Home again, home again, jiggety, jig

Whirlwind trip 2 complete, I'm safely home again.

My meeting went well yesterday. Short and to the point. I managed to spend an hour in a peaceful park, under a tree, in the sun, in +25C weather... doing work ;) Took some time during the late morning to visited the Gateway Arch, downtown. Quite an impressive structure, really. Unfortunately I did not have time to learn about it, just admire.

If you are ever in St. Louis, try the Rooster. It was a really great restaurant. Atmosphere was trendy, very downtown in feel, and the food and service are fantastic. Though famous for their crepes, I opted for a delicious sandwich.

After work hours, I met up with a friend who recently moved to St. Louis. He offered to take me around to all the cool places. First stop, Forest Park. This park (where I spent some of my afternoon working in the sun), was created in the late 1800s as a place for families to gather. Located in the park are the Zoo, the Art museum (check out Javier Mendoza, who gave a free concert there last night), History museum, a golf course and acres and acres of green space. And everything is free (except some of the parking). I'm a big fan of urban parks as a means of escaping city life, and Forest Park is perfect for that.

We then went on a tour of the trendy districts, including Delmar Loop, which is filled with great restaurants.

I have apartment envy, as my friend lives in a really cool downtown apartment with asymetric walls, a roof-top pool and games room and great views, as you can see in the above picture.

It was good evening!

I have become one of those travelers who no longer remembers when flights are, or where they go. I thought my flight home was at 11am, and planned my Saturday morning accordingly. Nope... it was at 3:15pm. We had missed going to the zoo last night, so I hopped in my rental, and headed to the zoo. What a great way to spend a Saturday. Once again, the weather was beautiful, and it was good to just be outside. According to numerous personal sources, the St. Louis Zoo is the second best zoo in the country, and it didn't disappoint.

Though a little fuzzy, this is my favourite picture. This little boy just wanted to hang with the ape man.

Verdict on St. Louis. Nice midwestern city. Big, yet its like Saskatoon, in that the pace of life is easier to manage, and people aren't jaded big-citiers.

Another Day Another City

For those keeping track of me... I'm in St. Louis right now. I'll be here a good time, but not a long time. What a gong show to get here though. Really, who thought that I would have to go to Calgary, then Denver before St. Louis. Sometimes getting out of my prairie town is ridiculous.

On tomorrow's agenda. A meeting or two and then some high speed siteseeing.

Keepin' it real with the M-Team

The best part about traveling is the people you meet, and the friends you visit.

In the interest of protecting the innocent... I'm only going to use initials. K, T, CB and D.
After my days of work in TO, I headed to the "country" to stay with friends in Stratford. The town is most famous for the Stratford Festival of Canada. Maybe some year I'll make it out in time to actually enjoy one of the plays or musicals.

The fun and adventures started Thursday evening with a great visit with K & T on the way to Stratford. What an awesome couple they are.

Friday, I walked to Timmy's for a iced capp. It was a beautiful 22C, and the sun was shining. Everyone seems to have had the same idea, as there were lots of tourists walking around the river. Stratford is pretty town (well, its really a city by SK standards, with over 30,000 residents. But hey, we consider anything over 5000 people to be a city). Lots of old, character homes and buildings.

Friday afternoon CB and I headed to Buffalo for a NHL exhibition game between the Sabres and Blue Jackets. Having never been to Niagara Falls, we stopped on the way to check them out. The Canadian side, aka Horseshoe Falls (where you catch the full picture of how magnificent the falls are) was a gong show. Too many people, and not enough parking. So in classic me style, I took pictures while driving by. I think these are the American Falls.

We decided we would have better luck enjoying the scenery on the less crowded American side. It was true. You get a much better sense of how much water rushes over the falls at any given second. The rocks below the American Falls are enormous, and I certainly would not want to go up against them in a fight. Pretty impressive.

CB and I standing in front of the Horseshoe Falls.

One more at high speed "been there, done that" thing to cross off my list.

