For a host of reasons, I’ll be glad to put 2018 to bed and move on to 2019. Life threw quite a few curveballs this year, and throughout 2018, travel was a nice escape and respite. Like most years, many of my favourite moments came while I was away and exploring. Whether it be on a couple of baseball trips (New York, Philadelphia), a few first time adventures (Portugal, Calgary), some return visits to favourite places (Vancouver, Austin, Alberta’s Rocky Mountains), family-related travel (northern New Brunswick, Halifax, Edmonton, even here in Saskatoon), or the annual pilgrimage to a Riders game in Regina…. travel made me laugh, feel alive, and filled my heart and mind with memories that I’ll cherish forever.

In no particular order, here are my favourite travel memories from the past year.

1. The day brought to you by the letter M (part 1, mountains and Maize) – On a spectacular road trip into the mountains in June, I had a chance encounter with one of my favourite musicians, Andy Maize, from the band Skydiggers. He was gracious, charming, and I enjoyed the time we spent together chatting about one of my favourite bars in Canada, the Carleton, back in my old hometown of Halifax.

2. The day brought to you by the letter M (part 2, Mexican food and mezcal) – After chatting with Andy Maize and enjoying the spectacular scenery in the Rockies, we headed back to Calgary for what ended up being one of the best meals all year. On a tip from a co-worker, we ordered liberally from the cocktail menu at Native Tongues. The margaritas were outstanding, the tacos sublime, and even though I was too full to eat a bite more, we were brought freshly made doughnuts to cap off our meal to say thanks for all the cocktails we ordered. Good times!

3. Perfect night at the old ballgame – In Philadelphia, the opening game of a series between the Phillies and the Dodgers was everything I loved about baseball. Drama, lead changes, home runs, debatable strategy decisions… all with the backdrop of a potential playoff matchup between two division leading teams. While the Phillies faltered down the stretch, on this night, two evenly matched teams put on a show that I loved every minute of.

4. Summer in Saskatchewan means football – Our third summer in Saskatchewan meant we did our now annual road trip down to Regina for a Riders game. While the guys in green lost in one of the most inept offensive performances I’ve ever witnessed in person, I love how this isn’t a novelty anymore. Dressing in green and walking to the stadium with 33,000 other like-minded fans on a beautiful summer evening just feels like it is mine now and has been forever.

5. Drinking the good stuff in Vancouver – I tried to break up a long prairie winter with a few days in Vancouver in late February. While that wasn’t near enough time to put a dent in a winter for the ages in Saskatoon, it was a nice four day time-out. My favourite part of the trip was spending three hours at an international wine tasting as part of the city’s wine festival. The high-end Champagne table saw a lot of me over the evening. So did a table across the aisle featuring a spectacular Burgundy pinot noir. Letting the winery representatives at these two tables think I was considering buying a case of each of their wines got me very generously sized samples.

6. He’s no Youppi, but I love all mascots – The picture below says it all. I love sports mascots, and during the 7th inning of a Mets game, Mr. Met was nice enough to take a picture with me. Hands down my favourite part of my New York visit in September.

7. A new favourite hiking place – With my in-laws in town for close to two weeks, we got to play tour guide showing off some of our favourite Saskatoon things, and finding a couple of new to us things. On a suddenly fall-like day in late August, we all headed out to Beaver Creek just outside of Saskatoon, and had an amazing hike and afternoon of fresh air.

8. Morning in Sintra – A short early morning train ride from Lisbon, and we had beaten the crowds to Sintra, and in particular, to its magical Pena Palace. The views from the hilltop perched palace out over the town and toward the Atlantic Ocean were spectacular. We followed that up with a hike around the Moorish Castle. This day trip is up there with the best ones we’ve ever done in Europe.

9. Seafood feast for the ages – There was no way I was going to miss having a meal at Ramiro in Lisbon. After spending the earlier part of the day hiking around Sintra, we had built up an incredible appetite and went to town on a delicious, fresh, simply prepared feast of sea creatures that made our Atlantic Canadian hearts happy. In a peculiar, yet delicious twist, Ramiro’s famous desert is a roast beef sandwich. This lunch could not have been more perfect.

10. Reuniting with the Atlantic Ocean – After close to a week in Lisbon, we spent a couple of days staying in an apartment in Nazare, on the west coast of Portugal, where if I was loosened up, I could have thrown a baseball into the ocean from our patio. We hiked around the cliffs jutting out into the ocean, walked the beach, drank wine on our patio and watched the sun set into the Atlantic. It was the perfect tonic for my soul.

11. Simple meals are the best meals – On a lazy afternoon in Nazare, we headed out with plans for lunch at a restaurant that ended up being unexpectedly closed. Fortunately, across the narrow lane was another small restaurant, and the meal we had sitting at one of their two tables on the sidewalk was simple and delicious – a local table wine, fresh seafood and simple boiled potatoes and salad. The food was delicious and the setting was quiet and quaint removed from the main street of Nazare by a few blocks.

12. Our one dinner in Coimbra – Sensing a theme yet from our Portugal trip? We spent one day of our Portugal trip in the university town of Coimbra. We had made a reservation at Sete restaurant before leaving Saskatoon, and it was a delightful meal. Crowded mostly with locals including a few larger family gatherings, they catered to my wife’s need for gluten free food. We were both beaming throughout – me at the interesting local craft beers, her at some tasty gluten free bread to enjoy pre-meal, and both of us at our superb main dishes. My wife’s cod might have been the star of the entire trip, and my octopus wasn’t too far behind.

13. A new hometown for my folks – My mom and dad had lived outside of Halifax for my entire life until this past spring. They packed up and moved to just outside of Bathurst, in northern New Brunswick. On my visit in July, we road tripped around places I haven’t seen since my childhood and generally just hung out and reconnected. It was great to see them settling into their new place so well.

14. A long way to fly for one day – While I was in Halifax for work for a few days, my wife joined me for one of those days to hang out with our niece and nephew. The more than 7,000km round trip was worth it for a day’s worth of laughter with the kids and a quick visit to our old home town.

15 Playing the tour guide – It was great to have two family visits to Saskatoon this year and I was thrilled to play the host for my sister’s visit in late May. It was unseasonably cool and cloudy for her three days, but we had a lot of laughs, quite a bit of wine and cider, and my dog fell in love with both my sister and the squeaky lobster toy she brought for her.