I'm back from skiing

[MrsMoose2001]

Hi Everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!!!

 

I'm back from my ski holiday. Was nice. We had 2 days of rain, but the conditions were still good. Very crowded. The hotel was nice, we had a great room, but nothing is perfect, there are no elevators in the place and we were on the top (3rd) floor so up and down for skiing with ski boots and for 3 meals is hard. Also no room service for breakfast and buffet breakfast which I hate and didn't eat and food at breakfast was not good. I had cook make me something a few days as I tipped her so that hubby could at least get some real eggs as they served fake (liquid) eggs and recycled sausages not to mention I had to beg just to have help with the luggage (no belhops either). Will write about the fashions later. And this is considered one of the best places near the hill. No hotels on the hill only condos. Only one place that is better but their rates are crazy at $700 per night and further from the hill. Did eat there and the food is wonderful same rating as Per Se and Daniel's in NYC and yes ladies wore jeans there. (more on that another time).

 

I hope everyone had a great holiday and a very joyus new year.

 

May y'all have health, happiness and prosperity always.

 

I will just say this, there would have been some very unhappy ladies in the restaurants at dinner as jeans were very very prevalent. Even in the most upscale place.

 

More later. Hope everyone is well

[mrsred]

Welcome home Mrs. Moose!

 

Happy New Years to you!

 

Looking forward to your fashion report :)

 

I don't do buffets either...don't blame you at all for skipping breakfast there. Hope you had a great time regardless of the rain and the stairs!

 

We just returned last night from Florida....that drive seems to be getting longer.

 

I saw some rather strange fashions to be sure!

 

~e

[bobby'sgirl]

Glad to hear your holiday went fairly well. I too do not like buffets. Food is usually cold. I prefer having my meal brought to table.:) On the cruise we went to the dining room most mornings...I like to be pampered when away from the children etc.

I wonder where everyone wears the wonderful clothes I see in the stores if people wear jeans to dinner.;)

[LandLockedInAZ]

Welcome back, MrsMoose!! Happy New Year to you!

Where (what city) did you go for your trip? I think you said once before, but I've forgotten.

Glad you were able to see through the rough spots and still enjoy your trip.

[Happy ks]

(raising hand) Another buffet snob here! I almost never go to one, a very few exceptions (Queen Mary Sunday Brunch in Long Beach is excellent), I want to be waited on for the $$ spent on going out to eat!

 

Glad to hear you had a good time, Happy New Year!!!

 

I'd not be offended by jeans in nice restaurants in resort towns, but I'm interested in how they looked.

 

I'm happy to see you back, I missed you :) .

[zebster15]

Happy New Years to you!

 

 

We just returned last night from Florida....that drive seems to be getting longer.

 

I saw some rather strange fashions to be sure!

 

~e

 

We just drove back to FL from CT....I know what you mean....17 hrs in a car. :eek:

 

I remember you were coming to my area...scarry, huh?

Not the fashion capitol, unless you consider NASCAR and Bikeweek teeshirts high fashion.

[MrsMoose2001]

Thank you ladies, actually good to be back.

First to the buffet, yes, I agree with HappyKS and MsRed, they are cold and I like to have the food served when spending the $$$

Not to mention having to make your own toast just didn't cut it for me.

 

Now as to fashion, I will try to do this in some kind of order ski suits ran the gambit, and most were black or some form of combo black and nothing either bad or really outstanding that I saw. Ski sweaters were mostly in the "snowflake" print this year.

 

After ski boots seemed to be mostly UGG. Some of the newer UGGS and they looked nice and some were what hubby calls mukluks , fur outside.

 

For clothing for dinner, there were a lot of jeans. Most were nicely dressed with the jeans with a sweater or vest. Other than that there were some black pants and some chinos. I felt the chinos were out of place in a winter resort but there weren't too many of them. The jeans were neat, clean, pressed, and to be honest they all looked fine. It had nothing to do with the type of restaurant either. The worse outfit I saw was in the very expensive restaurant we went to. Rooms go for $700/night at the Pitcher Inn. It is a Relais and Chateaux and the night we had dinner there, one younger girl came in with her SO and the jeans she wore were really wiered and the top. The jeans were way out there with I can't even call it emblished, but it looked like there were pictures, other fabrics, I don't know what to call it, and the top was way out there too, I'd say she was in her early 30's. A couple of "leggings" also at dinner pushed into what I call "granny boot shoes", but only saw that once or twice.

