The tl;dr answer to the former question of those two is we wanted to see the Northern Lights. The short answer to said question is we were lazy and indecisive and wanted to see the Northern Lights. The not-so-short answer to said question is we were lazy and indecisive and wanted to see the Northern Lights and didn’t do enough research about what places were the best places to see the Northern Lights that weren’t Google’s first suggestion and weren’t too expensive.

I’d like to point out that it’s (quite surprisingly) very hard to find a simple packaged “we’ll-take-care-of-everything-and-you-sit-back-and-enjoy-these-awesome-green-lights-in-the-sky” tour. At first glance, you’d think people would line up to do these tours given how absolutely awe-inspiring and magnificent the Northern Lights truly are… and then it hits you that people do line up to do these tours, only they do to travel to countries like Norway and Iceland where there’s plenty to do while you’re not waiting until nightfall to see pretty lights in the sky which, in turn, balances out having to deal with the bitter cold. As opposed to, that is, Northern Canada — where every small town’s sole purpose is to drill the earth for liquid gold. Welp, looks like I’ve answered my own question.

That said, we bought our tickets, bought our ridiculously thick winter jackets (because, you know, who on earth owns ridiculously thick winter jackets if you live in sunny Southern California), packed our bags, and were on our way. It took us three flights, two stopovers in Calgary and Edmonton, and having to explain ourselves to at least twenty absolutely-bewildered faces that belonged to friendly strangers who had just heard we were traveling from Los Angeles to Fort McMurray. This would follow us through our entire trip in Canada— heck, if we had a dollar for every perplexed face we encountered before, during and after our trip, I’d reckon we could’ve recouped a solid portion of our total costs.

I’m not going to lie — I wasn’t expecting much from the town per se, or whether there was other stuff to do during the day. The entire purpose of the trip seemed straightforward — the Northern Lights, the starry skies, from an isolated area, with no light pollution in the night.

I don’t remember what the average night sky in Hong Kong looked like. I do remember what the skies in Bangalore look like —only because Bangalore’s skies were, are, and always will be cloudy. And you’d be forgiven for thinking Los Angeles is the other “city that never sleeps” given how atrocious its light pollution issues are.

So… Fort McMurray. A town that seemed to serve just one purpose — produce oil. The people were extremely friendly — which fits the entire Canadians-are-the-nicest-people-in-the-world cliché, but contradicted the overall vibe this town gave off, which, on first glance, was far from friendly.