New Thing #288: Eleven Hours In New York...To Watch Football

I've done quick trips down to New York City before. Once, in college, a friend of mine convinced me to take a 7am Greyhound, spend a Saturday in the city, and then be on a 7pm bus back to Boston.

Then, in the past few years, I've done round trips in a car (or on a train) to go to a Jets game.

For years, though, I've been trying to figure out a way to get down to New York just to watch football with some friends.

And this year, Columbus Day weekend provided the best opportunity yet for that.

A couple of things came together to allow me to do it:

One is that my wife was able to clear her weekend of tutoring, which is usually a slight impediment to my football watching on Sundays. Another is that for the first time in my life I had a weekend where I could have gone to the Jets game - they were home against the Steelers - but my dad no longer has the season tickets. And the last is that I had friends who were available and willing to sit in a bar for seven hours-plus.

I took the LimoLiner into the city - it's great because it picks up in Framingham, 5 minutes from my house, and I could leave for a bus at 6:30 on Sunday morning without disturbing my family. That got me into the city at a little before 10.

I was able to do a few things in the city before I met up with my friends (more on that later this week), and then we sat and watched football from about 12:30 until the end of the Patriots game, at about 7:30.

I was not the only person who had the Sunday round-trip idea. (And it was successful enough that it won't be the last time I do it.) On the trip back I saw a couple of other familiar faces from the trip down earlier that morning.

But there were also some frustrating co-travelers.

I have to admit - it wasn't the best day of football. While I loved seeing and talking to my friends (and the fact that the football was not great certainly contributed to me being a better social presence because I paid less attention to the games), the Jets lost, I did not have a great day with my picks for my pool, and my fantasy league performance was not good either.

So I guess my patience was thin when it came to some of the other people on the evening bus.

A group of older ladies had the first couple of rows - they were clearly returning from a ladies day out type of thing. When an older gentleman walked on in a Patriots hat, they made a comment about the Pats game. "Good game," or something like that. (It's an interesting sports dynamic on a bus between New York and Boston. I was probably the only one heading to New York that morning exclusively for football reasons, but I never felt like the only Jets fan. Not that it came up. But on the way back, going to Boston, there was more of a "New York sports fan feeling like an outsider" vibe going for me.)

Anyway, the guy kind of rolled his eyes at the ladies and did kind of a guffaw or something. (I now realize maybe he thought they were New Yorkers teasing him.) I realized he didn't believe them. They repeated themselves, and he tried to convince them he saw the game and knew how it ended. "Brady threw an interception," he said, showing that was the last part of the game he saw. So the guy he was traveling with looked at me, and I said, "Brady threw a touchdown pass with 5 seconds left."

In a blatant show of gender bias, the second older guy turned to the hat-wearing guy and said, "No, they won. This guy says they got a touchdown with 5 seconds left." The male knows football.

So we've established these were clearly Boston fans who were not all that diehard. This was further proven when the attendant taking care of us on the bus, approaching the Massachusetts Turnpike, offered to turn the DirecTV on the bus to FOX.

"Don't bother," one of the women with the Patriots hat guy said. "They're getting killed."

I popped on my phone, expecting to see an 11-0 or 11-1 score in favor of the Tigers. It was 5-1.

As you probably know by now, that very inning the Red Sox rallied to tie the game, which they later won.

It was a great day for Boston sports fans...not a great day for this Jets fan.

But I'm proud of this: I didn't give up on the Jets at any point on Sunday. Heck. I haven't given up on them in 35 mostly terrible years.

New Thing #237: Chick-fil-A

We're going to have to put the politics aside for this one. I went to Chick-fil-A while I was in Florida.

My friend Kevin told me I absolutely had to try their chicken sandwich.

OK...maybe one political comment: I do not agree with the company's political views.

But, man do they make a good chicken sandwich.

The place was packed.

Kevin and I planned on going in and eating there, but with the line nearly out the door we got back in the car and went through the drive-through.

That meant hungry old me had to sit in the passenger seat with a couple of chicken sandwiches and a bunch of fries in my lap as we drove.

I should mention this all took place while we were in Gainesville - and we did this before we hit the football stadium.

Our plan was to take the food into the empty bleachers and sit and eat.

