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If you’ve been read my blog recently you would know that I did some traveling in the United States over this past Christmas vacation. While I’ve touched on this in previous posts I just feel like I haven’t given it a proper introduction. I’m going to be writing more about what I did on the trip and so here’s the background story to it all.

My parents, like many other Canadians and Americans from the northern states, have a small vacation home in Arizona. The main purpose of this home is to visit during the winter and avoid the cold winter weather here in Canada. People who do this are referred to as “Snowbirds.” I guess this term originates from the fact that during the winter months many birds migrate south to the United States where the weather is more hospitable. Many people when they retire do this and will typically spend up to 6 months of the year living in the Southern U.S. Just to give you an idea what a Canadian winter is like the temperatures Canada can easily get down to -40 degrees Celsius, plus the windchill. In Arizona, it rarely ever gets below +15 degrees Celsius in the daytime.

I live in Calgary, Canada and the drive down to Arizona is about 3000 km or about 1850 miles, one way. It’s a very long drive and so most people do it in about 3 days and then stay in a hotel along the way for a couple of nights. It’s a long drive, but the good thing is that Las Vegas is pretty much on the way and if you’ve been on my blog recently, you’ll have seen how that all went!

My Grandpa has been spending the winters down in Arizona more or less for the past 20 years. A few years ago my parents got their place and while they are not fully retired, they intend to do the same when they do. This year my parents had some time off during the Christmas break and so we took a short trip there. For the next little while I’ll be showing you some photos and videos of the trip. I hope you`ll enjoy it as much as I did!