December 2007

Family Vacation Time!

Dec 15 to 22 - The first family Vacation in years. Destination - Puerto Vallarta...more specifically, the Riu Vallarta. Our first foray into the world of all-inclusive living. I was pleasantly surprised by the flight out on Air Transat...and I had plenty of time to catch up my episodes of Entourage and Weeds. Some highlights and random thoughts:

• Being away during what is usually the busiest time of the holiday was a little weird. Relaxing, but weird nonetheless
• We loved the trip out to see Rhythms of the Night. Found out what Diana has been calling me is *very* hilarious in spanish. I'll have to speak to her about that the next time I see her.
• Zip-lining was a lot of fun. Charlene was the tour guide's favourite. Apparently a guest like her doesn't come along very often.
• We found a nice little french restaurant in PV when we needed to get away from all-inclusive eating
• Didn't head out to Sayulita, but I did catch up on my boogie boarding
• Of course, we had to cram one week's worth of Christmas prep into 40 hours after we got back home, but the mission was accomplished...bags of perogies, 20lb turkey and a Christmas tree were acquired.
• We were a bit disappointed that the renos weren't further along, but we were amused when we heard our housesitter pulled a muscle Wii-boxing...

Oil Kings!

Oile Kings vs. Calgary Hitmen. Location: Edmonton Journal Box. A lot of fun really. Definitely a step or two down from the pros, but the crowd had a great time. It must have been 70% kids...or at least it seemed that way.

A Quick Little Trip to Victoria?

Dec 3 to 4. Destination: Victoria.

• Dec 3 Flt AC241 from Edmonton to Vancouver
• Dec 3 Flt AC8067 from Vancouver to Victoria
• Dec 4 Flt AC8088 from Victoria to Vancouver
• Dec 4 Flt AC246 from Vancouver to Edmonton

It seemed easy enough...Fly in on Monday...Meet with MvC...get back to the hotel and catch the Patriots-Ravens game on TV. Meet with the BC-folk the next day and fly home. That was the plan. Alas, things do not always go as planned. My flight out of Edmonton was delayed for about an hour and then another hour once we boarded for de-icing. This caused me to miss my original flight to Victoria. Once I landed in Vancouver, I found out that the next flight to Victoria was cancelled and I would have to try to find my way on the one after that. The line up at the airport wasn't looking very good, so I called the super-secret AC Elite number to see what they could do. Well, I got a standy ticket...one of 150-some-odd standy passengers for a little Dash 8. With frequent flyers given priority, I was able to get on. Not long after settling in, we all had to leave the plane. Apparently someone backed a truck into the plane...back to the waiting area. We finally got another plane - but not before the merits of bussing everybody out and across on the ferry was considered.

Back home was a little better. This time, only my original flight out of Victoria was cancelled...no problem...I got on the next one. But apparently, the gate agent also cancelled my spot on the Vancouver Edmonton flight as she didn't think I would make it. Well, we made it on time but now I had no confirmed seat on the Edmonton flight...sigh...after some sweet talking, I found myself on my originally-scheduled Vancouver to Edmonton flight. My luggage would make it home one day later.

I did learn that it is possible to send a text message to a land line.