Turned out, when we got to the stadium, there was a closed football practice going on. I forgot to mention that in the post about Gainesville. So we had an hour or so to kill, which we began by sitting on a nearby picnic table, eating chicken sandwiches.

My wife tells me, as I write this, that she's surprised I've never had Chick-fil-A before. She tells me there's one in the Burlington Mall food court. I don't spend much time there, so I didn't realize there was a location so close.

Still, I will not patronize them again, even if they open a location even closer.

I'm going to hop on my political high horse.

Boycott begins.......now.

New Thing #236: Video Roulette

I don't spend a whole lot of time at casinos. But every once in a while I'll scratch that itch, realize it's not as easy as I think it is, and I'll go home poorer and think, "I'll get 'em next time."

And next time won't happen for a long while.

If you'd asked me if going to a casino would have ended up on the agenda for my trip to Florida, I would have told you that was very doubtful.

But I wouldn't have ruled it out completely - you know, things happen.

And as it turned out, there was a casino and Hard Rock Cafe on some Seminole land in Tampa.

And Kevin and I decided to check it out.

The casino was mostly slot machines. There were very few tables. And my favorite game - roulette - was only available in the video format you see above.

I didn't know whether or not to take the plunge..then I figured, New Thing. So we sat at the video roulette table.

You sit at a console like this:

And in the middle of the various consoles is the wheel, automated and under glass. And above the wheel is the board that shows you the current number as well as the last few that came out.

As sometimes happens, I started off kind of hot by just playing the outside - picking red or black, and the occasional "first 12" or "bottom of the board" or whatever.

But then I start thinking it's easy, and I start to lose money. Fast.

It happened quickly for Kevin and I. (Speaking of quickly - the amount of time you have to place your bets is timed, and it's not all that much. Like 30 seconds or so - much faster than when there's a human spinning the wheel. So when I say it happened quickly - it happened quickly.)

Usually I have some stock numbers I pick when I play the inside - 8 is a big one because it's part of my anniversary, my wife's birthday, and, of course, it's Gary Carter's number. Rarely, though, do I hit on the inside numbers.

When things started to fade I returned to the outside. A string of black numbers had come up. Obviously (I'm such a sucker) the next one was going to be red. I put my remaining chips on red, chasing my losses.

Not only was my final play of the day a black number - it was an 8. It was like the universe telling me, "Not today champ." (And probably not ever.)

Kevin was not much luckier.

All told, we drove about 40 minutes to the casino to spend only about 40 minutes wasting some money. Then it was 40 minutes back.

But the more I thought about it - the casino might have actually saved me money. I only brought a limited amount with me - who knows what we would have done otherwise. I might have spent more doing something else.

You might see this as a disappointment.

Sure, we would much rather have won some money. But we were back in St. Petersburg by lunchtime. It worked out rather well.

New Thing #235: Gainesville

If you're keeping score at home (and I know you are) you know I mentioned Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Jacksonville this week. "When," you're probably asking yourself, "will John tell us about Gainesville?"

Well, today's the day.

But before I launch into my Gainesville experience, I need to give you a little history.

Because my time in Gainesville was literally a dream come true.

I have no idea why, but I have recurring dreams about two sports-related places: the football field at the University of Florida and Mile High Stadium. (Maybe it's Invesco Field at Mile High - I can't remember if the dreams go back as far as the Broncos' original stadium.)

In the Florida one I walk out from a corner end zone and look up at the sea of seats. In the Broncos dream I'm sitting way up in the stadium - like, second-to-last-row-type seats, and I'm with some family members.

So when I knew I was visiting Gainesville, I knew I'd want to swing by the football stadium. My friend Kevin was way ahead of me - we'd be visiting the stadium, he said, because that's about all there is to do in Gainesville.

When we walked to the stadium I was disappointed because the outside looks nothing like my dream - it's kind of like a brick outer facade. That's what you see above. Then we walked in.

We emerged at one of the corners and walked down towards the field. It was kind of surreal because other than a different type of seating it was very, very similar to my dream. It also didn't stretch as high into the sky as my dream. But I certainly felt familiar with the place.

