Here we go!

Here we are, sitting in the lounge at the gate waiting to find out if we can get seats on the first flight from Calgary to London. We are currently ticketed for the 10:00 pm flight, but the first flight leaves at 7:40 pm, and we would rather leave on the earlier flight to give us a more flexible connection in London.

GandT

We just said "au revoir" to each of our parents. Aren't good-byes supposed to be getting easier? Tamalyn's parents drove us from Beaumont to Calgary, and my parents came along for the ride. The last five weeks have been quite hectic since we left Bermuda.

Our trip from Bermuda to Alberta took us to New York for one day. We both wanted to take in a Yankees game at The Stadium since it will be torn down in two or three years for a more modern facility. After the afternoon game (the Yankees beat the Orioles 12-4) we took in The Lion King on Broadway. A typical whirl wind day in the big apple. From New York, we flew to Calgary via O'Hare for a quick slice of deep dish pizza. How's that for some Americana? Yankees, Broadway, and deep dish pizza in NY, hmmm.

We arrived in Calgary on July 6 late in the evening. From there, the pace accelerated for our brief stay in Alberta. I had a family reunion July 8-10 outside of Falher, in northern Alberta, about 500 km (320 miles) north of Edmonton. Tamalyn's family then had a family reunion in Calgary, about 300 km (190 miles) south of Edmonton. The next weekend saw us back at my parents, before one more weekend in Edmonton to meet up with Tamalyn's cousins, and take in the Heritage Days festival in Edmonton,. Heritage Days is a festival celebrating Edmonton and Alberta's multicultural backgrounds. There were over 40 exhibits which featured ethnic food and cultural displays from around the world. We made one more trip up north and back to see my nephews swim in the regional swim meet, the qualifier for the provincial competition. All in, we estimate that we have driven over 5000 km and slept in 14 different beds (yes, always together Chris!). It ended up being quite the training program for our little (OK, big!) adventure.