Waiting in Calgary...

And so the venture is nearly over... Dad and I are comfortably installed in some very cozy chairs in the Calgary airport and we are awaiting our flight home to Hamilton.  I just saw an elderly man dressed up with a huge ten-gallon hat walk by - i think he's a customer service helper representative mascot kinda fellow and he's pretty jaunty.  Fun to see typical things in places... kinda like seeing a fisherman in Newfoundland or a dolphin in Florida. 
We have spent the last week/8 days traipsing around southern B.C. visiting various family members and touring this that and the other thing.  I could probably write a very long exhaustive entry here - i do have time after all - and then my poor readers would be frustrated...and it's not good to have frustrated blog readers.  So i'll try to sum up (sounds like Princess Bride when Inigo is trying to brief Westley about the events that have gone on since he died - "Prince Humperdink is gonna marry Buttercup in little less than half an hour so all we have to do is go through the castle gates, kill the six-fingered man, rescue the princess...").

We left Hamilton on a Thursday evening - about an hour late since there was a huge lightning storm cell to be bypassed by our incoming plane and then avoided by our leaving flight.  I have never seen something like that - lightning dancing from cloud to cloud and i kept worrying that it would hit our plane (any ideas on how that would affect a plane?  It must have happened before...).  We flew all the way down around Chicago to avoid the weather and consequently ended up in Calgary about an hour late - leaving us a bit breathless as we ran to reach our connecting flight.  Fortunately, they held it for us and we were on our way.  Aunt Yettie was at the airport to meet us on a cool rainy 8 degree night and bring us to her place where we would be staying for the next week.  She even graciously emptied out a drawer for each of us in her bathroom (that was a very welcoming thing to do i felt!).  She is a very wonderful hostess and i personally think that she would be an excellent bed and breakfast hostess - she loves cooking for people and does a fabulous job ( we are going to be coming down off a bacon and eggs high...) and finding neat places to take guests in her area - and there seem to be an inexhaustible list of things to do in the immediate area. 
Friday morning, Dad and I dropped Yettie off at work and then were off to see Grandma (Dad's mom) in Langley.  She lives at Manoah Home and took a few minutes to remember us when we came around the corner to see her.  We were able to have lunch with her and that was very nice - we also met a friend of hers, Roelien, who visits regularly - it's nice to know that Grandma has regular company - my Dad's cousin Dinie also visits every week to do her hair.  I hate the fact that distance separates us and we only get to see her so infrequently.  It had been nine years for Dad, but three for me.  Grandma is getting older (that's not rocket science, Yell) and quite forgetful - but she knew who i was after a few minutes.  She did however ask me about 30 times if i had a boyfriend so that one was repeated a lot of times.  But she maintains an excellent sense of humour  and makes the nurses laugh so that's good. 

After we left her for her nap time - we meandered home across the Fraser Valley, taking little side roads and going up and down the hill sides with Yettie's little old standard car - so driving was out for me - Dad was the pilot, i got to be chief navigator.  Friday evening, after we wended our way home, we had dinner with Yettie's friends Rob and Karen - and they discussed their plans to head to head to Holland in the summer - i sure hope they have a good trip - there's so much to see and do there that it was fun to recommend stuff. 
Saturday morning, we babysat for Yettie's grandson Nicholas - he's pretty cute and was happy enough until he clued into the fact that his mom was gone and then he wasn't too happy... we took turns trying to calm him down! Yettie's kids Nathan, Mark and John came over for a long leisurely breakfast (which lasted until about 3:00!!) and it was nice to get to know them a bit again - it's so long between visits that it's hard to remember what everyone is up to.  They are very welcoming though and we shared a lot of laughs whilst reminiscing.  Saturday afternoon we got out for a bit to go for a walk along the dyke just north east of Abbotsford... we had a little shower but that didn't deter our walking and it felt great to get out! 

 We also did a bit of super moon chasing - it was fun to try to capture the moon - but we didn't do a great job (i had visions of a great shot, just over the mountains...but i am not an award-winning photographer so my illusions of grandeur were dashed!)
I think i might split this up a bit since this is getting super long and boring mostly likely... pictures will follow... i promise!