So, on the afternoon of January 1st, I got a phone call from my dad. He asked me, “Do you and your kids want to go to Canada with me?” I asked, “When?” and he said, “On the 18th.” Of course, I was in! I get my spontaneity from my dad, who has been retired for 7 months and has decided he wants to start checking things off his bucket list, and one of those things is seeing the Northern Lights truly light up the sky, and he knows I am always up for an adventure.
The other thing to know is, if you know my dad, it’s always truly an adventure. Most trips occur with at least one good story coming out of it, and a fairly spontaneous trip to a place with -40 windchills in January means it truly made for an adventure. I wanted to tell it in story form of things that might just happen to you if you let your 61-year-old dad plan a trip.
You Might Find Yourself Buying All Kinds of Winter Gear
… and by might I mean you should. Manitoba in January is no friggin’ joke. And depending on how far north you go, you could be looking at temps as low as -50-ish. The lowest we had during the day was -34, actual temp, not windchill (which was -46). Things I’d highly recommend are insulated bibs, a fleece face-cover, legit gloves like these, and warm base layers. I have a whole post on winter gear coming soon!
You Might Learn That Cold Can Be Truly Painful
Speaking of needing winter gear, I had a silly thought… I figured that once it hit zero, it was about as cold as it could get. Once you hit that threshold, it just is all, well, cold… That is not the case. I can say that with absolute confidence. Once it starts getting to -18 degrees with a fair amount of wind, what it starts to feel like is daggers piercing your skin if it’s truly windy. Also, if you take a deep breath or laugh to hard, it might truly burn your lungs. It’s unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
You Might Discover 9.5 Hours Into Your Road Trip That Your Already Remote Destination Is Actually 2.5 Hours More Remote
My dad booked everything for this trip and I didn’t really second guess or double check him on any of it. We woke up in Watertown, SD and realized when we put our cabin’s pin into our GPS instead of just the town, we realized that our drive that day was actually 12 hours. Not 9.5 hours. While this isn’t normally a huge deal, we had no idea what to expect from the drive beyond Winnipeg, this pin was kinda to a spot in the middle of nowhere, and the temps were brutally cold and neither of us felt comfortable driving well into the night, in the dark in sub-zero temps with my two little ones. So, we decided to find a place to stay in Winnipeg and break the drive up. We managed to stumble upon a hotel with a full blown indoor play area that was insane! 10/10 recommend staying here if you’re in Winnipeg with little ones. Charleigh is still telling everyone about this hotel.
You Might End Up in the Most Beautiful Cabin in the Woods
We had some serious reservations about this cabin. It isn’t an actual “rental property”. The lodge here was booked up so we stayed in their “retirement cabin”. So we didn’t see it listed on a website, we saw only a few pictures of the interior the day before we left and honestly didn’t know exactly what to expect. It was honestly so perfect! The location was insane. It sat right off of a lake (which was frozen) and was really close to a couple provincial parks and was just scenic. I did have a couple qualms with the kitchen, but once we rewashed all the dishes we needed to use and wiped some surfaces off, it was all good.
You Might See Some Crazy Wildlife
I had pretty low expectations for wildlife in January. I just assumed everything would be completely hunkered down – thanks for hibernating, bears! But, we still managed to have a few really incredible wildlife sightings: four caribou, two wolves and one Canada lynx! It was so cool! Charleigh cutely told us that Santa was looking for those caribou!
You Might Walk on a Frozen Lake
My dad kept saying how much he wanted to walk on a frozen lake. And all I could think of is him falling through the ice. I know that’s kinda silly considering how cold it is up there and how long it had been that cold. Finally, at Paint Lake Provincial Park, we found a space where they had done a polar plunge the weekend before with a section of the lake cut away after a long walking path to it. I felt confident that they wouldn’t put that on without being 100% sure it was safe. And I saw snowmobiles driving around on it too. So, I let my dad do it, and then, of course, I wanted to do it. So, I did and standing on top of what would’ve been a huge deep body of water as the sun was setting and the sky was glowing orange just had this strange energy and magic to it.
You Might See the Second-Tallest Waterfall in Manitoba
We didn’t do a ton of research on what to see because we knew it was going to be cold, so we figured we’d just be in the cabin. But instead, we did a beautiful, but short, little hike to Manitoba’s second-largest waterfall. It was incredible and the snow-covered boughs of the trees lining the trail were just magical. It was like a winter wonderland. And the waterfall was really snow-covered and partially frozen, but the sound of the water was so soothing and the ice just added a whole other element to the beauty of this waterfall.
You Might See The Northern Lights
We didn’t think this was going to end up happening for us. But then just after midnight, the next to last night we were in the cabin, my dad came up and woke me up just after midnight to tell me they were out right over our cabin. I threw my coveralls and coat on and slipped into my snow boots, not even taking the time to put socks on. I stood on the deck with my dad watching the green lights dance across the night sky. We went in and woke Charleigh up, which felt a little like a mistake in the moment because she was displeased to have been woken up, but ever since she loves to tell everyone that she saw the northern lights and that they were green because that’s her favorite color.
You Might Unexpectedly Set Your Soul On Fire
I expected this trip to be amazing. I knew I’d have fun with my dad, but I was expecting something chill. What I didn’t expect was a trip that had me feeling completely on fire. I felt really badass traveling out of country with my kids as the only parent on the trip. I felt badass in getting them out and doing incredible things. I felt badass getting out and doing once-in-a-lifetime things by myself. The unexpected beauty of being somewhere deep in the heart of winter caught me off-guard. I just fell deep for being in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by intense natural beauty and feeling like I was in a magical world of snow. I had this moment of clarity, of knowing who I am and what I want and knowing that I am forever filling to fight for that.
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