Spring break, baby! For our local schools, and most South Dakota universities and colleges, spring break wrapped up after this past weekend.
Enjoying the time off with my kids got me thinking about how such frivolities have changed for me over the last couple of decades. It also sent me back to what I’m pretty sure was my only real spring break trip.
I was 21 or 22 years old. Sadly, yes, that was indeed a couple of decades ago. My friends and I decided to take a spring break trip. Guess where we went! Florida? Nah, who wants to stay in the country. Mexico? No way, that’s where everyone goes. How about Winnipeg, Canada! That’s where spring break memories are made! Why did we decide this? Well, I was the oldest in the group, which included my cousin and two friends. In Canada, 18-year-olds could partake in libations, unlike the good old U.S. of A. That, combined with the fact that we could drive there, made it a great destination, at least in our minds.
You may be wondering why going somewhere even colder than South Dakota sounded like a good idea for spring break. Valid point, and one we didn’t spend much time considering. As I recall, we didn’t have major weather issues, but we also didn’t have much of a plan. Most of us hadn’t really traveled without our families or a university itinerary, so we piled into someone’s car and headed north.
One of our earliest missteps? I don’t think we had any Canadian money. At the Welcome Center on the border, the stereotypically polite Canadian agents mentioned that, and we likely responded with a chorus of blank stares. Eventually, once we reached the city, we found a bank and did some exchanging, though the teller seemed mildly annoyed by our American presence.
I think one of our first goals was to hit up a liquor store, which we had to walk to. A bunch of small-town kids wandering unfamiliar streets in the dark, what could go wrong? Somehow, we survived. As for the rest of the trip, I don’t remember everything, but a few moments stand out.
We went to the zoo. In the snow. We trudged through ankle-deep drifts at the Winnipeg Zoo, which is supposedly quite impressive. In the dead of winter, however, the animals aren’t exactly lining up to greet you, so it wasn’t quite the experience it could have been. They did have a famed polar bear named Debbie, who didn’t even want to come out and say hello, and was probably wondering why we were there in the first place.
One night, being karaoke fans, we set out to find a karaoke bar. To call the place “seedy” might be generous. When we discovered you had to pay to sing, we quickly reconsidered our life choices and left. At one point, I distinctly remember being followed by a panhandler, a brand-new experience for a group of small-town kids.
Somewhere in there, we watched the Oscar awards in our hotel room. If all of this sounds pretty low-key and not overly exciting, I assure you, it was. In fact, the most thrilling part of the trip may have been getting detained by U.S. Customs on our way back. Were we smuggling something exotic? No. We had a few open bags of chips, which apparently were a no-no. So we sat in a small white room while they searched our trunk, flipped through our very boring digital camera photos, and eventually let us go after determining we were not, in fact, criminal masterminds.
In hindsight, it was a fun trip with friends, but memorable mostly for its mediocrity.
This past week’s spring break, however, might have been more memorable. It involved something I appreciate a lot more now: time with family. Fishing with my husband and kids and catching two of the biggest fish I’ve landed in years. Watching my son perfect his casting. Hanging out in the hot tub. Teaching the kids new card games. Pretty low-key, but pretty special.
I guess we’ll save Cabo for next year.
