The beauty of Lake Louise

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I’d rather be walking through the pine trees / high up above Lake Louise…

That line from the Blue Rodeo song “Western Skies” put Lake Louise on my mental travel map many many years ago.  Our initial plans were to spend our first travel day hanging around Banff and to leave on a day-long road trip the following day to visit Lake Louise, perhaps Field, BC, the Icefields and the Bow River Parkway.  The night before leaving,  with the advance forecast calling for two days of heavy snow in the mountains, we called an audible.

Travel day: Awake at 3:45am, flight out of Halifax at 6:30, arrive in Calgary about 6 hours later.  Two hours on a shuttle bus to Banff.  Stop at a Safeway to pick up supplies and provisions and by 2pm Mountain time, we’re in our rental car and on our way north.  We weren’t going to miss the chance to see Lake Louise, even if it was for an abbreviated visit.  The weather gods smiled on us with temperatures pushing 15C and the sun broke through the clouds as we reached the lake.   Our travel weary spirits were raised as we walked up a hill and the beauty of this view washed over us:

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An Alberta teaser

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Mountains, rivers, trees and lakes.  A steady diet of bison, elk and beef.  Million dollar views everywhere I turned.  A strong desire to stay longer in the mountains.  That’s the synopsis of my week in Banff and Lake Louise, Alberta.  I’m settling in tonight to sort through about a thousand photos (900 of which have a snow-capped mountain somewhere in the frame) and to start writing about this trip.   There will be more to come over the next week or two, but here’s a teaser of the beauty that permeated my spirit over the past week:

Off-season thoughts: New rules

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I don’t get too wrapped up in the small rules changes that happen each NFL off-season, but there are two changes this year that I think will sacrifice some of the entertainment value of NFL football:

1.  All plays that might have been scoring plays and all turnovers will now automatically be reviewed.  Why is this a bad thing?  First, replay reviews slow down the game.  A football game now very rarely ends in less than 3 hours – this rule change will probably add a few more minutes to the average game length next year.  Secondly, it’s entertaining to watch coaches incorrectly challenge calls and makes for great post-game second guessing of decisions.  Thirdly, although you want to have every call correct, a few missed/incorrect calls adds some drama and intrigue (football is, after all, entertainment).  I want to see a perfectly officiated game, but in lieu of that, a game that ends in 3 hours with a bit of added drama isn’t a bad alternative.

2. Changing the OT rules – This is a subtle change to make overtime more fair to both teams and to align the rules for regular season and post-season games.  That sounds good, but dig a little deeper.  Overtime in the regular season will now last longer due to multiple possessions.  When overtime lasts longer, a likely outcome is an increase in tie games.  A four hour game that ends in a tie doesn’t make anyone happy.

Restless traveler

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When I go more than a few months without busting out of town, I get restless.  The kind of restless where a simple article, tweet, image or TV clip of somewhere else (anywhere else, really) can get me thinking about packing my bag and grabbing my passport.

I’ve been in a travel rut this winter.  Plans for a guys trip to Trinidad fell through, and with a few work commitments and constraints, it’s been harder than usual to make travel plans.  Thankfully, my travel restlessness is thawing now and there are a few adventures on the horizon.  In a couple of weeks, I’ll be touring Banff and Lake Louise.  Shortly after that, Dad and I are taking in three Blue Jays games (and likely, quite a few Ontario microbrews at my favourite Toronto bar, the Rebel House) over an extended weekend.  A short July break in Ottawa is now booked.  The pin board of locations for a summer trip is being narrowed as we watch flight prices bop up and down to Scandinavia and a few select European destinations.  Fall plans for a trip to Colorado are moving from being penciled in to being written in ink.

All in all, things are looking up after a slow start to the year.

Eagles off-season: 5 outstanding moves

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Last year’s off-season for the Eagles was all sizzle.  Asomugha, Jenkins, Babin, Brown, Rodgers-Cromartie, and of course, Vince Young, the man who applied the unfortunate “dream team” label in his first press conference.  Five months later sporting a .500 record, it was clear that the off-season approach wasn’t successful.

This off-season is much more in line with the Eagles historic organizational philosophy of building from within.  I’m really excited by the moves to date, most of which haven’t garnered much attention from the media.  I think the Eagles have made 5 outstanding moves so far:

1. Long term deal for DeSean Jackson – I was somewhat surprised when I initially heard he was signed to a longer-term agreement.  I thought the Eagles would have him play out the 2012 season under the one year deal he signed after receiving the franchise tag.  However, looking at the longer term deals other WRs received this off-season, Jackson came at a bargain in market value terms.  If he can get his head out of his backside, play fearlessly and be a good teammate (those are BIG ifs), this will turn out to be a great signing. If he doesn’t, the Eagles are out a couple million dollars and can kick him to the curb after one year.

