Oh, Canada!

I've lived near the Canadian border for 8 years now. Really near. Only ten miles from the line. Despite living so close, I had actually never been to Canada. I've had my passport the entire time, and we often entertained ideas and thoughts of going to Canada, but never took any action.

That all changed last weekend when Jeff, Genevieve, and I took a quick family getaway to the great and enchanting land of Canada!

We had researched and planned a ski weekend at Fernie Mountain Resort, in Fernie, BC, which is about a 5 hour drive from our house. It's actually fewer miles than a trip to Bozeman for us, which is a trip we do all the time. It's funny how being in a different country makes it seem like it should be farther away!

I took a day off of work and we left on a Thursday morning, crossing the border at a teeny tiny border crossing in the rural countryside near our farm- at Whitlash, MT. The border agent was nearly in disbelief that anyone would be crossing at this location. I think he was grumpy that we woke him up from his nap. Needless to say, it went smoothly and we proceeded on to Lethbridge, where we stopped for lunch.

We crossed at the Whitlash/Aden border crossing, which is just to the upper left of the M of Montana on this map.
Our house is between the T and the A of Montana.
It was interesting to enter a foreign country without leaving a gravel road!

Approaching the border crossing at Whitlash.  No lines!

It was really interesting to see the Sweetgrass Hills from a different vantage point.
Our house is directly east of the Hills. This is a view looking back from the northwest, from the border crossing.

We made it to Fernie mid-afternoon, checked into our hotel to get organized and unwind for a bit, then we decided to head downtown Fernie and walk around for a while before grabbing some dinner.

Approaching Fernie. You can see the ski slopes in the background!

If you never traveled with a one year old, let me fill you in on something-- they really aren't big fans of shopping and store-hopping. Genevieve was largely unimpressed with our efforts to walk around.
Until we found a children's store that had toys she could play with, then she didn't want to leave! haha  She wasn't the best dinner guest, either, but we did enjoy the food and atmosphere at a fun little restaurant called The Bridge, which was recommended to us by the proprietor of the toy store.

Walking around downtown Fernie. Super cute downtown!

Sign for The Bridge Bistro, complete with ski chairs.
Quintessential ski town vibe!

Obviously, I had the poutine for dinner because, well, when in Canada, eh?

Poutine is fries with cheese curds and gravy. Mine had bison brisket and mushrooms, too! Yum!

Trying to keep Genevieve entertained any way possible! 

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel for the night. We stayed at Best Western Fernie Mountain Lodge. It wasn't right on the mountain, but it really wasn't far, either. It was a very kid-friendly hotel, with a great complimentary breakfast, too.

The next morning, it was time to head to the slopes!

We checked Genevieve into daycare first thing when we got there. The daycare at Fernie was EXCELLENT.  It was pretty much one-on-one adult to child ratio. Genevieve's adult friend/caretaker for the day was Ellie and she was fantastic! I was super impressed with her caring nature and her attentiveness to Genevieve.  I also loved that they took the kids outside to play during the day, instead of just being cooped up indoors. 

While Genevieve was playing the day away with Ellie at daycare, we were out checking out the sweet slopes on Fernie Mountain! 

Chair-lift selfie!

We saw a pretty good sampler of the mountain as the day went on. We could tell that it's a really great mountain with lots of interesting and varied terrain and tons of powder traps. The biggest issue with our day was that it was really warm and the mountain hadn't had any new snow in quite some time. This meant that it was pretty icy in a lot of places and slushy on the lower mountain. Skiing on ice is challenging and can be dangerous, so we basically kept to groomed trails. 

Jeff is actually in this picture, near the center top, right in the middle of that little gulley.

We did find a few places where the wind had blown some snow and made it a little softer, but about mid-afternoon, it started pouring rain. Rain and skiing don't mix, sadly. Unfortunately, our day of skiing ended a little early. We picked up Genevieve and headed back to hotel.  After some swimming in the hotel pool for me and G, we ordered in pizza from the hotel restaurant, ate in our rooms, and went to bed early. We were all exhausted!

With the weather in Fernie being warm and rainy and therefore the skiing conditions being terrible, Jeff and I decided that instead of skiing our second day there, we'd just head south, back to the States, to Whitefish. We had packed all our suitcases the night before and laid out our clothes so that when we woke up in the morning, we could just get dressed and take off for the roughly 2 hour drive south to Whitefish. 

One last purely Canadian experience before leaving though. A trip to Tim Hortons!

Tim Hortons is like Dunkin Donuts, but Canadian, and super prevalent. They're known for their coffee, donuts, and pastries. We stopped in for a quick breakfast and coffee to go, and a box of Tim Bits for the road. Tim Bits are donut holes with a dubious name. (Right?!?!)

The drive to Whitefish was uneventful and passed by quickly. We were again the only car at the border crossing, this time crossing at Roosville, and on to Eureka. Genevieve slept pretty much the entire drive. Once we got to Whitefish, we got her settled in their daycare, then headed up the mountain!

NOT RAINING in  Whitefish! 

The bottom half of the mountain was a little slushy because it was warm here, too, and the top half was pretty foggy. We decided to head to the back side and thankfully it wasn't as foggy and it was actually SNOWING!!!  The morning of skiing at Whitefish was outstanding, on fresh snow, and not too cold. We had a blast!

We breaked for a quick lunch at the Summit, and back out we went. Unfortunately, the fog had consumed the backside by now, too. We only took one run back there, and then decided to head down to the front.

Here's a view from about 2/3 of the way down the mountain, finally below the fog.

We did find some non-foggy areas to ski, but by this time of the afternoon, they had become slushy. Then it started to rain. So, we called it a day at about 2:00, got organized, and picked up Genevieve to head home. 

It wasn't a bad thing that we left early in the end, because the weather changed very abruptly on our drive home. It plummeted from temps in the mid 40s down to single digits! A winter storm was blowing in and we ended up being very glad we were home on Saturday night rather than staying overnight somewhere and leaving on Sunday morning, which had been our original plan. 

All in all, we had a really great trip and made the best of the conditions on both mountains. Genevieve and I experienced Canada for the first time together, and it was a fun memory made as a family!