I hope you're still checking this string -- Chase said about Quebec what I'm going to say about another part of Canada not too far from you: Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. My husband and I went there on a summer vacation several years ago and were quite pleasantly surprised at how much like it felt we were in Scotland -- they don't call it Nova Scotia for nothing. It sure didn't feel like the US. Halifax is a terrific city, too. We flew up and rented a car and drove all around Cape Breton Island. Plus, it will satisfy your husband's desire to be near the sea without it being beach-y. We did go on a whale watch, though, and that was a blast. It'll be cooler than Florida in August, too, and no hurricanes. I've just suggested it to Thing One for his honeymoon -- they are thinking about scaling down their plans (Italy), too. Congratulations on being in the home stretch of law school, and welcome to the club! I don't know how "mature" you are, but I bet you found it to be an advantage. I was only 5 years older than most of the other students when I went, but even that was helpful. That's nothing compared to my mother, though -- she was 70 when she started! She went to a 4-year program, too, but when she realized she only had to take a couple of summer school classes to do it, she finished it in 3 years. My partner called her "a block off the old chip" -- but the truth is that not only are my brother and I both lawyers, so are her brother and most of the cousins in both generations. It seems that sooner or later we all end up in law school -- and she proved it, didn't she? Have a great time on your trip!

Never leave heat off if there's a risk of freezing (unless of course house completely prepared by draining all water etc). In fact, I've heard one should be cautious about how close to freezing, because pipes may be in less-heated areas (i.e. outside walls). I would not go below 50F. I would also say it can take more than a few hours to get a house back to desired temperature, depending on specifics of the heating system; I've personally seen and felt where the house's air has been brought up to temperature overall but you can still feel the cold on walls, floors, furniture - the thermal mass inside the house may take considerably longer to even out the temperature.

Iceland has a website to predict (as much as that can be done) when the Northern Lights activity is the most likely. Then, of course, that needs to coincide with clear skies. I have to say, living in a metro area, I was happy already with the full moon and the stars, so the Northern Lights were an extra bonus! Plus, probably some of the best meals! In Finland, friends of ours went here: http://hotelli-isosyote.fi/en/homepage/ They booked via a UK site, but I can't remember which one, but there are plenty, e.g. https://www.discover-the-world.com/holidays/iso-syote-log-cabin-hideaway/ Actually, check this out: https://www.discover-the-world.com/experiences/northern-lights-holidays/ Maybe Sweden or even Greenland? Or canada: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g155047-d2483758-Reviews-Northern_Lights_Resort_Spa-Whitehorse_Yukon.html

It took me a while to find this, and I had to do some odd searches to finally find it! Anyway, I did want to respond... IdaClaire - yes, I am somewhat of a compulsive story-teller, and when I was in First Grade, I won first place in the UL story-telling contest. I had to look up David Sedaris, but he does sound inspirational. I've always wanted to write in the style of James Thurber, which I think is somewhat similar. Anyway, I have to thank for this comment because it has gotten me back on the short story collection I was working on. I had started to write my autobiography, not because I think my life is special, but several friends have asked me to do this, including Dolores Deluxe, who is an actress and also an author. I met her in San Francisco in 1974 when I was living in a theatrical commune where she was rehearsing a play that some of my roommates at the time were in. Our commune was in a storefront on Valencia street that had been a dance studio before, and so it had one cavernous room with 8' high mirrors and ballet bars. I recently saw Dolores again at one of her book signings, and then we had lunch near her bungalow in Venice on the beach. I have her autobiography and thought that I should try to write something similar, but that really didn't work for me, but when I read your post, I got the idea that all I need to do is get a collection of short anecdotes - something that would be much easier for me to do. I've decided that they do not need to be sequential, and I can try to make sense or order out of them after I've finished writing them. BTW, when I was at Rice, I took Larry McMurtry's creative writing class and got an A in it. I was told that some of my writings were Kafkaesque, which I did agree with, but those were especially the ones I wrote in high school and college. They tended to be a bit surreal. 3katz4me, you would have to fly your cats to Palm Springs, which is Cathedral City adjacent. I just had my pool resurfaced, and it has new equipment as well, and the heater works well, although I certainly don't need that in the summer. In September the water temperature was 85° without using the heater. I'm going there this week-end to do some more work on the house.