Baldo Minaudo’s Blog

This is my first time to this small town of Lethridge, Alberta.  Back in the early 1990s I was a partner in The Merchandisers; at the time one of Canada’s largest outsourced merchandising force.  Though we had representatives covering Lethridge I had never actually visited this quaint community.

This city, though moslty caucasian is incredibly diverse in culture given its size.  The aboriginal population is well represented and there are many Eastern Europeans whose previous generations have migrated here.  Surprisingly, the Greek community is strong.  One of the best restaurants in town; Luigi’s Pizza and Steak House was started by a Greek man over 30 years ago and is still family run.

Within a short distance are many wonderful sites to see.  Although, I don’t recommend you cross into the U.S. border which is about an hour away.  I made the mistake of wanting to see what was on the other side and the U.S. border patrol found it necessary to give me a hard time.  Of course, coming back to Canada was even worse because now the Canadian border patrol wanted to know why I was coming back so soon.  It was an interesting experience watching them take apart the car that I rented.  Meanwhile, I was trying to calculate how much it was costing the Canadian tax payer to investigate me, a law abiding, conservative, business professional with too much to lose to mess with the law.

Calgary is only about an hour or so away.  The highway between the two cities is straight and speedy.  But watch out for speed trap cameras.  That’s right…they have cameras that will take your picture if you go too fast.  Which goes against the whole premise of stopping and fining speeders so that they don’t hurt anyone.  If someone is speeding and they don’t stop them until weeks later when they receive the ticket…then what’s the use.

Back to Lethridge - many of the people here are very much blue collar working class.  Lots of farmers and handymen.  Their are lots of workers here looking to exchange a good day’s work for a good day’s pay.  The customer service is pretty good too.  Just don’t expect the same ambitious attitude as you would find in a large city.  Instead you’ll get good, polite treatment. 

An excellent place to keep things simple and enjoy what nature has to offer.

Last week I spent a few days in Ocean City, Maryland.  I had heard about this place but didn’t realize that it was a resort type of town.  In retrospect the name should have been a clue.

Ocean city is very much a Florida style city based on the automobile and catering to a mix of young adults, young families and retirees.  The city is located on a peninsula with water on both sides.  At many points in the city you can see both bodies of water.  It is located just 3 hours from Atlantic City and 1.5 hours from Baltimore.

There are lots of restaurants to choose from.  However, don’t expect any bargains.  I found Ocean city to be surprisingly expensive.  I had a challenge finding an egg and toast breakfast for anything less than $15 U.S.  I expected sea food to be reasonable and it was a lot more expensive than what I would pay in Toronto, a large city. 

Nonetheless, the sun and beaches are beautiful.  The weather was warm, but not uncomfortably so.  I would consider buying a place in this resort town were it not for the fact that in the winter time it wouldn’t be warm enough for me to really consider it a warm climate.

Overall, a safe place to meet new people, enjoy the sun and beach during most of the year.