After waking up at 7am and having showers, we set about packing everything up. By the time Nathan and Michelle arrived to take us and Jen to breakfast and the airport, there were just a couple things left to be put away – and a couple of additions thanks to Nathan and Michelle! Thanks so much for the pucks and game programs!!

Zipped up and ready to go we carried out stuff down to Nathan’s truck – well, Nathan carried a lot on his own. He’s a strong boy!! Anyway we were away! We went to Dennys for breakfast where we were served by this really nice albino guy. The food was good! Pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and toast. So yum!

By the time we finished eating though it was time to head to the airport. We said goobye to Michelle in the parking lot while Jen and Nathan came inside with us, Nathan carrying both our hikers backpacks because of our tattoos, and because he’s that strong!! Though he really did love our backpacks, thought they were brilliant, which they are!

Anyway we got checked in and then it was time to go through security, where Nathan and Jen can’t go with us. Trying hard not to cry, we hug them both goosbye really hard and thank them for everything, especially Jen for without her we couldn’t have gone to Texas! And as they walk away we go through customs.

There was no issue going through Dallas other than we had late numbers for boarding the plane. It meant that by the time we got onto the plane, we couldn’t sit together. I was lucky and two guys who knew each other moved over so I could have the isle seat, while Sam sat in the row ahead on the other side. Sam doesn’t like to fly so flying apart wasn’t a great thing at all.

I spent the 40 minute flight talking to the guys next to me. We talked sports and about our trip. They had been in LA and were flying home to Austin after seeing the TU Longhorns play in the semi finals for the Rosebowl which they won. The Longhorns now face Alabama in the Rosebowl final on January 7 2010! GO LONGHORNS! Anyway they were really nice. I explained to them the rules of cricket after one of them asked how it worked because it had always intrigued him.

When we got to Austin, we had 30 minutes to get off the plane, buy a shot glass, go to the toilet and board our plane to LA! We managed it and this time, the guy Sam had been sitting next to on the flight to Austin had saved us a seat so we could sit together because he doesn’t like to fly either so he knows what its like! Wasn’t that lovely of him?

We talked to him about our trip and how much we love Dallas and he told us how he was going to LA from Dallas on business but he lived in the Frisco area. We love Frisco, its so beautiful there.

Anyway we got to LA on dusk, and we had to find our way to the correct terminal, go upstairs, check in and then go through security all over again! While we were waiting to check in to V Australia we got to chatting with this lovely young lady from the south island of NZ who was going to Bible College in Virginia and very excited about going home to see her family for Christmas. She was on the flight to Australia ahead of ours, destination: Sydney.

We checked in and headed to security. This time, customs didn’t like the look of my carryon duffle – the pucks came up as unusual on the x-ray! I was amused. I was pulled aside and “asked” if they could search the bag. Of couse I giggled and said sure. He riffled through the bag and pulled out the pucks, frowning. I told him they were hockey pucks. He said that some of them had monoliths on them. I replied that they were autographs, actually! Anyway satisfied that I wsnt carrying dangerous goods he zipped up my bag and sent me on my way!

We went looking for dinner then. Our choices were Starbucks, Burger King or some cafe bar place that was expensive. Since we were down to our last $20 we chose BK. The line was long and the place packed so when I saw a spare table for 2, I took the bags and sat down with them while Sam stayed in line and ordered. Food tasted goooooood. Actually cardboard would have tasted good at that point!

We had about a two and a half hour wait for our flight to Australia. Sam read, and I reorganised my duffle that Mr Customs ruffled. Sam went and got us coffee with the last of our change and when he came back, he told me that a cop had staryed talking to him at Starbucks and she looked remarkably like Kate Beckinsale! Its only fair since I got to talk to Jensen Ackles I guess!

We were tired by the time we boarded the plane and we actually had the last row in the plane. Turns out they are GREAT seats! No one behind you! But down side: last pick of the food unless you request a special dish.

The flight was pretty smooth I think. I don’t really know I was passed out for 10 of the 12 and a half hour flight thanks to some Tylenol night sinus because I was still sniffling from the previous 3 weeks. Sam slept for about 5 hours which is awesome for him. He watched “District 9″ and was disappointed. I didn’t get to see the end of “Public Enemies” but I really want to!

Anyway we landed in Brisbane at 6.05am and we were at home by 7am.

We have had the best 6+ weeks ever on this trip, and have met amazing people (Paola, Sue, Emma, Cynthia, Julie, you all kick ass), seem some amazing sights and had a load of laughs, tears and a rollercoaster of emotions. And of course special thanks and love to Bel, Terry & the kids – we miss you guys so much!! Thanks for everything!!