I think two things about this whole weird experience. I would like to think I have some kind of second sight (is that what it is? ESP? Or just being weird?), but I think:

1) Both the University of Florida and the Denver Broncos are orange and blue, just like the New York Mets. So maybe that aspect about them and their respective stadia (plural for stadiums?) stand out to me and work their way into my subconscious.

or

2) Later that afternoon, reverting back to our college days as we do often when we're together, Kevin and I sat down to play some video games. Our choice was the version of NCAA Football that he had. As soon as the game started loading up, it occurred to me that I probably dreamt about Florida Field so much because I played this game so much years ago and it was drilled into my head. The more I think about it the more sure I am that this is the case.

Beyond the field, Kevin was right. There wasn't a ton in Gainesville. But next to the field were the football offices, and on the ground floor of that building is a great little museum - not even a museum. A display center. In glass cases are Florida's three national championship trophies, displays of national championship teams and award-winning players, and the three Heisman Trophies won by Florida players. (The Heisman Trophy is much, much larger than it looks on TV.) This was very cool.

We also poked our head into the track/swimming/basketball facility, which was neat. And we stopped by the bookstore and I bought some University of Florida souvenirs for my girls.

But none of that quite reached highlight status of the trip for me.

After all, I've never dreamed of stepping foot in those places.

New Thing #234: Buffalo Wild Wings

I probably gave you the impression a couple of days ago that Jacksonville was a mere necessity on my trip through Florida - the city from which I flew home and nothing else. Well, that's mostly true.

But we did do one New Thing in Jacksonville before heading to their beautiful airport.

For the first time in my life I went to a Buffalo Wild Wings.

I'm sure you're aware, if you've ever watched a sporting event - or television of any kind, really - of Buffalo Wild Wings. Their commercials are all over the place.

But there are none near me, so I've never been. (Surprisingly, there are at least 4 in Massachusetts. I just did a search on their website - it's one of those 'within ___ miles of [zip code]' searches, and there are 4 within 50 miles of my home. 3 within 30. There doesn't seem to be a list of locations anywhere on the site. I'm shocked there are 4 in Massachusetts - I didn't even think there were any in this region. Which always surprised me because of how many commercials are on. But I guess now all the ads make sense...even though I've never been, I certainly knew the brand.)

The only bad thing about the timing of our visit was that it was last Saturday afternoon, and there were hardly any sporting events on. There was the Little League World Series when we were there, and the Arena Bowl. I kind of wanted to get the full experience by watching some games while we were there...but I could also see it being one of those totally overwhelming game-watching experiences because of the quantity of TVs. (There was a fantasy football draft happening in the bar area while we were there. And Buffalo Wild Wings seems to cater to the fantasy football crowd - they are celebrating 'draft weekend' this coming weekend and inviting fantasy leagues to have their drafts there by reserving tables and such. Me from 10 years ago thinks all of this is very, very cool.) There were also a couple of trivia games on a few of the TVs. That seemed to have potential, though I didn't play.

Of course I had the wings. I went with the boneless option per my friend Kevin's suggestion, and I had a teriyaki sauce. It was delicious.

The service was great too. Very accommodating staff. (Interesting thing about Florida - they always ask if you want checks together or separate. In most other places I've been that feels like a burden. Every place we went to in Florida they offered to split the check. Buffalo Wild Wings even went a step further and rang up our order itemized so we could see exactly what we owed - so we paid a total bill but we could see it broken down by what we ordered.)

Overall a great experience...worth the drive if I was so inclined to visit one of the Massachusetts locations. But I don't know if I'm so inclined. (There are 8 locations within 20 miles of my parents' house in New York....)

The only other drawback of no games on TV while we were there - I couldn't employ the bartender to press the secret button that results in the delay of game so we could stay out longer.

I always wondered if that was a real thing.

New Thing #233: Tropicana Field

I love ballparks. Most of you know this about me...but I'm sure there are people who will read this who don't know my history. (This a good place to start for most of my writing about ballparks I've visited. That page links to the parks I've visited and wrote about between 2004 and 2010. I can track down others if you're interested.)

The most recent new ballpark experience is the one I thought I would be least interested in seeing: Tropicana Field.

And I have to admit - I was pleasantly surprised.

