Let’s play two

August 17, 2019August 12, 2019 / Greg / 2 Comments

Chicago is one of my most favourite cities in the world. It’s a great eating and drinking city. It has stunningly beautiful art and architecture. It is filled with down to earth midwesterners who always make me feel at home. And, as a baseball fan, it has two teams, which means any spring or summer trip to the windy city will have baseball to watch.

When I made my original plans, it was as a solo visit, extending a work trip for a few days so I could get to 5 or 6 baseball games. The trip I planned wasn’t the one I ended up taking, and that was a good thing. Some last minute changes of plans meant my wife could join me for a week in Chicago. While she’s not a huge baseball fan, she’s always up for a game or two. As both the Cubs and White Sox were in town, we decided on two.

So, game one – on a spectacular April afternoon, here we are checking out the ballpark in advance of a White Sox game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

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Rediscovering my travel groove

August 3, 2019July 31, 2019 / Greg / Leave a comment

For a host of reasons, some of my trips over the past year or two haven’t been as much of a vacation as I would have liked. Whether it was allowing work to intrude in a few cases, or me not able to get my head in the right frame, or a plethora of other factors, I had been struggling with consistently achieving the sense of rest, wonder and pleasure of a good vacation.

I’m back from a recent trip to Washington, DC, and while it started out with a work-related course, once that outstanding learning opportunity concluded, my mind slid pretty easily into vacation mode. I think I found a bit of my groove again by accident, but something I can learn from. While there are weeks and weeks of stuff to do in DC, I didn’t cram my itinerary full. I saw the sights I wanted to, and allowed a lot of time to just wander (take one look at my step count, and you’d see that I did some professional level wandering around the city). With little “fear of missing out”, I skipped the Arlington National Cemetery and hit a craft brewery taproom with a book because that felt like more my speed on that day. I was indulgent and went to five baseball games and enjoyed being absorbed in the games and nothing else for a few hours. All of this unlocked a lot of time for my mind to be by itself, and when I found myself listening into its background chatter, I could tell I was happy and relaxed. I mean, seriously, relaxed.

I’ve got trips coming up to Denver, Phoenix, and a big one to Japan including Tokyo and Osaka over the next few months. I’m hoping I can tap into the magic there was in these five days of vacation in DC and continue this groove for my upcoming trips.

Snowbanks for miles

July 29, 2019July 29, 2019 / Greg / Leave a comment

People in Saskatchewan, at least around Saskatoon, have no idea what a lot of snow looks like. Snowbank size is relative, but when I visited my mom and dad in northern New Brunswick in March after an epic winter, there was no question who should have had a licence to say something negative about their winter.

Landing in Bathurst, I was immediately taken by the amount of snow on the ground. Driving on the highway from the airport into town was like driving down tunnels of snow. Even after about a week of melting, here’s what the snowbanks in my parents’ driveway looked like.

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A mostly East Austin visit

July 20, 2019July 18, 2019 / Greg / Leave a comment

Luckily for me, this was my second visit to Austin. On my first a few years back, I had plenty of time to check out all that Austin has to offer. I had seen and experienced enough to know where I’d focus my very limited time on this past visit – food and craft beer. While I’ll need a third visit to Austin to make my first pilgrimage to Franklin Barbecue, I did manage to get to another of the city’s best reviewed barbecue joints. In East Austin, about a fifteen minute walk from where I was staying sat La Barbecue, a perfect amalgamation of restaurant, craft beer store and tap room. A real slice of heaven for someone like me.

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Porto in photos

July 14, 2019July 14, 2019 / Greg / 2 Comments

My last words on a fabulous two weeks in Portugal won’t be anything profound. It won’t even be a lot of words. Our trip ended in Porto, and its beauty is something that has stuck with me since back in October last year. I think some of the photographs I took can speak to the sense of place better than I can by attempting to write about it. So, here is how my mind will always remember Porto, one of the most beautiful cities I have visited in my travels.

Early evening view from our Porto apartment

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The famous Porto sandwich (and more)

June 22, 2019June 21, 2019 / Greg / Leave a comment

I’ll remember Portugal for a lot of things. The coastal vibe of Nazaré. The beauty of Lisbon, especially as seen from atop one of its many hills. The old world charm of Coimbra. But most of all, I’ll remember Portugal for its food and drink. This trip ended up being one of the best in terms of eating that my wife and I have ever taken.

The three days we spent in Porto at the end of the trip capped off our eating adventures in a wonderful fashion. On night one, we saddled up to the bar at Cantinho do Avillez and let the bartender do his magic with cocktail creations through the evening. This was a very wise choice.

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A day in Coimbra

June 13, 2019June 12, 2019 / Greg / 1 Comment

On our journey north through Portugal toward our final destination of Porto, we stopped for a lovely twenty four hour stay in Coimbra. The main draw was to wander around its medieval old town and to explore the University of Coimbra. I’m glad we decided to spend a night here rather than just making it a day trip spot as we ended up having our favourite meal of the trip (and that’s saying something).

Our luck with the weather in Portugal continued unabated for our day in Coimbra. It is a beautiful town from any angle, but especially so from the point of view of the Mondego River.

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My favourite part of Portugal

June 6, 2019June 4, 2019 / Greg / 2 Comments

Over many years of traveling to and within Europe, I have become a big fan of spending an increasing amount of time on my trips in the “B” cities and towns rather than dedicating all of my time to the major centres. Portugal has two “A” cities if you’ll allow me to use that expression – Porto and Lisbon – and while I enjoyed both of those cities, my most fond memories from two weeks in this beautiful country were from the time we spent in Nazaré.

In plotting our Portugal itinerary, it was my wife who initially picked out this town as a stopping place. Seeing it perched on the Atlantic captured my imagination. Renting an apartment with a view over the ocean made me giddy with anticipation.

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Favourite 2018 photos. Sintra, Portugal. October 2018.

Moorish castle

May 17, 2019May 16, 2019 / Greg / Leave a comment

The best of the rest

May 1, 2019April 29, 2019 / Greg / Leave a comment

The nearly a week we spent in Lisbon this past fall felt a bit like a loose collection of activities and sightseeing that was stitching together an amazing collection of meals and food adventures. While the food ended up being the star of the show, there was plenty else that deserved top billing.

Situated as it is, there are million dollar views from many of the hilltops over the city. Most of the vantage points are gathering spots complete with an outdoor bar and seating, and usually some live music and entertainment. One of my favourites was the Miradouro da Graça and it’s view, seen here on a mid-week morning.