It's been a long and crazy week. The long weekend was exactly that: LONG. haha.

I spent half of it working and then Sunday afternoon I went to Ottawa with my parents because mom wanted to see the end of the Tulip Festival. We stayed in the luxurious Chateau Laurier and spent some time at Byward market. In the evening, we had a super delicious fresh seafood basket at The Fishmarket Restaurant. The market also has the best french bakery called "Le Moulin de Provence." It sells classic french pastries and croissants with steaming bowls of cafe au laits. Hmmmm hmm, yum!

The tulips were almost done but we were lucky to still see some of them. I took my parents up to Parliament hill where there was much Victoria Day activities going. Then on our way back to check out of the hotel, we were lucky enough to catch a boat going through the eight locks on the rideau canal. Watching the little boat move from lock to lock was fascinating (but it took a very long time!)

My mom also has a thing for the Royal Canadian Mint, so we stopped off to look at some pretty, shiny, and EXPENSIVE coins.

The rest of the week was spent in my favorite city: Montreal. It was a little hectic because the Metro workers had just gone on a walk-out the day we arrived. So traffic was "fun." :S This particular trip was interesting because the students went to all these places I had never visited before: the biodome, insectarium, botanical gardens, iSci (Science Centre), Pointe-a-Calliere (Montreal Museum of Archeology), and the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre. My favorite was the biodome. It is a self-guided tour of four different types of ecosystems: the laurentian forest, tropical forest, saint-lawrence marine and arctic and antarctic ecosystem. Pointe-a-Calliere was also really cool too because I liked studying archeology in university and they showed the original wall of Montreal before it was torn down. The iSci museum is currently hosting "le monde du corps 2 (body world 2)" which I was disappointed about missing when it was in Toronto. Unfortunately, the students did not go to see that exhibit. Althought, the Technocite, Eureka, and Snowbirds exhibit were still fun.

The holocaust museum was a very interesting choice for the students as it had a really sombering effect. However, the head teacher was most interested in this memorial centre and overall it was so interesting and eye-opening. You only hear about the holocaust, but never really knew the nitty-gritty details. Still, not the funnest thing to do on the last day of the trip.

So this weekend is filled with various activities. But all I really want to do is veg out and relax. yeeeeah!