 

Quite a few vests, microfiber, fleece, down, sheerlings. Vests were very promenient.

 

DH remarked once when we were in a nice resto, why make to much of an effort when the servers are dressed like ****.

 

As for breakfast. Since I got cook to make something off the buffet, we were down for breakfast. I saw pjs bottoms, and leggings, and long johns for the pants. Not to many jeans at breakfast, mostly leggins/longjohns.

 

For handbags, I spotted, Louis Vuittons, Gucci, one or two Paddingtons and also one Birken.

 

Mostly the men had on cords or chinos or jeans. I will say that most of the women's jeans were very neat and really looked fine. The men were a bit more "sloppy" with their jeans.

 

The other outstanding thing was one younger woman (late 20's perhaps) with jeans who had two huge holes in the knees, she had on high heeled leather boots and on top she had on long john waffle top with a t-shirt over it but the t-shirt was inside out. This was at the "hotel" and apparently her company had a working vacation and she was going to the meeting like that as I overheard her talking to another woman saying the meeting was going to start soon. She was in the "libarary" at the time at the hotel as that is were the wireless internet service was and it was in the morning (hubby was also using his laptop so that's why I was there with him).

 

I came back to edit after seeing the MOM Jeans clip. Yes, I did see those "mom jeans" on a lot actually but they didn't look too bad on the ladies who wore them. Actually most looked nice and neat and just fine even if they had the mom jeans on. Some of these ladies I could tell could afford any designer jeans they wanted, and I think they purposely choose to wear this style and some were in their 30's too and fashionable with everything else. The worse jeans were on the young "teens", where they were way to long and dragging and with the "lower rise waist" even those with the best figures just looked bad. Seems the teens all liked their pants dragging and way to long even if they weren't jeans. A lot of the people that were there the majority came from NY, NJ and Mass and CT. Those were the prevalant plates on the cars. Very few people from Canada, maybe 4 other cars that I saw, 2 from Ontario and one or 2 besides us from Quebec. One older lady who was nicely dressed at the very expensive resto, had on mom jeans at breakfast, but she wore them with a beautiful cashmere sweater cardigan and shirt, her hair and makeup was so well done and she looked so elegant that the "mom jean" just looked really nice on her, she had on the kind with the rubber waistband and I'd say she was in her 70's. They suited her at her age and the location and the time of day. So no flames please, but some of the mom jeans really didn't look that bad on a lot of the ladies I saw.

I'm glad to hear you had a good time in Florida, I think 8 hours is a long drive so I can only imagine what 17 hours is like now. I used to not mind it but now it's harder and harder to sit for long periods in the car.

[ashlyndalesmommy]

Welcome back! I was looking forward to hearing about your trip. I have never been skiing. My family are such "beach people". The beach is my favorite, but I wouldn't mind an occasional mountain trip, or skiing, or anything out of our usual plans!:rolleyes: But, we have lovely trips and I do love the beach, so I do not complain. Thanks for posting.:)

[mrsred]

I have never liked buffets. I don't like the idea that my food has been sitting there for who knows how long, and who knows how many people have had access to it. And yes..I like to be served :)

 

Thank you for the "report" Mrs. Moose! I have seen torn jeans a lot this fall/winter. There were several pairs worn by the 20's crowd and they were wearing leggings underneath so you can see them. A few people had tears on their seat...they should have been wearing leggings LOL!

 

We just drove back to FL from CT....I know what you mean....17 hrs in a car. :eek:

 

I remember you were coming to my area...scarry, huh?

Not the fashion capitol, unless you consider NASCAR and Bikeweek teeshirts high fashion.

Our trip was *only* 16 hours, but we do 8 hours a day. Had a very hard time finding a hotel room on the way back since so many of the hotels were damaged during Katrina, and FEMA workers took up the majority of the rooms.

