Smooth flight from Taipei, 6 hours to kill in the Vancouver airport, an extra Tuesday to live thanks to the international date line, and we are back home in Alberta after 3 years! Mom and Eric took us immediately out to Radium Hot Springs for a family reunion. We had always suspected and can now confirm to be true that the Rocky Mountains are our most favorite place on earth. It was glorious to set our tent up beside a clear glacier stream, feel the bright, dry, sweet sunshine on our faces, smell the tree sap and feel the familiar crunch of pine cones under our feet. Swimming in the lakes reflecting the mountains, bald eagles circling above, and the smell of getting a campfire going, you can't beat it. I know, everyone thinks that their own home is the most perfect, and we can't argue with that. We were nervous about the predatory dangers in Australia, but here even the cougar prowling
the town, or the 200kg black bear bounding down the road ahead of us or the skunk who sauntered past our tent at midnight, nothing can crack our blissful state. Until we have to get back to real life and start looking for jobs and all that unpleasantness. But for now, we can enjoy the bright summer days, and we'll be in Edmonton on Friday, August 3, ridiculously hoping that everything will be just as sweet and perfect as our memories paint it! Then we've got almost the whole month there before our move to Vancouver Island, so lotsa catch up time, yay!
