On our final morning in Florida, we returned the rental car and checked-in for our flight. Our flight was delayed for a few hours and they had rebooked us on a different connecting flight from Toronto to Vancouver.

We reunited with our friends Tim and Liz at the airport. So many big smiles spotting them across the airport crowd! We missed them! They had a great adventure too and saw a bunch of manatees!! We didn’t see any manatees!

We had another 4 flights ahead of us, over two nights. Everything went smoothly. Our time in Toronto was really short, just long enough to go through customs and stop at The Body Shop for some new smelly lotion.

We stayed at the Best Western Plus near the Vancouver airport, that was once a Coast Hotel that we’ve stayed at a bunch of times when overnighting between flights. It seems to be going downhill too. Just feels old and not maintained and the room smelled like mice. We were tired and done and spent entirely too much money to have Uber Eats bring us some food so we didn’t have to walk around the industrial area in the dark. I had booked this place because it had a White Spot restaurant attached, and we planned to have supper there, but after our flights were pushed back, the restaurant closed 5 minutes after we got to the hotel. Noooooo!

We parted ways with our friends in Toronto. They had a pit stop on the way home planned to visit family, and we headed back to the Yukon.

Aww you’re still beautiful Yukon. We love you. And aren’t moving away. Yet.

This trip featured a lot of moments when we were talking about future plans, talking with our friends about retirement, and about friends that were looking to move to the southern BC for easier winters, and others investing in condos in Mexico.

I don’t know if we are swayed? But these winter vacations are amazing. Many Dawson residents leave for the winter. Mexico. Arizona. Could we do that? Should we? I don’t really mind the winters here. Especially after making an effort this winter to stay more active. It is just so breathtakingly beautiful here, and the best way to experience this small community is in the winter. There are always lots of things happening. I never feel bored. It really is what you make of it. As is life living anywhere else, I suppose.

If there is one thing that really stood out from this trip – I love being active all day. Walking all day, hiking, floating in the cold pool, just moving. I loved it. Do we need to live somewhere else? I’m not convinced.

And how to afford it? The price of accommodations is a deal breaker. Hotels are over $200 a night, and often much more. Private accommodations, AirBnB, VRBO – they aren’t cheap either. Lots of fees are tacked on. Do you haul an RV down? In the winter, from way up here? Rent one down there? And where? Find a home base and take day trips?

I really liked Florida. It is lush, so much vegetation, and there are beautiful ponds everywhere. It was a truly beautiful place. And the people were nice and friendly! Or just quiet and indifferent (most of our Uber drivers). The weather was perfect. Sunny and warm most days, and cool at nights.

But there are a lot of people. Lots of traffic. Cities. So many outlet stores. Mini malls. Toll highways. Cars.

We have no regrets doing the amusement parks and the NASCAR race, but we feel more attracted to natural spaces. Beaches, trails, hikes, birdwatching, lakes, boats. Small towns and communities.

I can’t imagine picking one place to vacation and always returning there. Maybe we just budget to have one good, long winter vacation every year, rent a small place and a car and a couple bikes, and live life to its fullest?

Our trip to Florida was short, and there is SO much we didn’t see or experience. Including:

• didn’t see a gator
• didn’t see a manatee
• didn’t taste any key lime pie
• didn’t have a fresh orange (but I did have Florida orange juice at the hotel breakfasts!)

Which means we need to go back! Maybe fly-in further south so we can see the Everglades and the Keys.

Back to our travel, we’ve been travelling a bit more and learning some great lessons I’ll share, and some things I’m still trying to solve (so help me!):

• Electrolytes – We drink water with added electrolyte tabs every night on the trip before bed. We like the Nuun ones, because they are easy to find. We were definitely dehydrated, especially being in the sun, or walking around the amusement parks. Drinking water with electrolytes helps get your system sorted back out over night so you start the next day fresh, hydrated, and ready to go.
• Bottled water – We’re still learning this lesson. Buy some bottles or a small case of water at the start of your vacation. Otherwise, if you have to buy a bottle of water during your day, or rely on icky warm chlorinated hotel water, you end up drinking less water, without even consciously doing it, which makes you feel miserable. When we have bottles of water with us, we drink more.
• Nexus – Jeff is finally on his way to getting a Nexus card. I have had one for over 10 years and it has let me pass so many long, ugly, icky airport security lines. But I can’t use it when all of my travelling party doesn’t also have it. I can’t wait until Jeff feels the exhilaration of passing the lines! And leaving your stuff in your bag. And leaving your shoes on your feet! Worth every penny.
• Travel apps and rewards – This one I don’t have figured out yet. Give me tips! I used to use Expedia for everything, because then I didn’t have to keep track of hotel points across all the different chains. But then I felt like I was missing out on rewards! So now I have IHG (Holiday Inn) and Best Western and the Hilton points in their app. I don’t know what’s best. There used to be affordable Comfort Inn hotels everywhere but I don’t find that to be true anymore. Over our last few trips, the Holiday Inn Express stands out as the best places we’ve stayed. Consistently new, clean, large, comfortable, well maintained, with a free decent breakfast spread. But not cheap. And my tallied nights expired at the end of the last calendar year so I have to restart. I switched the app to grant my awards directly to my Air Canada Aeroplan miles but I so seldomly cash those in either. I’ve had Expedia Gold for years, but I’m not sure it adds any additional value? And I have to travel a lot more this year if I’m going to quality for Gold again.
• Amusement parks in Florida – Perhaps we should have planned better and booked the theme hotel with a package that included the Express passes and shuttles? I don’t know; it probably works out to be the same cost. Whatever you decide to do, I urge you to find a way to afford the Express pass if you’re going to any park that offers it, otherwise you’re doomed to a day of standing in lines and missing most of the fun.
• Overpack – Yeah I still packed too many shirts for this trip, but it was hard to know in advance how many nicer outfits I’d need, or how hot it would be. I always like having at least 2 pairs of footwear so you can switch it up. This time I had my hiking shoes and my Teva sandals. We didn’t bring our winter clothes, and left them in my truck at the Dawson airport. I didn’t even pack a hoodie, and I live in hoodies! I had one warm fleece (my yellow one) but I did end up buying a sweatshirt at Universal to keep warm on the rainy day in Daytona. I’m overpacking much less than I used to, but I like
• Noise cancelling headphones – I have a pair of Sony’s that were a gift from work. Whatever kind you choose, Sony, Bose, JBL, or even the Apples ones, look for an over-the-ear, can type. Yes they take up room in your suitcase. But if you need to travel for two days on 4 flights to get anywhere, your quality of life will drastically improve if you can turn on noise cancellation and watch some movies on the airplane system or on your phone or iPad.
• iPad – I brought my iPad with its keyboard case thinking I would blog along the way, but I didn’t. I used it a bit to research route and where to find gators, but mostly I just used my phone for podcasts, movie watching, and keeping notes for writing these blog posts once I got home. I really didn’t need to carry it, although it was never in the way, nor is it too heavy.
• Binoculars – I don’t know how often I need to haul my real Nikon camera and lenses with me. But I should always travel with my binoculars. Lesson learned!
• Travel days – Returning home on a Friday afternoon gave us two more days off before returning to work. Kinda nice!! Not totally necessary, but it feels good right now!

We took a hike yesterday to work out the travel kinks and stiffness. And now I’m even stiffer. But look at that beautiful sun, so high in the sky now!

Today’s sunset is at 7:24pm and it rose today at 9:39am. Not bad! Soon I’ll be able to take an hour walk before work again, in the daylight! And I can definitely now walk or hike after work in the light!

Back to work tomorrow!