Chantelle in the City

Happy 2013! Back from my holidays and much-needed break. This is...

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 23:48:28 -0500

Happy 2013! Back from my holidays and much-needed break. This is what it looked like this morning in Toronto on my morning walk. It looks like winter is here to stay!

Agent Hashtag with Kellan Lutz At least I’m not this bad!...

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:08:16 -0500

Agent Hashtag with Kellan Lutz

At least I’m not this bad! “How will everyone know I’m listening to Arcade Fire?” - #AgentHashtag

I Love Chicago!

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:13:33 -0500

I’m finally getting around to posting the pictures from my trip to Chicago. I am 0-3 when it comes to posting my pictures on time, but at least it’s not as bad this time around.

Beautiful skyline

Ferris wheel at Navy Pier

One thing I had to do was see a game at Wrigley. We ended up watching the Cubs host the Giants (The Cubs lost.) Despite the threat of rain in the morning, it ended up being a beautiful day for a ballgame. And yes, I did rock a Jays hat.

Before the trip, everyone kept telling me that I had to try deep dish pizza. A friend recommended Lou Manalti’s to me, and even though I was skeptical at first, I decided to give it a try. When we got to the restaurant, the wait was already an hour and a half. The strange part was that the wait didn’t seem to bother anyone! We were going to leave when a server brought out some samples of the thin crust pizza. Once we tasted the samples, we knew we were going to wait, no matter what. It was delicious!

Soldier’s Field (home of da bears) is beautiful!

The Bean was even better in person. No matter where you stand, you can see the beautiful skylight reflected back to you. It was neat watching all the tourists (myself included!) take their pictures underneath the famous landmark.

Obligatory self-portrait under The Bean.

The Famous Chicago Theatre

Beautiful buildings are everywhere in Chicago. It’s an absolute architectural wonder. I highly recommend the Architecture Tour put on by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. It’s definitely the best way to view the city and the buildings.

And of course, no trip to the Windy City would be complete without a trip up the Sears ( aka Willis Tower).

The trip was amazing. I know understand why everyone usually is quick to cite Chicago as one of their favourite cities in the world. It’s definitely one of mine. If you want to see the whole set here, you can see them here.

Baseball Road Trip: Wrigley Field

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:00:09 -0400

I know, I know, I am terrible at posting pictures from my stadium trips. But now that the Giants are now World Series Champions, there is no better time to post my pictures from Wrigley!

Enjoy!

San Francisco Giants vs. Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Sunday, September 2nd.

This is one thing checked off my bucket list!

Banners hang from the rafters.

Giants RHP Matt Cain took on Cubs LHP Travis Wood

Bright lights!

Kung Fu Panda!

Soriano and the Ivy.

Ouch…

You can see the full set here.

If you want more baseball, look at my Fenway set here, PNC Park here and Progressive Field here.

I still haven’t uploaded the pictures from Wrigley yet,...

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:40:45 -0400

I still haven’t uploaded the pictures from Wrigley yet, but here’s a quick teaser until then.

This is where I’m going to be for the next week! See you...

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:30:11 -0400

This is where I’m going to be for the next week! See you when I get back!

The Ten Most Tweeted About Athletes During the 2012 Olympics

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 18:39:16 -0400

According to Twitter, there were more than 150 million Tweets about the Olympics during the 16 days of the Games.

The biggest moments were:

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt wins gold in the 200m sprint (80,000+ Tweets Per Minute)
Bolt wins gold in the 100m sprint (74,000+ TPM)
Great Britain’s Andy Murray wins gold in the men’s tennis singles (57,000+ TPM)

Rounding out the top five were the 4 x 100M relay and the USA vs Spain basketball game.

The ten most Tweeted about athletes were:

Usain Bolt (@UsainBolt)
Michael Phelps (@MichaelPhelps)
Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994)
Ryan Lochte (@ryanlochte)
Gabby Douglas (@gabrielledoug)
Andy Murray (@andy_murray)
Kobe Bryant (#GetKobeOnTwitter)
Yohan Blake (@YohanBlake)
Lee Chong Wei (@Lee_C_Wei)
LeBron James (@KingJames)

Of course the Opening and Closing Ceremonies created lots of buzz, but the most surprising was that the Spice Girls eclipsed Usain Bolt with a record 116,000 tweets per minute during their performance.

Get ready Rio!

This fan’s sign says it all. From Sportsnet’s...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:59:04 -0400

This fan’s sign says it all.

From Sportsnet’s Official Facebook page.

Finally! The Blue Jays defeated the Yankees this afternoon 10-7,...

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 23:12:56 -0400

Finally! The Blue Jays defeated the Yankees this afternoon 10-7, ending the five game loosing streak. I’m not going to lie: it’s been a rough couple of weeks for us Jays fans. So it was definitely nice to see the offense wake up from their seems-like-forever prolonged slump.

The picture is a fancy Instragram photo from Saturday’s game where a friend and I took in the game from the 500 level.

Canada Wins Bronze in Women's Soccer

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 17:25:46 -0400

Woo-hoo! The Canadian Women’s Soccer team won Canada’s 15th medal in London today, beating France 1-0 in the bronze medal match.

