Big City Girl Goes Small Town in Thunder Bay
blog by Alexis Jones

I’m sitting on a plane from Toronto to Los Angeles, with two hours down and three and a half to go. I have a window seat which would normally be a Godsend except I’ve had two teas and a bottle of water. Having already asked twice for my lovely seat neighbors to get up, I have too much pride to ask for a third time and, yet, I’m literally about to wet my pants. Needless to say, I figured it was a good time to whip out my computer in hopes that writing a blog could potentially distract me.

However, this seems to be my life these days; it fits that I’m squished on a plane, about to wet my pants, wishing I had more dinner choices than a cold, prepackaged turkey (with no dressing) sandwich. My recent epiphany is that traveling is great, in theory. In my case though, it’s been worth every bit of it because I just had the honor of giving a talk to a couple thousand women in Thunder Bay, Canada.

Honestly, I’d never heard of Thunder Bay. In fact, up until the day before I left, I mistakenly told my brother (who lives in Montreal, Canada) that I was speaking in Ottowa. Needless to say, I was jokingly reprimanded for my lack of knowledge regarding Canadian geography and corrected in that I was flying to Ontario. Sadly, I’m still not exactly sure where either are on the map.

Regardless, I hopped on a plane with my manager and best friend, Emily, and we set off on an adventure to inspire the ladies of Thunder Bay at the 30th anniversary of the Royal LePage 5K benefiting The United Way. Little did we know it was vastly different from any talk, event, seminar, or gig we’ve ever done. Unlike the nameless faceless crowds, the hoity toity accommodations, and professional set up, it was like the movie where the city girl’s car breaks down and she’s stranded in an itty bitty town in the middle of nowhere. Like the classic story goes, our high maintenance city chic heroine ends up falling in love with the simplicity of the town and the hearts of the people, and is reminded of things she didn’t even know she missed in life.

We arrived after midnight and were driven, in the dark, to a tiny cottage miles from anywhere. After an 11 hour day of travel, we had just enough energy to change into PJ’s, brush our teeth and crawl into foreign, yet cozy, beds. It was not until the following morning that we awoke to one of the most beautiful landscapes I’d ever seen. We were on a tiny island over looking all of Lake Superior, surrounded by gorgeous pine trees, with a wraparound deck that begged us to take advantage of it’s prime real estate and view fit for a king.

The rest of the weekend we kept joking that we had to pinch ourselves to remind us that we were in fact “working” because, besides two big events where I was scheduled to be the key note speaker, I was torn between exploring Mother Nature’s pride and joy, bundling up and sitting outside in front of the bonfire, staring up at the millions of stars, watching movies, laughing with some of the most warm, sincere, and loving people I’ve ever met, and lounging in a resort-like cabin catching up on my pleasure reading.

Sometimes living in the Big City, we lose the appreciation of simplicity. We are so distracted all the time that we forget just how much contentment can be found in staring at raw beauty that would give Picasso and Renoir a run for their money. I forgot how nice silence is, how beautiful the morning songs of birds can be, and how the kindness of pure strangers can ironically feel like family.

As I sit on the plane, my bladder gets increasingly annoyed with me, Emily awkwardly slouches next to me, desperately trying to get comfortable enough to sleep, yet I know the plane food, the hours of layovers, and the travel exhaustion is worth every second. At the end of the day, there is always a price to pay to pursue our passion and the tag on mine is worth every cent. It’s the Thunder Bays of the world that keep me going.

See more photos from Thunder Bay by visiting the I Am That Girl Facebook Page

alexis jones, canada, lake superior, mother nature, picasso, renior, royal lepage, the united way, thunder bay, travel