Help me plan a long weekend getaway

Whomp

Whomp

Keep Calm and Carry On
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My wife is taking me away for a long weekend and I get to choose. We like to eat at great restaurants, music, museums, sporting event and explore lesser known sights of the town.

I'm all over the board on where to go. Either revisit places I've been like New Orleans, Quebec City, Napa, NYC or explore someplace new like Toronto, Memphis, Aspen or say Sanibel Island.

Some thoughts include my Chicago Blackhawks are in San Jose at the end of January, Winnipeg early February (brrrr) and Tampa at the end of February. Chef Paul Prudhomme in New Orleans or poutine in Montreal or Cabernet and Michael Keller in Napa? Renwick Gallery in DC, Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto or Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland?

Where should we go and what should we do? Help!




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You're flying I presume? Could check on the snow in the Colorado resort areas. Maybe see if there is time to hit both the blues scene in Memphis and some bourbon tours in Kentucky?

Sorry, I just realized I have mostly really boring ideas, especially for wintertime. I'm pretty sure my wife is going to drag me to London this summer and all my ideas seem to revolve around looking at old piles of rocks, which she didn't seem to like me insinuating is really the same thing as the Temple Church.
 
Sports events eh? Maybe something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIS_Alpine_World_Ski_Championships_2015 (February 2–15 in the United States, at Vail / Beaver Creek, Colorado)
Or the World Championship allround speed skating (Calgary, 7-8 March)
Or even this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Ford_World_Men's_Curling_Championship (March 28 to April 5 at the Halifax Metro Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.)

all courtesy of wikipedia's list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_in_sports
 
Hah! Indeed Farm Boy. We are taking a family bike tour of France next August.

Flying for sure unless we go somewhere close but I'm not sure anywhere close would be one of my picks other than Indianapolis for NCAA basketball final four in April. Along those lines maybe Seattle or Portland March 20-22 to possibly see my Arizona Wildcats play? I've never been to either city.

Vail/Beaver Creek could be awesome. Too short of a time maybe...




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I'll defer to more sports-oriented minds. I'm usually doing pretty well if I make it out to see the NIU boys for a home game every other year. :p Though skiing in Colorado was enough to make even me go mushy.
 
How about Montreal? It's a city known for its food and restaurants, it gets constantly mentioned as a "foodie" city and I believe it recently made a top 20 in the world list. I think only New York beat it out as far as North American cities go. There's also the Bell Centre and the Habs - from what I've been told a very loud and passionate fan base that'll impress you while you're at a game. Montreal is also known for being a music city - it has a big indie rock scene from what I've heard. I think they also do lots of jazz festival style things? And there's museums for sure, just not as many as in Ottawa (I don't think).

Stay away from Winnipeg. :) (It's just too damn cold and in the summer the snow turns into mosquitos)
 
I'm surprised you didn't suggest Toronto Warpus.

Les Habitants play the Maple Leafs on Valentines Day and Feb. 28. A tough ticket to get but the rivalry would be fun to see.

Winnipeg is out.

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That would definitely be a good game to go to! The leafs always have fans at other games and these two teams hate eachother. You're right though that getting tickets is probably going to be tough and/or expensive.

Toronto is a nice city, and one I'd recommend, but for a long weekend getaway with your wife, Montreal seems like a better fit. It's more romantic and such, with the old town, architecture, restaurants, etc. Toronto is a very good foodie city too, but from what I understand Montreal is really good for "fine dining" restaurants, while Toronto is better in terms of variety. Montreal also has a lot of local dishes, while Toronto relies heavily on "ethnic" style restaurants, fusion restaurants, restaurants focusing on very specific things (sausage, poutine, pierogi), etc. According to this site the cities are equal in terms of foodie opportunities - although it does specify that each city offers something a bit different.

You probably can't go wrong with either city, but Toronto to me, while being a world class city with all the amenities.. to me it's "just another large city", while Montreal has a bit more of a romantic feel, a bit more character, etc. If you were to ask me where I'd prefer to live, I'd go with Toronto, but if a female was taking me out for a weekend, I'd go with Montreal.
 
