Public art in Washington

December 26, 2019December 24, 2019 / Greg / Leave a comment

Washington has historical monuments and museums that you could spend weeks exploring. And while I was game to pop by the White House, to visit the Lincoln Memorial and to wander around a few of the Smithsonian museums, I was most excited to take in some of the modern public art that lines the National Mall. Here are some of my favourites….

“Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore)” by Mark di Suervo – I love di Suervo’s art. In this piece, I enjoyed the simplistic contrast in the red of the beams against the green landscaping and white of so many of the buildings along the Mall.

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A whole lot of gose

December 14, 2019December 14, 2019 / Greg / Leave a comment

Baseball and beer. Pretty much a perfect pairing.

My annual baseball trip this year was to Washington thanks to already being in the city for some professional development. With five days to take in the sights of the American capital, I needed ample refreshment along the way to fend off the heat and humidity of the east coast in July.

On my first night in the city, I made it to Dacha Beer Garden under threat of a severe thunderstorm. Their outdoor garden is nicely covered and sheltered from the elements (thankfully!), and I couldn’t resist pairing a Joint Resolution hazy IPA from DC Brau with PEI mussels. Pretty good match and worth getting completely drenched on the walk back to the hotel when the storm hit with an amazing ferocity at the most inopportune time for me.

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Can I enjoy the faux Expos?

October 30, 2019October 29, 2019 / Greg / 2 Comments

While I’m always up for a baseball game, when I visited Washington this past summer, it was with some mixed emotions of heading to five Nationals games. You see, when my Expos were taken away from me, they were in essence handed to Washington to become their new team. And while time can erase a lot, I’m never sure of where I stand on this baseball team that now claims franchise records of the team I used to cheer for. Putting that all aside, I bought some tickets, and shortly after arriving in DC, I threw on my trusty Montreal Expos hat and headed for Nationals Park.

Just through the gate, I bumped into this guy, who gave me a presidential welcome for my first Nationals game.

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So many memories

October 16, 2019 / Greg

I really had nothing to worry about. While I hesitated booking this trip and then felt intimidated trying to plan for it, once I touched down in Japan, everything just clicked. This is a country that I wanted to visit for some time, but doing so as an extended solo trip gave me pause for thought. Would I get homesick? Would I be lonely? Would the language and cultural barriers be too much for me on my own? Would any of that make this trip difficult in a way that would limit my own enjoyment of a much needed vacation? As I write this a few hours before catching my flight home, none of that ever materialized. And that’s all due to how wonderful Japan and its people are.

This was a trip full of memories. Hiking through the mountains outside Kyoto and listening to the previous day’s typhoon rains streaming down the hills, visiting temples and shrines, eating exquisite sushi, attending a playoff baseball game, exploring Tokyo, eating my way through Osaka, hanging out on a beach in Kamakura and thinking about my family and friends… Every day gave me something to remember.

This won’t be a trip where there’s one primary thing I take away. It has been a trip that is already forming a collage in my mind of conversations, tastes, sights, and most importantly, feelings. I have felt it all here. Awe in the presence of the physical and natural beauty. Sheer happiness visiting a crazy izakaya. Bewilderment while figuring out cultural norms and then pride in a sense of growing confidence as I figured things out. And a whole lot of pure, unadulterated joy at being so far from home and enjoying my time here to the fullest.

I am prone to easily falling in love with some of the places I visit, but even given that, I can honestly say that I have fallen in love with Japan and it has left a beautiful mark on my heart. Its people have been unfailingly warm, kind and generous to me; they have made me smile and laugh, and made me want to be better to others I meet, the way they have been to me over the past two weeks.

Two weeks hasn’t been enough time as there is so much more I want to see, experience and taste (especially, taste!). But it was also perfect. The soles of my shoes have been worn down, I’m starting to long for home and the people (and dog) I miss, and my heart is overflowing from what I have felt here in Japan. This trip could not have been more perfect.

Thank you Japan.

Seventh honeymoon

September 30, 2019October 1, 2019 / Greg / Leave a comment

Since getting married six years ago, my wife and I have kept up a tradition of taking a “honeymoon” each year. Some have been a bit more exotic like our first trip to Boston or our actual honeymoon to Puerto Rico, and a few have been to make sure the tradition stayed alive. “Honeymoon in Regina”, even for a Riders game, just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

We decided to celebrate our sixth anniversary by heading back east to New Brunswick to spend a week with our family. With my wife’s family mostly in the southwest part of the province, and my mom and dad up in the northeast, we had to split up for a few days (not sounding too honeymoon-ish, is it?). Upon getting a good night’s sleep in Nackawic after landing in Fredericton on the first evening, I drove across the province to Beresford to meet up with my parents and their dog, Tia.

