My previous winters in Chicago always left me wishing I could be somewhere warm...

Evergreen Lodge: Not only did it have everything I was looking for, but activities for the kids, a rustic, but comfortable cabin, a solar-heated saltwater pool--and onsite restaurants. This meant less time cooking after a long day, and less frustration of hauling and trying to store food.

The chance to hike Walden Woods where Henry David Thoreau wandered every morning, to dip my toes into Thoreau's own pond and see the actual site of his cabin where he wrote his philosophies that continue to inspire wanderers, travelers, humanitarians.  To see a place that both inspired and reflected his sense of simplicity, appreciation, gratitude, and kindness.