These last couple of weeks however has been better than ever.  It was beyond fantastic to see our friends again.  No, not friends… family.  Rhonda, Jen, Jesse, Kelly, Val & Nathan, Julie, Mickie & Frederick, Clay & Harry, Leni, Amber & Grady and the Short family… all of y’all are more than just friends, you go beyond that.  We are blessed to have you as friends.  While we may be miles away in Australia, our hearts will be in Dallas.

We will be back.  Our plans to return will begin as soon as we land in Australia!

For those back home, our flight lands at 6:30am Friday morning local time.  Thursday will not exist for us at all, as we take off Wednesday evening and land 13hrs later on friday morning.  Wiggy eh?

To the cities we visited and our friends… we love you all.

This isn’t goodbye.  It’s Seeya later

We knew today was going to be a long one, so sleep was of utmost importance.  Sadly, between late night packing and over-worked minds, we only got between 4 and 5hrs before our alarm rudely woke us up at 4am.  Because Bel and Terry were both sick, we caught a cab to the airport after a quick but sad goodbye with Bel.  It was rather cold outside at that time of the morning, so the heat of the cab was most welcomed.

We got the shock upon arriving at the airport… it started snowing!  Yes folks, after 12 days in Saskatoon, it actually snowed.  Not enough to do anything with, but we saw the flakes, so there ya go.  Apparently the next day it was snowing and cold… go figure.

We had a quick Breakfast of Timmy Ho’s (a final hurrah) and then went through customs and to our gate.   The flight itself was smooth and uneventful, and pretty short.  It took only 1hr and 18 minutes (approx) to get to our stop at Minneapolis Minnesota. We had to go through border patrol here of course, and Wendy stepped up her game, yet again proving that no custom official in the world can stay serious when she’s around.  We got asked the regular question “Did you bring any food, drinks or animal products in with you”, to which she replied in a heartbeat, “We did bring a Koala with us.  It’s stuffed though, not a real one”.  The guy tried not to smile but couldn’t help but laugh.  Yes, Wendy 6, Customs 0.  After going through, we re-checked our luggage back in for our next flight to Dallas.

The stayover in Minnesota was only 2hrs, so we found this great little place that did eggs, toast, bacon etc and had a coffee before yet again getting back on another plane and heading to one of our most fave places in the world… Dallas.  This flight wasn’t as smooth as the first, mainly due to rain all over the DFW area.  The majority of the flight was bumpy, with the final 30 minutes as we descended through the rain providing a few gasps from the passengers.  We did land safely though, so all’s good.

Our next stop was Enterprise Rental Cars, which was at the Rental car area of the DFW airport.  To get there you jump on the rental car shutting and go for about a 10min bus ride.  All part of the service at DFW   We had booked an economy car, such as a Hyundai Accent or similar, but it seems that they were all out when we picked up our car, so guess what… free upgrade people!  Oh hell yes!  We had a choice of a Focus… and others.  The others were irrelevant, because the Red 2008 Ford Focus was also the sports model, so the choice was pretty much made for us.  We do love the Ford Focus car.

Now, we got up at 4am, traveled from Saskatoon to Dallas, Tx and now had to drive to San Antonio… that’s about a 5hr drive!  As it was not only night time, but raining, the driving was all down to me, and i should point out… holy crap, drivers over here are mad as batshit!  Cars were doing 75MPH in torrential rain… and unfortunately, it meant a very fast, and very scary drive, especially for someone who was already tired.  We did make it though, with only 1 small problem.  About half way there we came across a car on fire that was being put out by the authorities.  The toxic smoke from the fire got into the car, putting Wendy into a semi-scary asthma attack.  About 6 puffs on the Ventolin, some calm breathing and a blast of fresh air from the fans and she slowly came better.  The coughing though lasted all the way to San Antonio, and through the night.  She’s good now though.

We finally arrived in Boerne, Texas where our friend Amber and her family live about 9pm.  Boerne is just north of San Antonio.  It is so great seeing Amber and meeting her husband, Grady (spelling could be wrong, I apologise if it is). We talked until late at night before finally heading to bed.

It’s our last day.  Our last day in Canada, our last day in Saskatoon, and our last day with our friends Bella, Terry and the 2 munchkins, Tom and Bob.

We’ve had a fantastic time here in Saskatoon, and it’s been awesome catching up with friends and seeing some fantastic hockey.  If not for Bella and Terry we would never have seen Dane Cook live, or seen the Blades take on Lethbridge, or see snow in Regina while seeing the Moose Jaw Warriors play Scott Glennie (Stars draft pick), Brayden Schenn and the Brandon Wheat Kings, or take a pilgrimage to Prince Albert to see where Mike Modano played his junior hockey.  We want to send a shout-out to Kirk, Kelly and the kids.  While we never got a chance to catch up with Kelly, we had a great time with Kirk and promise to do it again at some point in time!

