A year of travel

/ Greg / Leave a comment

On a rainy Wednesday morning of my holiday vacation, I’m cleaning up photo libraries from trips in 2011 to Mexico, New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, Seattle, Switzerland, Milan and Frankfurt.  Over the next couple of days, I’ll post some of my favourite photos from 2011 – these will be the ones that I’ll be more likely to frame and put up in the condo.

Week 16 observations

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Week 16 put football and Christmas Eve together – a perfect match.   We decided on a quiet day together with some holiday-themed snacks for the day of games.  This was our frozen holiday slush drink:

The late games/supper snack was cocktail meatballs (I threw a few of these on a bun with the sauce for an outstanding sandwich):

Here’s what I saw during this week’s games:

Eagles: What had been a virtual inevitability became official on Sunday, the Eagles will miss the playoffs this year.  That being said, they played a very efficient game against the Cowboys for a 20-7 win.  Granted, Dallas had their backup QB in the game and were resting some of their starters on offence, but it was a complete and clean game for Philly.   Vick had a strong game and was well protected by an OL that has really come together as the season has gone on.  The defence pressured McGee all game with a 4 man rush and added to their NFL leading sack total.  Now on a 3-0 run, the Eagles have a meaningless game next week with which to close out the season.  I uttered my annual “Maybe next year” on Sunday for my Eagles as their Super Bowl hopes ended – sadly, something I’ve said every year I’ve watched football.

Giants/Jets:  I needed the Jets to win to keep the Eagles alive for a playoff spot.  In their infinite wisdom, they called 64 (!) pass plays for Sanchez.   That was complete foolishness.  The Jets may still make the playoffs in the AFC, but they’ve really fallen from their near championship form from the past two seasons.   They’re a team with no running attack, an overrated defence and a coaching staff that might be running out of motivational tricks.  The Giants didn’t look much better in this game.  They’re set for a winner makes the playoffs game with Dallas next week.   Given how those two teams have played down the stretch, a tie might be a fitting result.

Steelers:  Charlie Batch may be the ultimate backup QB.  He was almost mistake free and led a balanced attack on the way to a 27-0 win.  The Rams really weren’t a challenge in this one.  The goal for Pittsburgh will be to win their finale against the Browns, hope for a Ravens loss and just get healthy for the playoffs. 

Packers / Bears:  After a very slow start, the Packers pulled away on the strength of 5 Rogers TD passes.  The Bears had a solid game plan early in running the ball, but couldn’t keep pace once the Packers offence warmed up.  For the Packers, Jordy Nelson is a really under-appreciated WR.   He’s quietly having an outstanding season.  After signing a 4 yr $14M contract, he might be one of the best contractual values in the NFL.  Funniest moment of the TV broadcast – a woman holding up a sign in the Lambeau Field crowd that read: “My cheating ex boyfriend is watching from the couch instead”

Indy/Houston: Nice win by the Colts using a last minute TD drive for their second win of the season.  A lot of undisciplined play by Houston aided that drive, but Orlovsky made 2 nice passes to Wayne to pull the game out.  Houston will make the playoffs but needs to play much more disciplined football once they get there to have any success.

Broncos/Bills:  Tebow came crashing back down to earth with a 4 INT game.  Someone once wrote that Tebow’s throwing motion looked like a moose trying to <expletive> a washing machine.  That’s a pretty accurate description of the performance on Sunday.  He’ll need to shake that off next week for a win to make the playoffs.

Saints/Falcons: Drew Brees eclipses Dan Marino’s single season passing record in a blowout win over their division rival.  Atlanta will make the playoffs, but it’s clear from this game they’ll be hard pressed to keep pace with the Saints should they meet them in the playoffs.   

