Winter Weekend Getaway

This weekend I'm escaping the cold by going to... well, a cold destination, but where The Hubs and I will stay inside all weekend long, hopefully by a warm fire and pretend we're in Malibu. Fiji. Maui. You get the idea. We're heading to a little inn in the country. It's just a short drive, but a total escape and I have been counting down the days ever since The Hubs gave me the gift on Christmas morning. The deal was that it would be a reward once I finished writing Book 2 and my editor accepted it. Mid-December, when my agent asked me how long I thought it would take to finish writing the book, I projected sometime mid-February. At the earliest. (I can't rush my muse, I argued!). But when The Hubs gave me the gift, I practically handcuffed myself to my pink computer to finish typing.



Then I spent the rest of the break finishing the book, and handed it in nearly a month early. Yay for being done! (Except, of course, for the million revisions that are likely to come, but whatever. For now, Yay for being done!)

Note to all aspiring writers, or really, anyone who wants to meet any sort of goal or deadline: PRESENTS ARE THE BEST INCENTIVE!!!

Especially when they involve a weekend away filled with nothing to do but indoor, warm activities. However, once we decided on all our warm activities, The Hubs said:

"What if they have snowshoeing? When will we snowshoe?"

If all goes well, in our minds only while drinking wine in front of a fire. I'm really hoping they're all out of snowshoes.

A few years ago I went to an inn in the woods where there were no TVs in the rooms because you were supposed to be escaping reality. Um, my idea of escaping reality is watching reality TV! But anyway... I didn't know what to do with myself but they had snowshoes so I decided to snowshoe as I've never gone before and it seemed like one of those things I should do in my lifetime. But you know what? It looks a lot more fun than it really is. I mean, you're basically just walking. Only it's totally impossible walking because you've got tennis rackets strapped to your feet.

Oh sure, you're in nature and all that, but you're going by the nature SOOOOO slowly that it's not that exciting. I mean, if you were cross-country skiing, you'd be whizzing by, and see a lot of trees and well...what else are you going to see in the middle of winter besides snow-covered trees?

Stare at this picture for 10 minutes. That's what it's like when you're snowshoeing. Nothing changes. Now multiply that by a bazillion.

So yes, if you were on skis, you'd see a lot of trees. But because you're walking, well, nothing's really happening, except you're sort of staring down a lot at your feet to make sure you don't trip over the tennis rackets and fall face-down in the snow.

Not that THAT happened to me. Um. I'm just saying.

Also, when I asked where I should go snowshoeing, the lady at the front desk said I should probably just stick to the backyard of the inn. The backyard? How fun is that? I wanted adventure! Woods! Nature at its most undisturbed! I wanted to see deer! Bunnies! An abominable snowman! So instead I walked -- er, I mean, snowshoed -- to the end of the property and then, instead of turning around and coming back, I continued onto a path. Only the path wasn't really a path, it was a road, and then that road turned into the highway, and the only way to get back was to take the highway all the way around to the front of the inn.

Okay, that wasn't the ONLY option. Obviously the other option was to turn around and backtrack. But did I do that? No. I didn't because I have this real problem with backtracking (Note: Backtracking=good. Not backtracking=bad because if you're like me you'll inevitably get lost). In the end it took me like an hour to get all the way around the inn to the entrance and I took the snowshoes off (because just a side note, there is NO point wearing snowshoes when you're walking on a gravel path on the side of the highway) and carried them back to the inn.

So technically, I could probably improve upon my snowshoeing techniques this weekend (especially because The Hubs is very practical and would always think to take the best route back, ie. the one through a snowy forest and not a gravelly highway and he probably wouldn't be talking to his snowshoes and scare away all the potentially live animals).

But now that there is actually a lot of snow outside, The Hubs has also lost interest in doing anything outside. Thank. God. Besides, we really can't cut into any of the really fun indoor, warm activities we have planned, like wine tasting, afternoon tea, and best of all spa treatments.

When The Hubs asked what I wanted to book at the spa, I told him a massage and a pedicure, which are my two favourite treatments. (One to make you feel relaxed and one to make you feel pretty.)

So then he booked both and the same for himself. Seriously, who needs to go snowshoeing when they have a boy who will get a pedicure with you?