Years ago we spent the summer in Farmington, New Mexico and the kids noticed a lot of A & W restaurants and were intrigued to hear they featured carhops and Root Beer floats. They had never had a Root Beer float or been served by a carhop so they were anxious try it out. But I warned them, there would be a cost, you couldn't escape an A & W restaurant without a massive stomach ache. They were not deterred.

So we went and loaded up on burgers, tots and floats and as promised, we weren't out of the parking lot before everyone was crying that their stomach hurt.

When we got to Victoria we again discovered an abundance of A & W restaurants and the kids were anxious to relive their previous experience.

It turns out A & W's in Canada are owned by a Canadian company and have a different menu, a menu of food that is edible and doesn't cause immediate gastrointestinal distress.

But most importantly, they still feature an A & W Root Beer float.