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.

There’s nothing like waking up late in a beautiful hotel room, fully rested after a great late night out. Fortified with some coffee and a pastry, I headed to the Junction in Toronto’s west end for some beer tasting. This tasting flight at Indie Alehouse had a couple of stunners in it – the far left “Ritual Madness” a Flanders Red Ale was a perfect representation of the style and the “Breakfast Porter” (second from the left) was a lovely early in the day beer. These would be two of the most interesting beers I’d sample in Toronto.

Some crazy delicious fish tacos at Carmelita’s on Dundas West made for a perfect late lunch and also ensured that after a few of those higher alcohol beers that I’d be steady on my feet when I got to Rainhard Brewing. They specialize in IPAs but have a nice cross section of styles that they brew. I enjoyed everything here with my favourite being their session IPA called “Daywalker” that clocked in at a very friendly daytime ABV of 3.9%.

After a full day in Toronto, it was finally time for some baseball. I have to say, the remodelled Skydome is a really nice ballpark. The last time I was in here, I had it ranked among my least favourite stadiums, but now, with the roof open on a perfect summer evening, I felt myself falling in love with this place. This was my home for four games immediately out of baseball’s All-Star break in July.

The Jays sent all of us home happy with a 4-0 win over San Fransisco on this night. Being in a sold-out Skydome again was a great feeling as was seeing so many Expos hats and t-shirts in the crowd.

This trip settled nicely into bouncing between something fun around the city, taking a nap, then heading to the ballpark. I joked with friends that this felt like trying on retirement for a few days. After being in the west end the previous day for beer tastings, I headed east to a couple of favourite breweries, making my first stop at Left Field Brewery in Leslieville. A baseball themed craft brewery with cheeky baseball-inspired names for all of their beers…. yes please! Two of these were super summer beers – “Replay” (second from left) a raspberry hibiscus wheat ale was a great thirst quencher, and “Crushed” a passionfruit IPA was another beer that would pair well with backyard summer evenings.

Just a ten minute walk away from Left Field is Godspeed, one of my absolute favourite craft breweries in Canada. They specialize in Czech beers and I could sit here all day long and enjoy pilsner after pilsner. You can tell this is one of my happy places.

I had spectacular summer weather for this trip and for baseball watching. None of the oppressive humidity and heat that usually takes over Toronto in July… mid 20s and a nice breeze was the forecast the entire time. My second game was another Jays win over the Giants, this time 6-3 on the strength of an amazing Eric Lauer start. It was a treat to watch Logan Webb pitch for the Giants…. being a fan of a team that doesn’t currently exist makes me more of a fan of players. While he took the loss, it was fun to watch his pitching intellect in a game where he didn’t have his best stuff.

I decided to celebrate the Jays win with a couple of cocktails at Civil Liberties on Bloor West. This bar doesn’t have a menu… you have a chat with the bartender about what you like and they’ll create something for you on the spot. I tried two cocktails. The one on the left was a riff on a Haitian rum punch and had banana liqueur, two types of rum, cacacha and a few other things. It was boozy and delicious. My other cocktail was a riff on the penicillin, swapping in mezcal and a few other changes. It was great!

Is there anything better than a perfect Sunday afternoon at a ballpark? My seat kept getting better each game and I loved the view from between home and 3rd base. This game had it all including a Vladdy home run as he rounds the bases in the picture below. The lead bounced back and forth. The Jays hit four home runs and had some amazing bullpen work to hold a two run lead en route to an 8-6 win. Going into this trip I wasn’t sure the Jays were for real…. I was becoming a believer watching these games.

A side note on baseball games at Skydome. Among the best views in baseball is that of the CN tower from inside the stadium. It’s stunning.

Usually my solo trips don’t involve a lot of “fancy” dining, but on account of the afternoon baseball game leaving me a full evening and a hankering for some seafood, I visited Bar Clams (sadly, now closed). Half priced bottles of wine made the choice of a sparking Vouvray an easy one and I went to town on some New Brunswick oysters and fried clams. I decided against polishing off the entire bottle of wine and two college-aged folks were more than happy to take what was left with huge smiles. That made my night.

I was hoping to try True History Brewing post-dinner, but arriving there found them closed for a private event. My plan B turned out really well. I visited Bickford Brewing, a new brewery a short walk away, and loved their beers as I sat on their cozy patio and people watched as the sun set. Their “On Deck” (second from right) and “Patio Crusher” (far right) were both outstanding lower alcohol beers. This place will be a must visit on my next trip.

I’m not a big “line up for food” guy, but I made an exception to have a couple of slices of pizza from Pizzeria Badiali. This lived up to the hype and thanks to being in line for a few minutes before they opened, it didn’t take long at all before I was enjoying my lunch in the sun on their patio.

I continued that afternoon with more beer tasting, starting at Henderson, marking the first time I had ever visited them. The middle two beers were my favourite… both were low alcohol and full of flavour.

Next up was a return visit to Halo Brewery. They have an outstanding selection of beers, especially hazy IPAs and pale ales. I was enjoying a nice selection on their patio when a car accident right in front of the brewery shattered the quiet neighbourhood vibes. Someone jammed on their brakes on purpose to get someone to rear-end them and there was almost a fist fight in the streets until they saw me watching. I yelled out “I’m here watching if either of you do anything else stupid, just remember that”. I was proud that deescalated things even if there were still a few f-bombs being exchanged as they swapped insurance information. On the way back to the subway after finishing up here, two people leaned out of the window of a truck to yell obscenities at me as I crossed in a crosswalk. Oh Toronto, you show me so many of your charms!

My last night had be back at the ballpark was on what would have been my dad’s 86th birthday. To honour him, I got a Budweiser, his favourite beer, before settling in to watch what would be a playoff preview between the Jays and Yankees.

The ‘dome was sold out to the doors for a great Monday night tilt. Kevin Gausman pitched a beautiful 7 inning game with his only mistake a solo home run given up. Watching him strike out Aaron Judge a couple of times was amazing. The Jays scored all of their runs in the 5th inning as the Yankees booted the ball around the infield and outfield in what would be a preview of how they played the rest of the season. The Jays won 4-1 and being with 42,000 people hanging on every pitch was an incredible experience. The Jays won all four games of my visit and this started their push to the AL East pennant. What a time to visit!