The first thing we did when we got into Tropicana Field was check out the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame. You may remember this place from when Williams died back in 2002 - that's where much of the local Boston reports were centered. It was located in Hernando, Florida, which is really in the middle of nowhere. I guess it moved to Tropicana Field (I had no idea until we walked into it), and man is it worth a visit. Great displays about Williams, and a good selection of other hitters and team items are on display. The only fault I found was this plaque featuring Rays' managers, with Joe Maddon's name misspelled. Seems like the type of thing you should get right.

Seriously, I could write a whole other post about this museum, I was so impressed by it.

We went to two games at Tropicana Field - both against the Mariners. The Rays won the first after coming from behind, scoring a run in the bottom of the 9th to win (that's what you see above), and they won the second 7-1. We had great seats, which we got walking up to the ticket window (we never saw a line) and paid just $40 for.

It makes me simultaneously sad and happy. I loved kind of having a ballpark all to ourselves, walking around wherever we wanted because there were no crowds, but at the same time the Rays are a good team and it's a shame that no one is coming out to their games.

By the second game, we had kind of exhausted most of the things there were to do at the park. But out in center field there are a couple of attractions that we took in. First of all, we watched the first couple of innings of the second game from a barbecue restaurant that is in straightaway center field - Everglades BBQ Company - which was probably a better bargain than the concession stands. I liked it, though the green tinted windows were a little too green.

Then on the way down, there was no crowd at the rays tank, which houses what are probably the best-fed rays in the world. You can reach in and touch the rays, and even feed them. We did not feed them....but we did touch them. (Yes, I did. It was kind of a weird sensation. I didn't love it.)

This was the first time I'd ever been in a baseball game in a full-on dome. I've been to retractable roofs (Houston, Seattle, Arizona) and a football game with a roof (Indianapolis), but never a baseball game inside. (Even in Arizona, where the roof didn't open when we were there, it felt a little more open.)

The dome at the Trop made this field feel very close. But the lack of fans in the seats opened things up again. I think this: That place could get loud. It could be a tremendous home field advantage. The fans that show up are passionate, they ring their cowbells - it got kind of loud with very small crowds when we were there - and the ballpark isn't bad. It's clearly not drawing crowds...but if the Rays can figure out how to get fans in there, it could be a place that opposing teams won't want to go.

I liked the '162 Landing' down the left field line, where Evan Longoria's homer landed in 2011 when the Rays clinched their playoff spot on the last day of the season. I liked the in-game entertainment. I liked the scoreboards and videoboards and in-game stats.

Oh yeah - and the baseball the Rays played was pretty good too. I leave you with this - the moment Jason Bourgeois made contact with the fly ball to right that brought home the game-winning run Wednesday night, setting off the celebration picture you see above:

Let me know if you can find the ball - I think it may just be out of the picture to the right, but I'm hoping it's in the frame.

And for goodness' sake - if you're in the Tampa area and the Rays are at home...check out a game. It's a good time.

New Thing #232: Tampa/St. Pete

I spent most of last week in Florida. I flew into Tampa, stayed in St. Petersburg, spent a day-and-a-half in Gainesville, and flew out of Jacksonville.

Or, as my brother put it, I took a trip that he would take.

He's exactly right, though I can't explain why that makes sense.

Usually, though, he's playing a guitar in all of those cities.

I did not...but I did check out some ballparks.

Ballparks are a little obsession of mine. More on that later this week.

The purpose of this trip was to visit a friend. (I've mentioned him before I think. His name is Kevin.) Kevin lived in North Carolina for 12 years and every year I thought about getting down there and I never did. So when he moved to the University of Florida, I made sure I set some time aside to get down there. Thanks to my wife, I was able to work in a Wednesday through Saturday trip while she stayed home with the kids.

Gainesville will be getting its own post this week. So will the Rays games, as will some other New Things we tried out down in Florida. I'll keep this post pretty general.

When some of you head down to Tampa, you might make sure you hit a beach. Or get out on the water. That's not quite how we roll.

