Home Again

So even though I have been home for a while I guess I should officially post that I got home.

After Yellowstone we drove to Montana and went down a mountain in a snow flurry in 16 degree weather. that is a first for me. When we finally crossed into Canada, it was just was we expected no fun and humorless. that homeland security show on TV made it look a little more exciting, but some people take protecting a country from rogue tomatoes (and my dad's imaginary gun collection) just a little too seriously.

Once in Canada it was a lot of flat farm land - growing oil wells, haha. On Friday we went to the West Edmonton Mall. Supposedly one of the largest in North America. It has 800 stores, a water park, amusement park, and an ice rink. although it had some nice stores it really ran the gamut from a Coach purse store to Zellers (Canadian Walmart) and dollar stores. some of the clientele seemed kind of seedy too. It was still a fun evening, and we went to a great dinner place called Brewsters. We all cleaned our plates and mom and I enjoyed the local brew.

On saturday mom and I tried to clean up our infected computers. we both got infected with different viruses, so by the time we were done messing with computers I only had a couple hours until my flight home. So I suggested we play a few games and then go to A&W for lunch. We got out the dominoes - an Alaska vacation must have! - and Uno. We got very competitive and silly and couldn't breathe because we were laughing so hard. A&W was also delicious and then it was off to the single terminal international airport.

I walked to the ticket counter and the woman greeted me with "going to Phoenix?" yeah, that is how busy the airport was - it was the only afternoon flight the airline had that day. coincidently a different airline was boarding a flight to Phoenix at the gate next to mine. Apparently it is a very popular destination for Canadians, who knew!?

The flight was nice and I ended up sitting next to some young canadian guy who was vacationing in AZ for a week of golf. he was quite the world traveler and we talked the entire flight. he told me about cool places in canada to vacation at and I told him about the phx area.

I finally got home and spent my entire sunday lounging around catching up on my DVR. then hung out with one of my old college friends, Ryan. he came back for the weekend to see everyone - it was good timing too since he is a grad student at UCSD now and they had 100 degree weather last week.

now it is back to work and 16 voicemails, and 5 school visits. woot!