This is Canada’s first medal in a traditional summer team sport since picking up a silver medal in basketball at the Berlin 1936 Games.

The lone goal of the game was scored by Oakville’s Diana Matheson. This win also gave me bragging rights against my stepmom, who is from France. (She assures me that she was cheering for Canada the whole time…)

Image from CBC.

If you haven’t read the Great Gatsby yet, you really should. But if you haven’t and are...

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:59:12 -0400

If you haven’t read the Great Gatsby yet, you really should. But if you haven’t and are just waiting for Baz Luhrmann’s movie then this handy chart should help you figure out who is who.

My First Mehndi

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:49:07 -0400

To celebrate a good friend’s wedding, I recently had mehndi applied to my hand. Mehndi is when henna is applied to hands and feet as a temporary form of skin decoration. The design was absolutely beautiful, and was created by the artist freehand. I couldn’t get over how precise and fast she was!

Here is the finished product on myself and two other guests. The design turned a rich shade a brown and lasted about a week.

We lost yesterday, and again today, but at least we’ll...

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:25:57 -0400

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We lost yesterday, and again today, but at least we’ll always have this. Jose’s monster home run (his 25th of the season and 13th this month) was launched over the green monster and dented an SUV parked across the street.

Even more reason to #VoteJose.

Baseball Roadtrip: Progressive Field

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:00:40 -0400

Below is a post that I wrote in July 2011 about my baseball roadtrip to see the Blue Jays play the Cleveland Indians. I apparently forgot to actually post it, and it’s been sitting in my drafts this whole time. Even though it’s almost a year old now, I still wanted you all to see the pictures, so here it is…

A few weeks ago, the Jays embarked on a four game roadtrip to Cleveland to take on the Indians. And I joined them!

Cleveland is a little more than 4 hours away from Toronto, meaning that we got to the park in plenty of time.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially since the bullpen blew Thursday’s 4 run lead in the ninth inning, but the Jays managed to take the remaining three games.

View from the cheap seats (we saw three Bautista bombs!):

The atmosphere at Progressive Field is incredible. Everything is about the Indians, there are pictures of the players all over, and fans are decked out in Indians gear. If you walk around town, all the bars and restaurants have Indians memorabilia, jerseys, and signs in the windows. The Blue Jays have a lot to learn.

Even the lightposts around town celebrated the Indians!

The best part of the weekend were the spectacular fireworks display put on Friday and Saturday night. We had a great view of the fireworks both nights from the upper levels.

We went to Sunday’s game a bit early and caught batting practice. Pitchers were even catching fly balls (including Jason Frasor!)

Chris Perez aka Firestarter warming up:

We took in the game from the Home Run Deck. The bleacher seats are cheap and a great place to see the action too.

You can see the whole set here.

In case you missed it this weekend, the Blue Jays introduced...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 23:50:00 -0400

In case you missed it this weekend, the Blue Jays introduced their Canada Day jerseys. I love it! What do you think?

Photo credit: @Uniwatch on twitter

Baseball Roadtrip: PNC Park, Pittsburgh

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 23:19:00 -0400

I’m finally posting my pictures from my roadtrip to Pittsburgh Easter weekend. We went down to Pittsburgh for two reasons reasons: 1) the outlet malls (no sales tax!) and 2) to see the Pittsburgh Pirates take on the Philadelphia Phillies opening weekend. Yes, I know Opening weekend was a long time, long time ago, but it’s better late than never!

If you’re a new reader, you should know that I love visiting ballparks across America. I’d always heard that PNC Park was one of the most beautiful parks in North America, and let me tell you that every word is true. There was no better way to watch the game. And what a game it was, the Pirates came back from behind to win it 5-4.

Here are some of the good shots:

Beautiful scenery outside the park:

It was a 50/50 mix of Phillies and Pirates fans:

Thanks to the giant scoreboard in right field, I was able to keep my eye on the Blue Jays game (the Jays on the other hand lost to the Indians 3-4):

You can see the full set here. Be sure to also check out my Cleveland and Boston galleries too.

Where should I go next?

If anyone ever wants to get me a present…

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:24:25 -0400

If anyone ever wants to get me a present…

Chicago vs. Chicago: Round 2

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:23:37 -0400

Nick Offerman and ~~Darrell from the office~~ Craig Robinson are back as the die-hard Chicago fans who prove just how far they would go for their beloved sports teams:

Not as good as the original, but still funny.

Who’s side are you on?

Another gem from George Takei’s Facebook page.

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:09:27 -0400

Another gem from George Takei’s Facebook page.

Quite happy to see this post on the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Facebook page...

Wed, 30 May 2012 17:30:49 -0400

Quite happy to see this post on the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Facebook page yesterday:

Cap worn by Toronto Blue Jays Yan Gomes on May 17, 2012 when he became the first Brazilian born player to appear in a major league game. Yan collected two singles in his debut while starting at third base.

Congrats again Yan!

Image courtesy of National Baseball HOF’s Facebook Page.