The Middle Ground: The Arrival

We arrived in Montreal in the late afternoon on Saturday, the day before Easter.

We hopped in a taxi and scooted over to Hotel Opus, our home for the week. Hotel Opus was lovely, but if you called it anything other than Hotel Opus, no one knew where you meant. We'd ask a mostly-french-speaking cab driver to take us to The Opus Hotel, and he'd slightly tilt his head and say I don't know where you mean...uh..uh..you know address?! We'd say Sherbrooke, and then one of us would wise up and remember to say Hotel Opus, and the no-longer-confused cabbie would say Ooooooooh, Hotel Opus! Yes, Yes; I know Hotel Opus! It worked like magic every time.

Hotel Opus

We settled in our rooms and milled around for a bit checking out the ultra modern, but mostly comfortable, space. The taxi ride and the settling felt like limbo, a sort of floating between reality and somewhere else. I was unsure of what was to come, and I had good reason.

Mama and me at Koko

After much confusion and miscommunication (really only about ten minutes worth), we decided on dining at the hotel's restaurant, Koko. Since Koko is really a night club and we were eating at a normal hour, okay maybe a little early for people under 90, we were the only patrons. It was nice. The food was delicious, especially the carrot soup with green apple slaw.

Hub and Daddy at Koko

We laughed and had a good time; it was nice to relax after a day of traveling. Mostly the wait staff laughed at us and our accents. It was a good time.

My dinner at Koko. (Mother made me take the picture of my food. Embarrassing.)
It was delicious: short rib with mushrooms, spinach, and homemade gnocchi with mashed potatoes. It didn't quite beat the carrot soup (no embarrassing picture of that), though.

After dinner we set off to the suburbs to see Sony...

Someone please make me homemade gnocchi. Or carrot soup with green apple slaw.

Please,