Family Getaway (Spring Break!) May 22, 2013Expert BlogsOff

We headed with the family to Quebec’s Ice Hotel carrying suitcases packed with warm coats. Lots of them. It was our youngest child’s idea. Julien wanted to go so much that he pleaded with us for this to be his 13th birthday present. So we booked the trip (before the recession and ensuing stock market crash), and when the time came, there was no turning back.

At the Hotel de Glace, we were given sleeping lessons. With temperatures as cold as minus-13 degrees, necessary precautions involve learning how to step into a giant liner, then wriggle into a serious North Face mummy bag. Cords need to be pulled tight on the top of the bag to trap in your body heat. (One woman told us she had a panic attack and, like a number of guests before her, spent the night in the hotel’s check-in lodge.)

After a day of dog sledding and snow tubing, we settled in for a hearty Canadian meal (think elk, red deer and beef barley soup). We enjoyed after-dinner drinks (maple whiskey for me, a martini for Joey and cranberry juice for the kids) in glasses made of ice at the ice bar – which, like everything else in this hotel, is also completely made of ice and snow.

Finally we donned bathing suits and climbed into the Jacuzzi to drive up those body temperatures in hope of actually staying warm throughout the night. Then it was straight into that mummy bag – working fast to lock in the body heat. I can’t say we slept like babies or had spiritual epiphanies as some have reported, but being out there in that beautiful, crazy place surrounded by snow and ice walls atop an actual ice cube of a bed with our two boys on another giant cube beside us under a ceiling of sparkling ice crystals was extraordinary.

The best part of all was the warmth – the warmth of that oddly cozy mummy bag, the Jacuzzi and the barley soup the night before, and most of all, the warmth of being surrounded by family.

Another unexpected delight came before we left Atlanta, where PINK is based. My employees and friends took pity on me (an L.A. native) and showed up at the office with fabulous designer coats (think Patagonia, Georgio Armani, North Face and more). I ended up with more jackets than a princess has gowns.

Not only that. Since the workdays are so busy with total focus on deadlines and deals, this search for warmth… well, it broke the ice. We all gathered in my office, laughing, trying on clothes – and sharing coats, shoes and stories. Because of that and the closeness we experienced with our family, I’ll long remember this as the warmest trip yet.

By Cynthia Good

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