Calgary baseball

The past ten days or so have been extraordinarily busy, and it was all kicked off with a short trip up to Calgary for a few days of work, or I should say, business meetings. I sure don't want any Canadian immigration/customs officials coming after me for erroneously stating the purpose of my visit up north.

While in Calgary, I didn't have much free time, but a few key facts meant that I was able to make the time for a quick minor league baseball excursion. Most importantly the weather was absolutely awesome - blue skies, scattered clouds, and mildly warm temperatures. Plus, I happened to be staying within walking distance of the baseball park. Then the most important part, there actually was a game scheduled for one of the nights that I was there.

So on Tuesday evening, I took a walk over to the stadium to see the Calgary Vipers take on the Edmonton Capitals in an independent Golden League game. It was not a pitching or defensive showcase. Lots of hits and runs plus quite a few fielding mistakes let the game drag on for quite a while. I didn't stick around for the whole game, but it was refreshing to relax outside on a nice evening and watch some baseball.

The only disappointing part of the evening was that the selection of beer consisted of cans of Budweiser, Bud Light, and Kokanee. I chose Kokanee, but it's a pale yellow, mild tasting, fizzy beer that's a little more unique that a can of Bud. It was better than nothing.

One night in Calgary...

After several previous trips in Calgary that consisted of all work/sleep and no play, I finally had the chance to check out some local establishment for the consumption of beer. I was stuck at the airport hotel for the night, but managed to find the local bus (#57) that got me to the C-train station (Whitehorn) that whisked me into downtown.
On the way into downtown I got to see two homeless dudes beating the crap out of each other in the middle of a street. After seeing that, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect for the evening, but I then quickly found Bottlescrew Bill's, which claims to have a couple of hundred beer options. They appeared to come close to that claim, but lacked many Canadian options. I did try their house beer, Buzzards Breath Ale, which was an okay amber ale without much hop flavor or aroma. Then I found the best beer of the night in a Brown Ale brewed by Wild Rose Brewery located in Calgary (they also brew the house beer). It was very good. Malty, bisquity, and slightly nutty, it really hit the spot and went great with my almost rare Alberta bison steak.
I then wandered for a few blocks until I saw an interesting place called Belgo. It attempted to be a Belgian Brasserie, and had plenty of Belgian beers on tap and in the bottle. It even had some Rogue Ales from the US. They did a good job of pouring and presenting the beers and the decor was nice. I did get a weird vibe from the place - it wasn't very crowded, and the manager/door guy seemded to be turning people away, and even remarked to me that I was 'allowed to stay'.
To wrap up the night I witnessed another fight on the train platform as I was headed back to the hotel. It was three against one and it did not end well for the one. At least the police got involved in this one.
That's all the fun for my one night in Calgary.

No beer excitement - VR fun in Calgary!

If you ever get stuck in the Calgary Airport for awhile, head up to the 2nd level food court. At one end is Spaceport. It's mostly for kids, but they have a few Virtual Reality Simulators. One is a fighter jet. You get strapped in, locked up, and then fly a plane around blowing things up. The even better part is that the 'cockpit' has full range of motion, so if you do a loop in the simulator, you really do turn upside down. It was fun, and a nice break from boring ass airport time.
As an added bonus, the airport also has free wireless, which is allowing me to post this mesage. Too bad no one ever reads this.