Beer, Beer, Beer, Beer, We Like Beer
--The Asylum Street Spankers
(and Me)

As if taking us to Niagra falls wasn't good enough, the conference organizers decided we needed to blow off a little steam and drink down a few brews. As AnOs said "way ahead of you". Still, not wanting to perpetuate the rumor that our group can be a little anti-social, we hopped onto one of a dozen buses that took us to Toronto's reborn Distillery District. Seems like a lot of towns are rediscovering their forgotten local brew sites and re-imagining them as havens for upscale drinkers who might have a few too many and take home some ritzy art or a Prada handbag that caught their beer-goggled eyes. That being said, the place was a welcoming all brick, sunshine filled plaza where free food and drinks were handed out like candy. The Hawk found some high-brow Sam Adams drink-alike inside the actual bar, but I was pretty happy with my Canadian stand-by Sleeman's. Good stuff. They used to have a billboard in Windsor that said "What American's Take Home in Their Trunk". Damn straight!

Whilst there, we met Eik, resident Army Epidemiologist. Yes she has red hair. Yes, I tried not to stare (staring inversely proportional to BAC). She was a good addition to our crew. i.e. she knew how to have a drink and talk science such that neither is out of hand.

Hawk and Dove

Our crew also involved Wallace from Kenya. Wallace was with a couple of other folks from Africa. One of them was looking a little sickly. As it turned out, he had malaria. Wallace took this along the lines of someone getting your drive-through order wrong: it happens from time to time. However, having malaria at a public health conference is a bit like being the hot chick in the engineering class: everyone wants to talk to you.

The Hawk owns up to a few Hooters visits

Leaving Stylish District in Style

HT To AngiO, whom I stole photos from, since I wasn't bright enough to remember my camera.