Baseball, and beer, and more

I have nine Major League Baseball parks left to visit and my quest to visit such exotic locales as Kansas City, Arlington, St. Louis, and Milwaukee is indefinitely on hold as travel south of our border really isn’t appealing to me these days. Fortunately, it’s been more than a hot minute since I had been to a few Jays games in Toronto and this past summer I was eager to visit the remodelled Skydome (I will not call that place by its corporate name) and enjoy the Blue Jays as they were in the midst of their supercharged season.

With baseball as the backbone of the trip, I coloured in the gaps with a lot of fun. I adore solo travel for the indulgence it offers, and after arriving on a dinner-time flight from Saskatoon, I stashed my bags at my downtown hotel and made my way up to Queen Street West to take in a show by The Montvales, a band I had become smitten with over the summer. In all of the time I have spent in Toronto over the years, I had never managed to see a concert at the Horseshoe Tavern and loved every minute of soaking in not only a great show, but also all of the history of Canadian music that has played on the stage. Even a pretty deep accidental cut on my thumb from some broken glass couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for my first night in TO. Take a listen to these two part harmonies on their song “Bad Faith” and you’ll understand why.

The Montvales concert at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto
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On the road again

I think it is now official. After ten years living in Saskatoon, my favourite road trip destination is Calgary. I can assure you that is not due to the wonderful drive. It is a touch over six hours and after doing it a number of times, describing it as monotonous might be a tad generous. This might be the kind of road trip where the destination compels the journey. Even with good coffee (or road trip appropriate Timmies) and snacks, great company with my wife, and great tunes and podcasts, this drive is a bit of a grind.

On our last visit to Calgary, the drive there was eventful. A couple of very powerful and large thunderstorms made for some white knuckle driving, while a few smaller ones like this one about an hour east of Calgary made for some beautiful scenery.

Prairie highway during a storm in Alberta
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Atlanta with my favourite person

My second trip to Atlanta was, for me, a mostly work trip. Luckily, my wife was able to join me on this visit and we squeezed a few experiences around my conference activities. While I was off doing conference things, she visited the aquarium and the zoo, and was nice enough to indulge me on our first (and only) free day in the city touring some craft breweries. I made sure to pre-scout these so they had ample gluten free offerings for her. We had a grand time touring a few neighbourhoods we wouldn’t have otherwise visited. There was lots of laughter, some great Mexican food (the barbacoa tacos at Wild Heaven were tremendous!), a lot of tasty patio beers, and a few games of Yahtzee to get our trip kicked off well.

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Wine group on the road

Over the course of living in Saskatoon, we have become part of a great group of friends who take pleasure in wine tasting. That’s a fancy way of saying a group of us gets together a few times a year to enjoy wine, usually with food, sometimes on someone’s patio and sometimes in a favourite wine store in Saskatoon. We open a few bottles, then a few more, and the laughs begin to flow. Over the pandemic, we turned our group virtual for a spell and those zoom wine tasting nights felt like nights out and kept us going until things returned to normal. In those zoom wine tastings, we talked a lot about wine travel and as a group have now attended the international wine festival in Vancouver on two occasions including last year.

For this most recent wine trip, my wife and I headed to Vancouver a day before our group activities started for a bit of “us” time. On a cold, rainy night, we tucked into the cozy Chickadee Room cocktail bar for a couple of happy hour drinks and the free gluten free fried chicken that comes along with your order. This was a great first stop – excellent cocktails, tender juicy chicken all in a retro vibes bar that warmed us up.

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A 50th reimagined

My wife and I have had a string of bad luck with our plans for recent anniversaries and our respective 50th birthdays. Ever the optimist, when a week’s trip to the Okanagan to celebrate her 50th fell through on account of the health of a close friend, we put together a quick three day visit to Calgary because even in tough times you have to find a way to celebrate.

Calgary has quickly become a favourite city for the two of us since moving to Saskatoon. It’s a reasonable 6+ hour drive, we’ve found a favourite hotel, and over a number of visits we’ve found a collection of favourite restaurants and bars to fill a weekend. On top of that list is Native Tongues, where an early meal during their happy hour lets you order the delightfully named “snackarita” that saves you money to buy even more of their amazing tacos. Hands down so far, this is our favourite restaurant in the city.

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Time for a rest

It has been a year since my wife and I had traveled to Antigua to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Lots has changed in that year in our lives. After Antigua we’ve been dealing with twelve months of life’s challenges and turmoils including the recent deaths of both of my parents. As I’m writing this, my mind has been turning to the time we spent in Antigua as I think about the need to get away for some time to let my mind heal. I think the time we spent in Antigua is what I need most from a vacation now – peace, quiet, relaxation and my wife at my side.

View of Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
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