Week 15 observations

/ Greg / Leave a comment

You’d think that after 14 Sundays of football, the routine would get boring – but it never does.   We spent the morning preparing the day’s snacks, got the dual TVs setup and as the clock struck 2pm, I was ready for some football.  With Christmas decorating mostly done, here’s what game day looked like this week a bit later in the afternoon (Eagles/Jets on TV on left, Pats/Broncos on right):

A really outstanding day of snacks.  For the early game, I made a black bean dip based on this recipe.  The recipe is a bit on the bland side, so I punch it up with some lime juice, about twice the hot sauce and a bit of garlic.  For the late game, we tried a new wing recipe (we used drumsticks) that we loved – super easy, very tasty and delicious looking:

As for the games, here’s what I saw this week:

Eagles/Jets:  My Eagles kept their exceptionally slim playoff hopes alive.  In the back of my head, I know it’s just so they can let me down in some sort of spectacular fashion, but it keeps things fun for another week.  Prior to their game against the Jets, to stay alive they needed a Redskins upset of the Giants (can’t remember the last time I cheered that hard for the Redskins).  The game against the Jets was sloppy by both teams – so bad in fact, that the Eagles committed 4 turnovers and still won by 26.  Aside from three really bad turnovers (2 on special teams), the Eagles played well.  The defence harassed the Jets all game and looked very physical against a normally physical offence.  Vick and the offence moved the ball efficiently and turned each of the Jets turnovers into points.  Vick has to get some self-preservation skills quickly or his career isn’t going to last much longer.  His desire to keep plays alive saw him knocked to the ground violently a few times in this game – I was surprised he got up from a couple of those.   The most enjoyable thing to watch this year has been the running of McCoy.  He had 3 TDs in this game and has really established himself as one of the top running backs in the league. 

Steelers/49ers:  The two power outages that delayed the game meant I only stayed with it until half-time before heading to bed.  This is a tough loss for the Steelers and may have cost them the #1 seed in the playoffs.  Roethlisberger isn’t the same QB without mobility and it’ll be interesting to see if he gets rested in either of the 2 remaining games to ensure he’s healthy for the playoffs.  They’ve virtually guaranteed the #5 seed and a first playoff match-up on the road against the AFC West winner (Broncos and Tebow perhaps?).

Jags/Falcons: This horrible Thursday night match-up saw me head to bed before the half.  Although I enjoy the Thursday night games later in the season, match-ups and blow-outs like this can’t keep anyone’s attention.

Chiefs upset of the Packers: The Chiefs prove the saying that any team can win on any given Sunday.  It was a great physical display by the KC defence that won them this game.  It might also have been a sign that the Packers are going to have to change some of their game plans due to injuries along their offensive line.  Even Aaron Rogers looks human if the pass rush consistently gets to him. 

Baltimore’s loss: Maybe it’s because there’s a Terrible Towel permanently on display in my living room during the season, but it was a lot of fun watching the Ravens lay another egg… almost as much fun was watching Ray Lewis pout on the sidelines.  He, in particular, looked old and slow in this game.  This team is soft on the road. I’ve said it a bunch of times this year – don’t trust the Ravens.  However, if they can get the #1 seed and play at home throughout the playoffs, they’ll have a chance.

Smart football insights on Twitter – I really love following some of the football thinking on Twitter during the games.  In particular, @MikePereira (former VP of officiating for the NFL) has incredible rules based insight on complicated rulings that come up through the day.  If something odd happens in a game, he’ll have a perfect explanation in about 30 seconds posted while the announcers on TV (usually) have no clue and/or struggle with the rules.  He’s the best thing on Twitter every Sunday for anyone who’s a football geek.

