For those of you wondering ASB stands for All Star Break.  It’s those 3 to 4 magical days that seem like Christmas morning to the baseball community.  Players spend their break in all sorts of different ways.  Some will go home where they live in the offseason, others stay where their affiliated team is located or take a mini vacay.  Since we obviously had no idea where my husband would be before the ASB break (Buffalo or Kansas City), we couldn’t book a flight in advance to meet me in Mississippi without it costing us a small fortune to book a last minute flight (darn you airlines that make a killing off baseball couples).  Therefore, I flew back up to Buffalo to spend the break with S.  The break started after the day game on Sunday and arrived just in enough time to make the game that day.  I had an early 7:20 am flight out of Jackson and arrived to Buffalo around 12:30 after my short layover in Atlanta (side note:  I always forget to wear my Saints gear in that airport).

We started the break off by ordering pizza, playing candy crush and being lazy.  On Monday, we did the African Lion Safari in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.  In 1967, Colonel G.D. Dailley, founder of the African Lion Safari, began pursuing a dream to create a drive-through wildlife park dedicated to the conservation of declining wildlife species.  He realized his vision by creating displays where visitors were “caged” in their vehicles and animals were allowed to roam freely.  In 1969, African Lion Safari and Game Farm Ltd was founded.  It has bred over 20 species that are considered endangered and 30 that are listed as threatened.  I have never been to a safari (besides the Disney World ride at Animal Kingdom) that you can drive through and animals just roam.  Obviously, there are not that many of these around the world compared to zoos.  Below, I posted a couple of pics of the animals around the cars and the baboons would get on cars and just sit there.  We decided to take the bus so there were no damages or scratches to our SUV or monkeys trying to escape the compound on our behalf.  Of course, as a Southerner, my first thought after the safari is how do these animals survive the winters up here??  90 feet of snow… that ain’t it!  The travel guide told us that they call the baboons (monkeys) in through this gate every night so they sleep inside.  The safari is only opened from May 2nd to September 20th for the year of 2015.

On to the next day, Tuesday it rained so the excitement started and ended at Wegmans (the grocery store up here).  When its time for grocery shopping we always go around lunch because it has all types of foods to choose from to eat.  There is a soup bar, Asian, American, Italian and Japanese food to choose from.  You just go in and make your own plate.  One of my favorite things about this grocery store is that they have an organic section and a normal (Wal-Mart type) section.  So, we can be healthy in some aspects with meats and cheeses, and I still get my beloved bagel bites all in one store.  We typically just buy for the home stand of games because we hate to waste food when he goes on the road or if he gets called up again.  I couldn’t tell you how many milks have gone to waste due to the call ups and options.  We cooked salmon, quinoa and broccoli for our meal and watched TV as it continued to pour.

The final day of the ASB break was Wednesday.  Another wife told me about Niagara-on-the-Lake, and I was told by Buffalo citizens that the wineries in Canada were a must.  So, we decided to just head to Canada to Niagara-on-the-Lake and see what we came upon.  The first winery we came upon was called Diamond Estates; however, it didn’t offer any tours so we got a map and located a few wineries that had tours.  The winery right beside Diamond Estates offered tours every hour on the hour so we stopped at this winery called Trius Winery at Hillebrand.  Their wines are made by Craig McDonald (whoever that is) and was established in 1989.  Trius Winery Restaurant is Niagara-on-the-Lake’s first winery restaurant and Chef Dodd prides himself on sourcing local ingredients.  We didn’t try the restaurant, but we signed up to do the tour of the place since we know absolutely nothing about wine and how its made.  We tried to act like we were expert winos though.  It’s kind of like the saying “Fake it until you Make it.”  We did the whole swirling it around your glass, smelling it and looking all sophisticated.  We learned so much about wine and all the hard work that goes into growing the grapes and the extensive labor.  Our tour guide was a girl named Kierston, and she explained how the wind coming off Lake Ontario helps so much for the growing of the vines and the taste of the grapes.  I learned something new about a wine called “Icewine.”  During the months of December and January, workers go out into the vineyards at midnight and pick the frozen grapes to make Icewine.  By the way, somebody better be paying me big bucks to go freeze my booty off in Canada at midnight to pick a frozen grape…. that ain’t it!  We tried a sparkling wine, red, white and the Icewine.  The 2013 Trius Icewine cost $54.10 for 375ml.  Kierston said, since the labor is so extensive they have to charge a pretty penny for this particular wine.  This particular winery prides themselves on the Icewine because in 1983, they made the first Icewine ever to come from Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Below is a few pics of our tour of Trius Winery.  

The last couple of pictures we got to go down into the cellar where all the magic happens.  Its actually down in the ground, and the picture where S is standing in front with the red light on his face his 500,000 sparking wine bottles and the wall goes back 17 ft.  I was absolutely amazed at this.  After we left this winery, we went to another one called Strewn Winery grabbed a snack tried a few of their wines and headed back for America to our temporary home.  So thankful I get to have all these amazing experiences in life that I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for baseball.  It’s definitely a love/hate relationship, but we make it work the best way we can by enjoying life and seeing the world.  Hope you enjoyed my thoughts and will continue to post!

Happy Friday!

xoxo

HC