When your 7-year-old dreams of chasing the aurora borealis, you try to make it happen.

But what if your eco-conscious spouse wants to tag along—only if the trip involves days of trains and boats, and barely any time at the destination?

This mom is stuck between a magical memory and a logistical nightmare.

WIBTA if I don’t include my husband on this trip?

My husband and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with our 7 year old daughter. My husband works from home, and I’m a teacher in the same district where our daughter goes to school.

Recently, our daughter told me she would like to go to Alaska to try to see the northern lights. I mentioned this to her dad, who said he would like to come along.

(My daughter and I go on a lot of trips without him – he’s not much of a traveler, and the two of us just came back from a 2-day camping trip since we’re both on summer break.)

Maybe adding Dad this time would be fun.

The thing is, it’s really just spring and fall when you can see the northern lights. And my husband has this environmental proclivity where he doesn’t want to ever travel by plane, so he suggested going by train. It would take a day or two to get to Seattle from here, and then a couple of days to get to Alaska by boat.

So, basically, if we went by train and boat over spring break, we would probably get to spend a whopping 24 hours in Anchorage before having to head back. I don’t know if we would still see the northern lights (I’ve heard you should give yourself several days because they don’t happen every night.)

I asked him whether he could ask for two weeks off of work instead of just one (although I don’t relish having a sub for my students for a week just so we can go by train), and he said he didn’t know.

Hmm…

I’m really wanting to just go by plane with my daughter so that we can have a good trip and have a halfway decent chance of actually seeing the northern lights.

Plus, I think it is actually more expensive to take Amtrak up there in addition to the boat.

What do you all think? If my daughter and I go over spring break without him, WIBTA?

Sometimes good intentions (and strong values) don’t make for practical travel partners. If making the most of a rare break means taking to the skies—she might just have to do it solo…again.

Most people say Mom wouldn’t be the AH.

This person offers a suggestion.

But this person says everyone stinks except the daughter.

Well, one thing’s for sure…

You can’t see the northern lights if you never actually get there.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.