Last week while hanging out with the (love)bugs… one of them asked ”what was your favorite place of all your trips?” Thus began a lengthy discussion and rehash of our travels. As we reminisced, we honestly couldn’t land on any one place or trip. It was a wonderful conversation and as most conversations with those two do…it went in many different directions…

Later that day as I was reviewing our upcoming travel plans I had to stop and remind my self just how lucky we are… how f r e a k i n g lucky we are. Here we are two and a half years into this pandemic and we are slowly venturing out into the world again. Perhaps we should stay home (or closer to home) but we are very acutely aware of the clock ticking … and after a few minor health scares for both of us- and with Timmy’s impending ankle surgery- we realize once again that tomorrow is not promised. So we dream and we plan.

…and finish up recounting our anniversary trip to Montreal…

We began our last full day in Montreal with breakfast in our room. I can’t say enough about room service during our stay…no matter what (or when) we ordered, service was prompt and impeccable and the food…always wonderful.

…ummm Timmy was washed out in the first pic…so much better♥️
I’ll just throw this pic in here…one night we returned from dinner, the Palm Court was a bit too crowded, so we ordered this snack from room service ♥️

After the healthy breakfast we took set off for the Montreal Botanical Garden. We’d left our plans for our last day open, and we do enjoy visiting gardens, so when we woke to magnificent sunshine, we eschewed another museum, and opted to spend our last day outdoors.

After I took the first pic, I said ”Hey, Tim, slide over and give me a face”.

Every day with this man is a joy.


“Hey Timmy… see if that plant has a scent”

“Hey Timmy let’s see how your foot looks next to the Elephant Foot tree”

Walkway leading to the Chinese Garden.

There are 30 themed gardens…the Chinese Garden was quite something.


I was taking Timmy’s photo at the entrance and a sweet woman offered to snap us both…this happened again and again during our visit.
So yes, very interesting art in the Chinese garden

I really wanted Timmy to hop in that boat, row out to the bird, climb atop it and give me the best pic ever…he actually used his foot as an excuse…what a killjoy…


As you might expect…the Japanese garden was quite a contrast.


Yes! This is a 275 year old Bonsai.





We love lions…probably because we both have August birthdays

The Rose garden was vast and beautiful…I snapped tons of pics…you can thank me in the comments for only posting this one… named for Rosalyn Carter.


Don’t even ask what this is…absolutely no clue…

This reminded us of Stonehenge…

At a certain point, my stamina began to wane, and I stopped running up to read the descriptions … so we can pretend that this in in fact an homage to Stonehenge.

Wouldn’t be a proper blog post without at least one pic of Timmy parked on a bench.

I snapped this our way back to the Ritz.
We thought about popping into the Palm Court for a bite…it was after all Tea Time (High Tea if you want to be fancy about it)… every table was occupied or reserved…and the bar was crowded…so we headed up to our room and had our very own impromptu tea time with the leftovers from our picnic. We Buckleys are nothing if not resourceful.

Our room had both a Nespresso and pot for boiling water… and wait for it…loose tea. So freaking lucky.

We might have napped after our snack…but there’s no photographic evidence, so I’ll just say we rested before dinner at L’Express. L’Express is a delightful bistro that we dined in back in 2009 – we found it to be charming and reminiscent of so many Paris bistros. It is also the first place that Timmy had bone marrow and cornichons. Dinner was really, really yummy and Timmy once again began with the marrow.



Because we failed to make reservations, the hotel’s concierge was only able to secure seats at the bar. Which evidently is a thing when you are one of the most popular eateries in Montreal. When we arrived, I mentioned to the manager that I felt lucky to have secured a seat at the bar, even though we had been hoping for a table…here he is looking at the reservation system for a table…turns out he had one if we could be done in 2 hours ♥️

We thought we recognized our waiter…turns out Aleks has been working at L’Express for 27 years…so it is quite possible he waited on us last time too!


So this is a mirror selfie…my husband is so clever.

Timmy with his cornichons.
The tables were verrrrrry close…however each table had a plexiglass partition…just so grateful to be able to enjoy our dinner at a table.

So that’s a wrap…we had an outstanding anniversary visit to Montreal. We are leaving in ten days on another adventure.

Here are three more random photos that didnt make it into previous posts.

I’m including this pic because I’m happy with my hair, my smile, and I really love this dress.
”The only cure for vanity is laughter”
This may be the reason why the Lovebugs did not receive their postcards.
This is the apartment building across from the Ritz Carlton. I just loved waking up to it every morning.

Thanks for following along…I’ll be traveling with Timmy soon…hope to see you back here.