Very Far From Home.

Drive through the prairies they said…it will be cool they said…Well ‘they’ may have exaggerated just a little. Saying it was cool would be a bit like saying McDonalds makes a great burger; it’s passable, in a pinch, but what’s actually cool is pretty much anything else.

One side of my in-laws lives in Nanaimo, BC not too far down the highway from home. The other side lives in a sleepy little town called Alexander, Manitoba; very far from home…I repeat…VERY FAR FROM HOME.

Our trip started out a bit roughly but once we left the lower mainland and sunk our teeth into the drive everything started to fall away, work stress eased off, home stress, cleaning, laundry, yard work, the usual day to day skullduggery all kind of slipped away and vacation mode took over. The drive out took us 3.5 days and was a roller coaster of crazy hotels, lack lustre continental breakfasts, ridiculous laughs and amazing scenery.

The only complaint I have was the prairies. I was really hoping for these ultra flat, hay bail filled, tree-desolate landscapes that old time Canadiana had raised me on, but I was tricked! The scenery through this section of the prairies was flat, to a degree, but more in the way that central Alberta is flat. The hills roll by endlessly, patches of trees line farmhouses protecting them from the winds sweeping across the fields and the highway winds through it all like a concrete river chasing the path of least resistance. Beautiful, but not what I was expecting.

Manitoba was really quite something. The bulk of our week there was spent in the two small towns of Alexander and Oak Lake Beach with moonlights in Brandon and Winnipeg. Unbeknownst to me Winnipeg has an amazing zoo where they are really doing it right. None of these tiny pens and depressed animals, these guys have gone all out. Huge multi-acre pens with a ton of effort put into truly building the animals a natural feeling and functioning environment. The polar bear pen is incredible, it’s massive and all built as a natural landscape with the exception of one giant glass tube for us lowly humans to walk through while the bears swim above.

Up until this point we had travelled over 3000kms and packed our days full of activities so following the zoo, a few days at the cabin was it just what the doctor ordered. It was really our first chance to out and out relax on the trip and this is when everyone really hit their vacation groove. The boys played outside and learned from Grandpa how to build fires, Heather and Jody got right to work on a puzzle and I launched into what is now one of my favourite books ‘Sick in the Head’ by Judd Apatow.

All good family reunions should end with fireworks right? Even if the person or persons responsible for said fireworks can’t get them to light and the watchers are being eaten alive by what are quite probably west nile carrying mosquitos…or whatever.

And just like that our time in Manitoba was done. It’s never easy to say goodbye to Don and Jody but alas the (road)show must go on. Up next was a marathon trip to Northern BC to visit family and friends in Fort St John, with a quick stop over in Calgary, Ab.

Before leaving Fort St John we had a chance to visit a friend of a friends house that was in a landslide last year. In total the house moved about 350 feet! It just slid, the whole thing, foundation and all. Then to make matters worse some kids came in and trashed the place while the owners were figuring out that ultimately they wouldn’t be covered by insurance or government subsidy as; the slide was an act of god. So at the end fo the day they basically lost the house completely. It was pretty surreal to go and walk through, such an unfortunate set of circumstances.

And just like that we were back on the road, leaving Fort St John and making the long journey home. We took our time, we stopped lots along the way, we drove partway with my brother and his boys, and just generally soaked up the last few days of what I’m sure will be a long remembered trip as a family, visiting family. Of all the things in life, of anything I could pick, my family, close and extended is my absolute favourite thing.

If you made it this far I’m shocked and very grateful for you. Thank you.