The game was mediocre, and likely a typical exhibition game. Teams had not cohered much yet, the fan favourite Sabres fighter was given a game misconduct in the first 10 mins, and the home team lost 4-1.

The rest of the weekend was filled with sun, fun, laughter and Junior B hockey. There is never a dull moment with the M-Team! Thanks guys!

I made it!

I successfully navigated all 16 lanes of the 401 today, and made it out alive! I only missed one turn. Thanks to Davey G's trusty GPS, it quickly calculated a new route, and got to my lunch meeting in enough time to do a little retail therapy.
Best part of the 401 experience. As I was merging onto it, I found a country music station that was just starting to play Brooks & Dunn's "Hillbilly Deluxe". Happens to be my favourite B&D song right now. Classic!

The Naming Game

hello from TO. I'm still here... for another busy week. Just finished the tradeshow I was at, and am now preparing for 3 days of meetings. I'm already longing for Friday when I get a break.

At the pet trade show I was exhibiting, I picked up a new pet!! I need some help naming him/them (which is correct?). Any suggestions? Has to be a strong name, as this particular creature strikes fear and loathing into other things (mostly insects ;)

My new pet is about the most exciting thing that's happened in the last 2 days. Tomorrow I drive the 401 for the first time in my life. Will be curious to see how this prairie girl fares on Canada's busiest highway.

The End of Something Great

It's official. I no longer have good luggage "karma". After 3 years of trouble free air travel (flight & weather delays and terminal dashing notwithstanding), I have suffered my 3rd luggage delay since March. One could reason that I brought this on myself by bragging about my good record.

West Jet. I love you guys, and tell the world that you're the best and my preferred Canadian airline. But today was the second time you delayed my bags, and I've only had occasion to fly with you 3 times this year. I understand that tight connection times can make it difficult to transfer luggage (as it did in the first incident in March), and that I'm ok with. But today's delayed bag was clearly marked YYZ, and yet was left on the plane ended up in Halifax. How does this happen? I envision some system of arranging bags in the plane's belly to prevent such occurances, but something broke down today.

I will give your staff at YYZ baggage claim the customer service line kudos for being helpful. They did their best to provide my bag's coordinates and ETA when known. I really do love all Westjetters.

Truth be told I wasn't too choked about the delay, as I had planned to drop my belongings in my hotel room, and head straight for downtown TO anyways. And, it wasn't like Air Canada that left 2 people's month-worth-of-stuff bags at LAX, forcing myself and travel buddy to wear the same clothes for 52 hours in Bangkok in the summer. They didn't even offer a complimentary toiletry bag! (I don't know how to link yet, but you can refer to the mid-May postings for more details.) Or the time they took 5 days of a 7 day trip to get my boss his luggage in Europe. Today's biggest disappointment was not getting to wear my newly acquired Blue Jays hat to the game tonight. I'm certain the Jays lost as a result... not enough fan spirit from me.

FYI - I'm in Toronto right now. I'll be here for the next 9ish days, 6 for work, and 3 for fun. Don't worry, fun days are on the weekend.

After many queues and unexpected delays, I got to hang out with an old friend, whom I have not seen since like 2001, maybe 2002... I can't remember. But she lives and schools here, working on her doctorate at the U of T. We had a great time, and she walking toured me around the downtown. It was great! Walked through part of the U of T campus, saw all sorts of beautiful buildings, took in Yonge Street, Lake Ontario, the CN tower, some rain, and of course street hot dogs. "It's all part of the experience!" she said. Love it!

When deciding what to do with my extra time today, I figured that a Blue Jays game was in order, for I had never been to a pro ball game. So I bought a ticket online, and made my way to the Skydome. They played the Orioles, and lost 6-2. But... it was a shut out until Hill and Luna both cracked leftfield homeruns (really close to where I was sitting!) at the bottom of the 9th, and denied the Orioles that pleasure.

I ache with fatigue, and am going to bed. 4am was so long ago, and 6 is coming to soon. Oh wait, that will still be 4am in my brain.