Against All My Rules
I grew up in Chicago, where winter waits for the school bus seemed to take a decade. We would wait so long that you could feel your little nose hairs freeze. Does that sound appealing?
I’ll get back to Rule Number One later, but despite my hatred for the cold my second rules was that I would never move away from the coolest (and also one of the coldest) cities in America.
But rules are meant to be broken. I fell in love and moved eastward across the country to Virginia.
Besides being with my honey, the best part of moving was that spring comes at least a month earlier than it did at home and it has never snowed on Thanksgiving.
The bottom line: I hate the cold.
Normally our summer vacation is to Anglers Inn, in Mexico. In other words, we go from hot to hotter.
For this year’s summer vacation Pete and I are going to Bear Trail Lodge, in King Salmon, Alaska.
I’m super-excited to finally get to Alaska, which will allow me to check Alaska off of my list of states. Now I am down to two. It may be our summer vacation, but what I didn’t realize is how cold it is going to be.
Rule Number Three: don’t go someplace on vacation cooler than the place you live. (Remember, rules are made to be broken).
Upper 40s in the morning rising to the mid-60s in the afternoon….in JULY.
I know what you’re thinking: “You’re from Chicago. You can’t possibly consider those temperatures cold.” To be blunt, I didn’t like cold back then and after moving away and getting used to warmer temps I loathe it even more now.
Now you’re thinking, “Shut up. You’ll be on vacation. Deal with it.”
So here is how I plan to deal:
I’ll put energy into trying to remember how to fly fish (I am certain there will be a blog about this);
I’ll distract myself by taking a million, gazillion pictures of nature;
I’ll wear everything I packed: long johns, wool socks, waterproof shoes and gloves, long sleeve shirts, Aftco sweatshirt with a built-in buff, and my warm, GILL windproof rain jacket; and
Perhaps most importantly, I packed HOTHANDS, handwarmers which aren’t just for hands -- I also put them in my shoes.
If you are supposed to be having fun and enjoying your adventure and your hands and feet are freezing it’s easy to get distracted and become miserable, so I bought a 10 pack of HOTHANDS for around $5. They weren’t easy to find, which I guess is not surprising because it’s the middle of the summer! Who in their right mind needs hand warmers now?
So I am ready to beat the heat -- I mean cold -- which will help me to avoid breaking the unbreakable rule. At long last, back to Rule Number One: I ALWAYS have fun wherever I go (even if it’s cold).