 

Thank you Zebster for mentioning St. Augustine! We had planned on staying there for one night since DH has been there many times. Ended up staying for 3 days. Beautiful city...loved the history. A bit touristy..but I guess that is to be expected. Made some business contacts as well...always a plus! Now that I know where everything is....I'd like to stay at Casa Monica next time. Love the location, and what a beautiful hotel!

 

Fashion in Florida...the area we were in (Ponce Inlet) was pretty casual...but we spent a day at Epcot (free passes and a day alone with DH..always a plus). I really enjoyed the different "countries", it was a nice day, not very crowded, and I hadn't been in 20 years.

 

That's where I noticed so many fashion flaws! You could tell the Europeans..they were dressed beautifully, even though pretty casual. The *best* fashionably challenged couple was a man and a woman in their 30's wearing all leather. Not biker leather...but dress leather as in leather slacks, leather vest over a suede shirt, and cowboy boots with an Elvis hair cut (the 70's version complete with side burns). She wore a full length black leather skirt that was fitted over the hips then was flared from the knees down to her ankles with splits, high-heeled red cowboy boots, black leather "blouse" with high collar and puffy sleaves. She topped it off with very large Dior sun glasses and HUGE gaudy chandelier earrings.

 

On Christmas day we took some time off from the family functions and went to the movies. Most of the ladies wore Christmas themed sweatshirts, and one couple was all sparkles! I mean she had on tux pants with metallic thread pin-stripping, black top with glittered snowflake patterns, a black sparkled scarf, and silver high heeled sandals with black hose.

 

It was a fun trip...and people watching is always fun!

 

~e

[Happy ks]

I happen to love people watching when you see some who have really gone "over the top". Very entertaining. Makes me feel like vanilla pudding, though, I wish I were more adventurous at times.

 

MrsMoose, Did you happen to see any pink camoflauge? My boss goes skiing at Mammoth (CA) several times a season told me that was the hot ticket on opening weekend, back in November. I'm wondering if it just a local thing and not what you would see at the more expensive resort areas.

[Jane110]

MrsMoose,

 

Welcome home and Happy New Year!

 

Glad to hear that you and MrMoose had a good time. Thanks for the fashion report. Always fun to hear about. The jean report was especially interesting, so thanks!

 

Count me in as a buffet hater too. Though there is one brunch buffet here in NY that I like. It's at Brasserie 8 1/2. They have some great things like smoked fish, cold seafood, wonderful fruits and gourmet pastry's on the beautifully laid out small buffet bar. But then you order your hot dish from the waitstaff while sitting at your table - various egg dishes, waffles, french toast, etc - which is brought to your table. A lovely bread basket is also brought to the table. So, in fact, you can ignore the buffet totally, but you also have the option of it for a few choice cold items.

 

Welcome home!

 

Jane

[MrsMoose2001]

First, HappyKS, I didn't see pink camoflage, but I did see camoflage on a few of the men, yes, sort of a beige, white, green thing.

 

Sorry out of all the women I didn't see it. The color of choice was black or a combo of black and say beige/white panels in the black.

 

Thank You for the welcome home also Jane, that brunch sounds lovely. Actually there was a buffet similar to one I went to once when I lived there. I ignored the buffet but I can understand a buffet like that.

 

This buffet breakfast was just awful. Liquid eggs, recycled sausages and bacon, the oatmeal was so sticky, I saw one woman take some and she turned the bowl almost upside down and it "didn't move". The staff was adding hot water to it to try to "think it out". The bagels and breads for toast was just open and could be picked and touched by the kids and the pastries were just not good looking.

 

Hubby tried it on the first day and the food was cold, the potatoes tasted funny and it was just a bad buffet breakfast. The fruit looked like it had seen better days. I wanted a banana but they really looked bad.

 

I tipped cook and she made me some blueberry pancakes or poached eggs. I would not stay at this place again and I will be writing to the owner since I got his name to tell him about the breakfast.

 

Not to mention on the other weeks I was informed it's a "cooked to order" breakfast but because it was x-mas week it was buffet, so by paying higher rates we were penalized. BTW the name of the place we stayed at was the Sugarbush Inn.

