In an earlier thread I asked what it was like in Canada and how it compared to the US. Now I ask everybody, what is life like in your part of the state or provience? What are the stores, customs, words, or other things that make your place a unique place to live. Unless you DON'T have them, please don't put down typical stores like Walmart or McDonalds.

Life in the NW.Illinois\E.Iowa Mississippi river valley:

Stores: Kohls, ShopKo, Menards, Pamida, Farm and Fleet, HyVee
Restruaunts: Happy Joes, Taco Johns, Golden Corral, Country Kitchen, Culvers
Terrain: Ridges framing river valleys- farmland
Drink: Pop, 24 oz Convience store "capaccino" drinks that more like 1\2 coffee and 1\2 cream
Regional center: The Quad Cities and Dubuque
People: Honest and friendly on the outside but guarded.

Stores: Mervyn's, Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, Tower Records, Marshalls, TJ Maxx
Restruaunts: Holder's Country Inn, Flames Coffee Shop, Carrow's, Coco's, Carls Jr, Happi House, Round Table Pizza
Terrain: Houses... everywhere... there is no room left to build, but they are still building
Drink: We have a few little drive-thru coffee places... but I'm not sure what they're called.. also we have Peet's Coffee & Tea and Beverages&More
Regional center: San Jose
People: Depends on where you go

Life in Ontario, Canada:

Stores: Zellers, The Bay, Future Shop
Restruaunts: Montana's Cookhouse Saloon, Kelsey's, Fasooli's, McGinnis Landing, Ramekins, Lucky Star Buffet
Terrain: Houses everywhere
Drink: Mac's Convenience Stores
People: Generally friendly

Stores: Raley's, Ross, Mervyns, Burlington Coat Factory, Tuesday Morning's, CentrOmart
Restruaunts: Sylvia's, Strings, Skippolini's, Emil Villa's Hickory Pit, Marie Callendars
Terrain: Mountainous, rolling hills, green at the moment, but will be golden once it heats up.
Drink: The Martini was invented in the city of Martinez.
Regional center: East of San Francisco, usually called SF East Bay or the Oakland East Bay.
People: Fairly friendly, with some snobby yuppies here and there.

Stores: Sheetz, Giant Eagle, Peebles, Festival Foods, The Old General Store, Michaels, Cash-in Culture, Fun Party Stores, 7-11
Restruaunts: Super Panda Chinese, Valley Dairy, Eat-n-Park, Kings Family Restaurant, Cici's Pizza, Hoss' Steakhouse, Gianelli's Italian Restaurant, Jioio's
Terrain: lots of mountains, known for our Laurel Mountains...lots of country land, but becoming more and more populated
Drink: we call our soda, "pop", home of Rolling Rock beer about 20 minutes from where I live.
Regional center: closest large city is Pittsburgh, Pa (about 40 minutes away from me)
People: depends on what city/town you are in...mostly friendly...but some smaller towns are really set in their ways, and if you are a "newbie" to their town....they don't warm up to you very quickly.

Stores: Malls, malls, and more malls
Restruaunts: Legal Seafoods, Durgin Park, Calm Box, Woodmans,
Terrain: Ocean, Mountains, Salt Marsh
Drink: Beer
Regional center: Boston
People: Cold, takes a while, but will give you the shirt off of their backs(if they don't shoot you)

Ok, I thought this thread deserved one more bump because we have a lot of people from different places, including countries outside the US and Canada like Triamac whose from Australia.

I'll bite.


Stores: Lots of smaller suburban malls, Real Groovy (music store), Warehouse (department store), Countdown (supermarket), Mitre 10 (hardware store), ...
Restruaunts: Major chains, Denny's, fish 'n' chip stores (some are restuarant style), ...
Terrain: Ocean, plains, estaury, hills. Quite brown at the moment due the one of the driest summers on record
Drink: Anything and everything...
Regional center: Christchurch (2nd largest urban area in New Zealand) Pop.: Just over 400,000 (Approx.)
People: Generally friendly. There are a good range of friendly, unfriendly, good, bad etc people in this city.

Stores: Foodland, Daiei, Long's Drugs, Macy's, Borders Books & Music
Restruaunts: Gyotaku (Japanese restaurant), Ricado's (Italian Restaurant), Compadre's (Mexican restaurant)
Terrain: Mountains in central parts of the island, sugar cane and pineapple fields
Drink: Pass-o-Guava drink, iced coffee, iced tea
Regional center: Honolulu
People: Laid back for the most part

Stores: Ben Franklin (which I love), a locally owned clothing store, a pepectual tag sale store (basically overpriced junk-but you may be able to find a bargain or two), Shaws supermarket, Rite-Aid, Dunkin Donuts, Stewarts (a convient chain) a car part store, and a few other locally owned and convient stores (one with a liquor store).