Our primary purpose meeting in Tampa was to go to a Rays game. (Or two.) And while we were in the area we made sure to check out Raymond James Stadium (where the Buccaneers play - pictured above) and Steinbrenner Field (where a Yankees minor league team plays...and I think where they have their spring training games - pictured below right). (Yes, those are pictures I took from a moving car...something I usually don't get a chance to do because I'm usually driving and barking orders to my wife about which pictures to take out of the window. I thought I did pretty good.)

We didn't go into these parks - or walk up to them, I should say - because we couldn't find a good place to pull over and access them. But I'm glad we saw them.

We found a nice little hangout area in St. Pete - I think it was Central Avenue - not far from the University of South Florida campus. We went to a couple of restaurants in the area. We particularly enjoyed The Midway and their delicious popcorn.

All of our driving helped me get a little more familiar with Florida geography. That's kind of a big state. The St. Petersburg-Gainesville-Jacksonville loop is not an easy drive. They're pretty big cities...with not a whole lot between them.

I know what you're wondering - no, we did not see the stadium where the Jaguars play. (Is this weird? The Buccaneers played in New England when we were in Gainesville, and the Jaguars played the Jets in New Jersey when we were in Jacksonville. Those are the two places I am most likely to see a game, when I was in the cities of the opponents. Chew on it. Let me know.) What I did see was the Jacksonville airport, which was beautiful. Kevin decided it must have been a stipulation of their 2005 Super Bowl. Nicest airport I've ever been in, I think.

So that's where I spent the end of last week. I'll be telling you about it most of this week, because there were a lot of New Things.

Of course, that will include the ballpark where we actually went inside.

New Thing #231: DJ Kitty

My only regret from the time I spent in Florida last week is that I did not get a video recording of what I'm going to tell you about today. I was hoping I'd come back from my trip with some kind of local new music experience.

I did...but this isn't exactly what I had in mind.

Allow me to introduce you to DJ Kitty.

Maybe it's for the best I don't have a video of it - it's truly best if you experience it in person. (And for that, I'm sure Rays management would be appreciative. There aren't many people experiencing Rays games in person. More on that later in the week.)

I'm not sure I knew this phenomenon was happening. From the videos that are available online (click here so you can at least get a taste of DJ Kitty), I'm assuming it dates back at least three years. Maybe a game I was watching showed it and I didn't know what it was out of context...but this is one of those fun ballpark things that I feel people should know about.

I went to two Rays games, and DJ Kitty popped onto the scoreboard in, I think, the middle of the 8th inning in both games. The crowd, obviously, loves it.

I don't remember which song comes on with the video - it could very well be the one in the video I linked to above - but the song doesn't matter because of the video of the cat and the crowd shots and dance club shots shown over the music. (My favorite is when DJ Kitty raises its hands in the air and moves back and forth.) I get the impression they show DJ Kitty with different songs in different years.

(The other funny thing the Rays do which is music-related is when there's a conference on the mound for the other team they play some cheesy music video - at our two games it was a David Hasselhoff number and a Mr. T song and they pull back to show the music in a thought bubble and then they attach the thought bubble to the conference on the mound. It's amusing.)

(And while I'm parenthetically throwing out Rays trade secrets - they're trade secrets because no one goes to the games and therefore no one knows about them - when the Rays win they play another video clip after the last out that the fans love. It's a good time down there in St. Petersburg.)

DJ Kitty is the best one, though. And the Rays know this - they have DJ Kitty souvenirs on sale. I considered getting one.

I really liked DJ Kitty. And that's coming from someone who does not like cats.

Here's what it looks like from inside the stadium:

New Thing #120: Getting Lost In My Own Neighborhood

This one's a little embarrassing. I've developed the worst mental block.

I keep making a wrong turn.

What you see pictured at left is Bradford Street.

It is not supposed to be part of my morning commute.

But three times last week I ended up there.

The third time I decided to take the picture...and tell you about my new problem.

So here's the deal: There's a detour in my neighborhood at one of the Sudbury River crossings. That means that a lot of traffic is diverted in the morning to where I begin my morning commute. So, brilliant me, knowing the side streets as well as I do, decided to try to get around the backups.

Except, as it turns out, I don't know the side streets as well as I thought.

What makes this worse is that there have been times when I have successfully navigated these side streets. But then I had the one wrong turn, and I haven't been able to recover. It's like I have the driving yips. I'm like the Chuck Knoblauch of driving through Framingham.

