Fast 5: Spontaneous Adventures of 2015

You have today. Tomorrow is promised to no one. So I urge you to act now!

If you love someone... tell them.
If you want to ski...ski.
If you want learn to draw...take a class.
If you want to teach your children...participate.

I have an urge to live life and make memories. I am not a "someday" person. I'm a... "Sounds great! Let's do that" person.

With this in mind, I share my favourite 5 spontaneous adventures of 2015: 
(In no particular order)

1. The great camel ride of Palm Springs, California. My son and I were at the Living Desert Zoo and $5 camel rides were being offered. I asked my 9 year old son if he wanted to go. "No thanks, we'll do it another time" he said.  And that's when I erupted into my speech... "Are you kidding? In my 40 years on this earth, no one has ever offered me a camel ride. And frankly I'm not taking you to Egypt any time soon. And when you're 29, and I'm 60 are you getting on a camel with me? No? Now get on the camel!" 

We had a blast on the short camel ride and smiled the whole time! And when he got home to his school friends, you know he told everyone about his favourite part of the trip...the camel ride.

2. Our city's NHL hockey team made the playoffs for the first time in nearly 20 years. The city went wild! Tickets were impossible to get at home. So I decided to round up a group of friends and see the team on the road! Bought tickets in Anaheim California, caught a plane to Palm Springs at 6AM, drove 2 hours to Anaheim, partied all afternoon, then went to the game. Home the next day. One of the surprise highlights of that spontaneous trip was running into high school friends (who now reside in California) at the game. Simply awesome!

3. My hairdresser of 8 years lamented the fact she'd never been to Las Vegas. So I surprised her with a trip to Vegas that next week. We had a blast. Check that off her to-do list.

4. Halloween looked like it was going to be pretty quiet around my house this year. Thinking it might be the last year for my son to trick or treat, I proposed a spontaneous road trip 4.5 hours west to visit our cousins. A few quick texts and a stop at the costume store and we were on our way! We had a fantastic time with family and it certainly earned the honour of Best Halloween ever!

5. Skating at Clear Lake Manitoba was never on my radar until the Winnipeg Free Press posted photos of unbelievable ice, clear as glass. It was simply a weather phenomenon brought on by calm waters, cold nights and a lack of snow. Never in my life had I seen such a thing. And since a snowstorm was pending in about 48 hours, I checked my son out school for the day and raced up to the lake. We skated and played hockey all afternoon. Freezing rain and a storm started about 10 hours after we were safely home from our adventure. Photos of our adventures appeared on the Manitoba Tourism twitter feed and also on Winnipeg's CTV news.