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!

Weekly Review through February 3

Here's my weekly review of last week, recapping fitness, farm, and life!

This week was full of excitement as we took a weekend getaway to Canada (sort of!) and also began Shape Up Montana! Read on!

Fitness
Jeff and I have made a commitment to trying to get in a bunch of days on skis this year. We don't live super close to any ski resorts, so it takes some effort. This week, we notched two more days on skis!

One nice thing about skiing, is that it seems to be having a positive impact on my injuries. My hip has been feeling better and better, which I'm grateful for! I *may* even start trying out some light jogging again soon!  Here's the lowdown. I'm planning a separate post with more info and pictures from our weekend trip, so stay tuned for that soon!

Check out this awesome Bird Mail package I received from a Montana Volee friend!
Flyte Gaiter, chapstick, and a sweet custom travel mug/wine cup!

January 28- Rest. Received a sweet Bird Mail package today!!!
January 29- 30 minutes treadmill walking with some incline
January 30- 20 minutes early morning yoga before school
January 31- Rest. Drive to Canada!
February 1- Skiing at Fernie Mountain Resort in Fernie, BC!

Selfie in Fernie!

February 2- Skiing at Whitefish! (yes, back in the states!)
February 3- Superbowl Workout/Treadmill crossfit activity from Shape Up Montana

February 1 also marked the first day of Shape Up Montana. I think this is the 5th year or so that we have done Shape Up Montana. We really like it for setting up and reinforcing healthy habits! I'm a team captain again this year, but our team makeup is a little different from years past. This year, we have a little bit bigger team including a few family members and lots of friends. Most of our team lives nearby, so we're hoping to have a few get-togethers throughout the entire 3-month program, too.

Farm
Jeff continues to feed cows and do chores daily. As I mentioned last week, he is on the Board of Directors for Montana Farmers Union. As part of that, he is on the Legislative Committee, which helps steer the lobbying efforts of MFU, particularly during the Montana legislative session, which is happening right now.  One of the specific legislative efforts Jeff has been spending a lot of time on is COOL, or Country of Origin Labeling for beef and meat products. I'd love to convince him to do a guest post about this, because it's really interesting and affects everyone who raises or eats meat!  The big idea of the bill Jeff and others are supporting is to legislate how meat is labeled, and that it should be labeled in a more transparent way so that consumers know where their meat is coming from.  I think it's really great that he is so passionate about these things, and he's incredibly knowledgeable on policy. It's a great fit for him, and I think it's meaningful work for the people of Montana!

Life
Our trip to Canada was brief but really fun!  I'll write up a separate post about that soon.

Did anyone watch the Superbowl?  I sort of watched it, but not with my full attention. Honestly, it was a pretty boring game. Jeff told me it had some of the lowest viewership in years. Even the commercials weren't very exciting. Snoozefest all the way around. If you watched it, what did you think?

I redid my big bulletin board in the foyer at school:


Lastly, an update on Genevieve's transition to toddler bed.  For the past three nights now, we've put her to bed and she hasn't gotten up at all. She's rolled around some, or talked to herself a bit, things like that, but she hasn't gotten out of bed, and she's put herself to sleep all on her own. Granted, she's had a bit of a cold and has been really tired, so it's hard to say if that trend will continue going forward, but we're hopeful!

Two Novels

Do you ever read a book that just stays with you? You've finished the book, but it almost feels sad to be done because it feels like you're leaving your friends behind?

That's how I felt about a pair of books I finished recently:  Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens, and True Places by Sonja Yoerg. Both books were featured consecutively in my local book club. Both featured female central characters who lived outside the mainstream in rural midAtlantic states. Both cause the reader to examine just what it is we need to feel fulfilled in our lives, right along with the protagonists of each book.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, the book, set in the mid 1900s, takes off with young Kya's mom walking down the road and away from their North Carolina coastal marshland shack, fleeing an abusive marriage. One by one, every member of Kya's family leaves her, until at last she is the only one who remains. Kya turns to the marsh itself for solace: ""The sun, warm as a blanket, wrapped Kya's shoulders, coaxing her deeper into the marsh. ...whenever she stumbled, it was the land that caught her. Until at last, at some unclaimed moment, the heart-pain seeped away like water into sand. Still there, but deep. Kya laid her hand upon the breathing, wet earth, and the marsh became her mother." p. 34

But even the marsh can't protect her from natural human longing for companionship, as she grows up alone, living out her days with gulls and tides as friends. The dual storyline in this book follows a murder investigation and trial of surrounding the death of a prominent young man from the local community, found dead not far from the marsh Kya calls home. Was Kya, the "Marsh Girl," involved somehow?

True Places brings a character very similar to Kya, a young girl named Iris, into our lives, yet in a modern-day setting. This book begins very similarly to Where the Crawdads Sing; Iris has been living alone in the Blue Ridge Mountains, surviving off the land, her father has left the family and her mother has died. Iris is picked up along the roadside by the mom of a quintessential modern family, Suzanne. Suzanne's own two teenage children, Brynn and Reid, are nearly estranged as they are caught up in their own struggles with modern life in the Instagram and Snapchat era. Will Iris' pure innocence make or break this family as they navigate through the mess of possessions, appearances, and relationships that have come to define their lives?

There are many common themes and motifs between these two books, and both are written very well. I especially loved the nature writing in Where the Crawdads Sing, which was beautiful and yet not superfluous. It always seemed to serve the plot or the setting of the story, and in that way, reminded me of some of Barbara Kingsolver's work.  In True Places, I loved how the narration slipped between each of the different characters and did so convincingly. I found myself somewhat fatally attracted to the teenage daughter, Brynn, and thought the writing on that character in particular was spot on. She was a perfect representation of a modern teenage girl--you could feel the sarcasm oozing and practically felt spurned yourself through her many perceived eyerolls.

Overall, while both books were really great and kept me completely absorbed, I liked Where the Crawdads Sing a little bit better. The main character was so compelling, and I just found myself completely cheering for her until the very end. In that sense, it reminded me of another great book, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which I also highly recommend.  In comparing those two books, they both feature women who are stronger than they first realize, who have been through trauma, and who have been marginalized from mainstream society, in one way or another.

Lastly, if you take Crawdads as an ovearching metaphor for the sort of struggle between human-kind and nature, I think it's comparable to A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley. Both could be considered allegory for mankind taking advantage of, or manipulating, nature. In one, the ending is very satisfying, while in the other, it feels very pessimistic.  I'll let you read either or both books, and tell me what you think.

If you're looking for a great piece of writing with compelling characters and great plot, and you're willing to give yourself completely to a book, try either Where the Crawdads Sing, or True Places. You might find a new favorite that you can't put down and you'll certainly welcome a few unforgettable new fictional friends into your life!



Check out these two books on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36809135-where-the-crawdads-sing

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39904267-true-places