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.

Fast 5 Travel Tips: All time best bargains

My personal list of travel bargain jackpots. All from the last 7 years.

5.  We added 4 nights in Florida to a hockey trip to Minneapolis for $275 per person. So we drove to MSP, watched my son play hockey, left the car at the hotel, then got on a plane to Florida for 4 days/nights at at amazing Hyatt resort.  Flew back to MSP and drove home. Would have been over $1000 per person if we'd flown from home.

4. Kids fly & stay free. A bargain found post-strike with Air Canada back in 2012. We took the kids to the Turks n Caicos Islands. Was under $$900 per person for a family of 4. Amazing value considering the regular price is about $6000 per family of 4 at a modest resort there.

3. Air Canada had Olympic specials in 2010 when Canada hosted the winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler. One such special landed me a $99 flight (& taxes)  to the Bahamas. So I went for a 3 day weekend. That was awesome.

2. Found a First Class Delta flight to Maui at Christmas, for $495 tax included, roundtrip. Yes, First Class at Christmas. Amazing! So, even with hotel and food we spent about $3000 for 8 days in Maui over the busiest holiday time of the year for a family of 4.  I think that was 2009.

1. $283 round trip flight from Minot to Nassau, on Delta. In transit, the airline offered us $600 per person (family of 4)  in future travel credits to bump & catch the next flight out. Yes! Hell yes, we took that deal.  So we then had 1 year to use the travel credits. We had 6 free flights to California out of those $2400 in credits in 2013/14.  Unbeatable travel bargain luck!

5 Trips you will never, ever, regret taking

Over a lifetime some trips will hit the highlight reel, while others will be forgotten. In my humble opinion you will never, ever regret taking the following 5 trips.  In no particular order...

1. A trip to the homeland of your grandparents/great grandparents.  There is something spiritual about connecting the land and your roots.

2. Taking your children to Disney World. Regardless of your childhood, your experiences and your background... there is no more magical place to show your own children. Period.

3. A national monument/iconic building.  Whether it's Canada's Parliament in Ottawa, or Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, or Buckingham Palace. There is something breath-taking to be had in this citizenship moment and learning experience.

4. To the Ocean. Any ocean. Pick one... seriously. It is awe-inspiring and reveals the life-lesson of the earth, its majesty and power.

5. Hawaii.  Have you ever met anyone who hated Hawaii? Impossible. And it appears on more bucket lists, across generations, than any other single destination. You should NOT miss it!