After a few days of work and pleasure in
Orlando, it was time for me to head back home.For the ride to Orlando International Airport, I opted to take an Uber
for a change.What a great call on my
part as not only was it a quick 25 minute ride, but my driver was one of the
most memorable characters I have ever met.Shelly and I had a great conversation for the majority of the ride.We talked about how she works Uber full time
and only daytime hours.It turns out
that I was lucky to even have Shelly as my Uber driver as she “don’t do
civilians.”Rather than deal with the
headaches and stress of driving locals all over the place, especially after a
night of debauchery at local watering holes, Shelly only accepts airport
pickups and drop off requests now.
Leaving Mickey Mouse Country
Orlando is one of a handful of cities in
America that are popular for conventions and trade shows because of its low
cost and ease of access for business travelers.
While I understand her reasoning for going this route, I couldn’t help
but notice that she was a rather attractive African-American woman and asked
her how often she gets hit on by Corporate Executives. Without missing a beat, she admitted to me
that it happens every now and then, including a recent customer who was overly
obnoxious with the pickup lines. But for
this street smart ex-New Yorker, she “don’t do Executives, either.” We had a great laugh over that before having
a more serious conversation about the “Me, Too” Movement, particularly Bill Cosby. That part of the conversation didn’t go over
as well as we were in disagreement as to whether or not Cosby’s alleged victims
should have spoken up about their sexual assaults decades ago or not. But we both agreed that we were severely
disappointed and saddened by the man Cosby is instead of the beloved actor and
comedian that we grew up with during the Eighties.
Fortunately, that part of the conversation only last a few minutes as we
had arrived at the airport – just over three hours before my scheduled flight.
Waiting for the tram to take me to Terminal B
Despite the extra time that I had, I had to
wait for almost 30 minutes before Air Canada was able to check me in as they
had flights to Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto all within 45 minutes of each
other. Because the Toronto flight was
the last one of the day, the passengers heading to Halifax and Montreal were
given first priority. Following check
in, I spent close to another 30 minutes waiting in line to go through TSA
Security. That was a complete chaotic
process as there were clusters of people just randomly standing in line instead
of listening to the TSA Officers who were trying to organize all of us in five
different lines. Overall, it took me
about an hour to check in and go through security leaving me with 90 minutes to
kill before boarding.
The galley on Air Canada Flight 1677
Since I had plenty of time to grab something to
eat, I headed over towards Bahama Breeze for some dinner. I’ll save the details for a later date, but I
essentially picked it because it was the only restaurant near my gate that
seemed lively and the tropical theme was really appealing. Following dinner, I headed to Gate B94 where
I had a few minutes to spare prior to boarding.
Nothing of significance to note for this flight as it was pretty similar
to my Air Canada flight down to Orlando only a few days earlier. However, I ended up losing my window seat to
a five year old child due to a booking mishap his family had when they made
reservations for this flight.
Air Canada Flight 1677
His father explained to me that Air Canada had
accidentally separated his entire family of four, and because both of his
children were under the age of seven, the Air Canada agents paired the father
and son together in my seat while the Mother and Daughter were sat a few rows
up on the other side of the plane. No
one told me about the change in seating planes when I boarded the flight, but
given my history with Air Canada, I wasn’t surprised, either. The father apologized for the confusion, but
how could any reasonable person be upset given this situation? I was just unsure where I would now sit as it
was full flight. Fortunately, the Father’s
original seat was actually right beside me in the middle row, thus saving me
the trouble of asking one of the flight attendants to help me find a new seat.
Toronto Pearson International Airport
With an estimated arrival time of 1am EST, I
decided to take a nap during the flight.
Toronto has a noise by-law which prevents flights from departing between
Midnight and 6am and arriving between 1am to 6am. So, it was eerily quiet by the time we
arrived at Pearson International Airport as we were one of the last arrivals
for the day. On the bright side,
Canadian Customs wasn’t as busy as a result, so I was able to grab my luggage
and head home all within 20 – 30 minutes of arriving. Since this will be my last business trip for
an indefinite period of time, the only thing I could think of while I headed
for home was when and where my next flight would be. And more importantly, when would I return to
Orlando again?
