Hi, honey, I'm home!

I got home from Canada yesterday at about 5.30pm local time after a great and punctual flight, only to have to wait several lifetimes for my luggage, then struggle to the train with it. The train didn't stop at the station where I wanted to change, even though it was meant to, and I won't describe what happened next, but suffice it to say my language got very colourful and my body got very strained from lugging around the suitcase.

Zoom's planes are darker than they look here - a sort of royal blue. They were reasonable inside - but then planes have become much more sophisticated since I last flew over 30 years ago.

West Edmonton Mall is the largest in the world and I was astonished at what there is inside - this wave pool for one. There's also a skating rink, a theme park (!), a mini-golf, petting zoo and much, much more.

Fort Edmonton was a fur trading post. It's been set out in 3 periods, the most recent being the 1920s. We got there rather too late, but it wouldn't have made much difference, because it had rained very hard that day and most of it had been shut. My cousin John and his wife Myrna and I did get to go on the merry-go-round, though. This is the station-cum-gift shop.

This is the end of the house where the reunion was, and where I stayed for two nights. It's a log "cabin" which my cousins built themselves. It's set on the shores of Island Lake about half an hour out of Athabasca.

This is a view of the house from the lake. It's unimaginably beautiful.

On the last day before I moved to stay with other relatives, my cousin Linda's daughter, Leah, took a couple us out on the raft. My couple are sticking right out in front of me.

The weather was glorious right up to the Wednesday, when the heavens opened.

They really have big mosquitos in Canada!