St. Catharines, ON

Flying from Alaska to Toronto was a bit of an adventure. Because I had the flights on two separate tickets, and because United discontinued serving Anchorage after I had booked the ticket, they had to rebook me on Alaska Airlines. The funny thing was that flights were pretty full, even quite a bit in advance. I assume this was a direct result of all the cancelled United flights. Anyway, all that was left for me was to fly Anchorage-Chicago-Los Angeles-Toronto! That is simply crazy, but pretty comfortable to what I was to experience in Argentina. But that will be another story later...;-)

the crazy routing

Anyway, I arrived in Toronto at about 11pm, got my luggage, picked up my rental car, and drove to Niagara Falls, where I had a motel on Lundy's Lane for the night. Next morning I had a nice breakfast at Tim Hortons - yahoo! - finally Timmy's again! After a short drive through St Catharines, past my old house and Brock, I drove on to Fonthill to the Fennells. Dave opened the door, and looked a bit surprised to see me. He had mixed up the days, and thought I'd arrive on the day I was actally to leave again. But - as always with Fennells - no problem at all! Actually, Julie and Lauren were in Burlington at Julie's sister and family, and we were leaving shortly after that. I only became aware that it was Thanksgiving during my flight the night before, and Dave did not hesitate to take me along to the big Thanksgiving feast in Burlington. Just like in old times. It was great to see Julie's sister and family, as well as her parents again. What a wonderful time!

left to right: Julie, Lauren, Sam, Dave, Jack, Katie

Lauren

Jessie and Julie

The following couple of days rushed by very quickly. Dave and I went to work a couple of times, and I caught up with some really nice (ex-)colleagues. We also talked about the research we had in mind for some time, and finalised our plan. So that project should get under way in 2009 as well.

And we went to the big District Cross Country competition. Both Jessie and Sam did compete. They among the 150 best kids of the 90+ schools in the district. And both did a fantastic Job! Jessie was up first. She ran her heart out, and came in on a fantastic 4th place!

Dave and Jessie

Then it was Sam's turn. He had to do 500 meters more, since he was in a higher age category.

Sam did a great race, too. He was in the leading group for most of the race, and lost just a few positions towards the end. He came in 11th, which is an amazing result! Congrats Jessie and Sam!

And far too soon it was already time to pack up my stuff and head to Toronto for my flight to Argentina...