 

The Pitcher Inn is the place where we had dinner one night and it is on the level of Daniel and Per Se. Unfortunately the rooms there are $700/night which for 8 nights is a little rediculous. They are a Relais and Chateau as is Daniel and Per Se as they gave us the book of all the Relais and Chateau in the world. They also had a very nice bar for pre-dinner drinks and the wine list had 850 bottles on the list.

 

The Warren House which we ate dinner in a few times was very nice, not as good as the Pitcher Inn but good, and I would have gone back to the Pitcher Inn but I was wait listed for the one reservation I was lucky enough to get.

 

Chez Henri which people rave about (french style bistro) was ok, but nothing special in my opinion, good for lunch where we ate almost every day. Surprisingly lunch is very hard to come by unless you want to eat in the zoo on the hill which we try to avoid.

 

But who ever heard of a 40 room place with no bellhops and 3 flights of stairs with extra equipment because of skiing? Really not run well. Although the room was very nice and the chambermaid did a great job.

 

Still DH had a good time as he really needed the rest, he had been working very hard for the last 3 months and said he enjoyed the peace and quiet and the well deserved rest he got.

 

I won't let a bad breakfast get me down, I can always go to the local store and buy a box of donuts to tide me over if I have to so not a biggie for me.

[Jane110]

 

This buffet breakfast was just awful. Liquid eggs, recycled sausages and bacon, the oatmeal was so sticky, I saw one woman take some and she turned the bowl almost upside down and it "didn't move". The staff was adding hot water to it to try to "think it out". The bagels and breads for toast was just open and could be picked and touched by the kids and the pastries were just not good looking.

 

Yuck...awful. Well, it's why you, I and HappyK's hate buffets!

 

Not to mention on the other weeks I was informed it's a "cooked to order" breakfast but because it was x-mas week it was buffet, so by paying higher rates we were penalized. BTW the name of the place we stayed at was the Sugarbush Inn.

 

Yes, there seems to be a correlation here. NY restaurants do the same thing for Valentine's and Mother's Day. Because it's a "special" day, they raise the prices and then limit the menu so it's cheaper for them. Nice little double profit scheme!

 

The Pitcher Inn is the place where we had dinner one night and it is on the level of Daniel and Per Se. Unfortunately the rooms there are $700/night which for 8 nights is a little rediculous. They are a Relais and Chateau as is Daniel and Per Se as they gave us the book of all the Relais and Chateau in the world. They also had a very nice bar for pre-dinner drinks and the wine list had 850 bottles on the list.

 

I love Relais & Chateau places and have enjoyed them a few times. I also have their book and just love looking through it.

BTW, we had dinner at Per Se last week. It was a once in a lifetime experience for sure!

 

 

I won't let a bad breakfast get me down, I can always go to the local store and buy a box of donuts to tide me over if I have to so not a biggie for me.

 

That's the spirit! Life's too short to worry about sticky oatmeal and liquid eggs! :)

 

Jane

[bobby'sgirl]

You are a good sport. Buffets are not high on my list. Glad your DH enjoyed the time away. Interesting report on the jeans. I agree with you that some of the 'Mom's' don't look too bad. Please no flames....mature figures. LOL

You probably returned before the rain from Ontario eastward. The snow hills may get icy.

[mrsred]

 

I saw one woman take some and she turned the bowl almost upside down and it "didn't move".

 

LOL!

 

A sure sign that the oatmeal isn't fit for human consumption.

 

~e

[MrsMoose2001]

ROTFL, good one MsREd, although I do enjoy oatmeal if it is prepared well on occasion.

 

Jane, please do tell how was PerSe? I'm going to try to get a resy there when we are down.

 

Yes, the same thing here, some restos on "special event days", put on a limited prix fixe menu with inferior quality/taste food and a higher price and I avoid those places if at all possible. New Year's eve is one of the biggest "event" nights for that.

 

Thanks Bobby's Girl, yes, hubby was happy to have a good rest and unfortunately the conditions were not the best, but could have been worse. It was quite mild there, almost to mild for skiing as hubby and I don't enjoy it if it's too warm. But then again we aren't the hot doggers either and we don't kill ourselves on the hills either so it was ok for us. I could have done with less crowds but I expect the crowds because it is the holiday week.

