Beckster's Days: Honeymoons and homecomings

So, the evening of our wedding was spent on this beautiful catamaran.

The sunset was beautiful, as was the dinner we ate and the turtles we swam with.
We were of course already in Barbados, a dream honeymoon destination, but we decided to take one night away from our families, and stayed at the Savannah Hotel.

Here it is from the outside.

This is the downstairs balcony and (dare I say it?) tired new husband(!)

and this is our view.

A few days later, we went from this...

....to this.

Just to be clear: from this...

...to this.

That's right, we went to Montreal, to see some of my husband's (can't get used to that yet!) friends and family.
First visit as always, was to the West Island, and his grandparents.

Second, also customary, was to a poutine shack.

I've explained before about this dish, but this particular diner had been voted by the people of Montreal to be the best poutine in town.
I have not sampled them all, but I like the best.

I cannot stress, reader, how cold Montreal is at that time of year.

Oh, here's an example: Think you'll leave that bottle of water in the car, do you?

And there's so much snow.

We shovelled twice a day sometimes. I confess, if I were a resident I'm pretty sure I'd pay one of the hundred companies that offer to shovel your drive for you, at a price.
They also have massive ploughs and snow-throwers, and huge lorries that take snow to landfill sites because there just isn't enough room for the stuff, but I couldn't get a good picture.

There were two big things I tried this time in Canada. One was cross-country skiing, which is most-definitely a breach of my performance contract but hey, I'm a devil-may-care kinda gal!

Eric's a fan.

Me? Not much. Instead of just your feet to take care of, there's 6 foot of slippery metal to contend with as well, only half-attached to your foot. Weird what some people enjoy...

The second thing was much more to my liking, the Ofuro Spa in the north of Montreal, a version of what's commonly called a Polar Bear Club. Allow me to explain.

As this leaflet sorta shows, everything is done in rotation. You steam or sauna, you go in a really cold plunge pool outside (minus 27, remember) for 3-5 seconds, you heat up again in the steam room, you go to the hot-tub, you chill in the relaxation area etc.