Hello lovelies! How are you today? ♥ I've had quite a week at work with learning new things and so on, and have been too tired to really build up a proper blog post. I was meaning to post this yesterday, but wanted to write proper content so I figured it's better to be a day late and have some thought here than just post pics and be sloppy with it. I think you'll all agree.

Today, I will share our adventures from the Open Pit Lane day, which usually falls on Thursday on a F1 weekend. So, follow us around below:



Here you can see the lobby of our hotel, Le Dauphin Longueuil. It was a really nice hotel with very friendly staff. and we enjoyed our stay there. The only thing was that we booked our stay though a general booking site and the breakfast wasn't included in the room price like it normally would have been. But I figured that gave more chances to try out different things so it wasn't so bad.




We also tried the hotel breakfast once, and even though it was okay, it wasn't really worth the price for us. (Me being celiac and hubby not eating too much in the mornings.)

After breakfast, we headed to the track with our Swedish friends T and P. And that was the best part of the day, like you can see below.



This ain't a Formula car, but it's a sweet little race car nevertheless.



The coolest thing about the open pit lane is that fans get to see the drivers up close and personal. We were waiting in line to get some autographs, and we spotted different drivers like Marcus Ericsson here.



And the coolest moment of the day, meeting Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso! I was so excited to see them in person and getting their autographs, and we even got to take few pictures. This was definitely worth the wait in the line.

Also, while we were waiting, the interviewers from F1.com spotted me with my Red Bull nails in the middle of the group that was 80-90 percent men, and they wanted to interview me shortly like they were doing with some other fans who stood out from the crowd a bit. I don't know if the footage ever made it's way to public showing, but it sure was a fun experience.

After that, I spotted the crew of Finnish F1 coverage, Mervi and Juha (who arrived to Canada in the same plane as us), who remembered us from the airport and we got into an interview. I've heard from a friend of a friend that the piece was shown on Finnish TV and I'm tempted to ask the network if they could get me a copy of the interview.



As we continued our trip down the pit lane, I spotted a crew member from Williams talking to a lady next to me. Before he could get away, I asked him pretty please if he could take a picture with me - and he agreed. I forgot to ask your name, mister, but thank you so much for posing with me!



Another cool thing about the day was getting almost into the Red Bull pits! I'm such a Red Bull fan since Mark Webber started there, so this was kind of a dream come true. The only thing that could've made it better was that I could've met the drivers (Daniel Ricciardo, particularly), but this was definitely the next best thing.



This here is the pit wall of Force India team. For those who don't know, this is the place where head of the team and couple of other important guys like race engineers and such sit and watch the race and the data, so that they know exactly what's going on on the track and can plan the strategies according to that.



I spy with my little eye, Carlos Sainz Jr. giving an interview.



Roman Grosjean checking out his car before track walk.



The official FIA weighing spot. This is where they check the weight of the cars and drivers so that they know no one is cheating.



Cool cars and drawings in the entrance of the track.



Here's a map of the race track. We had seats facing the starting grid, meaning our stand was the one in  the map marked with black, having a number 1 on it. It was a great spot to watch the race, but if one wants to photograph more than the starting grid and pit action, it may not be the best. But you don't go to a sporting event just to photograph, am I right?



Later that day we went to see the Notre-Dame Basilica. It's the most beautiful church I've ever seen, and I'm glad we went there with the guys.



After that, it was time to eat something. We had to choose the place according to where I could order food since I have my celiac disease. So we found this place called Pub St. Paul's on Old Montreal, which was quite a cool place and had the most friendly waitress I've ever had anywhere. Now, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this place to a celiac, since they only have one dish for us. But, that being said, their only GF item, the salmon salad, is really delicious. And if you have a restaurant card with you, they know how seriously to take your diet.



Since there were the Stanley Cup Playoffs going on while we were there, naturally we had to watch that. With some local white wine.