Our Dominion Style

May 15, 2012

It’s been a few days since I got home, and it’s been over a week since we spent a good amount of time in the wonderfully curated and beautiful Old Faithful Shop. It was great to see Jes and finally meet the third Gagnon brother, Joshua, we also got to meet some great people that ran some great businesses.

Although there were a lot of great brands around, Southern Field Industries was clearly the most popular. Coming all the way from Japan, Keiko and Manabu hand make incredible backpacks, totes, and purses. I am almost certain they came away with a good penny in their pocket, or at least paid for their trip. My other favourites were Freeman out of Seattle, Read’s Clothing Project out of DC, and because of my blanket obsession, Faribault Woollen Mills of Faribault Minnesota.

The first night we had the pleasure of partying with everyone of Gentlemen’s Reserve and finally got to meet the brain behind it all, Darian Hocking of Free/Man. Hoyne was generous enough to supply the party with beer, and with a couple of Read’s shirts sacrificed to the beer gods, the party only went up from there.

I feel like next year can only get better, I’ll definitely be heading out again, and Darian and I briefly discussed an East Coast equivalent, but don’t be holdin’ your breath on that it was party talk.

This post was basically just a list of brands you should check out, so with that I bid you good day.

Graeme WA

12:17pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZH0PawLXMRiR

(Notes: 12)

May 3, 2012

ODS Goes West: Jasper - Vancouver - The Ferry

We started off kinda rocky leaving Saskatoon, the train was 3 hours late and we didn’t board until 1am. By the time we woke up we saw a brief glimpse of Edmonton and we were on our way to the promised land, British Columbia. Our first glimpse of the Rockies was on the edge of the border while we were still in Alberta. I was mesmerized, the biggest mountain I had seen before then was in New York, a mole hill compared to these beauties. The farther in we got, the better the mountains got, and eventually we made it into Jasper.

Because the train was so far behind schedule, our visit to Jasper was far too brief. We had 30 minutes in what seemed like such a beautiful little town. We bought some lunch, took a quick stroll to snap a nice shot and headed back onto the train and onwards to better things.

We arrived into Vancouver around 9am, and my immediate impression was, “it’s just a wet Toronto”, but then we found the Waterfront. I thought the Rockies were good, but I hadn’t seen the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Range together. After some more walking around I understood Vancouver, it’s clean, young, and beautiful; everything Toronto is not. With the short few hours we had before our bus left for Victoria, we checked out pure genius at the Bill Reid Gallery and checked out some pure genius at Granville Island Brewery.

We will be back to check out more of Vancouver, but we had to come over to Victoria and see my childhood friend, Rob. We took the misleadingly long bus over to Vancouver Island, and he immediately took us to Pig. We ate some delicious ribs and then played a much needed game of Catan. 48 hours later and we’re taking a much needed sleep, before we check out what the Capital has to offer other than ribs.

Fun Canadian Fact: Vancouver Island is roughly the same size as the UK.

2:16am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZH0PawKnlmqA

(Notes: 3)

Filed under: ODS Goes West Jasper Vancouver British Columbia

April 29, 2012

ODS Goes West: Saskatoon

Before getting to Saskatoon we didn’t really know what we were going to do for 2 days, and admittedly by the Saskatoonians, there isn’t a whole lot to do. Despite the lack of activities Saksatoon is a beautiful city, the South Saskatchewan River runs right down the middle of the city and parks and walking paths run the entire length of the city on both sides.

So, with not many ideas on what to do we took a long stroll along the river, and an extra long lunch at Winston’s English Pub, housed in the Hotel Senator, the first hotel in Saskatoon. The one interesting sounding thing we found was The Museum of Natural Sciences in the Geology building of the University of Saskatchewan, noted for its life size Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. The University itself is also really nice, and the architecture could be described easily as “sand coloured”.

The only other site we were told to check out happened to be our hotel, the Delta Bessborough. The castle like hotel built in the 30s seems to be the only notable factor of the Saskatoon skyline, if there is such a thing, and it sits picturesquely along the river. Unfortunately our room doesn’t look over the river but we do get a nice view of the few blocks that are downtown.

We’ve got the whole day ahead of us before we head to Vancouver and we’re gonna check out the Art Gallery and eat a bunch of food before we take the 2 night trek to the West Coast.

