home again!

fantastic 10 days away from home, spent on the gold coast in mexico. mazatlan was a pleasant surprise! it is a sprawling city that is well suited to exploring. we went on a couple of tours, the best being a city tour, with a great commentary by the guide. it gave us an idea of what else we wanted to see more of, and where to go that was tourist friendly. being there were 10 of us all together, it was a great way to find out what we could do at a reasonable cost.

more on that to come! i'll need to download pics to blogger, and we all know how long that can take. and since there are more than 400 that i pulled off my camera tonight, i have to do some selective weeding. i do have to say there are even more pictures than we usually take, and that is something i'm impressed with!

but here's a good funny for you - we arrived back in calgary close to midnight, and having pre-arranged our pick up time with the cab company in strathmore, we weren't too concerned about having a ride home. we zipped through customs (amazing!! 15 minutes and we were through!) and proceeded to the waiting area. after a short time, i suggested to dh that perhaps he call to find out how long they would be as we were through customs so quickly.

they hadn't left strathmore yet as they had written down our arrival time to be the same time as when we had left.

urgh.

so buddy hustled his butt and was out to the airport in less than half an hour (a feat in itself, he said he was doing a buck 45 down the back road!!!)

arriving back to town, we dropped our friends off at their house first, and then had a bit of a panic when we got to the house and found that our front porch was gone.

with no stairs to the front door.

oh yes, the contractor had been by and taken down the porch. and we had no back door key with us.

LOL it was a bit of a heft to get up the 3-ish feet to the door, and haul the luggage up as well (there is still alot of snow around the side of the house, so that was not a great option at 2:30 in the morning!)

so this is what the front yard looks like today:
and i've just now noticed that my christmas wreath is still hanging on the front door!! OMG that is just not good!! i'll have to take that down tomorrow!

and here's a teaser for you - an actual PICTURE of ME!!!

these were both taken on the catamaran that we went out touring on. it was a beautiful day to be out on the water!


more to come... stay tuned!