening. I know women now a days having problems taking their husband's name, but Arthur ended up having to take my name for the week. I had made the hotel reservation as Bridgett Shewmake, so he was constantly referred to as Mr. SHEWMAKE by the hotel staff.

May 23, 2008
The day began with breakfast at Eggspectations. We learned our way around the metro system as we ventured to Vieux (Old) Montreal. We used Frommer's walking tour guide and hit all their points of interest. My fearful moment was in the Notre Dame de Bon Secours (known as the Sailor's Church). There were 69 steps up to the tower in a small winding staircase with no rails. It was rather scary and I'm not usually afraid of heights. I was dizzy by the time I reached the top, but the view was spectacular. After that, we ate a light lunch at Le Jardin Nelson. The maple sauce on the spinach salad was to die for! We made it to the Pointe-A-Calliere in time for the last multimedia show and a quick tour. The exciting part was coming out of the museum in a totally different building blocks away without ever realizing you had been underground. We returned to the hotel and went to Alexandre et fils a few blocks over for dinner.

May 24, 2008
We got smart and went to the convenience store the night before, so we had a cheap breakfast in the room this morning. We took the metro to the Olympic Park and toured the BioDome, Insectarium, and the Botanical Gardens. We also went to the Defresne Home/Museum. After resting for a little while at the hotel (and mapping out future adventures for my sake) we went to check out The 3 Brasseurs for dinner. There we feasted on the 3 Brasseurs terrine (pate of duck, mango, and red peppers) and poutine (french fries covered in gravy and cheese curd) as appetizers. Arthur had the beef carbonnade while I was served a plate FULL of pork shank, sauerkraut, and a baked potato. For dessert, we split a banana flamm with vanilla ice cream. We checked out the hustle and bustle of activity on Rue St Catherine before heading back to the hotel.

May 25, 2008
This day was Museum Day so there was free admittance into all the museums. We chose to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art. They liked video clips there! We ate a smoked meat sandwich at Dunn's with strawberry cheesecake (recommendation of Nancy's and an excellent choice!). We took the Metro over to Ile St Helene and saw the BioSphere (the line was too long to take advantage of its free pass). They were having a bike festival on the island, so there were lots of people. We crossed the bridge over to Ile Notre Dame as well. We came back to the Berri-Uqam metro station and saw some of the Underground City. We walked around the Latin Quarter and China Town as well. We ate dinner on Rue Crescent again, this time at Dundee's. Arthur took photos downtown of the city lights at night.

May 26, 2008
This morning we took the Plateau Mont-Royal walking tour suggested in our Frommer's guide. Nothing exciting there. We ate lunch at McKibbin's Irish Pub before heading up the hill (mountain????) to Parc Mont-Royal. That was a steep climb and reminded us how out of shape we are! For dinner, we made reservations at Renoir (located inside the Sofitel Hotel). They served green pea soup and a petit sandwich before the appetizer. I had grilled octopus and mushroom risotto for my meal. We received 6 desserts to sample. The atmosphere was nice and the meal was fabulous. The wow moment of the day was when we saw a woman walking through the park without a shirt on!

May 27, 2008
Arthur got up at 4 am this morning to take some sunrise photos, but was a little too late. We ate breakfast at Nicolosi before beginning our museum tours downtown. It was cold that day, so we started with the McCord Museum instead of using our walking tour guideline. We also made it to the Museum of Fine Arts. We had high tea at the hotel. We sat in the garden and watched the ducks while sipping tea and eating sandwiches and pastries. That evening, we headed back to Old Montreal to the Notre Dame Basilica for the light and sound show. The historical drama was cheesy, but the church was amazing. Afterwards, we headed to Stash for some pierogis at the Polish restaurant. We ran into a group from Huntington College out of Montgomery (who of course knew people from Clarke County!).

May 28, 2008
This was a long day, considering we had a 2 hour flight delay and sat forever at the airport. The plane that should have arrived had maintenance issues and had to be replaced in Atlanta. A passenger near us said DELTA stood for "Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport!" Surprisingly enough, we were on the same plane with the group from Huntington that we met the night before.

I didn't journal about the reception, but just so you know, everything went well. Donna did an impeccable job of decorating, and my mom and aunts did a fantastic job with the food. The cake was unusual and got the response we expected. We didn't have a clue of how many to expect, but I think Arthur and I would agree that it was not as many as we had hoped for. But it was a great day and a wonderful way to celebrate with everyone that didn't get to experience the joy of the wedding day. Arthur had lots of family and friends to travel from out of town and we were grateful for them coming.

As for an update of this week, we are slowly trying to move Arthur's stuff into the house. I've been at the house a lot, waiting on telephone people, and DirectTV installers, and air conditioning repairmen, etc. I'll be glad to get the house back in order again. Oh, and did I mention baseball??? We spent Monday and Tuesday evenings on the ball fields trying to pass out the last of the photos. Arthur always talked about how long baseball season seemed to last and I never agreed with him until I did baseball photography. I feel like baseball will never end........But this long blog must now come to an end, and I'll have more for you later!