2. Extending Todd Herremans – Outside of Philly and die-hard NFL fans, people wouldn’t recognize his name.  His signing of a long-term deal is great news for the Eagles.  He’s versatile and can play 3 or 4 positions on the OL.  As the elder statesman on a young OL, he brings a mean edge and a great team first attitude.

3. Extending Trent Cole – Another great current player signed to a longer-term contract.  I think he’s the best all around defensive lineman in the NFL.  He doesn’t put up eye popping stats because he plays such a balanced game.  The guys that get all the attention are those racking up sack numbers (usually at the expense of defending the run).  Cole consistently gets 10+ sacks a year, stuffs the run, and takes up two blocks from the opposition’s OL.  He’s the MVP of the defence and now he’ll be around through 2017.

4. Re-signing free agent Evan Mathis – If there is an underrated player in the NFL, Mathis is it.  Interior offensive linemen only get noticed when they screw up, and he went an entire season without getting noticed in 2011.  When you look at the play by play ratings of NFL lineman, he was the top rated OL in run blocking and second in the league in pass blocking in 2011.   This was the guy I was most worried the Eagles would lose to free agency.  When he visited Baltimore, I was already seeing a huge void on the left side of the OL heading into training camp.  When he announced he was returning to Philly, I was elated.

5. Trade for DeMeco Ryans – Ryans gives the Eagles a legitimate middle linebacker for the first time in years.  He didn’t fit the Texans system, but I see him slotting in perfectly for the Eagles.  He comes with a steep salary, but the Eagles needed to make this bet.  Not only does he fill a hole, but it allows the other linebackers to settle into the outside LB positions which are more suited to their abilities.

The focus of the team will now turn to what to do with Samuel (trade, release or keep him and his large salary cap hit) followed by who to select with a high first round draft pick where they’ll be in position to grab another impact player for the upcoming season.

Off-season check-in

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It’s been 7 weeks without football.  I’m well past the withdrawal symptoms and have actually made great progress enjoying the extra day in my weekend with which to accomplish things.   The NFL purposefully stretches out a very long off-season by giving its fans bits of interesting things to chew on every few weeks through the winter and spring:

The Combine for incoming players from college –  This is worse than watching paint dry.  About the only interesting thing is seeing 300 pound linemen run as fast as they can for 40 yards.   That’s not enough entertainment value for me.   I take a pass on this each year.

Free agency – This can be a sexy and exciting time for the fan until you realize that just about every team that makes a big splash in free agency generally fails to live up to expectations in the coming season.  Teams that win Super Bowls generally build from within using the draft (see: Giants, Patriots, Steelers, Packers for positive confirmation, see my Eagles last year to prove the negative side of the equation)

The release of next season’s schedule – The appeal of this for me: fall trip planning.  Once the schedule is released, I start looking for appealing games/locations based on match-ups, airline points available and other events going on in cities around the game days.  This year I’ve got my fingers crossed that the Broncos will be playing on one of two weekends in November that coincide with a trip to Denver.   The Peyton Manning news today only makes the anticipation that much better.

The Draft – I watch the first round of the draft like some people watch the Oscars.  It’s a great excuse to make football snacks, to listen to people talk about football and to think about football.   For three hours, it feels like football is just around the corner, until it goes away for the rest of the spring (and most of the summer).

Against my better judgement, I’ve been paying a bit more attention to the off-season activities than usual.  I’ll be writing more over the next couple of weeks looking at the changes and moves with an eye ahead to next season.

Gary Carter, the Expos, and me

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I didn’t grow up as your typical Canadian kid.  I really wasn’t much of a skater, and the appeal of our national pastime as an active sporting pursuit didn’t hold much for me.  Baseball, on the other hand, was an all consuming passion in my early years.  It got that way because of my Dad’s love of the sport, the Montreal Expos, and Gary Carter.

The news of Gary Carter’s death reached me in an odd, yet appropriate way.  Sitting at a hockey game with my Dad, I got a text from my sister.  I showed it to Dad.  We looked up the news story online, shared a recollection of meeting him in 1983 during batting practice before an Expos game in Montreal, and laughed at how I was in complete shock meeting my idol at the tender age of 9. My memory of the five minute encounter with Gary Carter is only alive in pieces in my mind.  I remember him jogging along the right field line toward the Expos dugout, my Dad calling out to him with the name of a common acquaintance, him noticing, smiling, then jogging toward us.  I remember him signing a baseball for me, wishing me the best with my little league baseball season, then jogging off.  The rest of the time he spent with me and my Dad is lost in the blur of a young boy meeting the baseball player he idolized.

