Going down South is a very Canadian thing to do. At first, I thought it was kind of odd to see all these people chasing the sun every year;
however, after six winters in Canada I totally get it. This year after a few snowstorms, a couple of blizzards and three months of walking on icy sidewalks, I couldn’t wait to go to a place where the question “Is it supposed to be sunny tomorrow?” is not even a thing.
Last year, after a few drinks, my friends Pat and Claude offered to have a bunch of us over for a week in Hilton Head, South Carolina. I’m not sure they still think it was a good idea, but I sure am happy I said yes! During the past week, I have done a lot of things that – for the most part – I couldn’t do in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Here are a few of them:
- Wear shorts in April
- Bike everywhere: the beach, the marina, the supermarket… (Well, you could do that in Halifax but you’d have to survive the hills)
- Buy my beer at the supermarket and for half the price I’d pay at the NSLC back in Nova Scotia
- Make friends with an alligator
- Tan
- Play golf in golf paradise. Well, I stuck with mini-golf, but still.
- Enjoy a refreshing glass of sweet tea. Yes, it’s just iced tea, but there’s something different about it when it comes with a true southern meal:
- Get rid of my winter blues
- Take advantage of US prices and 6% taxes
- Catch a BIG red fish
- Enjoy 6 consecutive sunny days with an above-twenty-five-degree temperature
- Do a sunset cruise on a sailboat (this is possible in Canada too, but again you’d probably not be wearing shorts if it was in April)
- Visit Savannah and see urban planning at its best (I wrote a little more about that here)
I also committed to putting together France’s Olympic curling team for the 2018 games. I know you’re thinking “Buddy, it’s not that easy!”, but there are only 386 registered curlers in France, so Coach Mark and I figure our chances are pretty good.
As you can probably tell, this trip also involved a lot of drinking. From what I heard, that’s a very important part of the “going down South” experience.
Oh, if you’re planning on going to an all-inclusive resort down South any time soon, here are a few pieces of advice I wrote for you.