Nice

Travel is a privileged experience in every way. While I’m always grateful for the opportunity to step away from what is my “normal” life, travel has also been known to unleash bouts of envy in me when glimpsing the lives of others. Our Canadian Rockies adventure introduced me to a new and unexpected side effect: niceness.

When planning our trip, I somehow missed that we’d be visiting during the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation. It meant, among other things, that our entry into national and provincial parks was free, a nice surprise. And throughout our nearly three-week drive, we kept saying wow, this is nice. Nice places to eat, nice things to see, nice people everywhere. There are even highway overpasses just for wildlife, so they can cross in safety. Nice. And in Banff we saw a window sign which suggested to us that maybe it’s always like that in Canada.

This overall sense of pleasantness led me to ponder the effect of ready access to natural beauty. I do not live in a beautiful place, and wondered how much being surrounded by such grandeur contributes to personal contentment on a daily basis. I think the answer is quite a lot. Canada seems to know this, and takes pride in protecting its wonders for the pleasure of its people and visitors.

I admit it’s easy to fall in love on a gorgeous day, in perfect circumstances. It was summertime, high visitor season, and local economies dependent on good service to tourists offered their best. There was no language barrier. Maybe I was over reacting, but I think it understandable that I spent our entire trip being both envious and grateful. We’ll be visiting Canada again. Nice.