Where Will I Be?

Right now: I'm in Charlottetown. Yippee!

August 28: Moncton, NB

August 29-Sept 1: Halifax, NS

September 2: Sydney, NS. I hear the tar ponds are lovely at this time of year.

September 3-?: St-John's, NL

There is a mystery destination after St-John's, which has intrigued me since I was 8 and had a map of Canada on my bedroom wall.

Eventually: Podunk.


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Days 103-105 (August 13-15): Toronto, Ontario

Well, Toronto, I do not know what's changed between us. Maybe we've both evolved to a point where we're a lot more comfortable being who we are, but after all these years, you know what? You are damn close to making me like you...

Highlights of a three-day stay which, well, revolve mostly around bars (Were you expecting anything else?):

- Bar Hop (King St West). This is one of my favourite bars. They have roughly 40 taps, the majority of which are Ontario craft beers, with a few Québec beers thrown in for good measure. When I go to the Hop, I am always surprised at the number of Ontario craft beers that we never see in Podunk. I had American IPAs by Bellwood's and Sawdust City, neither of which I had seen before. And for good measure, I also had a Audrey Hopburn, a Belgian IPA by the Toronto-based Great Lakes Brewery, which is completely different from the Cleveland one. (Audrey Hopburn. Hee hee hee.) Incidentally, Ontario craft beers are $5 a pint on Sunday nights.

- C'est What (King St East @ Jarvis). A nice downstairs bar near St-Lawrence Market that features live entertainment and 31 taps, 6 of which pour beers that were brewed especially for the bar and the rest focussing mainly on Ontario craft beers. As a corollary to my thoughts on Hop Bar, there were several Ontario beers on tap at C'est What that I had only seen in bottle, either at the LCBO or in select bars (e.g., Duggan's No. 9, 10W30, Dead Elephant).

- Bar Volo (Yonge Street). I had been meaning to visit this bar since the bartender at Bar Hop mentioned it the first time I was there. It is definitely a beer bar, with 36 draft beers (mostly local, Ontario craft and Belgians) listed on a large blackboard with relevant information (type, alcohol content and tap number) and a large selection of bottled beers. So far so good. My problem (OK, my first one) is that there is no table service. All orders, both for beer and food, have to be placed at the bar. Given that there is no bar seating, this places solo customers at a disadvantage in that they have to leave their seat open to squatters and vultures to get a refill. And never mind if you have ordered food and you happen to run dry when the food gets there; you are faced with a near impossible quandary: leave your food and go get another pint, or go without beer. Crap, I do not even like getting my own beer at home; it is why I invite people over.

Beyond that, when I ordered, the bartender asked for the tap number. I am not sure if ordering by tap number rather than beer name is the standard at Bar Volo, but if it is, I have to wonder about a bartender who does not appear to know where his products are. As for the food, I had a charcuterie board: for $24 or so, it included four cold cuts that looked as though they came straight from the Loblaws meat counter as well as a pâté and the usual accoûtrements; it was rather pedestrian and not overly impressive.

- Dakota Tavern (Near Ossington and Dundas.) There is a sign that says 'Music Beer Whiskey' outside this fine establishment; yeah, you're right: I liked it right off the bat.

The Dakota looks exactly like what it sets out to be: a country & western, bluegrass and folk venue. It has that 'lived-in' look that I have mentioned before: ancient, without being run-down, with nothing overly-polished. Old concert posters adorn the wall, both from past Dakota gigs and reproductions of club concerts by classic artists. There is a stand-up piano on the small stage, which is only a step or so above the floor. Perpendicular to the stage, a long bar dominates the cosy, rectangular room; along with the usual suspects, they feature a couple of local beers on tap, Duggan's no. 9 and Left Field Ale. (It is the only establishment I was in that served products by Left Field Breweries, a small Toronto brewer that names its beers after baseball references. The Ale had a West Coast slightly spruce-y aftertaste to it.)

The night I was there, there was a triple-bill, which mostly did not correspond to the Dakota's mission statement as it were (C&W, folk and bluegrass). While the opening (Donovan Woods), the other two acts made me wonder/fear if there is not some sort of grunge revival going on. The timeline fits, as the grunge exploded in the early 90's; these revivals seem to sprout out roughly 20 years after the original music, usually fanned by artists who were barely out of diapers the first time around. Toledo was a four-man outfit: three guitars (including bass) and a drummer. They sounded tight, polished, self-assured and oh-so-boring, playing grunge-y guitar riffs that have been heard hundreds of times before; I am sure they will do well. The final act was Eamon McGrath, on electric guitar and vocals with a drummer as sole accompaniment. Again, it seems like this was an attempted resurrection of the Seattle sound, but one that sounded less manufactured than Toledo's.

All in all, if I lived in Toronto, I would be spending a lot of time at the Dakota.

- Art Gallery of Ontario. I made a serious rookie mistake at the AGO. It was my first time there and I began by visiting some of the permanent exhibitions; I popped my head up to the fourth floor with roughly 40 minutes left before closing to take a look at the temporary exhibition 'Lost in the Memory Palace' by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. Unfortunately, that was nowhere enough time.