One time I ended up going left when I should have gone right, and after a big circle the road spit me out up the block from the road where I entered the 'short cut'. (My daughter gave a decisive "Hey!", recognizing instantly the road on which we had been about four minutes earlier.)

Two other times I ended up going the wrong way, and ended up following another car (hoping they were on their way to work and not returning from dropping off their children at the school bus - if the latter were the case I would have ended up following them to their driveway.) to a main road - not the way I was intending to go, but effective nonetheless.

I am not terrible with directions. I usually have a general sense of where I am and where I am going. But this situation is really getting to me. I've taken my bike through this neighborhood - it's three-quarters of a mile from my house. I should know my way through it.

I'm going to keep trying. Eventually I'll figure it out and get it right.

And then hopefully my muscle memory takes me in the right direction from that point forward.

New Thing #113: Funiculaire

In all the excitement of Quebec City and its beauty and the new food and new activities I tried, I almost forgot about one of the first New Things I did there...which was also one of the coolest. Quebec City has a funicular.

Do you not know what that is?

Don't worry - I didn't either.

It's what you see at left - a vertical rail car.

And I guarantee you - even if our group didn't end up taking the 'Funiculaire' (that's French for funicular) shortly after we arrived in the city, I would have made sure I did it before we left.

One of the teachers I was with was familiar with the idea of a funicular. She thought there was one in Lake Placid - I couldn't find evidence of it other than a vaguely-captioned picture, so I can't 100% confirm this as true.

What I can say is that funiculars are not all that uncommon. There's some in the United States - San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles - as well as internationally - Italy, Austria, and Switzerland.

I did a little bit of research on the Quebec funicular (and was dismayed to find it had been shut down from 1996-1998 after a cable snapped, the emergency break didn't work, and a woman was killed in the crash...good thing I didn't know that last week): It covers 59 meters (that's 193-and-a-half feet), and it's a nice option because I forgot to mention this, but Quebec City is quite hilly. Like, San Francisco hilly. (I remember the hills in San Francisco but I don't remember the funicular. I'll have to look out for it when I go back.) So it's probably a nice option every once in a while other than all the staircases.

The 'Funiculaire' dates back to 1879, though in 1945 it was destroyed in a fire and rebuilt. The ground floor (or bottom, depending how you say it) of the funicular is the building known as the Louis Jolliet house - you might know that name because he discovered the Mississippi River. (Or, perhaps, it might be better to say he was the first European/non-Native American to discover the Mississippi.)

But the best thing about the funicular is the view it offers of the 'Lower Town'. It's such a picturesque city - the funicular is another spot where you can really appreciate the beauty of Quebec City:

New Thing #109: Foreign Currency

At various times in my life I've been in possession of Canadian money by accident. I'm sure you have too.

Sometimes you get a Canadian penny, or a Canadian quarter, as change, and then you turn around and sneak them off into a purchase and your economic life moves on.

Last week for the first time I intentionally used Canadian money....and it was my American money that I used apologetically while I was in Quebec.

There are a couple of points I want to cover about the Canadian money I used. First is how I got it: You can get Canadian money at the bank. I did not know this. And thanks to my wife, who actually went to the bank for me, I was able to get the $80 you see above for my trip. (For those who don't know - it costs $83 American to get $80 Canadian these days.)

The second thing is how nice Canadian money looks. I was afraid to even fold it up to put it in my pocket, it was so crisp and neat. And look at those images! They're so pretty.

The third thing is that above you see the bills. There are also 2-dollar coins and the dollar coin. (I think that's the one called the Loon.) And this is where it gets slightly embarrassing. After I bought some souvenirs that came to about $45 (or 45$, as they write in Canada), I gave the guy $50 and got only change back. I paused, considered, and said to the guy, "I thought I gave you $50." He looked at me, I looked at him...and then I realized...I held $5 in coins in my hand. "Oh. These are dollars, aren't they?" I said.

Imagine how lost I would be in a country whose money didn't so closely resemble what I'm used to.

I was dumb tourist a few times on this trip...but I learned from my experiences. Which I guess it part of the point with international travel.

