CaptainOrange

I've been back for a while. I just didn't have the heart to post this last page because of the Mosque shooting that took place a couple of days after my return. It's hard to tell people about my trip of a lifetime when the place I visited and which brought me so much joy is in anguish. FWIW, here is the final page of my thoughts on the trip. and the link to my trip photos , one last time.

#hobbitonmovieset #newzealandvacation #tolkien #thehobbit #thelordoftherings #jrrtolkien

Link to the Google Photos Album for My New Zealand Trip

We started our day by saying "goodbye" to the Hilton staff. It was a beautiful hotel and aside from the coffee faux pas (which they quickly fixed when I mentioned it) we thoroughly enjoyed our two nights. We headed south into Iowa and the terrain finally started to look substantially different from home (although it's still pretty flat). The presence of windmills is one of the most obvious differences. We have passed hundreds of them over the last couple of days. Leora makes jokes about having terrible headaches every time we pass one of these giant turbines. The other thing I can't help but notice is the omnipresence of corn. It is everywhere. About 1pm we arrived in the city of Waterloo and made our way to Lost Island Waterpark  where we ate the last of our bagels and fresh veggies from the cooler. The cost per person is far less than the World Waterpark in Edmonton -- $23.50 vs $37. This was definitely a step up, both in terms of variety of slides and ...

My body aches all over from two long days of driving. I could have survived this alone, but when I went to make coffee this morning, I discovered only decaf!!! If that doesn't sound horrifying, you may accidentally be reading the wrong blog. The Hall of Mirrors symbolizes my mental state after only decaf this morning. Today was our day to explore the Mall of America (MOA). Not being much of a shopper, this was a mostly disappointing experience for me. However, Anwyn and Leo found some nice jewellery and Leo and I enjoyed getting some new shoes. Perhaps my expectations should have been adjusted. After doing some reading, I discovered that the MOA is less than 1/2 the size of the West Edmonton Mall. I guess they left out the half of the stores that were interesting to me... except for this LEGO display ;) My zoom lens only captures the foot of the 30' tall LEGO Transformer on display Although everyone was exhausted, the girls eventually woke up enough to enjoy the N...

An uneventful drive through Saskatchewan. The highlight was the discovery of a park in Weyburn that had basic parkour training stations scattered about. At the border, there was a heart stopping moment as the guard inspecting our vehicle threatened me with a $300 fine for the single orange I neglected to eat before getting there. Of course, it was a Florida orange, but who knows what pathogen it may have picked up in disease ridden Canada. As the orange flew into their garbage receptacle, I felt that the world was just a little safer. Job well done. Most of the day was spent driving. I was entertained by alternately listening to music and having Anwyn read to me from my favourite book of childhood,  The Hobbit. We arrived in Velva, ND near supper time. The owner of the campground was run off her feet and said if we didn't need electrical hook ups, we could pitch our tent anywhere we liked for free. I made sure to choose a great location. We set up our tent, ate and then...

 We don't do a lot to celebrate Easter in our house. But, we do like to have an egg hunt. Since Wendy is going to Waterloo this week (to help look after baby Darwyn), we kept things pretty simple around here. I thought you might like to see some of my favourite egg hiding places from this years hunt. Tomorrow, the girls have plans to dye eggs. Pretty hard to guess who's room this was taken in. Anwyn hid this one. Extra points for style :) Anwyn's Room Gollum's Cave (My Room)

Things got off to a bit of a slow start. That is to say that it rained all the first day. Good thing we brought Wendy with us as she came with a whole host of supplies -- rain gear and umbrellas among them. When we did get a chance to be outside, the girls made their old dad proud... We drove to Lloydminster and stopped at Bud Miller All Season Park. The gate was indeed open, but everyone else seemed aware that the 'all season' bit was simply a gimmick. There was no one in the whole place. That's fine. For given that we were headed full speed into the tourist trap of the Alberta long weekend, it was the last privacy which we were likely to have. We had a quick snack at McD's and proceeded toward Edmonton. We stopped at Vegreville on the way for the obligatory photos with their tremendous egg. The rain had mostly stopped by this time and the girls took the opportunity to do a little climbing. I am ashamed to admit that I was compelled to tell Leora "no" w...

Frank Sinatra sang " Chicago is my kind of town! " The weather must have been better when he was there. Our vacation plan was to fly from Saskatoon-Toronto-Chicago-Richmond(VA) and get picked up at the airport to drive to Newport News, Virginia (google maps). The Whole Ordeal was to take us about a 14hr day. Cue bad weather near Chicago- O'Hare (wikipedia), the worlds busiest airport (or, so the ticketing agents were fond of telling us). We sat on the runway ready to leave Toronto long enough to nearly finish the entirety of Cheaper by the Dozen II (imdb.com). It was meant to mollify us, but somehow it only made the wait seem longer. We were told not to worry about connecting flights because the whole airport was backed up and so everything should amazingly work out just fine. Hmmmmm. To make a really long story only quite long, our connecting flight was not backed up, but entirely cancelled ! I'm not sure what the throughput of O'Hare is, but with scores of ...