we went to see the lights before christmas at the riverbanks zoo in columbia, sc! there were lots of lights to see and a petting zoo where gub met a nice lama.

– ryan & gub

we have been busy wrapping our gifts and getting ready to head home for the holidays! we are very excited to see everyone.

– ryan & gub

there will be a total lunar eclipse this evening visible to most of north america. hopefully the sky stays clear enough that we can actually see the eclipse, unlike the last one in atlanta. the eclipse also coincides with the winter solstice, something that hasn’t happened in almost 400 years. on top of that, the ursids meteor shower is expected to add some shooting stars that should be visible in the dimmed night sky. it sounds like the trifecta of celestial events!

– ryan

i headed home from canada this weekend. the trip went great, however i’d be lying if i said i’ll miss the cold canadian weather. i’m looking forward to driving on roads that aren’t icy and not having my hands hurt because i forgot to put on my gloves.

– ryan

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