Travel

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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A return to Milan

/ Greg / Leave a comment

When my wife and I headed to Italy last fall, it was a very much needed trip. Lots had happened in our lives over the previous year (really, two years, but who’s counting?) and the idea of leaving the continent and spending a couple of weeks wandering around Milan, Turin, the Barolo area and Lake Como sounded like the slice of heaven we both needed. To make it a touch more special, we sprung for the really fancy seats on our flight to Milan and starting crushing Champagne as soon as we could.

First class flight experience on the way to Milan
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Non-stop fun in Cincinnati

/ Greg / Leave a comment

I love my annual baseball trip. Last summer, with eleven stadiums and cities left for me to visit to have seen a major league game everywhere baseball is played, I decided to head to Cincinnati. It was to have been my baseball trip in 2020 on account of a ridiculously cheap plane ticket I had found. I had done just enough looking at the city before the world shut down to know that there would be plenty to keep me interested for a few days there. Cincinnati may not strike you as a “must go” destination, but as a baseball fan, there was plenty to like. A downtown stadium I could walk to, six games in five days on account of one double-header, and some fan apathy due to a number of down years for their team that made my tickets pretty inexpensive.

Cincinnati Reds game at Great American Ballpark
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Echoes of the past

/ Greg / Leave a comment

It has been a year since I lost both my mom and dad in a span of 20 days. I think, like a lot of people, I underestimated the effect grief would have on me. After the difficult process of cleaning out and selling their house all while trying to stay engaged with work from New Brunswick, I was exhausted. In hindsight, I should have taken some time off to recover, but the first break I gave myself was a short trip to Montreal to get away from everything and unplug.

I wasn’t thoughtful about choosing Montreal. I had decided on Vancouver for an escape, but the hotels were so expensive that I ended up booking my trip to this city that has been so much a part of my life over the years. I was so tired in organizing all of this that it didn’t even occur to me that I’d be away for what would have been my dad’s 85th birthday. More on that in a bit. But I was “with it” enough to book a seat on the left side of the plane for this view. Olympic Stadium on the final approach brought a tear to my eye.

Flying over Olympic Stadium in Montreal
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