Thursday, February 5, 2009

Family is Family

I love Alberta, my home province, and I have been eagerly anticipating my visit here since I started planning it. It is hard to get away, as anyone who runs their own business knows, and it leaves me feeling like I have one foot on the dock and one in the boat.


The flight is a little bumpy, but otherwise uneventful - the best kind. What keeps those hundreds of tons of steel and glass and people in the air, I wonder? Oh I know - aerodynamics, thrust, lift, drag, and on and on. But really, when a bird has to work so hard at it, we should count ourselves lucky that all we have to do is walk onto a plane.


I gaze out the window as the plane banks over Toronto and heads out West. Soon the city-upon-city of southern Ontario is replaced with the endless lakes of central Canada, then the flat prairie, still showing its patchwork quilt through the snow and the haze of low clouds. Ah, how I miss all that nothing!


Here at last! All the jumping through hoops is worth it when I see my sister Kathy waiting at the bottom of the escalator at the Edmonton International Airport. It's great to see my family out here in the wild and woolly West, and the weather promises to be fairly decent for photography.


I miss my family back home already, and thank God for the virtual mailman that sends my words and thoughts back home to them, almost as they come to mind. I am enjoying settling in for some down time, as I can feel it is long past due.


A day of rest today, and then tomorrow out the Elk Island Park to see the wood bison, I hope! Stay tuned; I will be posting photos throughout my trip. I'm here for ten days - including my 50th birthday on Tuesday. Family potluck dinner, here I come!