A Weekend in Montreal

Well it was actually just Saturday and Sunday but a weekend sounds better than "slightly more than 24 hours", am I right? I love the "city" of Burlington but it does feel kind of small at times, especially since I grew up in Boston. Montreal is actually just about 1.5 hours away but I've never been there in the two years I've lived in Vermont. My dad and my sister came up with me and we had a great time. Here are a few highlights from the trip...

Montreal Botanical Garden
Unfortunately, we went here on an overcast/rainy day but it was still gorgeous nonetheless. They have different garden exhibitions and it was lovely to walk around in.

Pizza

For dinner, we ate at a delicious restaurant called Mangia Foco in the Old Port. It's actually owned by the guitarist of the band Simple Plan, and even though the food took quite a while to come, it was one of the best things I've ever eaten. The crust was a perfect mix of chewy and crispy, and the ricotta, egg, potato, zucchini, and creme sauce worked wonderfully together.

Shopping

Ahh the best part. Besides exploring all the big-name stores on St. Catherine Street, there is a HUGE underground shopping mall. I obviously hit up Sephora but was excited to find The Face Shop, a Korean beauty store with products that aren't sold in the USA. And on the way back I couldn't not stop at a Canadian Target--it's great enough to go to Target since there are none in Vermont but they also had a few things not available in the USA. I went a bit crazy at The Body Shop but I'm probably the most excited about the Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation. I also love the Hourglass Concealer because I've heard it's a dupe for the very expensive and infamous Cle de Peau one and I'm impressed so far. I've also heard great things about the L'Oreal Micellar Cleansing Solution to remove makeup (a lot of my Canadian bloggers love it).

Overall it was a fun time and a great precusor to my big vacation coming up (I'm going to my favorite city in the world, San Francisco, on Sunday). Hopefully I'll be making more trips to Montreal during the school year now that I know how beautiful/yummy/filled with great shopping it is.