End of a Quest!

Well, well! Here is a historic photo. This is a carton of my favorite Australian beer, Victoria Bitter, henceforth referred to by its popular name VB. I have loved this beer for 20 years but have never found it for sale closer to home than New Zealand. But this pic is not taken from some rental house or motel in Australia...this is on my back deck right here in Cali!! I always bring home a few bottles from my trips Down Under but this is the first time I have ever had a 24 bottle carton of VB here in Los Estados Unidos! The other day, I was raving about VB to a couple friends in Palo Alto. After I left, one of them dug into the internet and discovered that, unknown to me, VB is indeed sold in North America...at ONE place and only one. Fortunately, that spot is in Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, close at hand. I went up there and sure enough...cartons for sale at 38 bucks per. This is virtually the same price I pay for VB in Oz...it's about 35 Australian there, and of course the Ozzie dollar is almost at par with the US dollar these days. Wonderful!