March 1st - I'm home!!!

An early start to the day - up at 3:45, out the door by 4:25 and lined up at Westjet check in at 5:00 - it took me an hour and 15 minutes to get through the check in line, but my lovely daughter Courtney kept me company...she is heading back to Australia and had a 10:00 flight to L.A., then a 10 hour layover and then a 12 or so hour flight to Sydney...I guess my 2 little one and four hour flights don't look so bad!!!!

After multiple hugs and kisses from Courtney and a few tears (not sure when we'll meet up again as she is still planning to travel the world for the next year or so) I breezed through security just in time to board my plane to Calgary...about ninety minutes later we landed in Calgary and an hour later I was on a flight home to Ottawa...great flights despite there being no TV/movies happening as their system wasn't working...

I arrived in Ottawa at about 4:30 our time and was thrilled to see my son waiting for me...big hugs for him, and minutes later, Randy appeared as his direct flight which left 2 hours later than mine arrived at essentially the same time...he is off to Barbados on Wednesday, while I return back to work tomorrow...

And thus ends my Olympic adventure, well except for the retelling of stories...I have lots more pics than what I've posted here and more stories to tell  to anyone who is interested in hearing/seeing them...I hope that you've enjoyed reading about my month away - it has been a great way for me to track my adventure...

And now, back to regularily scheduled programs....

GO CANADA GO - Thanks Vancouver for a great Olympic experience!!!!

February 27th & 28th - Last Two Days!

On Saturday morning Dale was returning to Ottawa so I accompanied her to the airport on the skytrain.  After she checked in, I headed over to my friends' Jan and Ron to spend some time with them - they have been so helpful to me in the two year process of getting prepared for these Olympics - they've picked up and dropped Courtney and I from the airport numerous times and gave us shelter when we needed it...a big thanks to them for everything!!!  After that, I pretty much spent the rest of the day/evening getting packed up so that I could figure out if I would have enough roon to bring everything home - apparently I overbought on the Olympic souvenir front cause I am having to have a box of stuff shipped home - luckily the company I work for has an account with Fedex Ground so I can have it all arranged from work...guess where the box is right now...yup, at Jan & Ron's - another thank you!!!!

On Sunday, Randy came in from Whistler to spend the day/night with us so that we could all head out to the airport early on Monday morning...we rented a car for the day (24 hours) so that we could avoid using taxis to the airport...the Whistler bus dropped him off at the airport around 11:30 a.m. so I picked him up and we went back to our house to watch the hockey game - GO CANADA GO - then after the game (and a skype call to Deen (Randy's wife) in Barbados, we headed downtown to check out the Athlete's Village and the Olympic Flame...as an aside, Deen and our friends in Barbados watched the game at Bert's Bar where the place was packed with both US and Canadian fans - very exciting - and Eugene Melnyk was there watching also...when Deen was leaving she said to him..."now we can go back to concentrating on the Sens" to which he high fived her!  Back to Vancouver - Randy and I wondered around the village checking out the sights there and then we skytrained over to the Olympic Flame so that Randy and Courtney could see it...the rings were gold because of the hockey win and there were tons of people around...after that we headed back to the house for some pizza and then out to the airport to drop off Gary (housemate) at the airport for his 11:30 p.m. flight back to Ottawa...upon returning home, we finished up our packing then headed off to bed...it's a 3:45 wake up call for our flights home...