An eerily quiet Toronto Pearson International Airport
AC 1670 – MCO to YYZ
Operated by: Air Canada Rouge
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300 (twin-jet); Seat: 46A
Departure: 10:26PM EST – Orlando International
Airport (MCO) – Gate B94
Arrival:
12:58am EST – Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) – Terminal 1, Gate
F69
Flight
Time: 2:32; Non Stop Flight – 1090 Miles/1754 Kilometers; Date: March 20-21,
2019
As
America’s favourite pastime, baseball has been a big part of its culture for
over 150 years. Every year, Major League
Baseball teams head to the warmer climates of Arizona or Florida for six weeks
of Spring Training in preparation for the regular season that starts around the
end of March or early April. While I
have been to my fair share of baseball games in the past, I have never once been
to a Spring Training game. That all
changed for me while I was in Orlando and realized that the hotel I was staying
for an upcoming conference I had to attend was less than 10 minutes away from
Champion Stadium – the Grapefruit League home field for the Atlanta Braves.
ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex - Home of Champion Stadium
Champion
Stadium is officially located on the Walt Disney World property at their ESPN
Wide World of Sports location. Not only
was I about to attend my first Spring Training game ever, but this would be my
first time ever visiting this section of Walt Disney World. Opened in 1997, Champion Stadium was
initially intended to be a neutral stadium for Grapefruit League games when
necessary, but ultimately ended up becoming the home field of the Atlanta
Braves like I said. Surrounding the
ballpark were other baseball diamonds that saw young kids playing in a weekend
baseball tournament. There was also a weekend
cheerleading competition going on at the same time inside the HP Field House right
beside Champion Stadium. Already it felt
more like I was in a small town about to go to watch a minor league baseball
game instead of two Major League Baseball teams.
2019 Grapefruit League Spring Training - Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros
Making
my way to the box office, I was a bit shocked that the most expensive tickets
happened to be in the upper deck behind home plate! Usually, upper deck seats are some of the
cheapest tickets you will find throughout all Major League Baseball stadiums. This wasn’t the case here at Champion Stadium,
but for about $45 US, I felt like it was still reasonably priced compared to
other professional sports games I have been to.
Once inside the stadium, however, I quickly understood why they were
that expensive. Compared to regular
sized Major League Baseball stadiums, the upper deck at Champions League is
really the equivalent to the lower 200 level/high 100 level section. Without a doubt, this section has the best
unobstructed view of the entire stadium.
My view during the Atlanta Braves game
Champion
Stadium itself was just very impressive.
Much like the architecture one would find in Florida, the stadium incorporates
Venetian Gothic Revival, Mediterranean, and Spanish influences with
yellow-painted stucco, green-tile roofs, towers, and arches. Down towards the third base line, palm trees
line up along the grassy knolls where fans can sit and watch their favourite
Major Leaguers play as if they were at community ballpark in rural America
instead. A much larger grassy knoll area
is located out in left field for fans to sit while several flag poles dot the
landscape with stadium sponsors in the form of pennants instead of typical
billboard signage. Down the first base
line are more bench seats and a small beer garden for fans to sample local
craft brews. Such a unique, intimate
vibe here at this marvelous stadium.
2019 Grapefruit League Season - Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros
By the
time I had found my seat, the game had already started. I was anticipating this to be a fun,
competitive game to watch. The Houston
Astros won their first ever World Series back in 2017, so their championship
team was still relatively intact. And
while the Atlanta Braves have struggled a lot since their heyday of the
early-to-mid 1990s, they acquired Josh Donaldson during the off-season to help
bolster their offense. Furthermore, it
was St. Patrick’s Day. With the Atlanta
Braves donning green home jerseys for the occasion, it certainly helped to put
the fans into a festive mood.
Fans enjoying the game on the grassy knoll out in Left Field
Robinson
Chirinos opened up the scoring at the top of the 4th inning for the
Houston Astros with a double hit into left field that brought Josh Reddick
home. The Astros then added to their
lead in the top of the 6th with runs batted in coming from Tyler
White and Nick Tanielu to make the score 4-0.
The energy at Champion Stadium was completely deflated at this point with
a deafening silence until Freddie Freeman answered back for the Atlanta Braves. Freeman’s three run homerun fly ball over
right field pulled the Braves within one run at the end of the sixth inning. Unfortunately, this was about as good as it
would get for the Braves as the Astros exploded for three more unanswered runs off
singles from Alex De Goti and Ronnie Dawson at the top of the 9th to
secure the 7-3 win.
And
just like that, my first experience with Spring Training was over. But what an experience it was to see the
Atlanta Braves play one of their last remaining games here before they head off
to their new stadium for the 2020 season.
Although the game itself wasn’t memorable, Champion Stadium certainly
will be for me in the years to come. It’ll
be interesting to see what future Spring Training games I find myself at and
see how those stadiums compare. But for
now, it was time for me to head to downtown Orlando to celebrate St. Patrick’s
Day.
A salute to the fans as the Atlanta Braves leave the field following the game
