The tradition continues, kind of…

May 30, 2023May 30, 2023 / Greg / Leave a comment

One of my favourite travel traditions is taking an annual self-indulgent, solo trip to satisfy my inner baseball nerd. Over the years, that now has me sitting at visiting 16 of the 30 major league ballparks with my brain constantly working on the logistics to tick off the final 14. The pandemic years put a halt to my progress that I’m glad is changing this year as I have plans to visit Detroit and Cleveland later this summer.

Last summer, looking to scratch the itch of live baseball, I decided to take the relatively short trip to Vancouver for a few nights of minor league baseball. The Vancouver Canadians, an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, play out of the cozy and idyllic Nat Bailey Stadium. For the low cost of $25 you can have the best seat in the house behind home plate. A beautiful Vancouver summer evening, cold local craft beers and the crack of the bat….. couldn’t be better!

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Sea of green

October 28, 2018October 27, 2018 / Greg / Leave a comment

It is a full on annual tradition now. Summer in Saskatchewan means hopping in the car, making our way south to Regina, getting dressed in green, and heading to a Riders game. And like our football trips the previous two years, we were given yet another spectacular day to sit outside and cheer on the good guys. As one super Rider fan used to quip… sea of green, sky of blue.

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Bring ’em out

October 21, 2017October 21, 2017 / Greg / 1 Comment

When my wife and I hit the road out of Saskatoon to Regina in late July, we were embarking on our first “annual tradition” since moving to Saskatchewan. A Riders game. Last year’s game was our first and we had a great time – football, food and for me, the first feelings of belonging in Saskatchewan. With a year on the prairies under our belt, we headed south to cheer on our team in what is now an expected part of every summer here.

And similar to last year, there were preparations before heading to the game. Like applying a Gainer tattoo before making our way out to the stadium…

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The greatest setting in college football

January 7, 2017January 7, 2017 / Greg / Leave a comment

It’s hard as a Canadian to wrap my head around American college football. Earlier this fall I went to a university football game in Saskatoon. It was charming – beautiful September night, about 7,000 fans, a down-home atmosphere in the pre-game festivities and an exciting game to boot. It was a quaint, perfectly lovely thing to attend, even if the hometown University of Saskatchewan Huskies couldn’t pull off the victory. Fast forward a few months, and with a stroke of scheduling luck, the University of Washington Huskies played the USC Trojans while I was in Seattle attending a conference in November. Walking into the stadium, it was clear this was nothing like the game I saw back in Saskatoon. All this experience would share with that September night is the name of the two home teams.

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Green is the colour

August 6, 2016August 6, 2016 / Greg / 2 Comments

Although finding your place in a new city and a new province takes time, I’ve been pleasantly surprised how quickly my new hometown has truly felt like home. Before moving to Saskatchewan, I really only knew of the province through a few of its far reaching stereotypes – the cold, the wheat, and yes, the Roughriders. I’m still awaiting my first cold snap – moving here in April was a brilliant stroke of timing. I’ve sampled liberally a number of delicacies made with the staple crop of the province, and now, I’ve perhaps become a real Saskatchewanian (Saskatchewaner?)… I’ve seen my first Roughriders game in person.

Continuing the tradition of my wife and I taking an annual “honeymoon” trip in lieu of anniversary gifts, honeymoon #4 was a weekend in Regina to see our new favourite team. Although this trip was a blast, my wife has insisted that honeymoon #5 be more along the lines of previous destinations (Puerto Rico, San Diego/Tijuana, Boston). But I digress.

Game day in Regina got underway with an incredible bit of good luck and timing. Off on a search for coffee, I stumbled into a celebration of the 1966 Grey Cup winning Riders team happening in our hotel. They had brought along the Grey Cup and I got to spend a few minutes with this iconic symbol of Canada. It’s dented and scratched up. It’s clearly a good times trophy and I can’t imagine the likes of the parties it has seen in its 106 years of life.