Dad and I turned our attention back to the hockey game in front of us and I didn’t think about it until later that night.  After I got home, I followed the tributes pouring in across Twitter, read articles on Montreal newspaper websites and watched video clips of Carter’s career highlights.  The ones that took place under an open roofed Olympic Stadium jammed with fans started the memories flooding back.  I recalled games my Dad and I attended in the early 80s in an electric Big O where we got to meet Andre Dawson, Woody Fryman, and Steve Rodgers, and of the last games we saw together in Montreal before the Expos left us for good.  I thought of my Dad getting the attention of Youppi!, the Expos mascot, for a picture with me (a picture that proudly hangs in my home office today).  That Youppi! would tickle your ear with his furry orange fingers to make you laugh for the picture still brings a smile to my face.  I remembered how I fell asleep every night looking at a Gary Carter poster on my door, dreaming of playing for the Expos.  The memories of the games – the wins and losses (and the Expos lost most of the time I saw them play) – don’t matter that much.   The memories that stick around are those of me and my Dad and our trips to watch our beloved Expos.

Through my early life obsession with Gary Carter and the Montreal Expos, my Dad and I built a life-long shared bond, and for this I owe Mr. Carter a debt of thanks.  His abilities and persona captured my attention while I watched him play on TV and his willingness to spend five minutes with my 9 year old self seeded something very important.  To this day, my Dad and I can get lost debating the merits of a particular pitch, why the DH needs to be scrapped, or why left handed first basemen are a key to successful infield defence.

I still have that autographed ball from 1983, but that’s only the second best thing Gary Carter gave me.

Super Bowl observations

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The storyline of a football game can change a number of times before its conclusion.  It’s part of what makes the sport so captivating.  Heading into the 4th quarter, the storyline for Super Bowl 46 looked like it would be that of a cleanly and efficiently played game by two teams with the Patriots pulling out a win due to the Giants overall inability to capitalize on chances in the red zone while dominating other aspects of the game.

Like all good stories, this one had a few plot twists toward the end.

Cue plot change #1: Early in the 4th quarter up 2 points, Tom Brady throws an ill-advised pass intercepted down-field.  Momentum shifts to the Giants giving Eli Manning a chance to drive for a TD and overcome those red-zone challenges.  The momentum gained grinds to a halt as the Giants need to burn two timeouts due to formation confusion and they punt back to the Pats putting the original story line back on track.

Cue plot change #2: After running about 5 minutes off the clock on what is looking like a game sealing drive, the unthinkable happens: Wes Welker drops a pass (and/or Brady’s pass isn’t as accurate or perfect as we’ve come to expect) after running open in a terrible defensive breakdown by the Giants.   One play later the Pats have to punt, and Eli gets another crack at a comeback victory.  The storyline now shifts to whether Eli can add to his remarkable stack of 4th quarter comebacks already under his belt this season.

Cue plot change #3: In a bit of game strategy that likely was being explained across North America by football fanatics to casual viewers, the Patriots (up 2 points) basically allow the Giants to score a TD to go ahead.  The Pats elected to play the odds: they’d rather get the ball back with about a minute left being down 4 (or 6) points with a chance to come from behind to win versus trying to protect the lead and allowing the Giants to attempt a game winning FG as the clock would expire.  This kind of end game happens maybe a couple of times a year.  This gives the story a cliffhanger extension as now Brady has a chance to win his record tying 4th Super Bowl.

Cue plot change #4: As the Pats are driving for an attempt at a game winning TD, Patriots receivers drop 2 easy catches that would have helped them get in better position for a final TD attempt.  Even with those mistakes, the final hail-mary pass comes very close to being completed, but falls to the ground sealing the win for the Giants.

There have been better games this season with more exciting plays, but nothing comes close to the drama and stakes that played out over the last 12 minutes of the 4th quarter considering what was at stake.

Here’s what I saw as a few of the turning points and keys to the game:

1. Eli Manning – A simply stellar game.  His pinpoint 38 yard pass to Manningham on the game-winning drive was brilliant.  Everyone snickered before the season started when he stated he believed he was an elite QB like Tom Brady and a few others.  No one is laughing now.  As an Eagles fan, I hate that this has happened.