 

To be honest, the room is more important than the breakfast. As I said, I can always buy a muffin or a box of donuts at the local store, as long as the room is large and nice that is more important to me as I spend more time in the room than I care about the breakfast. Plus if I'm hungry, I can always get a bite on the hill or something, but the room can't be fixed.

 

As for the jeans, to be honest, maybe because it was a ski resort in a small town that is more farm country, but most looked just fine and looked like it fit. Maybe because it was more country than city and the look just "fit in" right.

 

To be honest, and no flames please, I have to say that I think the "mom" jeans really fit in more than maybe some of the low rise designer ones would have in that particular location.

[coka]

Welcome back MrsMoose! Thanks for posting about your trip. I could visualize everything you wrote about! I saw a news report on your ski location and I felt for you when I saw all the kids! I was walking the halls yesterday at school and overheard a student state to his friends that he was in Amsterdam over the holidays. Luckily, I did not spot him and he did not spot me. Small world.

 

Below are my Amsterdam highlights and lowlights:

 

The Food: I found the food to be excellent and inexpensive. We ate at the Bollywood Indonesian Restaurant, Pice Italian Restaurant, Sahio Jaya Indonesian Restaurant, Argentinian Steak House, Pizza Hut (I know, I know),

Maurya Indian Restaurant and some other Italian restaurant. Never had a buffet breakfast as they were all done by the time we got up.

 

The Fashion: Casual, more casual and sloppy casual. We read prior to "dress to impress." The only fashionistas we were impressed with was with ourselves! We concluded the shopping to be horrible. I was forewarned the shopping is not that great. We searched all over the city to find out where all the tall Dutch people shopped. We we were told by the locals that they no longer live in Amsterdam. The fashionable window attractions were just that. Attractions to get you into the stores. Many shops did not have the items displayed in their windows...they were "window displays only."

 

The Fun: The daily pub crawl in-between shopping stops were great places to stay warm. Weather was unseasonably cold and windy. It snowed there for the first time in five years. I told them I brought the weather with me! The nightclubs and danceclubs were okay. Went to a private club, rock and roll bar, jazz club, Irish bar, disco, 3 gay bars (for our gay guy friend), four-level nightclub, and a few after hours clubs. Only one was similar to what my sister and I envisioned owning in our retirement years. New Year's Eve was spent mostly outside in the major squares. Their claim-to-fame for NYE is that everyone shoots off their own fireworks...and I do not mean shooting off a couple of firecrackers or lighting a few sparklers! I mean people light up their own pyro-technics off the bridges, in the alleyways, out their windows, in the center of squares, wherever! They explode things above you, on the side of you, behind you and underneath you if they aim really good...

 

The Fubars: Being the only one off the plane to get their body and luggage searched for duty free items that are not truly duty free. The duty free American cigarettes brought for my sister ended up costing me 80 Euro because I learned they could not be brought into the country. I suppose if I had pot, then it would have been okay...!!! Unpacking luggage in my room at the Marriott Amsterdam to find out that the shuttle driver gave me someone else's black carry-on suitcase (my fault for not paying attention...I was still shaking from almost getting arrested for the Virginia Slims fiasco)! Not getting served in an Irish Bar because we were American...so much for my ancestry!!! One has to pay an entrance fee to the Holland Casino... Lastly, thinking my head was going to blow off when something landed in the hood of my wool coat on New Years Eve...luckily, is was only fallen plastic shrapnel from an explosion above... Arriving home to find out that one of two items purchased (a sweater and a funky pair of jeans Mrs.Moose described above) still had the store security tag attached to it. I am surprised I did not get accused of stealing it when luggage went through AMS security...!!!

 

The Famous (and infamous): Amsterdam's canal structure was unique. They had lots of outdoor markets with tulips and wooden shoes for sale. Bicycles truly are the main form of transportation...they seem to have the right of way over pedestrians. Beautiful women really do stand in the windows of the red light district and ignorant tourists really do knock on the doors to enter... The museums (Van Gogh, Anne Frank's House, etc) all had long lines of people waiting to get in. I came home with luggage full of excellent Dutch chocolate.

 

Overall, I am glad that I went and I had a wonderful time with my sister and my friends. It was difficult to say goodbye when you only see them once or twice a year. Other than spending time together, I asked each what the best part of the trip was. Surprisingly, the overwhelmingly unanimous decision was the city exploding around us on New Year's Eve. I stated I was glad we were all sober that evening. My sister stated she was glad she was not home in Macedonia...because everyone there goes out into the streets on New Year's Eve and shoots off their AK-47's...We decided that next year we were going to see how crazy Rio De Janeiro gets on New Years Eve.

 

Coka

[Jane110]

MrsMoose,

 

Per Se is one of those "you have to do it once" kind of restaurants. So try to book it. I'm glad we went.

 

Coka,

 

Many thanks for your Amsterdam report. I haven't been there yet. DH and I had plans for a visit there a couple of years ago which had to be cancelled at the last minute.

So why were you not served at an Irish Bar?

Sorry to hear about your luggage/cigarette fiasco's on both ends of the trip!

I hope you can get the security tag off your jeans and sweater!

 

Happy New Year.

 

Jane

[MrsMoose2001]

Jane, I will try to get my resy at Per Se. I sounds like it's worth going to.

keep your fingers crossed for me.

 

Coka, that's for that report. Amsterdam was not high on my list. I "passed through it" (spend a day) some 30 years ago and didn't remember much, but now I will avoid it.

 

May I ask why you were not allowed the duty free cigs? How many cartons did you have? What if you were bringing in one carton for your own use? I'm a little lost on that one.

 

Not being served because you are American, not fair, not nice, but not surprised. We knew a couple here in Montreal, they were french canadian, but they were quite heavy. They were not allowed into certain stores in Paris. They said that in a few stores they were asked to leave simply because of their weight. I don't think Europe has the save "right to be served" rules as we do in the USA or here in Canada (although I'm not sure about the rules here but I think they are pretty close to the USA).

 

I'm surprised about the clothes though, and the shopping, I would have expected better. What about jewelry? I thought I read somewhere that they had nice jewelry shops, but I may be off on that one too.

 

Wow, the fireworks sounds scary, don't know if I would like that at all too risky for me, lol.

 

As for the security tags on your sweater and pants, if you know a local shop who knows you perhaps you can take it there and ask them to remove it for you if it's similar to the ones in the USA.

 

When hubby and I were in Maine a couple of years ago, we went up to Freeport, about 1 hour drive from where we stay, when I got back to the hotel I realized the security tag was still on. I asked hubby to drive me back the next day and he didn't really want to so he tried to remove the tag, and it ruined the pants a die was released and that was that. Thankfully they were on a big sale at $13 so not much lost, but I really liked them, and he felt bad and landed up takeing me back but it was the last pair in my size so be careful with the tags to make sure there is no die if you try to pull it apart. BTW even by ruining them the tag was still on.

 

I'm glad you had a good trip in spite of everything that happened. Welcome home and I hope we see each other soon.

[coka]

Hmm, I will just tell hubby that I am going back to Amsterdam to get it removed! The tag is only on my sweater. I am going to try the plastic wrap and hubby's drill tomorrow. Maybe I can puncture a hole on one side and drain the ink until it dries up, then smash it. I also considered contacting a former student who was a serious cleptomaniac and asking her about strategy...

 

I was in AMS for eight days which was about five days too long from a "vacation" perspective. I am sure it is more delightful in the spring or summer months. From the tourists I met there, most were just spending a few days as they traveled Northern Europe. A local told us tourists from over 190 countries were in town that week. Of course I had to wonder if there are really 190 countries...Either way, he meant a lot!

 

I did not go into jewelry stores nor remember seeing them. We pretty much stayed in the Leidesplein, Rembrantesplein, Central Station and Dam Square areas. I concluded however, that the best areas must be on the outskirts of the city...where we were not!