The exhibit included roughly ten installations that mixed multi-media and physical constructs, which changed/evolved over a particular time frame. For example, for 'Opera for a Small Room' the authors built a shack which contains the room of a record collector, complete with stacks of albums against the back wall and 'working' record players. A 20-minute recording plays, ostensibly of some of these albums and of various sound effects (thunder at some point coordinated with lights dimming). Viewers can watch/see this room through openings in the shack walls, where windows would have been.

Another particularly striking installation was 'The Killing Machine', a nightmarish apparatus at the centre of which was a dentist's chair, with four mechanical arms topped with varied sharp implements moving about and 'landing' where a person would be lying prone. Recording devices, an observation bench completed the dark-lighted décor, which was accompanied by an eerie soundtrack of noises and near-music. Whether it was meant to represent a torture chamber or an alien experimentation chamber straight out of a sci-fi movie, it was almost disturbing.

Each of the installations had a suggested viewing time of anywhere from three to twenty (or more) minutes, which I have to assume corresponded to one full multi-media 'loop'. I really regret not having had the time to properly experience them as the artists intended.

Random comments:

- I attended two Blue Jay games at the concrete behemoth formerly known as the Skydome, one with the roof open. (They were playing the Red Sox as it happened.) A Rogers Centre review may follow, if I can ever catch up with my ballpark reviews. Yes, I am seven (!) behind.

- I was planning on visiting the CN Tower, something I have not done in 30 years or so. It turns out that it now costs $32 to do so, along with an extra $12 for the sky pod. I skipped.

- The cool kids at the Dakota were drinking Molson Stock Ale, either draft or bottles. I guess it is the new 50.

- And this really should have been the main highlight: I had the pleasure of meeting some friends I had not seen in a while, as well as a darn well-behaved 6-month-old for the first time.

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Where Was I: The Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland, Ohio (August 12)

Where I wish I had been: the Village Gate on Bleecker Street in NYC in the summer of 1976 because, wow:


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Where Was I: The Winking Lizard, Cleveland, Ohio (August 10)

The Winking Lizard is one of those bars near Euclid and Prospect that are a few blocks from the Indians' ballpark and the Cavaliers' arena. I ended up there for a bite to eat (above average and diverse for a sports bar) and few pints of Great Lakes after the Indians game on August 10th.

And lo and behold, what was hanging on the wall of the men's washroom but the following team picture of the WHA's Cleveland Crusaders, from 1974-75, if I had to guess. After verifying that I was alone, I had a big time hockey geek moment...


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Days 100-102 (August 10-12): Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland seemed pretty cool, at least the downtown core, which has pockets of post-workday activity. Both Progressive Field and the Cavaliers' arena are downtown (as is the Browns' stadium, next to the Waterfront). This has created a cluster of bars and restaurants in the nearby area (around Euclid and Prospect Streets), which has to be hopping for at least 120 nights during the year. The Warehouse District, a former warehouse area which has been condo-fied, features numerous restaurants, bars and clubs. There is also a pedestrian mall on East 4th Street which features restaurants and bars and, get this Podunk-dwellers, is actually active during the evening. What a concept!

Two baseball games took care of an afternoon and the better part of an evening and laundry took care of another evening, so there is not much to report. I did not make it out to Great Lakes Brewery, due to, in part a public transit running that seems to run on a 'blue moon' schedule after 6 PM and the near impossibility of hailing a cab. I did however consume several of their fine offerings, as all the bars I visited carried their products. The 'Burning River', an American Pale Ale, is quite tasty, with just the right hint of hoppyness and a great name.

What else did I do? Hhmm... Oh yeah...

I figured I would spend two, maybe three hours at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. I ended up spending five, and only left because they kicked me out at closing time. I tend to read a lot in Museums to begin with and ended up reading a bevy of background notes and career thumbnail sketches that accompanied a lot of the items (e.g., costumes, instruments, concert posters and the like) on display. The one main area which I had to skip was a theatre where they were showing highlights from induction ceremonies over the years. By my count, it was one of four theatres, in the facility; the other three were showing an introductory overview of the genesis of rock 'n roll, a Rolling Stones concert from the Some Girls tour and The Wall.

There is a danger, I imagine, in setting up a museum devoted to a particular genre of music (or to any one subject for that matter) of falling into a repetitive pattern in how the history, the exhibits and the artefacts are displayed. The R 'n R HoF avoids this trap by alternating between displays focussing on history, specific styles and particular artists. One section in particular provided an interesting take on the evolution of rock by focussing on particular cities which became focal points for a particular sound and era (e.g., Memphis in the late 50's; Liverpool for the British Invasion; New York and London for the birth of punk and others).

Not just focussing on performers, the Museum also featured exhibits on the media associated with rock, including Rolling Stone magazine (including a few edited pages from a manuscript version of 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas') and MTV as well as pioneers in the technology that stemmed from/supported the genre (e.g., Les Paul).

Finally, the Hall's current temporary exhibit commemorates the Rolling Stones' 50th anniversary by, well, providing an overview of the Stones' career, warts and all.