8:44pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZH0PawKaiSi1

(Notes: 9)

Filed under: ODS Goes West Saskatoon Saskatchewan

April 29, 2012

Alright, so big change in plans, a bunch of stuff came up and we’re not gonna be able to meet for a drink, but we’ll all meet up at Gentlemen’s Reserve and have a good time, maybe catch a few beers and lunch. So, everyone should plan to come to Gentleman’s reserve at noon on Sat. See ya there.

12pm (noon), Sat., May 5th
Old Faithful Shop
320 W Cordova St.
Vancouver, BC, V6B 1E8

7:30pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZH0PawKaNoBZ

(Notes: 9)

April 27, 2012

ODS Goes West: Winnipeg Day 1

People had always told me that Winnipeg was cold, I always believed them, but I don’t think I really understood. After a 34 hour train ride, most of which was rocks and trees and trees and rocks, we found ourselves standing on the Winnipeg platform in -6*C weather… this is Spring in Manitoba? Since we arrived at 7am, we had a lot of time to kill before our room was ready so we grabbed some breakfast, and found ourselves wondering what the hell a cottage cheese patty is (Glom Kuak). After breakfast we hit up the Forks, cause in Canada we like to see two rivers meet, as proven by the amount of history and things going on around the knuckle of the Red River and Assiniboine.

Immediately it’s easy to tell that Winnipeg loves it’s architecture, I mean, I knew about the unfinished Human Rights Museum and the famous Provencher Bridge, but it became clearer the more we walked around. It kinda came as a surprise to me, but Winnipeg is an actually well thought out and beautiful city, you’d think with all this space they’d take it for granted, (ie. the problem that is GTA), but instead they make unbelievably large and fantastic buildings, such as the Legislative Building, which is the most stunning and overwhelming structure I’ve ever seen.

We spent a good chunk of the day, just wandering around and taking pictures, but we also hit up the Manitoba Museum. It’s a wonderfully executed and interesting museum, we learned about dinosaurs, wildlife, and the people of Manitoba, but the exhibit we spent most of our time was the HBC Gallery.

Eventually we checked into our hotel and we went for some food and one last walk. After a 34 hour train ride, and the brutally repetitive, yet beautiful landscape that is the 30 hour ride through Ontario, and the 10 hours of exploring Winnipeg, we are finding it hard to retain consciousness. We’re leaving the night life until our last day in Winni tomorrow.

12:57am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZH0PawKPHZPB

(Notes: 2)

Filed under: Winnipeg Manitoba ODS Goes West

April 23, 2012

Victoria, British Columbia
Population: 344,615
Founded: 1862
Claim to Fame: I could list the things, or I could just say, “Old People”, and be done with it.

12:32pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZH0PawKAXpUz

(Notes: 2)

Filed under: Victoria British Columbia 10 Days 10 Provincial Capitals

April 22, 2012

Edmonton, Alberta
Population: 812,201
Founded: 1795
Claim to Fame: West Edmonton Mall, it’s just really big, like impossible to imagine without seeing it big. There’s other stuff too, but I’m enamoured by how big this mall is.

12:31pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZH0PawK6Apml

(Notes: 22)

Filed under: 10 Days 10 Provincial Capitals Edmonton Alberta

April 21, 2012

Regina, Saskatchewan
Population: 210,556
Founded: 1882
Claim to Fame: The Saskatchewan Roughriders, Wascana Lake, a man-made lake infront of the Legislation Buildings. Yup.

12:31pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZH0PawK1mdar

(Notes: 3)

April 20, 2012

Winnipeg, Manitoba
Population: 730,018
Founded: 1738 (as Fort Rouge)
Claim to Fame: The Red River, Provencher Bridge, Louis Riel’s House, Museum of Human Rights, the new and improved Winnipeg Jets.

12:23pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZH0PawJzwAZw

(Notes: 4)

Filed under: 10 Days 10 Provincial Capitals Winnipeg Manitoba

April 19, 2012

Toronto, Ontario
Population: Greater Toronto Area, 5 583 064; City, 2 615 060
Founded: August 27, 1793 (as York)
Claim to Fame: Largest city in Canada by population, CN Tower, Sky Dome (now the Rogers Centre). Think of anything most large cities are known for and TO is famous for it as well.