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travel / travel magazine / winter 2006
Notebook
Time off
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired
by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one's lifetime.
— Mark Twain
YOU CAN VACATION in your backyard,
on the Beaufort Sea or in Borneo. It doesn't
matter where you go or for how long, how
lazy you allow yourself to become or how
much exertion it requires. The point and
value of a vacation are that it allows you to
extract yourself from the entanglements of
your own life. For a glorious week or two or
four, you set aside the morning chore of feeding
and walking your son's dog, the report that
needs rewriting at the office, your husband's
distant relatives who should be invited over
for dinner and the bedroom windows that
need cleaning. You clear it with your boss,
cancel the newspaper, ask a neighbour to
pick up your mail and pack a bag. But where
to go? What in the world to do?
Welcome to Canadian Geographic Travel.
For this special issue on fall and winter travel,
we sent our writers and photographers on yin
and yang trips to cool and hot destinations.
Jerry Kobalenko helicoptered into a backcountry
lodge in British Columbia's Purcell
Mountains for a magical week of skiing,
snowshoeing and toboganning. Allen Abel
flew to Arizona for a moonlit hike in the
desert. Derek Crowe camped out in the heart
of winter in the Yukon to witness the most
gruelling sled dog race in the world. Patricia
Pearson took refuge in a comfy spa that
offers relief for the body and spirit. I battled
winter winds for a story on the world's
longest skating rink. And Margaret Webb
rambled from restaurant to restaurant in
Winnipeg sampling the city's marvellous
new Prairie cuisine.
We hope you find their stories as comical,
as moving and as inspiring as we did. But
please don't consider reading them an
excuse not to set out on a journey yourself.
Time off is life earned.
By Rick Boychuk
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