Random observations:

- Comped drink count: n+2. Jen, the barmaid at Flannery's, an Irish pub within view of Progressive Field, bought me a Tullamore Dew on my last night in Cleveland, and in the US on this trip. That turned out to be a nice book-end to my US travels as the barmaid at the Bowery in NYC had bought me a shot of bourbon on May 3rd, the first night of my trip.

- 100+ days: woo hoo!

- A couple pics to follow. Or precede.

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Days 98-99 (August 8-9): Cincinnati, Ohio

Highlights from a quiet two days in a noticeably clean city, for the downtown core in any event:

- Patti Smith had an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Arts. It was meant to reflect upon the passing of her close friend Robert Mapplethorpe some 20 years ago, by exploring the four themes of affliction, Cremation, remembrance and transformation. I did not get that progression in the pictures and items displayed; it was, however, interesting to see several of the items mentioned in Smith's book 'Just Kids', her memoir of her formative years in New York City and of her friendship with Mapplethorpe. The final element of the exhibit was a recording of Smith reading 'The Coral Sea', a collection of poems she wrote to honour Mapplethorpe, played in a dark room with images projected on two screens. It was quite powerful.

- It happened to be Restaurant Week in Cincinnati; some 20 or so restaurants were each offering a three-course table d'hôte for $35. I had dinner at one of the participating restaurants, Local 127, a rather nice looking establishment that seeks out and uses locally-sourced ingredients. I opened with a sweet onion soup with loin bacon, shallots and smoked hot sauce, where unfortunately the hot sauce overshadowed the other elements. My entrée was goat meat balls and vegetables with mint and chili-sesame oil, a much more successful dish which married the different elements and did not hide their individual tastes.

- I spent some quality time at Arnold's Tavern on 8th Avenue East. Arnold's is a 150+ year-old establishment, which right there is awfully cool. The walls are covered with antique signs and memorabilia. They have a good number of local craft beers on tap. I particularly enjoyed two beers by Rhinegeist Breweries, a small brewer from Cincinnati, especially the Rarity, an IPA.

- Ohio is the 14th and final state I am visiting on this little jaunt I am on. Overall, I have visited 26 states and have travelled through seven others, including Kentucky where it turns out the regional airport serving Cincinnati is located.

- No turkeys were harmed in the writing of this blog post.

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Day 97 (August 7): Pittsburgh, PA.

Pittsburgh surprised me. It is a far more urbane, cultural city than I ever would have imagined. It is also quite pretty, both from a natural (the three rivers intersecting and an escarpment to the east overlooking the city) and man-made (lovely turn of the 20th Century art deco steel bridges crossing the Allegheny River) standpoint.

Highlights of what turned out to be a full day:

- I had seen some advertising for The Mattress Factory and figured it was either a mattress shop or a mattress museum. (I wonder what a mattress museum would look like.) A kind soul who overheard I was visiting from out of town corrected my misconception: it is a contemporary art gallery.  He heartily recommended I take the time to visit it and he was right. Located in a former mattress factory (it all seems obvious now, doesn't it?), the MF (hee hee!) combines permanent exhibits with spaces where local artists can work and produce what becomes the gallery's temporary exhibits. Only the permanent exhibits were open on this day, including three very interesting installations by James Turrell, who uses light and shadow to challenge visual perceptions of environments.

- Andy Warhol was born and raised (and is buried for that matter) in Pittsburgh, which I did not know, as it is fairly strange to associate him with any other urban environment than Manhattan and explains why the Andy Warhol Museum is in Pittsburgh.  The museum provides an in-depth view of his career, covering both his film and video work from the 60's and 70's and his art (Brillo boxes, silk screens and the like), even featuring some of his advertising work from the 50's. I spent two hours here; I could have spent much more. There is a room where the body of his television work is shown (from cable access series in NYC to a brief program he hosted on MTV just prior to his death). I barely had time to browse through and am betting that viewing some of those would have been worthwhile.  There are also two floors for temporary exhibits of contemporary art, which were nowhere near as interesting. After having a great experience at the MF, walking through an entire floor devoted to the work of 'Breyer P'Orridge' swung me back to thinking that most of what is deemed contemporary art is just a big joke perpetrated by the artist on the audience.

- I also visited the National Aviary, in Allegheny Commons; it seems completely random that there would be a bird zoo, and quite a good one at that, in Pittsburgh.

- I stayed at a great B&B, the Parador Inn on Western Avenue, a large 140-year-old mansion which the owner has decorated to evoke the Caribbean. My room (the Oleander Room) was close to being as large as my entire apartment.  It is walking distance to the attractions listed above, PNC Park and downtown Pittsburgh. When I go back to Pittsburgh, I will definitely stay there again.

Days 93-96 (August 3-6): From Churchill to Pittsburgh in Six Easy Steps

A) Flight from Churchill to Winnipeg on Calm Air Airways. Yup, I had never heard of them either.

B) 38-hour or so stay in Winnipeg.

Downtown Winnipeg, on a week-end, is worse than dead, so I mostly stayed in my room, blogging and trip planning. I went out on the Sunday afternoon and ended up drinking at an Elephant & Castle: that is pretty much all you need to know about the desolation that is downtown Winnipeg on a week-end.

