Doing the Dew in Canada

Okay, you’re probably tired of hearing about my trip to Alaska, but I do have something to share that I found a bit odd.

Hubby has an addiction and it’s Mountain Dew. He adores the stuff, maybe even more than me, his cherished wife. Combine that with our cheapskate ways, Mr. Ramey was jonesing pretty bad for his precious lime-green liquid since soft drinks were so darn expensive on the ship. He needed some, and he needed it badly. So off to Prince Rupert we went. There would be no souvenir shopping, no site seeing, nope, we just made a beeline to the shopping mall in hopes of finding Mountain Dew. Of course the kids complained about walking. It was day 6 of our cruise so they were understandably tired.

We made it to the mall…a really scuzzy one at that. The mall consisted of a dime store, athletic store, an escalator that didn’t work, lots of strange 20 somethings with nothing better to do on a Thursday, and a discount grocery store.

We picked up a 12 pack of Mountain Dew, a box of pull-ups for Little Man, and some “generic apple juice”. I had to laugh at that. Here in the states we try to pass everything off as a name brand. Even our generic has a brand of western family, or president’s choice, etc. Anyway, back to the trip.

Our family hiked back to the boat with more buzzing in our ears from our kids. “When are we going to be back?” Can you carry me?” “I’m tired.” Our lack of caffeine induced headache was becoming much more prominent with each step.

We made it through customs no problem. No questions asked. So we scurried to our rooms to drink up and be merry. The Mountain Dew tasted good–even to my tongue which prefers cherry cola. And the kids adored their apple drink. I tasted it and fell in love instantly! It wasn’t like apple juice in the States at all! It tasted like Apple Cider. De-lish-ious! Mental note, go back to Canada and get more “generic apple juice.”

But I hate to say it,  after further exploration of the Mountain Dew box, our moods changed. Instantly we became  sullen with defeat. On the back of the box in about 14pt font was written “Caffeine Free Beverage”***. What? Who thought up this great idea? And why is the box not light green or something. Hubby was insulted and spat his pathetic plea. “Why?” At least in America Mountain Dew knows that no one reads the fine print and we need color coded boxes and fancy imagery to decipher product differences.

So needless to say, we would NOT be canidates for Survivor. I guess you can say we have a hard time adapting. 🙂

***After further research we learned Canada doesn’t ever sell Mountain Dew caffeinated.