Canada has been pretty fantastic, and while we may be leaving early tomorrow morning, we will never forget the great times we had up here.

Tomorrow we head down to Dallas, and then drive to San Antonio where our extended family, “The Shorts” live.

To Bella and Terry, thank you for putting up with us for the last 12 days.  Thank you for accepting us into your house and the amazing time we had.  You guys are the best.

It seems our blog post yesterday caused quite a stir.  Today, in order to make things much easier, we offer you this  spoon… its curve will provide maximum movement and you will find the handle nicely shaped  for fast and efficient stirring.

Now, on to the events of today.

We decided to sleep in a little today so finally got out of bed at 8:45am, dressed and headed out for our morning walk up to the local Starbucks.  The walk was, as usual, uneventful.  We decided to repeat yesterdays longer walk so we could take a look at the houses along the tree lines streets.  I picked up a Venti non-fat latte, while Wendy had the tall peppermint mocha (a Christmas special drink that is absolutely amazing).

After walking home we checked the internet, and wow, what a shock we were in for.  It seems that within 5hrs of yesterdays blog going live we had comments from Hutterites pretty much verbally crucifying us about a segment of yesterdays blog update.  Oh well, life goes on.   I am curious as to how the blog was found so quickly after it was posted.  Hell, most people don’t even think the Hutterites have the Internet!  Anyway, you’ll notice that the blog post from yesterday has since been edited.  See, we are respectful

Right, back on track we go… after our experience with the angry Christians we decided to head out to Market Mall, which is a shopping mall here in Saskatoon.  Many of the locals call it the “Gerry Mall” due to its close proximity to the nursing homes, and the fact that the vast majority of the people who shop there are elderly.  To any elderly people reading this we mean no offense, please don’t stone us.

Lunch was a quick stop at A&W for a burger and fries.  Not our first option for lunch as we usually prefer to avoid the greasy food, but the rest of the places in the mall looked incredibly dodgy so A&W won out.  The burgers were actually pretty nice.  Wendy had the “mama burger” and I had the “Uncle sirloin burger”.  Clearly A&W like to keep it “in the family”

After lunch we went down to this great little sports memorabilia store.  It’s actually a fantasy gaming type store (Magic the Gathering) that has a load of hockey and other sports memorabilia.  We picked up 4 packs of random hockey cards, a mini Dallas Stars Zamboni and a replacement collectors puck/card holder for Wendy’s Modano card which broke a few years back.  The store is incredible and has some absolutely awesome stuff, including a full McFarlaine hockey rink which you can use to set your hockey figurines in a game-like manner.  The rink and players would cost a load though, so it stayed there.

A few stops through Zellers and Safeway, before we headed over to McNalleys books where we ended up drooling over all the hockey books… there are a LOT of them.  We’re going 2nd hand book shopping again before we leave and have a list of books we want to keep an eye out for.

When we opened the hockey cards at home we found a fantastic card for a guy who plays for the Saskatoon Blades; Jyri Niemi, an Islanders draft pick.  We’re hoping to get the card signed by Niemi before we leave here.

We ended up having a quiet afternoon and evening catching up on email.  Bella cooked a fantastic Shepherds Pie for supper that was simply scrumptious.  Right now we have NHL hockey on TV (Blue Jackets @ Senators), so it’s another good night for TV.

Tomorrow we have a treat that Terry arranged for us… but you’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s update to find out.

ETA: We were just watching the NHL and heard that Brayden Schenn has been signed by the LA Kings, and will be playing in his first ever NHL game tonight Vs the Canucks.

According to the official Kings website:

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings have signed center Brayden Schenn to a One-Day NHL Regular Season Amateur Tryout Agreement and he is expected to join the Kings today in Vancouver, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced today.

This means that Wendy and I possibly had the pleasure of watching Brayden Schenn in his last ever WHL game last weekend down in Moose Jaw!   Wendy and I wish Brayden Schenn the best and hope he does incredibly well in the big leagues!

Sam and I slept in until 9am this morning. I know, but it was cold! Actually it was colder yesterday at -6 than it was this morning at -4. But still, there was ice on the river and steam coming out of our mouths with every breath. We took a different route this time though and walked up McPherson Street to 8th. We were in search of Victoria Ave, but it turns out that Vic Ave goes the same direction as Broadway which is really the street we were after. So we walked a little further today. But that’s okay. The girls behind the counter at Starbucks on Broadway remembered us from yesterday and thought we were insane for walking in these temps! And they’re LOCALS. Heh. Weak sauce.