C) Train from Winnipeg to Toronto.

I boarded at 10 on the Sunday night and expected to arrive in Toronto at 9:15 AM on the Tuesday morning. We were roughly 45 minutes late.

This was the part of the overland cross-country trip to which I was not looking forward, going through Western Ontario, with no real option to shorten the leg. I was expecting to stare at a lot of trees and a few boulders. I was not entirely wrong; while the train (during waking hours at least) basically goes through one gigantic forest, there are many streams, rivers and lakes to break the monotony and to add a bit of worthwhile scenery.  (We did see a moose!  One moose. That was it for wildlife, other than the ubiquitous beaver lodges. Pesky, industrious beavers.)  The view does not really change until the second morning as fields and agriculture have at some point in the night replaced trees as the dominant feature.

Given this was a two-night trip and that Via was having a sale, I booked a cabin for the trip, a first for me. A Via cabin (for one) is 6' by 3', includes a wide seat, a sink and... a toilet (with a surprisingly comfortable bed that pulls down over the length of the cabin).  So, basically Via charged me $450 or so to rent me a washroom for 2 days (and meals and snacks, which were included).  I realised right away why, in previous trips, people who had rented a cabin were mostly hanging out in the observation or dining cars for most of their trips. I did the same; it is either that or sit in your cabin and stare at a toilet. Now, to be fair, there is a cushioned cover on top of the toilet, so that, if one was so inclined, one could stretch one's legs, but one's legs would still be resting on a FUCKEN TOILET, wouldn't they?  OK, despite that, one could get comfortable and slip out of one's shoes, if one wanted to tread on the floor of what is essentially a FUCKEN WASHROOM. As for eating in one's cabin, well, that would mean eating next to a FUC... (you know how it ends).  So the observation car it is for the bulk of the trip, which in a strange way, means that people sitting in a coach seat (if there is no doubling up) almost have more privacy than people with cabins...

That perhaps may go a long way to explaining why there are no pictures or descriptions of cabins on the Via website.

D) $60 cab ride from Toronto's Union Station to Pearson Airport.

E) Flight to Pittsburgh via La Guardia.

That is correct: I flew from Toronto to Pittsburgh through New York City (including a two-hour layover). Why, you ask?  Because Air Canada wanted to charge me $750 for a 75-minute direct flight, which is thievery of a high order. So I flew to LaGuardia on Westjet, waited around (i.e., drank) for two hours, then flew Delta to Pittsburgh.

F) Shuttle from airport to West End Pittsburgh B&B, which took almost an hour, for a number of reasons, mainly because the Pittsburgh airport is seemingly in a different time zone than Pittsburgh itself.

Days 91-93 (August 1-3): Churchill, Manitoba

Churchill is pretty neat. It was interesting to visit outside of peak tourist season, which corresponds to peak polar bear season (late August to November); I suspect that while there were a good number of us outsiders, the town was relatively more 'normal' than it will be in the coming weeks.

I took three tours:

- a tundra buggy tour, which are designed to go watch polar bears, when it is polar bear season.  We saw two bears, and a variety of other wildlife: caribou, Arctic hare, snow geese, tundra swans, sandhill cranes and various other birds.

- a whale watching boat tour in the estuary of the Churchill River, which was teeming with hundreds of beluga.

- a tour of the town and immediate area.  Of course, the mini-van broke down east of town; and of course, this being a small northern town, the next person to go by stopped and gave me a ride back to the airport so I could catch my outgoing flight.

Some photographic evidence:

That big white bump is one of the two polar bears we saw on the tundra.  We were right next to him (in the buggy of course) and he never looked up. (August 1)

Tundra swan and cygnets. (August 1)

Belugas with the Churchill port in the background. (August 2)

More belugas. (August 2)

Another beluga. (August 2)

Hudson's Bay. (August 2)

Hudson's Bay and rocky coast from Cape Merry National Historic Site. (August 3)

Rocky coast, near Cape Merry. (August 3)

Tundra, very much alive at this time of year. (August 3)

Random observations:

- Other than a ferry from Seattle to Victoria and a bus/ferry combination from Victoria to Seattle, I have been riding the rails from San Diego.  That you can get from San Diego to Churchill by train is fairly impressive.

- The wind blowing in from Hudson's Bay is something else.

- I drank with locals! On Friday, I hung out at the Legion (of course) and the local pub (the Tundra Pub, of course) with a group of locals, I think because it was Lance's birthday.  Don't know much about Lance, but he did appear to like his rye and coke... (And BTW, 'Drinking with Locals' has to become a reality travelling/drinking TV show...)

Days 89-91 (July 30-August 1): On a train to Churchill, Manitoba

I hopped aboard the Winnipeg-to-Churchill train in Dauphin, at 5 PM on Tuesday the 30th. Our ETA for Churchill was 9 AM on Thursday the 1st, a 40-hour train ride. 