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More football in Texas

November 7, 2015 / Greg / 3 Comments

When Sunday morning rolled around in Houston and I pulled myself out of bed, I realized I was heading to my third sporting event in the city in just a touch under twenty four hours. My plan was to spend the morning tailgating outside the stadium, but I had to put that idea aside as I was shaking off some sort of bug that I had picked up the previous day. Luckily, I was feeling human enough to make it out to the stadium for a little bit of pregame poking around, if not for hours of beers and barbecue (still a little bit sad about that).

On a quick walk around the stadium, I noticed that people really take their tailgating seriously. Most had a full smoker of some sort set up which made it easily the best smelling parking lot I’d ever been to. There were also a lot of neat games and booths set up by the team – you could measure your wingspan relative to JJ Watt and run an officially timed 40 metre dash.

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Football night in Texas

October 31, 2015October 31, 2015 / Greg / Leave a comment

So after about eight hours en route to Houston and after taking in an Astros game downtown, I had enough time to grab a quick bite and head to my first ever US college football game. This was something I wanted to experience, not just because I’m a football fan, but because I’ve always thought that it would be a unique slice of American culture. So, in Texas where football is a religion like hockey is in Canada, I walked into the stadium at the University of Houston for a Saturday night game between the hometown Cougars and Texas State on a perfect night for football:

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Deep in the heart of Texas

October 3, 2015October 3, 2015 / Greg / Leave a comment

I’m home and a bit bleary-eyed from my late night flight back from a week split between Houston and Austin, Texas. This was a really nice short trip. I started off with a couple of days in Houston, making it into the city just in time for first pitch of an Astros-Rangers game between two teams fighting for a playoff spot. Some delicious barbeque, a college football game and then a Sunday spent at a Texans NFL game made for an eventful visit.

After a final morning poking around Houston, I hopped the shortest flight of my life and 31 minutes later landed in Austin and immediately felt at home. Austin was authentically quirky, filled with great food, interesting art and friendly people. It felt like the kind of city I could happily live in, even if it would take being able to develop the willpower necessary to not subsist on a diet of tacos and barbecue brisket.

A nice first taste of Texas, literally and figuratively. More to come in the weeks ahead…

Tailgating with the Bears

March 17, 2014 / Greg / Leave a comment

I’ve been to a few NFL games now, and as much as I enjoy the simple act of watching the sport live, it’s also quite an American cultural experience. Nowhere is that cultural experience on display more than in pregame tailgating.

Four years ago, my wife and I traveled to Chicago to see an early season Bears-Packers match up. With a wee bit of research, we found a tailgating group who welcomed us to hang out before kickoff. If you’re not familiar with tailgating, it’s basically a group of people who meet up in the parking lot prior to a football game, usually to grill some food, have a few drinks and talk some football before heading into the stadium. In Chicago, it looked like this:

This tailgating lot for Bears games is located about a 20 minute walk south of the stadium and, as you can see, it is cars and grills and plumes of delicious barbeque smoke as far as the eye can see. Through this maze, we found our specific spot nestled over to the side of the parking lot:

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Reconnecting with Philadelphia

November 6, 2013 / Greg / Leave a comment

I am back from a six day mixed work/vacation trip to a city that has its tentacles pretty deep into me. It’s no secret my love for Philadelphia. Years of traveling down there for work have me and the city more than casually acquainted, though it was far from love at first sight. Philadelphia and I are familiar, so to speak. The kind of familiar where we can finish each others’ sentences, but not so familiar that the spark of spontaneity is missing when we see each other.

This trip was a mix of some old favourites and great new experiences. Some of the old? A cheesesteak at Jim’s (in my highly researched opinion, the best in Philly), a couple of pints at Tria and a Flyers game. The new? The revelation that was a sandwich at Paesano’s while touring south Philly, a remarkable meal at Zahav, and experiencing part of an Eagles game sitting among fast friends at a neighbourhood bar.

Speaking of my beloved Eagles, a highlight of this trip was a last day surprise. At the conference I was attending, I got to meet and chat with Jason Avant, one of my favourite Eagles. He was nice enough to sign a picture for me, chat about the game from the night before and even spend some time swapping stories about our respective experiences in Quebec City and Montreal. Me being thrilled at this chance encounter is a massive understatement: