Baseball, and beer, and more

March 15, 2026March 16, 2026 / Greg / Leave a comment

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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Courage and Grace, Too

August 20, 2016August 20, 2016 / Greg / 5 Comments

As the last strains of “Ahead by a Century” were just fading into the rafters of Rexall Place in Edmonton, Gord Downie walked to the front, his Tragically Hip band members fading quietly off stage. The spotlights centred on the Canadian icon, alone.

I can’t imagine Wayne Gretzky himself ever received an ovation the likes of which Gord was soaking in. I looked around the arena, and through my own teary vision, couldn’t see another dry eye. Yes, we all knew there was an encore to come, but in our own way we were all saying our thanks to Gord and his band. His was the music most of us in attendance had grown up to. The soundtrack of road trips, of summers, of that girl you just met or the girl who just left you. In that moment in Edmonton, we were all taken back to those indelible memories that have been woven into the fabric of our lives. We were saying thanks, but also saying goodbye. And we were all in awe of a man dealing with a terminal brain cancer diagnosis and his desire to tour one last time.

This was no dress rehearsal, it was his life.

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Country music everywhere you looked

August 18, 2014 / Greg / 4 Comments

You hear “Nashville” and the first thing that comes to mind is country music. Although I wouldn’t count myself as a big modern country music fan, I’m a “when in Rome” kind of person so I took the opportunity to sample of bit on my recent trip. Making things very easy for me was that it was the last day of the CMA Music Fest when I arrived. My plan for my first afternoon in Music City USA was a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum followed by hopping from stage to stage downtown to listen to a pretty solid lineup of free entertainment.

My one word of advice to the true country music fan when it comes to Nashville? “Go!” In particular, don’t miss the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. They had a host of interesting displays: the set from Hee Haw!, the black Trans Am from “Smokey and the Bandit” (not sure what that has to do with country music, but it’s pretty cool!), and this – a 24 karat gold leaf covered piano given to Elvis by Priscilla on their first anniversary: