travel

Getting out of the city

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Over the course of many trips I have fallen in love with the idea of the “trip within a trip”. A day trip plunked down in the middle of the longer voyage is something that almost always brings me awe and rejuvenation. Going back to the first time my wife and I traveled to Europe, an expedition to Bruges in the middle of a two city trip to Amsterdam and Belgium is something that got this concept planted firmly in most of the plans I make to this day.

So, a spring training trip to Arizona for a week needed a day trip in the middle of it and after looking at some maps and talking to some friends, I landed on getting out of the Phoenix area for some hiking, exploring and even some wine tasting (yes!) in the general vicinity of Sedona. As I was battling morning rush hour traffic through what seemed like an endless Phoenix urban landscape I briefly doubted the intelligence of my plans. But soon enough, the the number of traffic lanes got down to a reasonable number and the landscape opened up to wider vistas and I felt myself easing into the day.

My first stop was just outside of Oak Creek. I had a spectacularly beautiful day for a morning hike…. the kind of day that gives you shivers of excitement. If I was hoping to feel awe, I had definitely found the place and day for that.

Hiking near Oak Creek, AZ
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An early start to baseball season

/ 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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Looking back on 2023

/ Greg / Leave a comment

This past year was a lot of things, many of which to be honest, weren’t great. I had to say goodbye to my dog and I can still feel the empty spot on the sofa beside me. People I love dearly fought through challenges they didn’t deserve, and while I was privileged to carry some of their weight through the year, it took its toll. I also had a near death experience while traveling – you’ll hear about it in #5 below – that haunted me for a spell this year.

I fancy myself an eternal optimist and while that was put to the test repeatedly in 2023, something that helped this year was a more normal return to travel post-pandemic. Baseball trips. Visiting Europe. Getting back to old stomping grounds. East coast, west coast. New tastes. New people. New experiences. In no particular, here are the things that I’ll remember the most from getting back out on the road in 2023.

#1 – Mascot encounters

My not so subtle love of sports mascots is something people who love me find endearing if a touch odd. On my travels this year for my love of baseball, I got to say hi to the Chicago Cubs mascot, Clark, at spring training in Mesa, AZ. I also got to visit with Slider, the Cleveland Guardians mascot and Paws, the mascot of the Detroit Tigers. To put an end to the speculation, I do travel to watch baseball. The mascots are just a bonus!

With the Cubs mascot, Clark
With Slider, the mascot of the Cleveland Guardians
With Paws, the mascot of the Detroit Tigers
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Murals of Mount Pleasant

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Among my favourite neighbourhoods in my favourite cities, Mount Pleasant in Vancouver stands out. On just about every trip, I will spend at least part of a day hanging out at one or more of the excellent craft breweries (Brassneck, 33 Acres, Faculty Brewing, Main Street Brewing, Electric Bicycle) and combining that with some exploring of the murals that decorate the buildings and alleyways up and down the hill.

On my most recent trip, armed with the excellent Vancouver Mural Fest map, I dug deeper into this neighbourhood’s art than I had previously and came away with some new favourite murals….

"Intersect" by Cara Guri; Mural in Mount Pleasant neighbourhood; Vancouver BC
“Intersect” by Cara Guri
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A neighbourhood approach

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Across a few trips to Vancouver last summer and fall I sampled the bounty that is that city’s craft beer scene. Vancouver is a favourite city of mine for a number of reasons – the direct flight from where I live, the ability to see mountains and water in the same place, the varied food scene, and definitely the abundance of craft beer.

Using a neighbourhood approach to exploration, I got one day kicked off in West Van at the earliest to open patio at Parallel 49. I created a tasting flight of a selection of hazy IPAs from that brewery and also from a couple of guest taps they had of Superflux. Luckily I was doing this neighbourhood tour by public transit and by foot, because these were all potent (and delicious!).

Parallel 49 Brewing Company
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The tradition continues, kind of…

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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!

Vancouver Canadians game
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Tofino in three beaches

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There was lots to love about Tofino – the food and the whale sightings being prime examples – but what sticks with me most almost a year later is the time wandering along three beaches over my stay. After seven years living in the middle of the country, any time I can be near salt water feels a little more special than when I took it for granted when I lived in Halifax. So while I will always carry with me great memories from Tofino, the story of Tofino, and what will draw be back again is really the story of visiting these three beaches

Tonquin Beach

I hiked here early in the morning from our glamping pod right on the harbour. I picked this beach for its ease of access and location and it ended up being more special to me than I would have ever expected. The beach even came with this arrival preview during a short walk through the woods which pulled me to the water immediately.

Tonquin Beach
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Dreams of Tofino

/ Greg / 1 Comment

For a very long time I had made up my mind that I would fall in love with Tofino when I was finally able to visit. That really isn’t much of a stretch as I have always been partial to west coast locations with their beaches and wonderful sea air. When we planned out our Vancouver Island trip last summer there was no doubt that a significant portion of it would be based out of Tofino. While the warm up acts of a few days in Victoria and spending some time at a cottage on the east coast of the island were splendid, I was giddy when we pointed our car toward the west coast and Tofino.

On our way there we made a few stops to break up the drive. First up was MacMillan Provincial Park and Cathedral Grove. Finding a parking spot in the tight highway lot was a bit of a chore, but after that was sorted out, our hike through the forest was perfectly serene.

MacMillan Provincial Park
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Back from Arizona… finally

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If absence makes the heart grow fonder, there was no way I wasn’t going to be head over heels for finally making it to Spring Training in Arizona. Thanks to the pandemic, my baseball nerd dreams of lounging in the Arizona sun watching baseball got shelved in 2020 and it took until last week to finally make that trip. It was a trip that, truthfully, I’ve wanted to take for a much longer time.

The hook for the trip was spring training baseball – small stadiums, lazy afternoons and getting a close up view of the game I love so much. This year, as scheduling luck would have it, the World Baseball Classic was happening with a round of games in downtown Phoenix at the Diamondbacks stadium. I got the schedules for all of those games, a map, and got to work planning out the kind of visit my baseball loving heart has always dreamed of.

At Rockies-Padres in Scottsdale, AZ
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Some needed time beside the water

/ Greg / 1 Comment

A bit of a warning… You’re going to see a lot of beach photos coming up below.

By the summer 2022 portion of the pandemic, my Atlantic Canadian soul needed to spend some significant time sitting beside a fairly substantial body of water. With that in mind, we planned out our Vancouver Island explorations with a few days at a cottage overlooking the Strait of Georgia. Immediately on driving up to the place I could feel my pulse slowing down. My wife and I glanced at each other and with no words passing between us we both knew we had made a perfect decision on location.

As the sun set on our first night in Qualicum Bay we walked the beach with the tide starting to go out. This was a walk we would do a number of times.

Qualicum Bay, BC
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