Last Day in Seattle

/ Greg / Leave a comment

December 3 – Given Seattle’s reputation for coffee, I scouted out Caffe Umbria with a location close to my hotel for a morning cappuccino and croissant.  Easily the best coffee I had in Seattle.  This is a delicious way to start a day:

I grabbed a bag of coffee beans to bring back to Halifax with me and started to make my way to the Experience Music Project (EMP) museum.  For about the next half hour, I feel like I descended into a series of Simpsons episodes.  First, to get to EMP I need to take a ride on a monorail (and as it banks into the final turn heading past the museum, I can almost hear Lyle Lanley himself running off with bags of money after skimping on safety standards):

Then I lay eyes on the EMP and its Frank Gehry design harkens me back to his design of Springfield’s concert hall / Montgomery Burns state prison:

Simpsons references aside, this part of Seattle feels like time passed it by a bit.  Seattle Center and the Space Needle came into being for the 1962 World’s Fair.  Maybe it’s the chilly, grey morning I’m here, but it feels like it has seen better days.   That being said, the Space Needle itself is a pretty impressive architectural landmark:

Here, the Space Needle and its reflection in the side of the EMP:

The EMP is one of the most interesting museums I’ve been to in my travels.  There’s a bunch of displays on music history, especially focused on key artists of the Pacific Northwest (Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana and the other “grunge” acts of the 90s).   One of the things I really enjoyed was a display of electric guitars through the ages, including this 1952 Gibson Les Paul:

As a bit of a collector of concert set lists, I liked this one – the set list from the last Nirvana show ever (in Germany):

One of the best features of this museum were the interactive rooms where you could play instruments.  Here’s a picture of one of the “pods” of instruments – guitar, bass and drums.  After some interactive instruction on how to play the instrument, you could team up with others in the pod to play parts of a song.  For the pod I tried, I got to play rhythm guitar for Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in concert with a bass player and a drummer who had just “learned” their instruments:

This impressive sculpture (“If VI was IX: Roots and Branches”) in the main hallway of the music-related displays let’s you hear the permutations of the sounds it can produce:

There were also great exhibits on the making of the movie “Avatar” and an installation on horror movies (with displays featuring costumes and props from the classics).  The best part of the horror movie installation was that you could orchestrate the music and sounds in the room (I enjoyed a few minutes of adding screams and chainsaws to an orchestral piece which had a few folks looking at the displays wondering what was going on) Overall, it was a wonderful interactive museum and a great place to spend a few hours on a chilly overcast day.

The rest of my last vacation day in Seattle was about trying some drink and food.  Making my may back to downtown Seattle, I stopped at Elysian Fields for lunch and tried their famously-entitled “Men’s Room Red” ale.  Delicious:

On my way to supper, I make a quick stop in for happy hour at 106 Pine, a wine shop and tasting bar featuring a solid selection of Washington state wines.  Here’s a Merlot that took some of the chill out of the evening:

From there, it was on to Andaluca for a Spanish-inspired small plates meal.   First course: Broken Egg Papas Frites with chorizo and roasted mushrooms (and really, I could have just ordered this two more times and gone back to the hotel extremely happy):

Second course (complete with a warning that eating raw seafood may be a health hazard): Spicy Calamari bruschetta with saffron aioli – exceptionally fresh and very spicy/hot:

A very interesting Washington state Pinot Noir with strong hints of licorice.  Unusual and interesting and quite nice for a cold night:

Last course: Paella with chicken, chorizo, grilled prawn, harissa butter and saffron:

Fully warmed up from the inside, I took in some of the Christmas lights in the shopping district of Seattle before heading back to the hotel.  Among the pictures, the first and last ones below are of the Macy’s star and Christmas tree at Westlake Center:

Unfortunately, that marked the end of the vacation part of the trip.  I did come away with some perspectives on Seattle in the course of just under 3 days:

1. Seattle is a very friendly city.  People smile, engage in conversation and really seem to be down to earth folk.  The west coast lifestyle is something I’m finding resonates with me.

2. The food culture in Seattle is something I could really get used to:  Fresh seafood and variety like I haven’t seen in other coastal places including here in Halifax; Great local red wines; Enormous selection of microbrews across the spectrum of styles; A deep appreciation and care for the quality of food;  It would be great to shop, cook and eat here.

3. In some respects, Seattle is like many other larger cities.  But on its doorstep is immense natural beauty – lakes and rivers, mountains and pine trees.   If/when I get back to this area, I’ll spend more time exploring what’s around this area.  I could easily imagine this being a great place to live for a few years.