Bit of a lazy start to the day and since people said Mont Tremblant is one of the things worth seeing in Montreal, we punched it into the GPS and headed off.  There were a few options for ‘Mont Tremblant’, but since I was still on a Parks Canada kick, I figured going to the “National Park” would be a good idea.

Mont Tremblant #1:  The ‘National’ Park

The trip up was rather scenic.  Decent roads and lots of motorcycles on the road.   Just before Saint Donat, we even passed a good old fashioned biker bar/restaurant and figured it would be a good place to grab lunch on the way back.  We made it to the Visitor Center where we went in to try to figure out what to do.  I went up with my Parks Canada pass, only to be bumped over to the only girl there who spoke English – the first bad sign.  After some explaining, I guess the “National Parks” in Quebec, aren’t part of the Parks Canada system.   Basically, if we wanted to go in and walk around, it would cost us $6 each.  Not really feeling like paying $6 to walk around, we headed back to find something to eat.

Back tracking to the biker bar, we pulled into the parking lot and started to notice things didn’t seem generically biker friendly.  No Can-Ams, no sport bikes.  Just a lot of cruisers. And having followed a police car into the lot, we got to watch a host of bikers come out to greet the officer in his car.  Not entirely sure what was going on, we decided this might not be the restaurant for us and went back into town.

We found parking and settled into a restaurant that seemed biker friendly.   Grabbing a spot on the Patio in the sun, we ordered some food:

And then sat back to watch the bikers come and go.  Mostly cruisers, but it looked like a Can-Am riding group picked that parking lot to meet up at.  It’s really too bad they don’t lean because we’re pretty sure the touring versions have as much (or more) storage than a 2 seater sports car.  But I suppose there’s no good space for a set of golf clubs – the defining factor in North America…

We had a nice chat about Gremlin Bells on cruisers as we watched the giant pack of bikes(possibly from the restaurant from earlier).  In the space of 5 minutes, we saw 3 close calls when they stopped across the street.   First one didn’t put it in gear, so lots of revving and rolling back.   No contact we could see, but damned close to bumping into the bike behind.   Some advice being yelled over the noise should have been some warning to the bike 2 positions back to put their bike in gear…  But nope, same problem.   Didn’t take as long to get moving, but some serious wobbling – which set things in motion for the cruiser behind them.   Riding two up, their serious wobble nearly sent them into the curb.   Very ugly – definitely takes away from the ‘cool factor’ of riding when there’s a distinct lack of competence.

 

Mont Tremblant #2 – The town & village:

After lunch, we had come to the conclusion that there was no way the ‘National Park’ was why everyone liked Mont Tremblant.  After realizing that we were actually in Saint Donat, we decided to follow the bikers and head over to the town.  Definitely a nice bit of road out around the edge of the park.   Would have been a lot more fun in something better than a Ford Focus.

We made it into the town and had a nice walk.  Typical touristy small town.  Lots of little restaurants and cafes.  Ironman signs were everywhere, but didn’t look like there was really anything ‘official’.  So we got back in the car and looped up to the village and the lake.  The swim portion of the Ironman was going to be here:

We also looped around the Village road, but things didn’t seem quite right.  But we did catch a glimpse of the buildings up on the side of the mountain and made our way over to the Resort.

Mont Tremblant #3 – The Resort:

And as we came up the road, we hit traffic and closed roads everywhere.  We had finally arrived at the Mont Tremblant everyone had suggested we go to.  Kinda like whistler, but looked more expensive for some reason.

Sugar shack maple on a stick – It might not be winter, but still a very canadian thing to do:

 

Back in Montreal, we grabbed some dinner at a pasta place before heading out for some drinks.   First stop was St Elisabeth’s just off Saint Catherine’s.   Bit of a dive bar, but awesome terrace.  We had walked past the night before, but not know about it, we really just walked right past.

Decent place to hang out.  And once we gathered everyone together, we hopped in a cab to Le LAB.  Nice place, very interesting(and expensive) drinks.

JERKY LAB JACK:   Basically liquid smoke in a glass, garnished with beef jerky.   Interesting, but not something I’d order again.

Zombie 1956 – The drink of the evening:

4 shots of liquor, including 151 Rum and Absinthe.  Plenty of fruit.  $28!

Excellent drink.  Very, very dangerous.   Although the rule of the evening had been “no shots”, when you’re ordering drinks like that, it doesn’t really matter.  It had already been a good night, and finishing on that drink might have seemed like a good idea at the time:

 

But the consensus was that no one wanted to pick him up and carry him home.   I was tapped to help him out and downed probably a half of it while he wasn’t paying attention and off in the washroom.  We settled the bill and parted ways.

A few of us were silly enough to try to go to one more bar.  The longer I sat around, the more I felt my portion of the Zombie and my last round kick in.   I didn’t participate at the last bar, which was probably for the best since no one finished their drinks there anyway.

But we did head next door to La Banquise where I ordered the Smoked Meat Poutine:

Definitely the right way to end a night of drinking in Montreal!