2. End-game strategy – I think Belichick made the right call playing the odds at the end of the game.  If the Giants, down by 2, don’t score the TD that the Patriots effectively gave them to go ahead, they get to kick a game winning FG with no time left on the clock that’s the same length as an extra point.  Those are made about 99% of the time.  The Pats had better odds intentionally giving up the lead and trying to score a TD with :57 left.  Those odds weren’t great, but they were better than 1%.

3. Patriots lack of down field threats in the passing game – One of the only offensive weaknesses the Pats have is the lack of a deep threat.  Knowing this, the Giants DBs were able to crowd the line of scrimmage and force short throws.  Brady was 0/5 in deeper passing attempts in the game (including the Welker drop and his one interception). 

4. The Gronkle: The Giants benefited from not having to worry about a clearly injured Gronkowski.  His high ankle sprain reduced him to a shell of his explosiveness.  That allowed the Giants to only play single coverage on him and thereby dedicate an extra DB to other aspects of pass coverage – a luxury other Pats opponents haven’t had this year.  

5. Patriots secondary weakness haunt them – With only marginal talent at the corner back and safety positions, the Pats played a lot of deep zone coverage that effectively allowed the Giants to take small low-risk passing gains underneath the coverage.  The Giants kept patient and took those yards which helped them control the clock.  It doesn’t really show up in the game stats other than Eli’s low yardage per attempt but this was a key factor that allowed the Giants to win.

6. Giants punting – I have a weak spot for special teams performance and the three downed punts inside the 10 was an “off stat sheet” reason the Giants were able to win.  The Pats had long fields to drive all night and had trouble sustaining drives (with the exceptions of the two that bracketed half-time).

Not a barn burner type of Super Bowl, but to the hardcore fan, the game was a chess match for 4 quarters and a fitting end to a great season.  Now what to do for the next 28 or so Sundays?

Super Bowl snacks

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I really love Super Bowl Sunday.  As football fans and foodies, many regular season Sundays at our place probably look like Super Bowl feasts to some, so on this day, we try to do a few things to spoil ourselves. Here’s what we ended up pulling together….

Roasted mixed nuts (coated with orange juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, salt and rosemary and roasted at 350F for 20 minutes) for grazing/snacking throughout the day – recipe courtesy of Halifax’s Feisty Chef.  Really loved these – the recipe is a keeper for next season:

Roasted garlic and bacon dip.  Made a few small alterations to the recipe including almost doubling the roasted garlic and adding a bit more bacon than called for (and that’s never a bad thing).  This turned out really well:

What’s a Super Bowl without wings? These ones are Buffalo style and are just 6 of the 1.2 billion wings consumed worldwide during Super Bowl Sunday.  I think chickens really need a better lobbyist for their interests:

A Super Bowl tradition for us is Jodi’s hot nacho dip.  We bring this out a few times during the season.  It capped off a day of snacks really well:

With a day of foods on the spicy side, I went with a selection of lagers – Sam Adams (its touch of floral/spice went well with the roasted spiced nuts), Red Stripe (very crisp, perfect with the Buffalo wings) and Creemore Springs (a bit of malt and a clean finish to pair with the nacho dip):

Memories of games past

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Over the past 5 years or so, I’ve been fortunate to be able to combine two of my passions on a number of occasions – travel and football (make it 3 passions if you include stadium food).   With the spirit of one of my favourite days of the year (Super Bowl Sunday) upon me, here’s a quick pictorial look back at my football game experiences.

With my love at our first ever NFL game in Philadelphia in late October 2006 (Eagles lose to the Jags 13-6):

In New Orleans for my first Monday night game – Saints lose 31-14 in their home opener vs Titans in September 2007:

My love gets to see her team for the first time in Pittsburgh: Steelers beat Seattle 21-0 on a steamy 34C day in October 2007:

Some dumb luck getting cheap tickets and enough points to get free flights sees us back in Pittsburgh in October 2008, this time for a great rivalry game on Monday night: Steelers beat Ravens 23-20 in OT (to date, the best game either of us has seen in person):

Back in Philly to see my first Eagles win as they dominate Tampa Bay 33-14 in October 2009:

Jets beat the Bills 19-13 in one of their regular season games in Toronto in December 2009:

Another Monday night rivalry game – Bears beat the Packers 20-17 in Chicago.  From super swanky club seats in September 2010:

Crazy good luck timing of a business trip landed me in Seattle to see my Eagles lose to the Seahawks 31-14 in December 2011: