let's talk about Tim Hortons.

At this time last year, my life was pretty hectic. I was just about to get married, James and I had just bought a house and were packing up the old apartment, I was preparing for an interview for a promotion, and we were working out the details of our international honeymoon.

To Winnipeg.

Say what you will, but we went out of the country on our honeymoon, so that means I get to call it an international honeymoon.

Neither James nor I had been to Canada before our honeymoon, and I have to tell you that it far exceeded our expectations. Not only did the people there ACTUALLY say “eh,” but Canadians were every bit as friendly as they are stereotyped to be. (They claimed to love Americans! nobody loves Americans!) Whenever a Canadian heard that we were Americans on our honeymoon, they would congratulate us like it was the best news they’d ever heard, and then they’d give us a laundry list of things to see and do while we were there.

Most of our stay was in Winnipeg, which we found to be absolutely charming. We spent a lot of our time walking around and taking it all in. We walked by the river, saw tons of great architecture, and were greeted by friendly Canadians all along the way. Winnipeg had all sorts of neat little neighborhoods for us to explore and plenty of good food to eat. (It was in Winnipeg that I had the best gelato of my life: chocolate cheesecake gelato at Eva’s. Oh, so good.)

But do you know what my favorite part of our Canadian honeymoon was?

Tim Hortons.

Ohhhh, how I miss Tim Hortons.

Neither of us really knew what Tim Hortons was when we got to Canada, but we knew that it was a thing. On a whim, James and I decided to try it for breakfast one day. Best decision EVER.

Tim Hortons is the Starbucks of Canada: there’s one on every corner. But Tim Hortons is far superior to Starbucks. While both establishments sell coffee, Tim Hortons sells coffee for dirt cheap. Sure, the sizes are smaller (I got the most adorable teeny-tiny mocha for a DOLLAR), but then again, so are Canadians. And Canadian espresso is deee-licous.

Tim Hortons also sells a variety of breakfast sandwiches and lunch-y things, but their main draw is the doughnuts. Yeast doughnuts, my friends. You haven’t truly had a doughnut until you’ve had a yeast doughnut. They’re hard to describe, but the best I can do is “heavenly.” Yeast doughnuts smell like bread, and they’ve got a rich density to them that normal doughnuts don’t – plus, they’re way less greasy. After eating a yeast doughnut, you feel less “ugh, I’m going to die” and more “another doughnut, please!”

Or, in James's case, "another scone, please!"

We were only in Canada for three days, and we had Tim Hortons three times. The last time was when we were about to cross back into the US and knew that we wouldn’t have Tim Hortons again for a long time. That last Tim Hortons doughnut tasted like Canadian heaven.

My brother Mitch was in northern Michigan doing some work on wind turbines, and he mentioned that he was going to drive to Canada during one of his weekends off. I gave him a list of places to go, one of them being Tim Hortons. He LOVED it. During his time in the northern United States, Mitch kept an eye open for any Tim Hortons that may have crossed the border and – YAY! – he found one in Michigan! Shortly thereafter, I saw a news article saying that Tim Hortons would be coming to Fargo. Tim Hortons is slowly infiltrating the US, and I couldn’t be happier. Come to Minnesota already!

So if you ever find yourself in Canada (or northern Michigan, or eventually Fargo), do yourself a favor and stop by a Tim Hortons. Seriously, I dream of Tim Hortons. I suffer from Tim Hortons withdrawals. Winnipeg is high on my list for another road trip, and it’s mostly because of Tim Hortons.

Paradise, thy name is Tim Hortons.