Mik’s Food Scrapbook: Rogers Centre

The first thing Mik tried at the Rogers Centre was Sour Patch Kids. Yeah, they are basically the same as in the United States, but they are distributed by a different company and actually do seem a little different. At first Mik thought they were not as sour, but it was only because all the sour had ended up on his hand from holding it too long. In the end he actually thought they were sourer because they seem a little thinner.

Mik did not end up with any of his own food at the Rogers Centre, as he filled up on donuts from Tim Horton’s on the way to the game. He was going to try the gyro, but not when he learned it was made with chicken and not the normal beef. He was also disappointed to not find any regular fries anywhere. He did, however, try the sweet potato fries I got. He did not like them, though. He did enjoy the part he tried of the three cheese pannini I had.

Day 38: Canadian Farm Produce Shop

After going to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame we stopped at a Farm Produce shop right outside of St. Mary’s, Ontario, where the Hall of Fame is located. The shop mostly had preserves, but they also had fresh baked items and fresh strawberries. We got a jar of Pumpkin Apple Butter and Blueberry Rhubarb Jam, as well as a thing of strawberries. The strawberries were a great snack as we drove to Toronto and after dinner that night at the campground. We have not tried the Blueberry Rhubarb Jam yet, but the Pumpkin Apple Butter is pretty good, although it just tastes like apples and nothing like pumpkin.

Mik’s Mini Bat Collection: 2009 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Induction

Mik was excited at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame that for once he got a mini bat and I was not able to get a baseball. They usually seemed to have baseballs, but with Induction Weekend having been the week before they were out of a lot of things they normally had in stock. They did still have some 2009 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Induction mini bats, though.

The 2009 Canadian Hall of Fame Induction mini bats are two colored with natural coloring on top and a reddish brown color on the bottom. One of the interesting things about this bat is that it is made by KR3, which is a Canadian bat manufacturer, rather than Louisville Slugger or Cooperstown Sports like most of the other mini bats in his collection. The mini bat has a small logo of the Canadian Hall of Fame. It says 2009 Induction June 20, 2009 and has the names of the four inductees this year (Roy “Doc” Miller, Bernie Soulliere, Larry Walker, and Ernie Whitt).

Car Sticker Update: Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum

At the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum we got a bumper sticker that says I Rode the Carrousel in North Tonawanda, NY. The sticker also has two carrousel horses and says Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum. Dad put it in the top left corner of the back window.

Baseball Museum 8: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

We went to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame back on June 26, 2009, on our way to the campground in the Toronto area. Well, it was not exactly on the way, as the distance from it to the campground was about the same as the distance from Niagara Falls to the campground and it took three hours to get there from Niagara Falls. Anyways it was a very worthwhile detour and the only baseball thing that was enjoyable in Canada. In fact it was an even better overall experience, although there was not as many things to look at, than the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is really small. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame at Great American Ballpark is actually at least twice as big as the Canadian one and that one is just about one team. It is about the same size as the part of the San Diego Hall of Champions devoted to baseball, but that is just for one city and not one country. It is not that the museum does not have enough stuff to make a bigger museum, as they way they are they have quite a lot crowded on display, but just that baseball is not that big of a thing in Canada and they do not have the resources to have a larger exhibit space.

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is located inside a house tucked back in a mostly residential area of the small town of St. Mary’s in Ontario, Canada. The house is adapted to have a ramp up to it, so it is just as accessible as a regular museum building. It is a little cramped inside, but only because they have so much they want to display at one time (by the way they try to rotate what is on display regularly) and have such limited space. It may be to the point of almost cluttered, but there was still adequate space for Mik to go through it. Also, the bathroom is very accessible, as it is the original one from when it was just a residential house with the tub removed. For such a small museum it is amazingly accessible and part of why it was so disappointing to see the lack of consideration for wheelchair in the Rogers Centre accessible seating rows.

There are only two rooms in the museum, but there is plenty of interesting things to discover. One of the things that caught Mik’s attention was an old pitching machine, which had an interesting sign about how a similar one was actually used as the pitcher in a college baseball game once. Other things included some Babe Ruth memorabilia and info on his connection to Canada, such as hitting his first professional home run in Toronto. There was also some Jackie Robinson things, as he played for the Montreal Royals Minor League team before debuting in the Majors.

Induction Weekend was the weekend before we visited, so they had some exhibits on this year’s inductees, such as Ernie Whitt and Larry Walker. They also had some other recent memorabilia, such as things from the Canadian team playing in the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the ’09 World Baseball Classic.

Overall the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame was a lot of fun to visit. There was a good amount of items to see and it was interesting to the Canadian connection to MLB, which has increasingly become almost exclusively in the United States, but used to have more of its teams (i.e. Montreal Expos) and Minor League teams in Canada. Also, the one employee there was very knowledgeable not only about the things in the museum, but also Canadian baseball history and general baseball history as well. It was so nice after visiting places like the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site that had people that barely knew the script for showing the site to have a person that knew a lot about the place and also had passion about it. By the way I was impressed from the start when I noticed a little sign about the history of the house the museum is located in.

Day 36: Niagara Falls Videos

Finally have a good enough Internet connection to upload a few of the videos I took of Niagara Falls. The first one is of the American Falls seen from the Observation Deck. The other is of Horseshoe Falls.

Day 41: Cooperstown - Birthplace of Baseball

Today was spent in Cooperstown, New York, where the legend/myth says baseball began in 1839. We mostly spent the day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. We also had lunch at a little basement restaurant in town. Before heading back to camp we browsed some souvenir shops.

Browsing the shops was worthwhile as we are now back up-to-date with team stickers on the car, but at the same time kind of disappointing. They have a lot of cool baseball memorabilia with my favorite being the baseball cards, but pretty much nothing Nationals related. One shop did have some Ryan Zimmermann cards, but just plain rookie type ones. I really wanted one of the game used piece of jersey or bat type ones, but there was no player worthwhile in my opinion. Sure there were some well-known guys, but no Nats. Anyways, it was still fun looking at all the cards.

We are now back at camp and I do not have the patience for the slow Internet here, but I have plenty of posts ready to cut and paste to add photos to and post. I hope I get good Internet tomorrow on the road. At least we should get good Internet tomorrow night, as we are staying in a hotel outside New York City.

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