I've always wanted to visit the birthplace of the Revolution, e.g. walk Battle Road from Concord to Boston, visit the Old North Church, Bunker Hill and the site of the Boston Massacre. I doubt if I'll ever make it myself...maybe you can do it for me.
 
Farm Boy said:
I'm pretty sure my wife is going to drag me to London this summer and all my ideas seem to revolve around looking at old piles of rocks, which she didn't seem to like me insinuating is really the same thing as the Temple Church.
Click to expand...
In other words, you're afraid your wife is going to drag you around to look at English castles and other places of historical interest?

Tell you what: I'll go with your wife. You can come here and babysit my cats. :mischief:
 
Oh no, I'm excited. We're going to meet up with one of my best friends and wife who live in Sofia these days. I'm just a little sad that the one thing I'd really like to see is Skara Brae, and after looking up ferry and travel times it's just too much time out of a one week total trip from Illinois to London to be really feasible. I'll settle for the big rock henge. :p

I'll let my wife know you're with her though. She gets tired of me finding long dead monarchs of approximately equivalent interest as homestead sights and places like Stillman Valley or Cherry. She'll appreciate the support! :lol: I'd ask if you want to watch my kitties but it's kinda far and the vet told us the big guys needs to lose weight so he's kind of being a butt when he gets hungry(still a great cat, wonderfully tolerant of the toddler)
 
Montreal, maybe. Or for a somewhat more European flavor, Quebec City. Still close enough for a weekend, but different enough from most of the other places in North America to feel like you've actually gone someplace. There's a winter festival coming up, depending on your time frame. You could stay in a hotel made of ice. There's a lot of restaurants. Probably something you'd like. Both cities have attractions I'd like to explore more.
 
My wife and I went to both Toronto and Montreal a few summers ago, and loved both places. I think Montreal might be better fit for what you're looking for (I think the things I enjoyed most about Toronto were outside), but the food, architecture and museums in Montreal are all great.

That being said, I also don't think you can go wrong with a trip to New Orleans. Weather will be better. Food is probably better. Museum scene is a little lacking, but the cemetery tours are pretty cool, and with Frenchman Street, who needs art galleries?

Save the trip to Cleveland until the Summer. Knock out the Rock n Roll HOF, an Indians game (a very underrated baseball field and stadium experience) and Cedar Point (best roller coasters in the country) all at once. Not a lot going on in the Clev this time of year. LeBron's hurt anyway.
 
Sounds like Montreal is getting a lot of love here. I really liked it the times I was there. Good guidance everyone. I will make my decision this week and keep you up to date on our plans.


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If you go to Montreal, the Biodome and Botanical Gardens are definitely worth a look. Though I don't know what the winter program in the Gardens might be like. So timing may matter. There's also a museum of architecture I wasn't able to see when I was there, if that is of interest to you.
 
What sort of music are you into? Montreal has supposedly got a pretty sweet indie rock scene. The person who was with me when we met would know a lot more about that than me though.

Here's something I found involving both food AND music. But that seems a bit silly. I think on valentine's day it will be easy to find a restaurant with live jazz and such, I think they specialize at that sort of thing in Montreal (or say they do anyway).
 
Warpus gave me really good advice about Montreal before. Imma see if I can find that threat again. I still have dreams about those smoked meat sandwiches...
 
Cutlass said:
If you go to Montreal, the Biodome and Botanical Gardens are definitely worth a look. Though I don't know what the winter program in the Gardens might be like. So timing may matter. There's also a museum of architecture I wasn't able to see when I was there, if that is of interest to you.
Click to expand...

The architecture museum sounds really interesting.

warpus said:
What sort of music are you into? Montreal has supposedly got a pretty sweet indie rock scene. The person who was with me when we met would know a lot more about that than me though.

Here's something I found involving both food AND music. But that seems a bit silly. I think on valentine's day it will be easy to find a restaurant with live jazz and such, I think they specialize at that sort of thing in Montreal (or say they do anyway).
Click to expand...

We would try to go to the hockey game on Valentines Day.

We like rock and blues so seeing a band would be awesome. Do you still talk to her? Ask her what venue we might want to consider.


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If you like skiing there's nothing better to do in the winter time. I love Montreal as much as everybody else but wouldn't go in the winter.
 
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