Anyway the sun was up and shining on our way home so it felt a little warmer. The boys down for their morning nap by the time we got home, and Terry had left for work, so Sam and I had some breakfast and got on the net for a while before we had showers and headed out to the Credit Union Center after the boys had had lunch. Today they were relaying the ice for the WHL team that plays at the CUC – the Saskatoon Blades. Since Terry works for CUC, we get a little more access than the everyday person does, and were invited in to watch them get the rink ready for the ice.

The guys who were preparing the surface told us that first they paint the concrete floor white, then they mark out the lines (blue and red) on the rink with this stuff that looks like crepe paper. It gets stuck to the ground by water and the concrete being frozen. Then they lay out the sponsors’ logo ads and stick them down, mark out the hashes on the face off circles and paint the goalie creases blue. Once all of that has been done, and the paint has all dried, they then hose the surface and freeze it, then do that again a few times, and then zamboni flood the surface a few times. They also had to reinstall the pine benches for the teams and install all the glass panels. It was quite interesting to watch them lining things up and sticking them down and painting the surface. There were a team of 12 working on it – the Blades ice surface is covered in ad space. I’ve never seen so many sponsors ads on the ice before.

After we left the CUC, we headed to Costco, which is this store that sells most things in bulk – kind of like Campbell’s Cash and Carry but a little different. Anyone can be a member of Costco – you just pay the annual fee. There were so many people there at 3pm today it wasn’t funny. What was funny was what we thought was the Amish couple filling up the rented horse float and gigantic F650 with the community’s food for the month. Seriously, they had to have like 100 cases of Pepsi in that thing. We thought it was hilarious because we didn’t think the Amish used cars. Or drank Pepsi.

Turns out they don’t. According to Terry, they would have been Hutterites, who are similar to the Amish, but enjoy some modern conveniences, like electricity, cars and Pepsi. They really enjoy their Pepsi! He also told us some other things, but we’ll choose to keep that off the forum out of respect.

Anyway we had a quiet afternoon back at the house while the boys had their nap. And after dinner, we watched Glee on tv! Plus Bella DVRed Project Runway Canada for me because I’ve never seen it before and since I watch both the Australian and US shows I’m exceedingly curious! Right now, we’re watching Tampa Vs Toronto on tv, and Sam’s got the Stars Vs Blues streaming on his computer. Life is good in Canada, people!

We went for a walk… and survived.

After yesterdays semi-frozen adventure to Starbucks, today we decided to repeat the process with a few small changes to our attire.  I had thermal pants and jeans, a thermal shirt, hoodie, beanie and gloves.  Wendy had thermal pants, trackpants, thermal top, long-sleeve shirt, t-shirt, hoodie, beanie and gloves.  We bought these thermal clothes back in Brisbane at Kathmandu, and they’re designed to handle arctic temperatures.  We were incredibly warm for the walk, which was especially impressive considering it was -6 degrees Celsius when we left at 8:45am this morning!

Yesterday morning we took photos of the South Saskatchewan River which flows through Saskatoon.  Today that same river was covered in patches of ice!  That gives you an idea how cold it was overnight.  Needless to say, it was really amazing to see that.  We’d heard that the river freezes over during winter… heck, it gets down to -60 celsius in winter, so you’d expect it to, but seeing it actually with ice on it was just amazing.

We decided to be different at Starbucks today, and instead of going the non-fat latte route like usual  we got this drink they call the “espresso chocolate truffle”.  It’s essentially a signature hot chocolate with 2 shots of coffee added to it.  Super-strong, super-tasty… with one helluva kick!  One could argue that it’s a perfect winters day drink.

After getting back home, showering and having breakfast we headed out to Midtown Plaza, a shopping mall in downtown Saskatoon.  This mall has some fantastic stores, but the 2 main ones we were interested in were “the jersey shop” (i think that’s what it’s called) which sells sports (see: hockey) merchandise and jerseys and “Sportchek”, which is like the biggest sports store franchise across Canada.  Sportchek is where i bought my Team Canada Olympic jersey while we were in Vancouver.  Anyway, we ended up not buying anything (shocking eh) at those 2 stores, but did pick up the latest Tragically Hip CD from the music store there.