That ride took us through at least three, if not four, major ecological systems: prairies, boreal forest, Hudson's Bay lowlands and tundra. (I am thinking tundra and lowlands are different, depending on the presence of trees.  I am also guessing here...) A peculiarity about the trip is that the two major transitions (from prairie to boreal forest and then from boreal forest to lowlands) happen while the train is travelling at night. It was more striking on the third day, waking up to tundra-like flatlands, with occasional short, scrawny conifer trees (with branches growing only from the sides that do not face the wind), after having spent the entire previous day going through forest.  Ridership on the train is a mix of tourists heading to Churchill, either from Winnipeg or Thompson (last roadway stop in Northern Manitoba which meets the train line) and, after Thompson, riders who are using the train to get to and from their isolated communities.

Strangely, the only notable wildlife I spotted was a beaver; I saw innumerable beaver lodges, though, so there was probably more than one...

We made two stops of note:

- Canora (named for CAnadian NOrthern RAilway) is a lovely little Central Saskatchewan town.

Main Street, Canora, Sask.

What is happening in Canora, you ask:

¤ the Canora Hotel (foreground in the picture) was advertising rooms by the day, week or month. If you are renting a room by the week (never mind by the month) in Canora, you need to take a look at some of your life decisions.

¤ there were not one, but two Chinese restaurants on Main Street (I am guessing the chicken fried rice/garlic chicken balls/sweet & sour spare ribs type of Chinese restaurant), one of which was proudly featuring perogies and home-made pie.

¤ the Community Bingo Hall was full.

¤ a beauty salon had a waybill in its front window announcing that 'Good Perogies (Ukrainian Catholic Women's League) Sold Here'.

All of this was within half a block of Main Street from the train stop.

- We had a five-hour layover in Thompson, Manitoba and... well, we had a five-hour layover in Thompson, Manitoba. Words of advice, if you ever find yourself with a five-hour layover in Thompson:

¤ there is a 15 km walking path around the town. (Yes, the self-described hub of Manitoba's North is 5 km across.)

¤ there is a zoo that evidently features local species. It may be a better bet than the Heritage Museum.

Days 84-89 (July 25-30): Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, and a Side Trip to 'One Great City'

Riding Mountain National Park, from my dim understanding, is roughly a three hour drive north-west of Winnipeg. Wasagaming is the main community within the Park, consisting mostly of privately-owned cottages, rental cabins and Parks Canada staff accommodations.  After close to three months on the road, hanging out with friends for almost a week, acting all domestic-like, in a National Park to boot, was a lovely, re-invigorating interlude.  Highlights included:

- spending a full afternoon playing with a soon-to-be-three-year-old;

- having said three-year-old repeatedly running across the living room to launch herself at me;

- hanging out with her five-month old sister (and seeing her flip herself from her back to her stomach for the first time. That was cool.  Sorry G.);

- sitting by a campfire, which I had not done since, well, last September, but that was at a farmhouse wedding and was more of a bonfire so that does not really count. Before that, I cannot remember the last time;

- hanging out with Mr. and Mrs Woodrow, always a good time, although Woodrow (whom you may remember from Grey Cup posts) and I succumbed to our joint near-Pavlovian impulse to drink many, many beers when we are around each other. I blame nine Grey Cup trips together. And beer, I also blame beer.

- home-cooked meals.

Did I mention this was a nice, domestic-like break?

We did make one side trip to Winnipeg, via Transcona (because who could skip Transcona on a lovely late July day, really?) On Friday and Saturday (July 26-27) to meet some more friends (I'm a right popular fucker, aren't I?) and take in a Winnipeg Blue Bomber game at the brand new Investors Field.

Investors (capacity 32,000 or so)  is a gorgeous football stadium. It is very compact; we walked the 100-level concourse around the stadium fairly rapidly prior to the game. That concourse is open to the field which means people heading to the concessions mid-half do not miss the action. Those concessions, in keeping with modern stadia, are quite diverse: BBQ, pizza, Salisbury's (a local chain), burritos and the like. The most popular by far was Khan's shawarma stand, owned by former Bomber Obby Khan.

We had seats in the 200 level, about a third of the way up, around the 35-yard line. Our sight-lines were great:

It was also fairly painless at half-time to hit the washrooms and the concessions. We were back in our seats with plenty of time to spare prior to the start of the second half.

The Stadium features two jumbo screens, one at each end zone, which makes it easy to follow the replays and on-screen activities. One huge negative: the in-house volume is turned way too loud for pre-game activities. It was deafening.

Side note: The Bombers are bad. Truly bad. Ottawa-Rough-Riders-in-the-mid-80's-bad. They are disorganised on the field, take ridiculous penalties ('No end' twice in the same drive? Really?), are badly coached, at least on offence, and their front office... Well, incompetent just scratches the surface. This is a bad team and a dismal organisation.

Wildlife update:

- I saw a moose! I have been wanting to see a moose in nature for a long time and finally did, on the side of the road as we drove through the Park. Quest completed. Now, to see a musk ox...

- A bit further on the same drive, we saw a black bear.

- We saw white-tailed deer behind Woodrow's back yard. (I had also seen some hopping through a field or meadow on the train ride from Saskatoon.)

- There is a managed heard of bison living in a very large enclosure within the Park. After driving around for a while, we found a large portion of the heard on the Sunday afternoon.