Restaurants: "The Inn" (which is the best restaurant in town but also the most expensive-that is where I go to lunch frequently with a friend of mine), a decent Chinese take-out place, a few pizza joints, a greasy spoon, and of course (I have to say it) McDonalds.

Drink: I'm not too sure how to answer this. I guess there is a battle between Dunkin Donut's coffee and Green Mountain Coffee (which a lot of the convience stores sell), and the usual, beer, liquor, soda, etc.

Terrain: Located in between a couple of mountain ranges, some farm land in the outskirts of town (which is about a mile from where I am sitting, which is the center of town) and it is a small town.

Regional center: Rutland (we are about 20 miles from it)

People: Friendly but cautious, polite, tolerant. (But there are expections, of course)



Cat

I'll bite.


Stores: Lots of smaller suburban malls, Real Groovy (music store), Warehouse (department store), Countdown (supermarket), Mitre 10 (hardware store), ...
Restruaunts: Major chains, Denny's, fish 'n' chip stores (some are restuarant style), ...
Terrain: Ocean, plains, estaury, hills. Quite brown at the moment due the one of the driest summers on record
Drink: Anything and everything...
Regional center: Christchurch (2nd largest urban area in New Zealand) Pop.: Just over 400,000 (Approx.)
People: Generally friendly. There are a good range of friendly, unfriendly, good, bad etc people in this city.




So, has New Zealand been flooded by Lord of the Rings fans? ha! Actually though if I ever get rich I might think about retiring there.

Louisville, KY...

Stores: Kroger's and Meijer for grocery shopping... two malls located next to each other for most other... and Best Buy! (okay, none of these are really unique...)
Restaurants: Texas Roadhouse is based here (go figure). We have a lot of cool small, locally-owned dining places also, like Meridian Cafe, Havana Rumba, Cafe Lou Lou, and Limestone. If you ever want a decent list of places to eat in Louisville, check out http://www.courier-journal.com/scene/dining/diningreviews.html
Drink: Nothing out of the ordinary, save for mint juleps around Kentucky Derby time
Regional center: Louisville
People: Louisville has a lot of the traditional "Southern friendliness," but the people are a mix. You've got some folks from the North who have moved down here, some of your traditional Southern families, and everything in between. There's also a growing Hispanic population.

Oakwood Beach, New York

We just got a Target last month.  PizzaHut and KFC are less than 5 years old...this is where department stores and fast food comes last.  we have lots of great local stuff and fight to keep it that way...we don't always win, but we fight.

Stores: ShopRite, Waldbaums, Home Depot, CVS
Restaurants: all local, though there is an Applebees nearby and the rest is your chinese, your sushi...
Drink: Beer.  In your yard, in the bar, in the car at the park. This is where people can sneak beers into the park and still feel safe.
Regional center: NYC
People: Ah, go da hell, ya rat bastid! (new yorkers are the same...just the accent changes.)

I'll be the first from the U.K !

Life in Oxford, England area:

Stores: Borders,WHSmiths,Waterstones & Blackwells for books, Boswells, BHS & Debenhams for department stores,Boots,Superdrug & Lush for toiletries,cosmetics etc,Next,Primark,Gap,Topshop,River Island,Dorothy Perkins & ,M&S for big clothes stores. HMV & Virgin for music,DVD's etc.
Restaurants: Pizza Hut,Bella Pasta,Pizza Express,Ask,Zizzi,Cafe Uno & Gino's for Italian.Pierre Victoire & Bistro J'taime for french then loads of Indian and chinese restaurants ! Loads and loads of pubs all serving great British food too. Oh and the Carfax chip shop for fish and chips ! 
Terrain: Big City so lots of buildings with some biggish parks outside of the city you have fields, oh and the Thames runs throught the middle of the city.
Drink: Lager, Beer, Wine well thats what I drink, Loads of pubs and loads of coffee shops like Starbucks and lots of cafes too.
Regional center: About 40 mins to an hour from London.
People: Lots of students and freeking loads of tourists and foreign school children on trips !

^Pizza Hut!  Well maybe I can now visit with Jake since it is one of the only places he will eat at.

^Pizza Hut!  Well maybe I can now visit with Jake since it is one of the only places he will eat at.
Strangely enough you do get alot of Americans in there, and MacDonalds/Burger King. I wonder it's because it's a recognised name so you know what you are getting !! Also I guess it's cheaper than most places, food is expensive in the U.K  !

Thanks for all your responses and think that it's cool to know a little more about everyday life in your corner of the world.  8)

Stores: Albertsons, Safeway, Borders, Barnes and Noble
Restruaunts: Shari's, Denny's, McDonalds, Carl's Jr
Terrain: Agricultural, small cities, and surrounded by rainy, wooded mountains
Drink: Starbuck's, coffee, wine
Regional center: Eugene, Corvallis, and Salem
People: Hippieish, redneck, and everywhere in between