Seattle two ways

March 9, 2025March 9, 2025 / Greg / Leave a comment

They were simpler times in so many ways. Crossing the border into the USA wasn’t something that made my stomach churn like it did for a trip I just took to Washington. And while I’m debating with myself how frequently I’ll be back down to the USA for pleasure over the next little while, there was no such hesitation on my last two visits to Seattle. Seattle feels a lot like Vancouver and I’ve been there enough that I have a good sense of the city and a few favourite haunts by now.

The first trip, my wife made the journey there with me while I was attending a conference, and it was fun to both see the city through her eyes and to also experience some new things with her. A tradition we have on all of our trips is some form of Yahtzee championship. We spent a couple of hours at TeKu Tavern + Cafe and while I enjoyed a couple of delicious pints of Washington state beer, I demolished my wife in our Yahtzee matches. She was terribly disappointed at how the games went.

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An early start to baseball season

February 4, 2024 / Greg / 2 Comments

As I get itchy for the start of the 2024 baseball season, I have been thinking back to the jump I got on this past 2023 baseball season by finally taking a long-desired trip to Arizona for a week of spring training baseball. As a lifelong baseball nerd (with a significant pause to recover from the loss of my Montreal Expos in the early 2000s) I had long thought about spending a week of lazy days under the spring sun in Florida or Arizona, going from park to park to get a close up view of the game I love. With my move to Saskatchewan eight years ago, Arizona became a more obvious choice for this trip and last year at long last I made it a reality.

Cubs-Brewers game at Sloan Park in Mesa, AZ

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Touring Safeco Field

January 28, 2017January 28, 2017 / Greg / Leave a comment

Trips to American cities for me recently have come up roses for getting to see baseball games. Twins games in Minneapolis, an Astros game in Houston, a Cubs game and a White Sox game in Chicago, a long dream fulfilled to see a game at Fenway in Boston… but this trip to Seattle came a couple of weeks after the end of the thrilling 2016 season. Luckily for me, Safeco Field, home of the Mariners, offers year-round tours. It’s not quite the same as getting to spend a few hours with a beer in your hand watching a game, but the tour offered by the Mariners let me see their ballpark in much more depth.

And what a beautiful park it is. Even in late November, our tour was treated to a spectacular day to wander around the stadium. First stop after some introductory history of the team and its old stadium was the upper level seats behind home plate. From here, you get an outstanding overall perspective. It also would be a great place to watch a game if you wanted to save a few bucks on tickets.