Queen's Convocation then Montreal Beer Festival

Hello All!

We have not been doing well keeping up with our blog the last couple of weeks, as we were busy preparing for convocation, and then tired and recovering from convocation. Dana flew to Toronto and met up with her family, while I flew to Ottawa to meet with mine. My parents, grandparents and bro all bro all made the cross country trip, and the Thompson's (Mel's parents) were very nice to let us stay with them on beautiful Treasure Island near Kingston. We arrived on Wednesday night, and convocation was the next morning at 9 am. After a couple of refreshments and some delicious beer-can bbq chicken we called it a night to rest for the big day. After only a few hours of sleep, we started the day off at 6am (3 am Vancouver time!) to get ready for the ceremony. All in all the ceremony was really well done, and only took an hour and a half! The speakers, although some were better than others, did a great job, and in no time we all had our diplomas and all of a sudden our lives at Queen's were over! After the ceremony we had a chance to mingle with friends and family, where Dana's family met mine for the first time, and although I don't think that everyone knew exactly what was going on, and why we were meeting, it went very well. Lots of worrying for nothing! I spent the rest of the day with my family, and we had a fun time hanging out and eating lots of great food (Chez Piggy and Royal Angkor).

The next day my folks headed to Ottawa on their way back West, while my bro TC and I headed to Montreal with Will and my bro's good buddy Andrew who is in Muskoka for the summer. Although Montreal is always fun, this time was especially exciting because it was the weekend of Beer Festival! We were staying at the Hostel International which is in a perfect downtown location and is also cheap and clean. Right off the bat we met some traveler's, Leven from Belguim and a really hungover guy from Australia, and so we headed to Brutopia for some pints we met with Travis, Anna, and Travis's bro (whose name I forget). We then continued on to some of the finer, more infamous, establishments in Montreal, and ended up at Sir Winston Churchill (I think) where we ended a good night. Saturday was the main event though, so after sleeping off the damage from Friday night, Beer Fest was upon us (see pics). We met up with Travis again, and Leven joined as well, and after getting through the massive line up we were in Heaven. Inside and outside we were surrounding by beer from all over Quebec, Canada, and the World! This festival was amazing, so many people, and so much beer, everyone having a good time, and the weather even cooperated for most of the day. Everyone buys their own mug and drink tickets, and then the cultural exploration begins! I'm not sure how many different beers we tasted, but we definitely tried to discriminate as little as possible, and hence visit as many booths as we could! I was impressed and had a great time, and plan to visit again with a bigger group next time!

Dana had a fun Saturday too, back in Mississauga, where her family threw her a big graduation party. Dancing, eating, some champaigne, sheesh, and hanging out til the wee hours of the night, it sounds to me like they had a really fun party!

And then it was over... I was up at 5 am to fly back to Vancouver, wow that was rough, and if you can believe it Will actually woke up and drove me there(thanks Will!). Despite the way I must have looked and smelled, they let me on the plane, and I slept the entire 5 hour flight.

Everything wizzed by so fast, but that was definitely one of the best 5 days I can remember, celebrating an accomplishment with family and friends, and capping it all off with Beer Fest in Montreal!

Hope that everyone is doing well, and we hope to see and/or hear from you soon. Over and out,

Al and Dana

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