Published in the August 16, 2018 edition

By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI

TORONTO — For the second year in a row I went to Niagara Falls for my summer vacation. Along with seeing the sights. I also did some sports related activities.

Last year I golfed at our resort golf course about 12 miles north of Niagara Falls while this year I played in Canada for the first time at a course right over the border in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

I also went to different professional sports events as well. Last summer, I went to my first-ever Canadian Football League up in Hamilton while this summer I went to Toronto to see the Blue Jays play baseball.

Those trips went very differently.

Hamilton is 46 miles away from Niagara Falls. Once you cross the border, you stay on the Queen Elizabeth Way and get off the highway where the industrial area is. You then drive to the residential area of the city where Tim Hortons Field is located.

Things went very smooth getting there for the Saturday night game as I parked in a strip mall for $15 and went down a street (Balsam Ave) where people were tailgating at their homes. At the end of the street is where the stadium is.

I got my ticket and sat at the 20-yard line in the lower level 15 rows from the field. It was the Hamilton Tiger Cats home opener and a sold out crowd of 24,135 turned out (the CFL season runs from late June to November).

However, the home fans went home disappointed as the visiting British Columbia Lions came out victors, 41-26.

After the game there was a little traffic but nothing bad as I got back on the QEW and went back to the hotel.

It was a different story this year going to Toronto. It was a Sunday afternoon game at 1 p.m. against the lowly Baltimore Orioles and the trip is around 84 miles.

We decided, since we needed time to park and buy tickets to leave at 10:50 figuring that we would arrive around 12:20 so give us plenty of time to get our tickets and get settled into our seats.

It was rainy out but the Rogers Center, known as the SkyDome when it opened in 1989, has a retractable roof so weather was not going to be a problem.

However, when we got by Hamilton we saw a sign for road work on a Sunday morning, something you don’t see too much of. We got down to one lane and there were literally two guys sawing something in the left lane when we finally got to that site. Then, as we were getting closer to Toronto, there was more traffic, it then opened up a bit but as were we about to get to the exit for the stadium, there was even more traffic.

When we got off the exit we found a public lot that charged $25. We then found out that the ticket office is at the other end of the stadium.

By the time we got our tickets and got into our seats it was nearly 2:30 as we were in the car for over three hours. It was the top of the fifth inning and Baltimore was leading 1-0.

The only good news was that we saw most of the action the rest of the game as the Orioles blew a 4-1 lead allowing four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Blue Jays won, 5-4, in front of 39,021 fans.

After the game we decided to kill some time to let the traffic leave as we went into the team shop. When we got back to the car, it was very difficult, even an hour after the game ended, to get out but we finally did.

Of course, when we were in no rush to get back to Niagara Falls, it took us the 1:30 it should have taken us to get to Toronto as it was a traffic-free trip.

My advice, I found out from the locals, would be that if you are planning on going to a Blue Jay game from Niagara, is to take the train. The train is called the GO Transit and you can take it from the south.

For instance the station in Burlington is 38 miles south of Toronto. The fare is $11.25 and takes an hour and drops you off right at the Rogers Center at Union Station.

If we had the traffic issues on a Sunday, I can only image what it is like on a weeknight going to a 7 p.m. game.