(Re)Visiting Ottawa

/ Greg / Leave a comment

I spent about a year living in Ottawa in the mid 1990s while working for Nortel during my undergraduate degree program.  Back then, Ottawa and I didn’t get along well.  It was cold, I didn’t have quite the sense of adventure I do now, and it was the first time I lived away from Halifax.

Today I’m sorting through pictures from a four day mixed work/vacation trip to our nation’s capital where I had the chance to explore the city with a fresh set of eyes after all these years.   I’ve worked in the city since then, but really only had the chance to see the inside of the airport, cabs, hotels and offices.  I’ll be posting more over the next week on the trip.  Safe to say… Ottawa and me… we are now back on speaking terms.

National War Monument

Visiting Halifax? Seven tips for great local experiences

/ Greg / 1 Comment

I feel pretty fortunate to live in Halifax. For a town of about 400,000 people, it punches well above its weight for food, drink, art and music. When I travel, I’m always looking for things that let me get a taste of the culture; a brief feel for what it would be like to live in a place. With that in mind, here are 7 ideas for the visitor looking to get a feel for my hometown. Whether you’re in town for a day or a week, check out a couple of these aimed at the food/drink/music loving 30-something.

1. A show at The Company House (@thecompanyhouse) – I think this is Halifax’s friendliest bar. If it was in my immediate neighbourhood, I might never leave. The music here tends toward the singer-songwriter, folksy/acoustic in style, and frequently local. The sound is first rate. There’s a great selection of drinks and a limited menu of bar snacks that enhances the feeling that you’re watching a show in a good friend’s living room.

2. Eating a Banh Mi in the Public Gardens – Stop at Indochine Banh Mi (@IndochineHfx) on South Park St. across the street from our fabled Victorian gardens to pick up one of the best sandwiches in town. Then find a bench in the park overlooking the pond from which to enjoy lunch. You are guaranteed to leave here more refreshed than when you entered.

Continue reading →

A last note on Toronto

/ Greg / Leave a comment

The trip to Toronto with my Dad was a blast.   Reconnecting over baseball, beer and a selection of artery clogging foods is a pretty great way to spend a few days.  Before going on an afternoon brewery tour, we walked through the locomotives and rail cars in the Roundhouse Park in downtown Toronto.  My Dad is a walking encyclopedia of North American rail history.  Looking back over the pictures from the trip, this one below is one of my favourites – I got an action shot of Dad sharing some of his knowledge with me on one of the locomotives in the park:

Toronto eating with Dad

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Through a combination of my sister living there for close to 15 years, an extended work stint in 2007 and numerous business related travels to the city, Toronto doesn’t feel like a vacation destination  – and that’s not a bad thing.   With Dad and I both having some favourite haunts in the city, we hit a couple of them over our three day vacation.

Continue reading →

Ok Blue Jays, Let’s Play Ball!

/ Greg / Leave a comment

A confluence of events brought my Dad and I to Toronto.  I had a few vacation days to burn, my sister was traveling which left her condo available for us, Dad had the points for a free flight, and the Blue Jays were wrapping up a home stand against Seattle and Texas.  That made plans for a three day trip come together very quickly.

Saturday:  Three days, three baseball games, and a steady diet of cardiac arrest inducing food and drink kicked off shortly after arrival at mid day.   After touching down on separate flights, we met up at the condo, quickly unpacked and made our way down to the stadium.    Before entering, we pass underneath this sculpture outside Rogers Centre (“The Audience” by Michael Snow) which always makes me smile:

Not knowing much about the Seattle Mariners, we take in batting practice to try and learn about some of their hitters:

We make our way up to our seats for the Saturday afternoon game.  Not too shabby for $14.  I have to pinch myself that I can see professional sport for less than the cost of a junior hockey game in Halifax.  Jays win 7-0 in a very entertaining game:

Continue reading →

Eating in Banff (aka: bison, bison, bison, elk)

/ Greg / Leave a comment

I generally eat pretty well wherever I go on vacation.   Some advance planning of the “can’t miss” places goes a long way toward making that happen.  When I was doing my advance scouting for Banff, it became apparent early on that there wouldn’t be enough days in the itinerary to try all of the places that I wanted to.    Here are the highlights of a week’s worth of delicious food and drink.

I violated a key travel rule – never return to the same restaurant twice on the same trip.  I broke that rule because the food was so good on the first visit to the Bear Street Tavern and there was a menu full of things I wanted to try.   On the first visit, they were running a Thursday night special on their bison short ribs.  I saw this menu item arrive to a salivating customer at the table next to us as I was considering my order and it swung my decision.  These were incredible – enormous, meaty and tender with crispy bits of BBQ sauce clinging to the edges.  The beer off to the side is Tree Brewery Hop Head IPA from Kelowna, BC.  Ignore the salad in the picture (I sure did):

Continue reading →

Views along the Bow River Parkway

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Although our Alberta road trip plans were cut short due to snow storms, we weren’t going to miss driving back from Lake Louise along the Bow River Parkway.  It’s a scenic, winding 2 lane road through the forest, well known for its mountain vistas and wildlife sightings.  This drive didn’t disappoint.

This is what most of the hour and a half drive looked like – forests and snow-capped mountain peaks.  We only saw maybe eight other cars for the length of the drive.  I took this picture standing in the middle of the road:

Continue reading →