And there's a happy ending. On my last day, I spent my last few Canadian dollars on my last few souvenirs. And the last store I went to allowed me to pay the difference on my Nordiques glass with American cash.

New Thing #108: Poutine

Until about a week ago I had never heard of poutine. But as I got ready for the trip to Quebec someone at school mentioned it.

And then on the way up on the first day, we stopped at a mall food court on the other side of the Canadian border.

It was my first genuine French-speaking experience - the mall was not a tourist stop, so people were not catering to English speakers.

I was thrown  - I felt uncomfortable, I didn't know what to do or what to say.

I recognized the signs for poutine at the A&W shop.

And that's when I remembered that I was going to try at least one new food on the trip.

I did not have poutine at A&W. (There were a couple of fast food-type places I was hoping to try in Canada, but didn't have the chance. Prime among them was Tim Horton's - I at least wanted to try a coffee there, but no dice. A&W [you know, like the root beer] looks like a kind of Woolworth's, or Friendly's...a burger-in-a-booth-type place. I don't know if there are any of those in the U.S. None around here anyway.)

But our first dinner in Quebec, at a place called 'Les Trois Garcons' on Saturday night, is where I had poutine for the first (and only, actually) time on the trip.

Wikipedia says poutine is "a typical Canadian dish (originally from Quebec) made with french fries, topped with brown gravy and curd cheese."

'Les Trois Garcons' is kind of a slightly upscale burger place, so I have a feeling their version of poutine is intentionally a little different.

The picture I saw at the A&W had fries slathered in gravy and cheese. As you can see in my picture above, there's some, but not a lot of, gravy in the poutine I had, as well as some cubes of cheese. It's a neater form of what I guess I expected - less sloppy.

It was very good...but I think I'll withhold final judgment on poutine until I have it from a few different places.

As for that mall experience? I had an excellent steak and cheese wrap at some sandwich place. I had to take a leap into my discomfort and communicate with someone who spoke a different language than me...and I was in the minority.

It was a great tone-setter for the trip for me. And it came at the perfect time for me - because a new cultural experience is the perfect thing for someone trying his hand at some new things.

New Thing #107: Quebec City

I told you last week that I was going to Canada. Quebec City, to be precise.

I had a great time, and I'm coming back with a ton of New Things to tell you about.

I suspected going in that I was going to enjoy myself, mostly because here's something you probably didn't know about me:

I have loved Quebec from afar for quite some time.

In 1995, the Rangers played the Nordiques in the first round of the NHL Playoffs. I don't know why I remember this so clearly...maybe because it was the follow-up to their Stanley Cup championship and I was watching closely to see if they could win back-to-back titles.

I attended one of the games at Madison Square Garden, and watched the other games in New York and Quebec on the MSG Network. And when the Rangers were in Quebec, as they bumped back in from commercial, MSG would show beauty shots of Quebec.

They were the single most impressive beauty shots of any city I've ever seen on any sporting event.

That sounds like an exaggeration, but I assure you it is not.

So one of my goals on this trip was to see if Quebec in reality lived up to the beautiful city I had built it up to be in my mind for 18 years.

I'm here to tell you it did.

None of my pictures quite captured the exact image I had in my head from those MSG telecasts in '95, but all of my pictures convey the beauty of that city.

The cobblestone streets, the old-fashioned shops and storefronts...I felt like I was walking through a Disney cartoon town. ('Beauty and the Beast', if we're being specific.)

So the beauty of the city alone helped it live up to my expectations. But then there was its history - there are elements of Quebec's history (and its relationship with England) that dovetail nicely with the Boston history that I love so much. (Though I admit even after three days of learning about Quebec's history I don't know that I have a great handle on it.)

I also enjoyed (and this was really unexpected) having the chance to learn a little bit of a new language. First of all: I kind of felt like a dolt in Quebec, where so many people are fluent in both French and English, needing to make them speak my language because I didn't know theirs. But, to my credit, I tried.

