swingin' saturday

Yesterday James and I set out on a new adventure--swing dancing! While I don't think either of us has ever been accused of being rhythmic, I do love swing music, James loves me, it was free, so we went for it! We got to visit one of Montreal's boroughs, Verdun, and hang out at a fabulous park on the river on a most beautiful day. The lesson was in French and English, and we really enjoyed it, although they made us switch partners every few minutes so it was a little difficult getting used to dancing with someone new every 5 minutes when you were just trying to get the hang of it. We stayed after the lesson and danced a few more songs, trying to copy the more advanced moves we saw others doing, walked around the park, and then decided to head back to the Old Port since it was such a beautiful day.

To our surprise, the Clock Tower Quay was open, so we were able to walk out and climb all 192 steps of the tower to get great views of the city. We then decided to pay $20 for a 30 minute pedal boat rental on this canal at the port, which was really fun, and as we both discovered, a first-time experience for both of us!

At this point we were ready to go home, and I'm sure Jeter was ready for us to take him out since we had been gone about 7 hours...but unfortunately James lost his all-day subway pass. Which would not have been a big deal, but for some reason at that point every ticket machine we tried could no longer accept cash, and the machines do not recognize American credit cards. We had to walk to four different entrances before we found one that worked, and by that time, we were exhausted.

We had planned to go back downtown to watch the fireworks competition at night, but it turns out they don't actually start until NEXT Saturday, so we were able to rest our exhausted bodies at home.

James left early this morning to head to New York to spend a few days visiting his family, and he took Jeter with him, so it's pretty quiet here. It is once again a PERFECT day outside, so I think I'm going to hang out in our neighborhood and do some shopping!