 

A family member used to work for US immigration and customs...he thought I was scammed regarding the cigarette tax. I had three cartons and you are only allowed one. Had I said "yes, I have things to declare" or "I am not sure, can I bring these in?"...then they would have given me a choice to leave them at the airport. Since I answered no, then they were obligated to tax me under their rules. I would have believed my BIL, but I had asked the locals and they all had the same cigarette tax story. They charged 66 Euro (which is about 80 American...wrote it wrong above), 22 per carton. When asked why I had to pay for three if allowed one, the answer was, "because you had nothing to declare when we asked you." Bottom lines: No good deed goes unpunished! All my fault...I should have researched better the laws.

 

From prior research, I knew beforehand that some bars are for the locals only. A tourist must be with a local in order to get into some clubs. No problem there, I do not blame them at all! We just laughed that it happened to be at an Irish pub of all places!

 

Although the fireworks were as scary as I described above, it was quite a scene to observe. Our group was in awe by it all...and were glad to have made it home with no injuries! Walking back to hotel we saw lots of broken glass in the streets and many dropped gloves. We figured we were going to see a hand in one of them at some point...Even so, the festivities were relatively peaceful and we felt safe standing next to the armored police tank most of the night. Heard on the news the next morning that London had over 30 stabbings...

 

I find it ironic that although we had a great time, it is more fun to tell about the things that were crazy or messed up. Good thing I expect things to go wrong on vacations...I would have been disappointed had they not!

 

Finally, do not let any of this discourage you from visiting. I can visualize AMS in the summer wallking the cobblestone streets hand-in-hand with a lover smelling tulips along the way; or taking a canal tour with that special someone as you learn about the history and architecture of the city; or purchasing a pretty lady in the window for that good friend who can never get a date...

 

On a serious note, seeing my sister was totally worth it. We concluded it is a destination worth staying at for a few days or if just passing through. One in our group has been there six times before and she agreed.

 

Lastly, MrsMoose, my sister and I have danced in many places all over the world. We conclude that Montreal STILL REMAINS the best so far...and we are not biased!

 

Coka

[MrsMoose2001]

I hope you get that tag off, good luck with it.

 

The main thing is that you got to see your sister and enjoyed your time with her.

 

I'm glad you like dancing here, I'm not sure that I'd say it's the best in the world, but then again I have not gone "clubbing" in ages.

 

I wish they would have more "ballroom" dance places, more like a dinner dance for couples without the loud "club" atmosphere, more refined like in old days that I never got to experience because it was before my time.

 

DH and I take dance lessons although we are takeing a break right now for ballroom dancing, waltz/swing, tango and we did some merengue but didn't like that one so stopped, no place for that here in Montreal.

But really no place to enjoy it unless at private affairs.

 

Unless at a private affair, my dancing is done on a late afternoon on saturday, then off to dinner, but as I said, takeing a break now that it is ski season. Hubby has a small cold so no skiing this weekend.

 

Give me a shout next time you are coming up, maybe we can meet up for drinks.

[coka]

A friend of my department chair's goes to Montreal on Sunday afternoons for ballroom dancing. Not sure where. I heard last week on the Mix96 there is a ballroom dance lesson studio on Peel just below Ste.Catherine. My new favorite show is Dancing With The Stars (ABC Thursday nights).

 

I am looking at mid January towards the end of our exam week. Will know more by next week...I have lots of Euro to change over! I will email you!

 

Coka

[suziescruzin]

Coka, have you contacted a local department store to see if they can help you out? I have bought clothes out of town only to come home and have an ink tag still attached. I have not only had one removed at Macy's but also a buzzer type security tag (it didn't buzz for some reason) at our local Fred Meyer. Both places did it happily and for no charge.

[coka]

Hi Suzie,

Hubby and I ended up drilling a tiny hole in the plastic circular ball part. No ink inside. Next, we were half-way through sawing the ball off when the metal tack flew off and released the tag. Sweater in perfect condition. I noted the trademark on the tag had Netherlands...patent pending. I do not think they will get it. Seeing all the equipment in the workshop room finally getting some use was worth the aggravation!

 

Coka

[suziescruzin]

I'm glad it wasn't the inky kind!! Now you guys know what those tools come in handy for and we all know how to take our own tags off!!

 

Thanks.