Montreal, part neuf et fin

[bigmacbear]

Sunday, July 25

In which we return to Rochester.

We planned to leave Montreal about 7 AM, but actually left closer to 9 after checking out and waiting for the hotel staff to find my car in the garage. The trip was fairly uneventful up to the border crossing. We stopped in to the duty-free store to get a refund of the taxes on the hotel room and some souvenirs Gary (gmjambear) had got at the Expos game. Once we left the duty-free store it was only about 15 minutes to get through the line waiting at the border into the US and be on our way.

We stopped in Watertown for lunch at Applebee's. With Fort Drum being so close by there was a display of military paraphernalia on the wall. Interestingly enough the bills came pre-figured in both US and Canadian currency.

When I got back on I-81 I found I was starting to nod off, and pulled off at the next exit to allow Gary to take over driving for a while. I ended up sleeping pretty much all the way through Syracuse and woke up around Auburn.

We got Dennis home and arrived home ourselves about 4 PM. After unloading the bags from the car I went down to Bristol to pick up Brandy. She was happy to see us but also miffed at us being away for so long, as she made a mess in the car on the way back.

I think this GALA Festival brought up the point that you simply can't do everything. It is only possible to hear half the performances, Festival Chorus conflicts with so many other events, and so on. But the trade-offs we made were in my opinion worth what we missed. My only regret was not coming to Bear Soup II in the mistaken belief that it would break up at midnight and we would only have been there an hour. But hindsight is always 20/20.

Ah well, I'm looking forward to the next GALA international festival in 2008, wherever that may be.