The Guinness does taste better there

April 5, 2026April 5, 2026 / Greg / Leave a comment

Traveling to Ireland had been our tentative plan in 2020 before the pandemic. Since then, we had opted for a few different destinations, but this past fall, we finally followed through on a two week visit to Ireland. We decided this was the year for this long awaited trip as my wife’s football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, were playing a game in Dublin. In our realm of travel planning, that made for a good enough reason.

This was a vacation we were very much looking forward to. The past year had been a bit of a struggle in all kinds of ways, so we decided to be indulgent in a few spots including upgrading to first class for the flight overseas. On account of lots of time spent on planes in 2024 and some points sitting around, we got our vacation started in style at 37,000 feet with Champagne, lots of room to stretch out, some great good, and amazing views. Nowhere near Dublin yet, but the vacation was already well underway!

Enjoying our first class pod experience!

Views shortly after taking off from Vancouver

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Old and new favourites

March 24, 2026March 24, 2026 / Greg / Leave a comment

I have written more than a few times of my love for Vancouver. It really is one of my most favourite cities in the entire world and I’m very lucky to now have lived a quick direct flight away from it for the past decade. Arriving in Vancouver for a short vacation always feels a bit like coming back home even though I have never lived there. I have this selection of favourite places that I have accumulated over the years to go with the excitement of trying new things in a city that keeps evolving. Day one of any solo trip is now a well rehearsed practice – early morning flight, Skytrain from the airport to my hotel, drop my bags at a very early hour, find good coffee, then if the weather is great – Stanley Park for a hike around the seawall or if the weather is sketchy, head further afield for some craft beer tasting in Port Moody or Burnaby (or both!!!). With clouds threatening rain on my arrival in late August last year, I hopped on a train to Port Moody and enjoyed tastings at Twin Sails and Yellow Dog breweries followed by another tasting at Dageraad in Burnaby. My Vancouver vacation was off to a great start!

Beer tasting at Twin Sails in Port Moody, BC

Beer tasting at Yellow Dog in Port Moody, BC

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Baseball, and beer, and more

March 15, 2026March 16, 2026 / Greg / Leave a comment

I have nine Major League Baseball parks left to visit and my quest to visit such exotic locales as Kansas City, Arlington, St. Louis, and Milwaukee is indefinitely on hold as travel south of our border really isn’t appealing to me these days. Fortunately, it’s been more than a hot minute since I had been to a few Jays games in Toronto and this past summer I was eager to visit the remodelled Skydome (I will not call that place by its corporate name) and enjoy the Blue Jays as they were in the midst of their supercharged season.

With baseball as the backbone of the trip, I coloured in the gaps with a lot of fun. I adore solo travel for the indulgence it offers, and after arriving on a dinner-time flight from Saskatoon, I stashed my bags at my downtown hotel and made my way up to Queen Street West to take in a show by The Montvales, a band I had become smitten with over the summer. In all of the time I have spent in Toronto over the years, I had never managed to see a concert at the Horseshoe Tavern and loved every minute of soaking in not only a great show, but also all of the history of Canadian music that has played on the stage. Even a pretty deep accidental cut on my thumb from some broken glass couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for my first night in TO. Take a listen to these two part harmonies on their song “Bad Faith” and you’ll understand why.

The Montvales concert at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto

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On the road again

March 7, 2026March 5, 2026 / Greg / Leave a comment

I think it is now official. After ten years living in Saskatoon, my favourite road trip destination is Calgary. I can assure you that is not due to the wonderful drive. It is a touch over six hours and after doing it a number of times, describing it as monotonous might be a tad generous. This might be the kind of road trip where the destination compels the journey. Even with good coffee (or road trip appropriate Timmies) and snacks, great company with my wife, and great tunes and podcasts, this drive is a bit of a grind.

On our last visit to Calgary, the drive there was eventful. A couple of very powerful and large thunderstorms made for some white knuckle driving, while a few smaller ones like this one about an hour east of Calgary made for some beautiful scenery.

Prairie highway during a storm in Alberta

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Favourite 2025 travel photos. Dublin, Ireland. September 2025

St. Stephen’s Green

March 5, 2026March 5, 2026 / Greg / Leave a comment

There’s a reason that I love this town

February 5, 2026February 5, 2026 / Greg / Leave a comment

Ten years on from moving away from Halifax, it continues to be one of my favourite places in the world. Friends would say I speak frequently of Halifax and truly, it is hard not to. From favourite hangouts to the music scene, from strolling along the harbour to cheering on the Mooseheads in an arena I refuse to call by its now corporate name, there is a lot of Halifax in my blood and I really like it that way.

Returning to the city is always a treat, even if it doesn’t happen as frequently as I might like. But when it does, like the last time on account of work, I enjoy it especially when my wife joins me and we treat it as a return to our roots and where our relationship began more than twenty years ago. Shortly off the plane, there was no doubt about our plans for the first night, starting with a return to the water that we miss so much in this prairie chapter of our lives.

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Looking back on 2025

January 2, 2026January 2, 2026 / 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

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A reluctant visitor

December 29, 2025December 29, 2025 / 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

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Winter fun in Toronto

November 23, 2025November 23, 2025 / 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.

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Atlanta with my favourite person

October 18, 2025October 18, 2025 / 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.