Quick Overview of this newsletter:

1. 🌷 March as a Transition Month
2. ❄️ Winter’s Last Gasp: A Birthday in Banff
3. 📋 Keeping My Banff Trip Organized: Trip Planning Template
4. 🌸 Looking Ahead to Day and Weekend Trips
5. 🚙 Product of the Month
6. 🧐 Website Feedback Needed
7. ☕️ Seasonal Treat

Happy spring!

Once back from my birthday trip, March always passes in a bit of a haze. It’s a big transition month from winter sports to wildflowers. Things are greening up, but not quite leafy. We’ve got daylight after work again, but you’ll have to bundle up to go outside (unless it’s unseasonably warm). I’m emerging from my winter blankets, but not ready to give up my herbal teas.

March and November are when I feel the transitions the most, where the previous season’s activities are becoming unavailable or harder to do, but the next season’s activities haven’t quite arrived (or they are not as good as I know they will be).

Instead of just suffering through it, last November I used the month to do my year-end reflection and goal setting instead of trying to do it in the middle of the holidays or when the new year was already underway. And it worked magnificently. This newsletter is proof of that plan in action.

March is a similar transition, where I reflected on the first quarter of the year, but primarily looked ahead to solidify some tentative spring/summer/autumn weekends. And with the false spring that we experienced in March, I’m already working in my herb garden and dreaming up landscaping projects.

Winter’s Last Gasp: A Birthday in Banff

For my birthday in early March, I’ve gone to both cold destinations for another blast of winter as well as tropical ones to soak in the heat early. This year, I opted for colder with a trip to the Banff, Canada. While I expected to enjoy the area, having seen it on social media for over a decade, I was still blown away by the scale of the mountains. There is just SO MUCH to them. And they are ridiculously gorgeous.

We really lucked out with the weather, with dramatic moving clouds most days and only encountering a little rain and snow. Part of me hoped for a snow day to actually relax at the Airbnb we got south of Banff, but that didn't happen. So instead, we packed the trip with activities, such as:

• XC Skiing at the Canmore Nordic Centre during the day and night
• XC Skiing across Lake Louise
• Downhill Skiing at Lake Louise Ski Resort
• Ice Skating on Lake Louise
• Micro-spike hiking up Tunnel Mountain and into the Johnston Canyon
• Scenic drive down parts of the Icefields Parkway
• Soaking at the Kananaski Nordic Spa

I’d recommend every single one of these activities, plus delicious vegan/vegetarian options at Mountain Folk Coffee and Nourish Bistro in Banff, CommuniTea and Nutters Grocery in Canmore, plus Heart’s Choices and Nan’s Noodles in Calgary.

We ate well, did my top activities, and enjoyed the exchange rate. Truly, it could not have been a better birthday trip. And coming back to Eugene to see the magnolia and cherry trees in bloom, the trip also felt like a bittersweet farewell to winter.

Upper left: exploring the town of Banff, upper right: ice skating on Lake Louise, bottom right: downhill skiing at Lake Louise Resort, bottom left: cross-country skiing across Lake Louise (I promise we did more than go to Lake Louise!)

Keeping My Banff Trip Organized: Trip Planning Template

To plan the Banff birthday trip, I used my classic trip planning template. It’s nothing fancy -- just a Google Doc that you can share and co-edit with your travel companions to pop all your research, confirmation codes, and other info in one place. In this blog post, I walk you through how to make your own document from scratch and list out the most important categories to use. Or you can buy a blank version of mine, which you can then copy for each future trip.

Since I am a visual person, I used the chart at the top throughout my Banff trip to help me organize my days. We had a few things locked into place, but we also wanted to see how the weather was cooperating. Before the trip, I plugged in my top activities to play around with pacing. For example, if we went downhill skiing, we would likely need a quieter day after. This gave me a starting point that I edited during the trip. However, for most other trips, I use the chart to talk through the trip with my travel companion, and things stay stationary. And a pro tip for using the chart: don’t fill every box.

Do you use a different system for planning trips that always works? I’d love to hear about it. And would you consider using a template or structure to get your summer plans in motion? It’s the perfect time to do so!

Looking Ahead to Weekend and Day Trips

Last year, I discovered the joy of taking solo weekend trips. Short little bursts that focus on a new area of Oregon, Washington, or Northern California, or a specific type of seasonal exploration. It’s amazing how far away you can get mentally in just one or two nights. Building on my seasonal explorations last year, here are some of the weekend trips I’m planning this year:

• April & May: wildflowers and spas
• June: waterfalls, hiking, and u-pick
• July & August: mountains, lakes, rivers, coast, and more u-pick
• September: last stretch of summer and birthdays (I am surrounded by virgos!)
• October: leaf peeping

Most excited about spring blooms at the moment!!! These were taken in the Columbia River Gorge last year, and I will be returning again this year.

Product of the Month

​Costco Rental Cars. If you have a Costco membership and you’re going on a trip that will require a rental car, check Costco prices. For the Banff trip, it was practically half the price of going direct to the rental car companies. I always recommend booking direct with airlines, but the rental car realm operates differently due to the flexible cancellation policies. We went with Alamo this time through Costco and ended up with brand new Ford Explorer. So new that it only had 11 km on it, which was a treat. The all-season tires with all wheel drive did pretty well, though if we had more weather, I would have been nervous.

Costco doesn’t seem to partner at every location under the sun -- primarily focused on the US and Canada, but it does have a few locations in Europe. It’s worth a check during each trip-planning process.

Bravo, Alamo and Costco Rental Cars, for giving us a great car and service.

Website Feedback Needed! Vote!

Thank you for your vote last month about the share buttons. The vote was split, so I removed the floating buttons for now and left the ones at the top. I think this is a cleaner look.

Next up, do you remember where you signed up for my email newsletter? Or which place do you think will capture the most people?

Seasonal Treat

Mountain Folk Coffee in Banff had a flight of their unique drinks, acai bowls, and a plethora of vegan bakery desserts. Though I didn't choose particularly seasonal treats, it was truly the happiest Hanna at this place.