Random comment:

- To get there, I took the Winnipeg-bound train from Saskatoon and disembarked in the thriving metropolis of Rivers, Manitoba.

- The White House Bakery in Wasagaming makes some darn good cinnamon buns.

Days 82-83 (July 23-24): Saskatoon, Sask.

I enjoy bugging the crap out of my friends that hail from Saskatchewan because, primarily, well, they hail from Saskatchewan and, secondarily, they are all such damn pleasant people.  It is strange to admit that this was my first foray into the trapezoid province.

Frankly, at first glance, it is gorgeous!  Granted, I am basing this on a small sample size: 48 hours in Saskatoon and the train ride into the province from Alberta. (The train left Edmonton around 12:30 AM and arrived in Saskatoon around 8:30 AM. I was awake at dawn; I am assuming that most of what I saw between 4 AM or so and arrival was Saskatchewan. In any event, it was the Prairies...) There are not enough words to describe the countless shades of green and yellow that roll away to the horizon. (And, contrary to popular belief [or my misconceptions], it is not an unbroken horizon; there are groves of trees to 'break' the rolling fields.) The horizon then melts into the biggest sky I have ever seen with huge ballooning clouds where entire continents could seemingly play hide-and-seek. The over-all effect: stunning, just stunning.

Highlights from my Saskatoon stay:

- Within my hotel (The Senator, seemingly the only downtown Saskatoon hotel that charges less than $150+ a night) was located Winston's, an English-style pub. They have over 50 draft taps. That is not a typo: 50+ taps. In downtown Saskatoon. Again, as per The Underground in Edmonton, there was no theme (and to be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with no theme): English ales (e.g., Fuller products, including the Bengal Lancer IPA, which I have now seen twice: in midtown Manhattan and here. Go figure.), US craft beers (Rogue), Canadian craft beers from Ontario (Spearhead!), Manitoba and BC.  They also had a fine selection of bottled beers including Lagunitas products (a brewery which you may recall I visited in Petaluma, Ca.) and, of course, Pil!

(And, come on, you were expecting the following, weren't you?) So Saskatoon can support a 50+-tap bar, Edmonton a 72-tap bar, but Podunk beer lovers have to slink from bar to bar hoping they carry one or two craft beers, along with the dictatorship of crappy mass-produced shite that most of our small cartel of publicans hoist on us?  Jeebus. Someone make it stop... Thank the gods for the Dom. (That was me shamelessly sucking up to two of my faithful readers...)

Oh yeah, the bartender at Winston's bought me a shot, so the comped drink count is now at n+1.

- University of Saskatchewan

I walked around the rather large UofS campus. Some highlights:

The UofS curling rink:

The UofS grain elevator:

And, of course, this:

In all seriousness, I was quite surprised at the campus's large number of research institutes and laboratories, many of them branches of federal science-based departments and agencies. It makes me wonder where UofS ranks amongst Canadian universities for research.

Also on campus is the John G. Diefenbaker Museum, evidently the only museum devoted solely to a Canadian Prime Minister. While the Museum gave a good overview of Chief's life within and outside politics (man, he was quirky), it was a little lacking in outlining his accomplishments as PM. I went in knowing that his Government had cancelled the Avro Arrow contract and left knowing that his Government cancelled the Avro Arrow contract and that Diefenbaker got along with Eisenhower, but not with JFK. It seems to me there should have been more; maybe the issue is that there is not that much to tell?  The Museum does include replicas of his West Block office and of the Cabinet room as it would have appeared when he was PM, complete with copies of Cabinet documents. This gave me pause until I remembered that over 50 years had passed and that they were in the public domain. Once a central agency analyst, ...

- Wildlife update:

¤ About two hours east of Saskatoon, I saw what appeared to me to be a pronghorn. While they are present in Saskatchewan, they do not  supposedly range this far north; however, the animal I saw had what looked like 6 or 8-inch long, very dark horns or antlers that were arching backwards.

¤ I saw white pelicans on the South Saskatchewan River which passes through Saskatoon. I did not know they ranged so far north.

¤ There was a myriad of ducks and other waterfowl in the wetlands that border the train tracks.

¤ And, of course, prairie dogs!

Random comments:

- I saw Hutterites!

- I am now 'missing' only two provinces; later in the trip, I should be visiting PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador.  (Yes, I have been to all three territories.)

Days 80-81 (July 21-22): Edmonton, Alta

I was surprisingly pleasantly surprised at my 48-hour stay in Edmonton. Within five blocks or so of my hotel (Château Lacombe, a block or so from Jasper and 101st Street), I managed to attend a food festival, find a great bar, a great restaurant and a funky small live venue and get thoroughly pissed off.

- Taste of Edmonton is a ten-day festival timed, I am guessing, to correspond with Klondyke Days, held across from City Hall. Over 40 local restaurants operated stands, offering samples of their wares for $2-$6. There was a large cooking demonstration/community participation area featuring a different daily theme, a wine and beer garden (a few local brewers, notably Alley Kat Breweries, were selling their products, none of the ones I tasted were noteworthy) and a live entertainment stage. I was surprised at the wide breadth of ethnic foods available at the stands.

