Regina-Victoria in 6 Days

We are so busy traveling there is no time to blog.

Sunday after the wedding we had brunch with friends from Regina, then met another Regina couple at the museum in Moose Jaw for the afternoon. Alf and Sveta had never been there and I wanted to show Tanya the Avro Anson Bomber that #1 Son had helped restore when he was about 10 years old. Our friend Tony had been an airframe mechanic during the war and knowing my son's interest in WWII aircraft, took him along. then we drove in pouring rain to Rosetown to my brother's in time to help celebrate his youngest granddaughter's second birthday.

Monday we visited my Aunt (Mom's sister) and cousin in Kindersley, then another Aunt (Mom's other sister) and another cousin in Denzil. Both Aunts are in their 80's and are the last of all my aunts and uncles. We hit Edmonton at about 10:00 and my friend and shirt-tail relative Wilf was glad to see us and found us a bed.

Tuesday, LynnieC came over to visit about 9:30 pm (after class and after choir). Wednesday we went to West Edmonton Mall and shopped till our feet got sore, then picked up LynnieC after class, went for supper and then watched a movie at her place while she worked. As she said, it was a bad week to visit and until next April, when she finishes her Masters in Library and Information Studies, they are all bad weeks.

Thursday we headed out on the Yellowhead to Jasper then took 93 south through the mountains to Banff. First time I drove that route and we stopped to take pictures whenever Tanya wanted. She said it was "rest for her heart" to see such beautiful scenery and next time we should take five days to make the trip so she could see all the side trails. By the time we got to Golden, we were beat and stopped at the first hotel and crashed.

Tanya loves the mountains and our drive the next day frm Golden to Victoria decided that she could live in mountains. Not me. I like to look straight ahead and see sky, not straight up.

My idea of where to live

Tanya could live surrounded by mountains

We got into Victoria and arrived at Ky's about 10:00 Friday night. Driving strange Victoria streets in the dark is not my idea of a good time but we found our way. My little dog Vicki recognized me immediately. Ky, Maryanne and Chris were waiting supper for us. Ate and crashed. Too long a day.

Learned one thing. If the car engine is two squirrels and a chipmonk in a running wheel, an automatic transmission just doesn't cut it for mountain driving. Need a five speed manual shift, much as Ihate them. I missed my Kia standard on the climbs.

May-B and The Guy Tie the Knott

Saturday, my daughter May-B and The Guy got married (for the second time this summer). The day was hot +32 C*, the church and hall were small and not air conditioned, but the service and reception were short, sweet and direct to the point. May-B was lovely and so were her sisters. Her brother-of honour is one big dude and looks too much like his old man to be handsome but did his best.

The Guy is now family and he fits in like it was planned from the beginning of time. We have great new in-laws and friends which can only improve our reputation. Only sour note is that the Roughriders lost to the Eskimos on Sunday. The kids and a bunch of their friends went to Vegas Monday for the honeymoon. Go figure.

The pictures are not in chronological order because for some reason I can't move them around on my laptop like I can on my desk top. Also the couple pics and wedding party pics are all done by pros and we don't have them yet so you'll have to wait for those shots

The Guy's family

Two down and two to go.

Blog Fodder Family

Wedding cake and Football cake too.

Down the Aisle We Go!

Waiting at the Front of the Church

*#1DIL said it was 75 degrees colder when she and #1 Son got married in January five years ago.

I still get no respect

We stopped at a Chinese buffet in Saskatoon for supper. Parked beside a blue mini van with collision damage on the back right corner. Tanya wondered to Graeme if it had been my van at one time.

My cousin DC Power has been on oxygen for the past few years. He has a long tube from the main tank in his bedroom that gives him the run of the house. Otherwise he uses a portable system. The tube was all sort of coiled up in the hall, hooked to DC's traech as he was standing at the end of the hall. May-B is hauling our suitcase down to the spare room.
"I won't cut off your oxygen with the suitcase, Uncle DC...but after my dad has been here for a few days you will want to do it yourself".

Crowding everything and everyone in a few days

Along with visiting with #1 Son and DIL, we had coffee with friends Duane and Joan from Lacombe. Duane's research on winter grazing has done a great deal to lower the cost of wintering cattle in western Canada. We go back about 35 years. Then we went to visit Lorna and Jim, who were our neighbours in Kindersley 30 years ago and retired to Sylvan Lake. Our kids used to sneak over to their place to watch the Soaps at the age of three and five.

#1 Son invited a couple of his friends from work, Yuri and Ivan, from Cherkassy working on contract with a year left to go. Tanya had a good visit with them. They were home on holidays this year and are anxious to go home for good.

Yesterday #1 Son, Tanya and I drove to Regina, got in at 10:00 pm to my cousin's DC Power. DC had done the honours at our wedding so we are getting revenge by staying with him till
Sunday. May-B and Ky were here waiting for us. So good to see my girls.

