Looking back on 2025

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Two trips to Toronto. One to Washington. Three to Montreal. One to Vancouver. One to Halifax. One to Calgary. One to San Antonio. And a perfect two weeks traveling from Dublin to Galway to County Donegal and to Belfast. Looking back at this past year, I was lucky to have so much joy from my travels – returning to old haunts, making new friends, being filled with awe, eating some amazing things, and mostly, just loving the hell out of what travel and exploration continues to bring to my life. It is impossible to distill everything, but here are a few of what continue to be my favourite memories from 2025.

(1) Czech-style beers with a much shorter flight – Twice in Toronto, and on both occasions I spent an afternoon at Godspeed Brewery in the east end of the city savouring their Czech beers and letting my mind drift back to being in Prague and being in beer heaven. Godspeed is one of Canada’s great breweries and I loved my time there this year.

Beer tasting at Godspeed Brewery in Toronto, ON
Beer tasting at Godspeed Brewery in Toronto, ON
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A reluctant visitor

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Like many fellow Canadians these days, the thought of a trip south of our border into the United States brings a lot of feelings. Back when I was heading down to Washington, DC for work, I was apprehensive. Aside from being excited for an interesting work-related opportunity, I didn’t have a lot of desire for the travel and exploring aspect of a trip like this that I normally would have had in the past. Maybe some of that was because I had been to Washington previously, maybe some of it was the feeling like I was heading directly into the belly of the beast… but work was calling so I packed my bags and decided to try to make the best of it.

How did that get started? A February day with the temperatures hitting close to 20C made for perfect unexpected patio beer weather and I took advantage one afternoon at Aslin Beer Company. They had a wonderful array of beers across some favourite styles and I luxuriated in the opportunity to do some tastings while feeling the heat of the sun on my skin for the first time in a couple of months.

Beer tasting at Aslin Beer Company in Washington, DC
Beer tasting at Aslin Beer Company in Washington, DC
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Winter fun in Toronto

/ Greg / Leave a comment

I have grown fond of taking a quick winter trip each year to escape what can feel like endless darkness and cold in Saskatchewan. Given the extremes of living on the prairies in winter, it means just about anywhere else for a short visit will be less harsh. Well, not so fast this past winter. I booked a four day visit to Toronto on account of my current boycott of the USA and the fact that a direct flight holds a lot of cachet when traveling across this country in the dead of winter. While my flights miraculously went off without a hitch, I clearly picked the wrong days to explore Toronto as I was hit with more winter weather and snow than I would see in Saskatoon for almost the entirety of the winter season.

My visit got off to a lucky start as I arrived in Toronto just after the first blizzard had cleared away and with my flight there being the first in about a day and a half to not be canceled out of Saskatoon into Toronto. As I waited for a street car to take me to some craft brewery exploring, there were blue skies above and a reasonable amount of fresh snow on the ground.

Queen Street West in Toronto
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Atlanta with my favourite person

/ Greg / Leave a comment

My second trip to Atlanta was, for me, a mostly work trip. Luckily, my wife was able to join me on this visit and we squeezed a few experiences around my conference activities. While I was off doing conference things, she visited the aquarium and the zoo, and was nice enough to indulge me on our first (and only) free day in the city touring some craft breweries. I made sure to pre-scout these so they had ample gluten free offerings for her. We had a grand time touring a few neighbourhoods we wouldn’t have otherwise visited. There was lots of laughter, some great Mexican food (the barbacoa tacos at Wild Heaven were tremendous!), a lot of tasty patio beers, and a few games of Yahtzee to get our trip kicked off well.

Beer tasting at Best End Brewing
At Best End Brewing
Mexican food at Wild Heaven Beer
Beer tasting at Monday Night Brewing in Atlanta
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So much of the craic

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Writing this jet lagged in the middle of the night as my body tells me I should be getting up for another day of adventures in Ireland not realizing that I’ve landed back home after a day of flying.

Oh Ireland and Northern Ireland… I left loving everything about you. How your Guinness tastes so much better than what is served here. How the waves sounded crashing ashore along the Atlantic coast. How a conversation with the person sitting on the barstool next to you could brighten a rainy day. How you treated a now prairie boy to day after day of amazing seafood. How even a terrible storm and the loss of power for a day became a reason to hunker down and enjoy many a whiskey from Galway with my favourite person in the world.

Beaches, cliffs, cows and sheep. Single pot still whiskeys, all the Irish red ales I could find, and cheering for the home team at a soccer match in Dublin. The soda bread, a night in a Galway pub with new friends from Quebec, and driving the twisty roads in county Donegal.

It was all perfect and as the two weeks went on I could feel myself falling in love. I got everything I hoped I would from this trip, but it wasn’t enough. Ireland…. I’ll be back for more some day down the road.

Just outside Kilcar, Ireland
Duke of York pub in Belfast, Northern Ireland
At the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland
First Guinness in Ireland
Curious cow in Ireland
Fintra Beach, Ireland
Whiskey tasting in Dublin, Ireland

Peace and quiet with a view

/ Greg / Leave a comment

It has been close to a year since my wife and I spent four days relaxing along the shores of Lake Como. As I have thought back on that trip, the memories from this particular part of two weeks in Italy have bubbled to the top as my favourite. That’s not because we did a lot. It’s because at that time, I really needed a true break and some peace, and the setting and backdrop allowed me to relax and soak in some very simple pleasures.

Overlooking Lake Como
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Making the best of it

/ Greg / 1 Comment

We did not plan on spending any time in Bellano on our Italy adventures other than using it as a convenient train station from which to pick up a rental car for our time along Lake Como. An Italian train strike (fortunately, announced with ample time to make alternative plans) and a lack of other rental car options meant that we decided that spending a night in Bellano all of a sudden sounded like a wonderful idea. Lemons to lemonade… we were going to enjoy this side quest.

In Bellano, Italy
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A perfect day for Barolo

/ Greg / 2 Comments

The idea for this particular trip to Italy, and more specifically, a day of wine exploration in and around the Barolo region, started at a wine dinner we attended back in 2024 at the Vancouver International Wine Festival. With friends, we attended a dinner paired with outstanding wines from around Piedmont and my wife and I became enamoured with the idea of traveling back to Italy and exploring some of the wines in that region. We have had some wonderful wine explorations in Burgundy and Champagne, the Okanagan, and Napa and Sonoma, and were eager to have a lovely day eating and drinking in another special place.

We secured a local guide and driver, Stefania, who arranged the details for our day with a focus of showing us a couple of smaller wineries. She met us at the train station in Asti and after some getting to know each other over an espresso she drove us to our first stop in La Morra. Luckily for us, it was day one of the nebbiolo harvest for Stroppiana. Look at all those grapes!

First harvest day at Stroppiana winery in La Morra, Italy
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