Oh Canada!
Lessons in Patience on a Tour of the Canadian Rockies
by
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Why is it that although we travel to experience the novel and the unexpected, we invest so much mental energy fantasizing and anticipating just how our trip will be? This was the case with a tour of the Canadian Rockies that my husband Martin and I took in May at the end of the last millennium. ("The last millennium" – don’t you just love saying that?) We would spend almost two weeks touring Canada, then top off our trip with a visit with my husband’s family in New Jersey, Martin’s home state. We were going to be attending his niece’s wedding. Although I’m a native Californian and my husband has lived in Southern California more than forty years, much of Martin’s family remains in the "Garden State." So it has been my destiny to make annual pilgrimages there for such events as weddings, bar mitzvahs and other sundry celebrations. Thinking about our trip, I had anticipated so many scenarios for the Canadian tour that I had to pack most of the clothes in my closet. Martin couldn’t divine my logic. But I had to be prepared. We live in Santa Monica, California, where temperatures rarely fall below 50º F or seldom exceed 78º. Here, most weather events require little more than a designer sweater tied just oh-so-casually around the neck. And dressing up is wearing diamonds with your designer jeans. When bound for Canada, that sovereignty of the frozen north, what does one pack? Just what does one wear on the Colombia Ice Fields? What if there was a sudden heat wave? Or blizzard? I had to have both warm and cool weather clothes for any and all occasions. What if some glamorous persons invited us to join them skiing, sky diving, spelunking, scuba diving or formal dinning? (Not that we ever do any of those physical activities; still we do like to eat in grand places.) Unfortunately the tour limited our bags to just a few, but it seemed like a dozen to Martin by the time we checked in at the Los Angeles Airport to fly to Vancouver. Throughout our trip, we could never find a Skycap, so Martin was always schlepping luggage around. (He has since been thanked, many times and in many ways.)
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About the Book
In her first book, Oh Canada! – Lessons in Patience on a Tour of the Canadian Rockies, Esther Pearlman pairs her colorful sketches with humorous observations of the places and situations around her. Robert Louis Stevenson, who created illustrated travel books as well as boys’ adventure stories, said that he traveled "to keep moving." Unlike Stevenson, Pearlman travels to meet people...and to find new subjects for her constant accessory...her sketchpad. Rather than photo-realistic representations of her experience, Pearlman’s sketches give somewhat abstract impressions of the people and countryside she encounters en route. The accompanying running commentary finds the humor in the inevitable inconveniences of travel. In the footsteps of travel humor blazed by writers from Mark Twain to Dave Berry, Pearlman follows that well-trod trail of American authors who visit other countries. Readers will relate only too well with the frequent delays and late arrivals that today have become the norm of travel. Pearlman meets each situation with humor and aplomb. The sketches and brief accompanying narrative string a series of vignettes "like pearls along the Rocky Mountain Trail" and across Canada to Toronto. Pearlman’s observations poke gentle fun at the incongruities of the idealized and real experiences of planned travel-- finding only dribbles of wildlife in the vast stretches of natural beauty, a tour bus breaking down near an avalanche area, a guide uncomfortable with his scripted monologue, etc. The descriptions of the grand hotels along the historic Canadian Rocky Mountain railroad route are peppered with fascinating trivia. Pearlman answers such pressing questions as "How did Banff get its name?" and "Which resort boasts one of the best places in Canada to see ghosts?" While reading it, you’ll be asking, "Why didn’t I discover this book sooner?"
About the Author
Esther Pearlman Painter/Author If she had a motto for travel, says Esther Pearlman, she would like "How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all?" Since that was already taken (for an album by Fire Sign Theater Group), she’ll settle for "best laid plans" often go awry. A quiet observer of her surroundings, Pearlman takes special notice of life’s incongruities. She confesses to embracing numerous contradictions within herself. Though she works hard at building a serious art career, Pearlman derives her greatest satisfaction from making people laugh. She admires the formal elegance of Asian art – an influence evident in some of her work – yet she loves casual, abstract forms. Pearlman expresses her penchant for entertaining people in such diverse endeavors as performing stand-up comedy, singing in the Verde Opera Chorus, and writing and illustrating adult and children’s books. Pearlman’s pens and sketchbook accompany her everywhere. She can be seen intently sketching everyone from a long-winded guest speaker talking about the book market to a romantic couple taking in the scenery. No subject is too great or too small for her pen. Not the austere grandeur of Canadian glaciers nor the tennis-shoed feet of waiting travelers. Rather like a cinematographer, Pearlman uses contextual cues to put the viewer in her own shoes. The frame of a train window surrounds a landscape. Lampposts and buildings are seen from a particular window. This freeze-frame manner belies the milieu of her native Los Angeles and her B.A. degree in film arts. Esther Pearlman has exhibited her art in numerous invitational and juried art shows. Her work has been selected for silent auctions for charitable organizations, including the City of Hope. She continues to cook up ways to amuse her audience – including her husband, their three children, and the grandchildren–from her studio in Mar Vista, California. Melody Girard A friend once described freelance writer Melody Girard’s diverse writing experience as "a zigzag train tour through the literary landscape." After completing her studies in Renaissance Literature, she embarked on a career that has ranged from writing on social issues of Southwestern Native American tribes to humor and children’s verse. From her home in Santa Monica, California, Ms. Girard continues to apply her pen and unique sensibilities to a broad range of subjects and genres.