Category Archives: Travel

Five magic moments at the Lake Louise Ice Magic Festival

Posted on January 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’ve been wanting to check out the Lake Louise Ice Magic Festival for years. It’s a celebration of winter whose crowning glory is the display of professionally-carved ice sculptures arrayed on the shore of Lake Louise beside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. This year the festival was extended because of demand, so we packed up yet again and drove west for the final Little Chippers weekend. 

It was a weekend of snow, ice, cold, smiles, more snow, wine, whine (kids), cold toes, brandy hot chocolate, a 45-minutes wait for a “parrot” balloon animal, more wine, lots of giggles and yet even more snow at Lake Louise Ski Area. Through it all prevailed a kind of ice magic, thanks to the Chateau’s fairy-tale setting and our kids’ awe over ice raptors, ice castles and ice queens. Here are the highlights.

1. Ice skating with the Ice Queen around the Ice Castle. She was carved from a block of ice and came to life … blah, blah, blah. Avery missed the finer points of her story but enjoyed skating with her highness.

Carved from a block of ice and forced to wear Cinderella's cast-offs, it's ... the Ice Queen.

2. The Ice Playground. Located in a corner of the Lake Louise Village parking lot, I didn’t have high hopes for this sad-looking outdoor ice rumpus room at first glance. But as ice makes things cooler and more slippery, the ice tunnel and slides were a hit. So was the Little Chippers ice carving station, where children could don goggles and a pick and attempt ice art. 

Yeah, I know it looks lame but Bennett went down this slide, like, 20 times.

3. Lakeside sleigh ride. Granted, at an hour, it’s about 40 minutes too long for my kids. But the jingle of bells and hypnotic sight of falling snow mesmerized us and prevented a melt-down. Tip: don’t sit near the front: Parks Canada stipulates Brewster (the company that runs the tours) catch the horses’ poop in a manure catcher lest it litter the national park. Hence a ripe smell accompanied the lovely sights and sounds.

Avery's favourite part of the sleigh ride? "Petting the horses."

4. Eating my son’s New York Steak. We ordered Bennett the $11 New York Steak “For the Young Adult” at the Glacier Saloon inside the Chateau. The server even asked us how our four-year-old “would like his steak cooked?” Why, medium rare, thanks. Predictably, Bennett didn’t like the meat, eating only his French fries. OMG it was delish, cooked perfectly for any parent to enjoy. Tip: always order steak off the kid’s menu to save money.

5. Riding the Lake Louise gondola. Ever since the magic carpet (MC) at Fernie last weekend Bennett has been talking about wanting to ride a chairlift. So, after making him take the Lake Louise MC — with skis on — and then “ski” down the bunny hill (with Blake’s help, of course) onto the gondola we walked. He quivered with excitement and said, “We go up mountain, mommy?” Forget the Ice Queen, he was King of the Mountain for 24 minutes.

Warmer than a chairlift, faster than the magic carpet, it's ... the gondola!

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Vacation deprived? Book a trip

Posted on January 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

“Vacation deprivation” is a relatively new phenomenon. I first heard about it from the travel website Expedia, which began doing an annual analysis of vacation habits across multiple countries several years ago. Not surprisingly, Americans scored poorly — regularly letting their holiday days slip away unused — and gained a reputation as some of the most vacation deprived citizens in the world. 

More recently, travel company Monograms warned Americans of the dangers of letting earned vacation days go unused: they’ll miss out on the opportunity to “walk the cobblestone streets of Italy, ride an elephant in Asia and have a pint to celebrate 2012 in a genuine pub in Ireland.”

The story cited not just money, but a lack of planning as reasons Americans are watching their vacation dreams vanish like a properly-poured Guinness. I don’t know about you, but I start planning my next trip right after I return from my last one. And I never, ever sacrifice a vacation day for more time at work. It’s the only way to stay sane in this climate. (To Canadians’ credit, we do pretty well using up our holiday days — acccording to Expedia, anyway — though it sure would be nice to have as many as the Europeans.)

Interesting though these studies and stories are, you have to wonder if they’re simply a clever way for companies to drum up some U.S. business, by mobilizing the masses to get booking lest they waste away in some kind of vacation deprived purgatory. Perhaps we’ll start seeing Expedia-sponsored ads warning of vacation withdrawl, with a voice-over listing possible side effects from spending too many hours in the office and not enough time at a swim-up bar : pasty-white skin, cheerless demeanor, inability to distinguish a mojito from a margarita.

In the meantime I will let the poor over-worked Americans keeps the global economy humming along, while I book my next holiday somewhere warm.

This is me at the beach while millions of Americans let their vacation days go unused.

What about you? Do you use all your vacation days every year? Do you think “vacation deprivation” is a real problem?

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Come with me on a magic carpet ride

Posted on January 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

Almost everything I know about magic carpets I learned from the book Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? In the book, which I’ve almost memorized from reading ad nauseum, Elmo gets sucked up into the air by his kite, plummets into a pond and finally gets deposited on a magic carpet that waggles, glides, takes off and rides him to outerspace. 

In other words, magic carpets are pretty cool. So it’s no surprise the nifty little conveyor belts located in learn-to-ski zones at ski areas are called magic carpets. Basically, they are moving walkways that transport ski-wearing toddlers up to the top of the bunny hill. They’re like magic for Aussie instructors, who no longer have to tote crying three-year-olds up the hill for more parent-imposed ski lessons (“Aww, c’mon Billy, quit whingeing and let’s get a move on!). Ask any little kid what he likes about skiing and he’ll tell you, “I got to ride the magic carpet.” 

It's a kind of magic, for kids.

Since Avery learned to ski by doing laps on the magic carpet at Fernie, we decided it was time Bennett got in on the fun, without skis, of course (don’t want to rush things here). We lodged his feet into his ski boots, popped a helmet on his head and tried to cajole him into walking to the bunny hill. Since ski boots weigh as much as concrete blocks, he refused to budge. Blake carried him halfway there and he grudgingly walked the remainder, only because the magic carpet was in sight. Since no one appeared to be supervising, I hopped on the miracle munchkin mover and rode to the top behind Bennett.

Pretty sure a three-person pileup on the magic carpet is frowned upon.

At the top there was a worker sitting on a bench whose job, I gathered, is to make sure no little kids fall off the conveyor belt or get sucked under when they reach the top. He was also in close proximity to a red emergency stop button, just in case there is a kid pileup or some other magic carpet hazard (hard to imagine at a velocity of about three clicks per hour. Yes, it’s as slow as the airport ones).

Look ma, no hands!

Bennett rode up the magic carpet about four times before turning to me and saying, “I want to ride magic carpet, Mommy.” “We’re on the magic carpet honey. Isn’t this fun?” “No, that one,” he said, pointing quite clearly to the three-person chairlift next to the bunny hill. Even Bennett knew he had a way better chance of getting to outerspace on a chairlft.

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