- There is an awfully good Mexican counter/restaurant on 100A Street. Taqueria Tres Carnales was recommended to me by a buddy and evidently was featured in MacLean's farcical Top Restaurant issue from last year. Patrons have a choice of a few meals and how they want it served (tacos, enchiladas [I think but may be wrong] and torta). I ordered the carne con chili torta, finding out that a torta was actually a sandwich on crusty bread. And a great sandwich it was, teeming with spicy beef.

- I went to a club gig, at the ARTery on Jasper at 97th. The club, which specialises in folk music and art by local artists is located in an older, semi-run down building in a semi-run down area of town; I could not quite figure out for what the building was used prior to becoming a club. I suspect there was an apartment in the back (where the bar is) and some sort of small light industrial or commercial operation un the front, now the stage area. The ARtery clearly has a low-key, DIY feel to it, making it a fun, intimate venue to see a gig. The night I went (a Sunday night), Petunia and the Vipers, a Vancouver-based rockabilly/classic country combo, gave an enthusiastic two-set performance; you just gotta love a band that includes a steel guitar (along with a stand-up double-bass, a cornet and an accordion!).

- I found a second downtown bar (other than Sherlock Holmes, where all visitors seem to end up) and it's a keeper! The Underground Tap and Grill, on Jasper at 100th, beside one of the many entrances to the Central LRT station, features 72 taps, with no particular theme (locals, Vancouver Island, US and imports).

- I had the worst dining experience on the trip at Hardware Grill On Jasper at 97th. The food and the wine selection were decent (the menu includes steak, some game and fish), but I have never been so rushed to begin and end a meal. I was even discouraged from ordering an appetiser by my waiter who, along with the rest of the staff (including one who was rushing to re-set tables around me), just wanted to end their shift and get their asses out of there, diners who were dropping $80-$100 each (or who were ready to) for their meals be damned. Now granted I showed up at 8:45 PM and closing time was 9:30 PM (when it is still light outside!), but for those types of restaurants, that usually means when the kitchen stops serving, not when clients are expected to leave. I left with the impression that Hardware Grill was nothing but an arrogant, 'small-town' establishment that considers itself at the top of the local 'food chain' with little fear of competition thus trying to get away with what it wants.

Random observations:

- The 6-hour train ride from Jasper to Edmonton was remarkably boring. Roughly 45 minutes after departing Jasper, the train leaves the mountains and enters a long stretch of forest punctuated by small, resource economy dependent towns. To be fair, given the train arrived in Edmonton around 11:30 PM, the last few hours were spent under the cover of night; I may have thus missed some great scenery...

- Wildlife update: from the train, we spotted some elk in a river about 30 minutes east of Jasper.

- Edmonton has several large public advertising boards peppered throughout downtown where people can post waybills and posters advertising club gigs, concerts, plays, festivals and the like. Consulting one of these is a great way to rapidly get the cultural pulse of the city. Kudos to the city for those.

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Days 76-79 (July 17-20): Jasper National Park, Alberta

What to do in Jasper but to go on hikes and a glacier tour.  Some pictorial evidence:

Looking south over the Jasper town site (July 18).

Athabasca River and Rockies north-east of Jasper (July 18).

Jasper Park Lodge in the foreground. (Pic taken south of Jasper' July 19.)

Athabasca River and Jasper town site, from the south. (July 19.)

Rockies, south-west of Jasper. (July 19.)

Athabasca Falls.  (July 20.)

Athabasca Glacier. (July 20.)

Run-off from the Athabasca Glacier. (July 20.)

Random observations:

- I took the train from Vancouver to Jasper, the first train leg in my cross-country journey.  We departed Vancouver at 8:30 PM on the 16th and arrived in Jasper about an hour early, at 3 PM on the 17th, a 16+ hour train ride. Whether intentional or not, Via's timing on this departure is excellent.  Dawn on the second day hits roughly around Kamloops, so that the train ascends the Rockies during daylight. As you might expect, it is a gorgeous ascent, culminating with an approach of Mount Robson, the highest point of the Canadian Rockies, less than two hours or so east of Jasper.

- Jasper has a brew pub, the aptly named Jasper Brewing Company.  Their beer was quite drinkable, if unimaginative.

- I ordered in one night from Jasper Place Pizza: great wings and great all-dressed pizza.

- I saw surprisingly little wildlife.  Whilst still on the strain, I spotted a herd of bighorn sheep just north of Kamloops; some deer in a river bed at some point north of that. In and around Jasper, a few isolated bighorn sheep near the glacier and a coyote beside the road on the way there.  I did see some paw prints while hiking and some indication that a bear had been on the trail I was following at some point before me, but otherwise, no encounters.  Also, I saw no elk at all; the last time I was in Jasper, roughly 15 years ago, they could be seen throughout the town site; that was later in the year (mid-September) so that might have had an impact.

Days 71-75 (July 12-16): Vancouver, BC

[Some profanity follows. You have been fucken warned.]

I ate at Vij's.

I have had lunch at Rangoli's before and ordered from Vij's counter at BC Place (the best stadium food I have ever had), but this was my first time at Vij's.

Holy fuck.

Holy fucken fuck.

