to purchase alcohol in ontario you have to head to an lcbo, which stands for liquor control board of ontario. it’s a state run store that sells beer, wine, and spirits. if you are just looking for beer you can head to the beer store, a privately owned operation that sells beer. it definitely seemed odd that you couldn’t just go to a grocery or convenience store for booze. i guess some u.s. states have similar operations though, like rhode island for instance.

the beer store was pretty interesting. it was like in the movie strange brew where you place an order and your beer comes out on a conveyer belt. you can also bring in your used bottles for money off your purchase, which gives you way more incentive to recycle. i was also impressed that they sold two litres of IPA!

i noticed that just because you worked at the beer store didn’t mean you knew a lot about beer though. i asked for the hoppiest beer they sold and was recommended best bitter by wellington arkell. it was neither hoppy nor especially bitter.

– ryan

i love grocery shopping in foreign countries, even if it’s just while visiting our neighbor to the north. you always notice subtle differences from shopping at home and find totally random things for sale. not surprisingly, most items are labeled in english and french in canada instead of english and spanish like down south. it made you feel like you were a little further away then you actually were. it even added a touch of class to the design of some items. for instance, these great litres of eggnog! the mid-century graphic design with the french words gave the packaging a stylish vintage look.

another funny difference i spotted was non-alcoholic beer. they call it “de-alcoholized” beer in canada. at first i thought this was maybe the french translation, but in fact that’s just what they call it.

– ryan

we have had a decent amount of tim hortons while up here in the great white north. it’s in essence the canadian version of dunkin’ donuts. i’ve enjoyed it, although as you can see from the photo, the snow has been quite crazy.

– ryan

i have a sweet view of hamilton, ontario from the my hotel room at the crowne plaza!

– ryan

i headed to canada today for work. there were some great views from my airplane ride on the way up!

– ryan

i recently saw a beautiful sunrise while working on st simons island. the ocean breeze was freezing that early in the morning however.

– ryan

we had some flurries and a very light snow coating today!

– ryan

we had an austin-healey sprite for a prop car on a recent commercial and boy was it beautiful! the headlights gave it a cartoon face that totally reminded me of speed buggy. of course i hopped in for a photo, although my legs barely fit under the steering wheel. it made my mini cooper seem gigantic.

– ryan

we did some holiday decorating today while listening to loretta lynn’s a country christmas! ’tis the season.

– ryan & gub

john portman is a world renowned architect who designed many of the buildings in downtown atlanta. he graduated from georgia tech in 1950 and has been designing beautiful buildings all around the world ever since. his atlanta structures are known for being connected with these great hallways, also known as the buildings “arteries.”

– ryan