2 Months to go. Sunday 20th October 2013

Wow, we can't believe that in 2 months today we will be on our way to Canada. In the last couple of weeks we've managed to buy some snow pants and jackets that were on sale. We've already booked the Alcatraz Island night tour in San Francisco, as apparently it sells out weeks in advance. We have also booked for a Dog Sledding tour a couple of days after Christmas in Banff. Looks like great fun. Nearly all of our accommodation for the trip has been booked and paid for as is the 3 different hire cars. Yesterday I read that this winter should bring above average snow falls for the western side of Canada and that mid to late December temperatures will be below average. I think we are in for a big shock. The December averages for the Banff village is 44cm snow fall over the month and max daily temp of -5 degrees celsius and Min of -15! But heaps more snow up on the mountains around.

The 32's with 2 weeks to go! Sunday 8th December

Day 1. Perth to Calgary. Friday 20th December

Finally after years of dreaming and planning we set off on our next BIG holiday. As to be expected, we did have a couple of hiccups. The first being before we left the our own driveway. Our wonderful  Travel Agent friend, Jenny  had organised a nice shiny black limo van for the airport transfer at 9pm. By 9:20 and no sign of the van we got a feeling that the relaxing part of the holiday wasn't going to happen for a while. A couple of text messages later we found out that the limo driver had his days mixed up and wasn't coming till the next night! Deep breaths, it's ok we'll just get a taxi. NO, a taxi big enough for all of us would take at least 30 minutes to arrive. That plus travel time to the airport would get us there after the boarding time. More deep breaths! Luckily our house sitters were there so we jumped in our cars and drove ourselves and then they returned the cars back home. We arrived at the airport boarding gate with 10 minutes to spare. Not even enough time for that relaxing pre-flight red wine. We got to Sydney at 6:30am and used the train to the International Airport where we had breakfast with our Sister in-lawn Rebecca & her kids and Christine's sister Sharon who had come out to see us. It was a lovely quick catch up and the kids loved seeing their cousins again for the hour or so before we needed to go through customs. Chelsea obviously thought it was time for another hiccup, so she vomited on the tarmac while boarding the Fiji bound plane. The ground staff were hesitant about letting her board but there was no way we were going to miss that plane. She perked up and slept much of 4 hour flight. We had a 3 hour stop over in a wet and steamy Fiji. Chelsea was sick again on the Fiji to LA flight but luckily used the paper bag. We had a 4 hour stopover in LA before boarding plane ride number 4 for Calgary. We arrived at 7:30pm to a chilly -14 degrees and snow everywhere. It was very pretty seeing the houses with Christmas lights and snow from the plane. The last hiccup for day 1 was our hotel wasn't going to let us all stay in the one room. After explaining that perhaps that should have been brought up when the room was booked in July and we had a confirmation letter with the details they very kindly gave us a room with a inter-joining suite for the rollaway bed. After a dinner and a much needed wine and a shower we hit the sack. Phew


Sydney Airport Breakfast with Aunties and Cousins

View from our Calgary room