That was my original, visceral reaction. Two weeks or so later as I am typing this, I truly cannot find better words to describe my reaction to and my enjoyment of the dinner I had there on the 16th. Quite simply, I have never eaten a better meal.

I had portobello mushrooms sautéed in green onions and khoa as an appetiser and Vij's signature dish, wine marinated lamb popsicles in a cream curry sauce served on turmeric and spinach potatoes as an entrée. (Lamb popsicles are lamb medallions served with the long rib bone
still in; hence, popsicles.). Both dishes were admirably seasoned, with just the exact amount of spices to bring out and not overpower the flavours of the mushrooms and then the lamb, both or which were cooked to perfection. I even seeped up the remaining curry sauce with an extra portion of naan; it just did not seem right to have it go to waste.

The quality of the Vij's experience goes beyond the food. As the restaurant does not take reservations, one has to show up in advance of the 5:30 PM opening to secure a table on a first-come, first-served basis (or alternately come later and wait for a table to free up), a wait which serves to build up the anticipation towards the meal to come. Once inside, the wait staff is almost overly attentive to every detail, including offering up free amuse-gueules such as pekoras. And on the evening I was there, the master himself, Bikram Vij, was at the restaurant playing the part of the consummate host, going from table to table to greet and engage his guests, enquire as to how everything was and being forced to listen to the overly-effusive praise of this newly-minted fan-boy.

- Otherwise, I hit some of my familiar haunts:

¤ Salt (Gastown): I had both a charcuterie and a cheese plate; I wonder how common that double is. What I discovered this time around is that Salt has a fairly deep sherry selection (25+); I assembled a sherry flight to go with my cheese plate.

¤ The Irish Heather (Gastown): I used to go to the Heather back in 1997 when it first opened across the street from its current location. A few years later, when I travelled to Ireland, I realised that the Heather had really captured the look and feel of a typical Irish pub. The current location is a bit fancier (the same can unfortunately be said about Gastown in general. Gentrification carries on forward in its seemingly endless invasion of diverse, 'lived-in' neighbourhoods...) but it is still one of my favourite places to have a pint. That they have a number of local brews on tap is certainly a contributing factor.

¤ Rain City Grill (Denman Street): Having dinner prepared with local West Coast ingredients, next to Second Beach (I think; I usually get the beach numbering wrong.) watching the sun set: yeah, that is not a bad evening.

¤ Dynasty Seafood (West Broadway Street): My favourite dim sum place in Vancouver, it is consistently ranked one of the best. The fact that it is located next to the hotel where I usually stay (Holiday Inn) is an added bonus.

¤ Yaletown Brewing Co (Yaletown): For years now, they have had for years now a great Sunday night deal where pints and wood-oven pizza are on special. Unfortunately, I missed out this time but popped in for a few Monday night pints. Their beers are consistently decent.

- I took in a baseball game. The Vancouver Canadians, A-level affiliates of the Toronto Blue Jays, were hosting the Boise Hawks at the ancient Nat Bailey Stadium. There were a few familiar familial names in the line-ups: Dickie Thon Jr was at shortstop for the Canadians, while Boise started Shawon Dunston Jr in centre-field and... Trevor Gretzky in left-field. The little Great One (the Grate One? The Not-so-Great One? The Passable One?), in his first full pro season showed, at least on the day I saw him, limited pop in his bat but really good speed. Evidently, Poppa Gretzky was in the Stadium taking in the game, but if he ws, he was well-hidden. (If I had to bet on one of those three making it to The Show on the basis of that one game, I would go with Dunston: he covers a lot of ground in the outfield and has a nice swing.)

As for Nat Bailey Stadium, well, it is what I expect of a single-A stadium, a bit decrepit, with advertising covering the OF fences and seating capacity around 3,000. I had been there before so I knew what to expect; I just wonder if a city the size of Vancouver could not do a bit better.

Some additional notes:

¤ Given the capacity, it is not entirely surprising but both the Saturday and Sunday games were sold out.

¤ I was sitting in the first row, right behind the Canadians' on-deck circle. As an added bonus, there was full waitress service in my section.

¤ To the crowd's delight, the four-man grounds crew broke into a coordinated dance routine as they were raking the basepaths prior to the top of the 6th.

¤ Boise won 3-0.

Random Observations:

- I am never more at peace with the universe as when I am walking the Seawall from Burrard Inlet around Stanley Park to False Creek.

- I travelled from Victoria to Vancouver by bus/ferry. The ferry ride through the Gulf islands is quite pretty, which is a bit surprising given it is essentially a functional transportation lane.

- On the way back from the baseball game, I walked up Cambie from Prince Edward to Broadway, a neighbourhood that describes itself as 'Cambie Village'. It features shops, restaurants and bars, including the Bier Craft Bistro on the corner of 17th, which features a deep selection of Belgian and Belgian-style beers. Seemingly more of a local bar right now, it should soon become a favoured stop for visiting beer-lovers.

- I have walked a few beaches on this trip on both sides of the continent. I was more than pleasantly surprised, almost shocked, that Third Beach, below the western tip of Stanley Park, offered the best 'sight-seeing' so far.

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.