CFL Excellence on Steroids

 The last few months have been, obviously, more than a bit chaotic, which means that certain things ended up being pushed, unintentionally, to the back burner. One of them was a CFL trip. As is well-documented on this blog I've attended a lot of CFL games over the years (and dragged along family and friends, often kicking and screaming). I'm always happy to spend money on the CFL, in a way that I'm no longer interested in spending money on the NFL or even MLB. Usually, in the course of a season I'll attend two or three CFL games, however, I don't normally attend three in one week. I had proposed a Montreal and Ottawa doubleheader (as we've discussed, one of the beauties of the CFL is that although they only play four games a week they are sometimes spread over three or four days, which opens up the potential for bunching games). We couldn't make the schedule work, but happily our excellent friend Andy got into the CFL schedule and figured out a Hamilton and Toronto doubleheader. Happily, our friend Kevin (who clearly likes the CFL more than he will admit) could make it work. They were great travelling companions, and, despite buying the tickets, they took care of all of the other logistics. We found an AirBnb in between Hamilton and Toronto, and off we went, catching a Calgary Stampeders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats game on Friday night, and following it up with an Ottawa REDBLACKS and Toronto Argonauts game last Saturday afternoon. However, why would you stop at two CFL games when you can go to three? I dragooned Gary and his wife Ali, and yesterday we went up to catch a Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Montreal Alouettes game. The two teams met in last year's Grey Cup and are once again the two best teams in the league, which made the game a probable preview of this year's Grey Cup. It was a great game, and all the starters played the entire game, even though neither team had anything to play for (yet another reason why the CFL is better than the NFL, where most of the skill players would have taken the day off). The Blue Bombers won on the last play of the game, after a devil's wind, clearly blowing in from Winnipeg, knocked down an Alouettes punt and gave the visitors one last chance. Now, should I just go ahead and buy tickets for the Alouettes playoff game in two weeks?

It was a chilly night in Hamilton, but a solid win for the Tiger-Cats.

A great lunch in a cool bar about fifteen minutes away from the BMO stadium in Toronto. Yes, that's not the sweatshirt that I wore the night before. It was, like its cousin from the night before, heavily insulated, which was appreciated in Hamilton at night, but I cooked on a lovely sunny afternoon in Toronto (which required more CFL merchandise purchases).

Obviously, the trip required several stops at various and sundry Tim Horton's. Mike Kelly had set the number of TimBits consumed at 108, and we all bet over, which was a solid choice because we easily blew past it.

A wild game in Toronto, with the Argonauts (aka the Boatmen, aka the Double Blues) almost blowing a thirty point lead. Yes, that's a new Argonauts jersey. 

A picture snapped by Ali. The rainbow, correctly, predicted a wonderful day.

And, of course, a stop at the southern most Tim Horton's.

We had great seats, almost right on the 55 yard line. What started out as a beautiful, sunny day, eventually turned into the gusty affair mentioned above - and the requirement that I buy some more CFL merchandise, in this case a nice warm cotton Alouettes sweatshirts.

One of us in cool, and the other one is me. I'm so happy to have this amazing woman as my daughter-in-law.