See, I took Spanish my whole life. I went on this trip to help chaperone...but I don't know a word of French. What I discovered, though, was that immersion is amazing...I worked really hard to listen to conversations and use context to figure out what was going on around me. I got OK after three days at picking up here and there what people were saying, and I could read things like street signs or menus...but I was helpless when it came to speaking French. I can not get the pronunciations or the inflections. It was an important learning experience for me as a teacher about how the brain processes information. (My most fun immersion experience was back in the hotel Sunday night, with the Canadian broadcast of the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game. I spent most of my time reading the crawl in French rather than listening to the announcers, but picked up that a home run was a 'complet circuit' [I might have that backwards], abbreviated 'cc' in the box score. And I interpreted that Johnny Cueto was placed on the disabled list [la liste des blesses] with a shoulder [epaule] injury.)

I did a lot. I don't know how much I'm going to write about - I could have two weeks' worth of New Things to share...maybe I'll spread them out, maybe I'll write about them for a couple of weeks straight...I'm not sure yet. But I will share them all.

They're not exactly New Things I sought out on my own. They sort of happened to me because of the trip's itinerary. But they were New Things nonetheless, and I enjoyed them all.

The last thing I bought there was a souvenir for me. (Don't worry, I took care of my family first.) It was a mason jar glass, which I thought was perfect because I was in Canada, after all. (At least, I think a mason jar glass is appropriate to Canada.) And it was decorated with the logo of the Quebec Nordiques, which I saw in almost every shop throughout the trip. When I did, I knew I had to get something with that logo, because that's the reason I knew anything about Quebec in the first place.

The biggest endorsement I have for Quebec is that I can't wait to go back. I want to visit with my family. And between now and then maybe I'll get myself a French-English dictionary and start practicing saying a few of those words.

New Thing #102: Oh, Canada!

I think I spent a couple of hours in Canada back in 2001 or so. My sister-in-law was living in Syracuse, and we took a drive over the border for an afternoon.

We ate at a restaurant, I think we took a look at part of Niagara Falls...I don't exactly remember.

But I do remember that as the only time I've ever left the country.

Until now.

For the next three days, I'll be in Quebec.

It's kind of a big deal for me. As I've already mentioned, for the first time in my life I have a passport and I'm looking forward to using it and spending a few days surrounded by another culture.

I'm helping to chaperone a school trip, and I suspect I would have been interested in this trip anyway...but the fact that the offer came in a year that I was trying New Things sealed the deal.

New places (hotel, museums), new food, new experiences - I'm looking forward to sharing with you about it next week.

Until then, I have a couple of other New Things scheduled to keep you occupied until I'm back in the States.

New Thing #95: A Passport

I'm leaving the country. Well, not immediately.

Or permanently.

Just for a weekend.

I'm helping chaperone a school trip to Canada.

And that means, for the first time ever, I needed a passport.

So I got one.

The postal worker who helped me through the passport process was THE MAN.

I can not stress this enough to you. You always hear about the disgruntled postal worker...and I've certainly seen my share of them - both in New York and Massachusetts.

John, at the Framingham Post Office, was most certainly not disgruntled. He went out of his way to be helpful to me.

I got to the post office at about 4:30 one weekday afternoon - just late enough in the process that I was worried I wouldn't get my passport in time for the trip. When I walked in I saw a sign that said they only did passports until 4pm. But I also saw that the guy in line ahead of me was doing his passport with who I later found out was named John.

I  made eye contact with John and said, "Can I get a passport done?" He shook his head. I'm not ashamed. I whined a bit. I told him this was the earliest I could get out of work and get to the post office. (I also noted the website doesn't specify passports are only until 4. That might have won me reconsideration.) He looked at the packet in my hands and said, "You have everything in order?" I nodded. He told me to wait to the side.

It's no small feat to have everything in order. Birth certificate, copies of both sides of your driver's license, copy of your social security card...if you get mugged on the way in to the post office to take care of your passport you might as well change your identity, because someone else is taking it over.

So that helped smooth the process and make it go quick. John knew that...and I tried to be helpful throughout. I was even willing to pay for a rush order...he insisted I didn't need to.

He was right. I got my passport with at least three weeks to spare.

I wanted to hug the guy. Or tip him or something. And I felt badly as I was leaving. Because the person behind me in line got the postal worker to John's right. And she asked him if she could still apply for a passport, even though it was almost 5 o'clock.

She was turned down.