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The old stomping grounds

September 23, 2019September 22, 2019 / Greg / 1 Comment

When I traveled to Halifax in June, it was for an almost absurdly short amount of time. Fly in on a Friday, meetings on Saturday, fly back home before the sun was up on Sunday morning. With so little time, I knew this was going to be a “greatest hits” type of trip. With precious little personal time on this visit, I charted a precise course through a city I know very well… but one that is changing rapidly, and becoming a touch more unfamiliar on each and every return visit.

My flight touched down at 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon, and at 5:30 I was sitting at the bar of my hotel’s restaurant, which fortunately for me, is known for its oyster happy hour. A dozen delicious oysters to reacquaint me with the taste of the ocean… this is the way you kick off a visit to Halifax.

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Visiting with Mr. Goalie

September 14, 2019September 14, 2019 / Greg / 1 Comment

On every trip with my dad, something kind of crazy, something memorable, always seems to happen. As we were doing a road trip through the mountains, while we were having an amazing time, we hadn’t yet had that “you’ve gotta be kidding” kind of moment.

Until Edmonton.

Dad and I met a family friend for lunch at the West Edmonton Mall and at one point the conversation drifted to my dad’s time as a goaltender in northern New Brunswick in his younger years. A few minutes later we had a proposition for our afternoon. Did we want to drop in on his friend outside the city? His friend? Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender, one of the greatest to ever play the position in the history of the game, Glenn Hall.

We left the mall, drove west of the city, picked up a six pack and casually dropped in on a hockey legend. As you can tell by the photo, he’s a pretty gracious hall offamer.

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Into the mountains with dad

September 7, 2019September 7, 2019 / Greg / 4 Comments

I’m not going to bury the lede on this… The five day, 2,200km road trip I took with my dad from Saskatoon to Calgary, then onto Banff, Lake Lousie and Jasper, and finally back to Saskatoon via Edmonton was one of the most fun things I’ve done in a long, long time. Every time I speak with my dad on the phone since he returned to New Brunswick, we end up talking about this trip and how much fun it was. Here’s the recap of an epic road trip, at least what I’m willing to share publicly. As with any good trip, there’s always a few things that need to respect the mantra “what happens on the road, stays on the road”

Calgary

When dad booked his flight from Bathurst, NB to visit me in Saskatoon in May, I immediately booked hotels for a mountain road trip so he could see the Rockies up close for the first time in his life. He arrived in Saskatoon, got acclimatized to my hometown for a couple of days, then we packed up the car and pointed it west. About seven hours later, we rolled into a rainy Calgary. First stop was at National on 17th, a great beer bar close to our hotel. Dad seems to be a fan of the pint I picked for him.

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Windy city pints

August 31, 2019August 31, 2019 / Greg / Leave a comment

Chicago is an interesting, but slightly logistically challenging city for craft beer exploration. If you’re staying in the centre of the city as I was, and want to visit a number of breweries or taprooms, you really have to do some traveling by subway and bus to some far flung locations. Like every trip I plan, I pinned a number of potential destinations on a map, then using the limited time in the city, tried to hit the really interesting and convenient places.

By far and away, the brewery I was most excited to sample from was Rick Bayless’ Cruz Blanca Brewery. You already know I’m a bit of a Bayless fanboy, in love with every culinary thing he does, so of course I needed to see if I would be a fan of his brewery.

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A change of plans

August 24, 2019August 24, 2019 / Greg / 2 Comments

When my wife was unexpectedly able to join me on my trip to Chicago, it turned a baseball trip into a restaurant exploration trip pretty quickly. My original plans called for a lot of ballpark food and craft beer, but I was thrilled to spin those plans on a dime and make each evening about heading out on the town in search of deliciousness.

With the last minute nature of our new plans, we used points to get my wife into Chicago flying a different route and airline than was I. When we parted ways at the Saskatoon airport, she didn’t yet have a seat assignment, so we weren’t sure if we’d actually meet up in Chicago. In light of that, we kept our dinner plans simple – at Fisk & Co, a hotel bar in the loop, for some seafood and (surprise, surprise) craft beer for me. It ended up being a great choice. She did make it into Chicago, and our first order of business was crushing some oysters. Delicious!