Ky had just got in from London a couple days earlier. She had presented at some academic literary conference and is now reading for her comprehensive exams in a month or so. LynnieC drove Edmonton to Saskatoon last night arriving at 2:00 am and will drive in this morning. Then I will have seen all my kids.

Visiting Number ONE Son and DIL

My son picked us up at the airport in Calgary, and we drove to Red Deer. Dead tired as we had been up 24 hours and more by then. Next day we went with the kids to a beer-league slow pitch tournamant. Their team had made it into the second round but got blown out of the water in no uncertain terms, which is what they had figured. Number ONE DIL had two good hits and a couple good plays at the plate (she is backcatcher) and Number ONE son had a couple good hits and some good plays at shortstop so we were all happy to have been there to watch.

At 1:00 we headed to visit Doddlebug Dawson and Dawson's Mom, Dad and Brother. Well fed with both lunch and supper, we could see no reason Dawson's Mom shouldn't cook us breakfast too, but then politeness overwhelmed us and we left just before dark. It was good to see more family. Dawson is doing so well, down to one seizure a week, learning to read and still able to get into more trouble in 10 minutes than two people can keep her out of in a week. She gets her dog sometime in April which should be pretty exciting.

Today Tanya and DIL went shopping. Son and I did a couple of minor repairs and then watched a movie and napped. My favourite kind of visit. Steak on the BBQ almost ready so will sign off by saying GALD to be back in Canada with FAMILY.

Istanbul

Our plane leaves for Toronto in 2 hours. Skies were cloudy when we arrived last night but not a drop of rain. We will fly, all else being equal.

I discovered how to remain calm prior to a flight. Our plane was to leave Dnipro at 5:30. We left ZV at 11:00, got to Dnipro at 12:30 (Andrei drove) went to the souvenir market for last minute shopping, had lunch at McDonalds and arrived at the airport at 2:00 pm. Our bags were dreadfully overweight so we had to leave behind two of the four 3-litres of jam. We were still 4.7 kgs over on 60 kgs but no problem. We cleared security, cleared immigration and walked into the gate area at 3:00. There was a line up, not long at a gate. FOR ISTANBUL!!!! The plane leaves at 1530, not 5:30. Good thing Tanya is in charge.

Tanya's friend Sveta came with us to Istanbul to spend a few days with her boyfriend. Metin met us at the airport, drove us to our hotel and took us for supper, then toured us around on our way back to the hotel. We are in mid-Ramazan month and at sundown (7:35) the streets and restaurants are filled with people breaking their fast of the day. It is like family style Mardi Gras, (rated G) and we loved it. Because it was Friday night, the Mosques were filled with people praying but it didn't seem to effect numbers on the street.

Turkish Airlines put us up in the Grand Yavuz Hotel, a great 3 star in the heart of oldest Istanbul. We were a 15 minute walk from everywhere: Grand Bazaar, Blue Mosque, Haija Sofia, Topkapi Palace. Dozens of sections of the old wall surrounding Byzantium/Constantinople are still standing. Mehmet II and the Ottomans were successful in breaching these walls in 1453, officially ending the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople was renamed Istanbul. Tanya and I have two days here on our return home from Canada and plan on exploring to our hearts' content.

Tanya is loose in Duty Free so I must needs go rescue her.

Last Night at Home for a Month

We are packed, more or less. All but the jam which has been reduced from 24 litres to a more manageable (we hope) 12 litres. Three large suitcases of clothes and such and we squeeze in four 3-litre plastic bottles of jam in the morning, close the lids and hope we are not over weight. I am taking an extra bag just in case we have to repack at the airport. Also if Turkish Airlines want to charge us for more than one suitcase each, we are screwed. We never checked and I am not going to raise the issue tonight.

There was some money left over from Tanya's birthday present so today we found a lovely black jacket (shirt/blouse??, something anyhow) that looks good on her and she looks good in it.

Lena's Mom will stay here full time while we are away, which will be nice for Roman and Lena as three people in a two room (aka one bedroom) flat can get kind of crowded, I suspect. Roman and Lena will come every day or so to water the flowers, check the garden and feed the critters.

Walking the dogs just got easier. Open the gate and let them run. All night if they want. Volk has been a bad one for not coming home after our walks anyhow, so we just let 'em both rip. Tonight we let them out about 4:00 and they both came home about 10:00. Good dogs.

It is kind of scary going home to Canada after two years. Culture shock. Everything and everyone has changed. My kids are not the same as when I left two years ago. They all live in different places (different houses for two of them, cities and provinces for two of them). They have grown older, taken on more responsibility, lived more. They are still my kids and I hope we have not grown too far apart. I sent them a picture "so they would know who I was, at the airport". (Actually because Tanya took the picture and I look good in it so had to brag).

We leave for Dnipro at 11:00. Hope the hotel in Istanbul has highspeed wireless. And that it isn't under water when we get there.