*hops on soap box*
I want to just say… holy crap are we ripped off for CDs in Australia!  Standard CD prices here are like $15!  DVDs are about the same price, and Blue Ray discs are only like $25!
*hops off soap box*

We then visited the “build A Bear” store, where Bella purchased, built and dressed 2 amazing bears in Ottawa Senators gear.  This store is absolutely incredible.. you literally choose every aspect of your teddy bear and build it from the stuffing out!  They even come with their own birth certificate and are registered to you, so if they get lost or stolen and handed in to a store they can track down the owner.  It’s just phenomenal!  The 2 bears Bella got were adorable.  One of them is this gorgeous black bear who she dressed in an Ottawa Senators hockey outfit including helmet and black skates.  the other is a fluffy tan bear who she dressed in blue jeans, a senators hoodie and converse sneakers.  Just amazing!

On the way home we stopped by Timmy Ho’s again to get some lunch.  You guessed it, Ham and Swiss sandwich combo… seriously, you have no idea how nice these things are!  Today however we branched out and instead of getting the regular Timmy Ho’s coffee I got the English Toffee and Wendy got the French Vanilla.  I guess in Australia they would be considered flavoured lattes.

The afternoon and evening was spent relaxing again, although both Tommy and Bobby were sick, which added a bit of drama to the evening.  They both seem a bit better now, so we’re all hoping it was just a little tummy bug.  It’s that time of year after all, and the bug is going around.  Our fingers are crossed that they’re both ok.

A quiet night for us, just been watching a bit of “As time goes by” on TV and caught the end of the Blue Jackets Vs Canadiens game on TSN, and now we’re going to settle down and read for a bit before bed.

Tomorrow itinerary is open, so we don’t yet know what we’re going to be doing.  We’re really enjoying he downtime after being on the go non-stop since arriving in Vancouver, so it’s been nice just relaxing and catching up with Bella, Terry and the kids.

Today we (Sam, myself, Bella, Terry and the rugrats, Bobby and Tommy) packed up pretty early (out the door by around 11am) and headed to Regina (pronounced like vagina but with an R instead of a V). We’re staying overnight with their friends John, Lois and their two daughters Kyle and Erika. Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan and is 252kms away (2.5 hrs to drive). Moose Jaw, where we’re going to a WHL game tonight, is another 30 minutes away.

Regina is smaller than Saskatoon and is the political capital of the province. It’s also where Terry grew up, so we got a pretty awesome tour of the town, and over the river. We got to John and Lois’ house, only to be greeted with Erica running around naked. She’s only 9 months older than the twins, so she’s in the everywhere. It’s a big deal at the moment because in the CFL (Canadian Football League), the Saskatchewan Roughriders are in the Western Conference Finals, which are being held tomorrow in Regina. If you’re not wearing “Roughrider Green” then you have no Rider Pride.

Clearly, we had no Roughrider Pride.

Anyway Lois and John are just lovely, lovely people and we had such a great time talking to them and their kids, and their huge collie x dog Kira and their cat (OH MAN!! ANOTHER CAT!) Warrick. Around 4pm we headed to Moose Jaw to have a look around town and get some dinner before the game.

Moose Jaw is just such an amazing town. It was instrumental during the prohibition era, as Al Capone used Moose Jaw to ship alcohol into Chicago via the train lines. The town is now only about 45-50,000 large but it sustains itself on tourism. It even has a public transport system. The buildings that are historically important have murals painted on them. It’s just beautiful. I wish it had been earlier than dusk because we weren’t able to get any photos of around town – or at least not many. We did get photos of Mack the Moose, who greets you as you drive into town. He’s a gigantic statue of a moose. Which is really amusing because moose aren’t native to the area!

Anyway the game we went to was the Moose Jaw Warriors vs the Brandon Wheat Kings. Normally I go for the home team if I don’t have an affiliation with who’s playing, but tonight both Sam and I were going for the Wheat Kings. On the Brandon Wheat Kings team is the Stars first round pick from the NHL Draft for 2009, Scott Glennie. And their captain is Brayden Schenn, the younger brother of defenseman Luke Schenn of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The tickets we had were for row 16, which was “the Gods” or “the Nosebleeds”, and with the really weird building shape (the roof is concaved, which is why the building is called “The Crushed Can”). The rink only seats 1800 people, and it would have been about half full. At the end of the first period, the twins were a little squirmy, so we took them down to the front row on the other side of the rink, right on the glass. They were a little easier to manage after that because they could see the action up close.

The boys on the ice though were great! The Wheat Kings scored first (Glennie, from Schenn and someone else – I can’t remember), then Moose Jaw evened it up. Once again, the skill wasn’t quite NHL quality but the passion and drive they have more than makes up for it. With only 4 minutes left in the game, the teams were tied 3-3. A Moose Jaw player broke his stick and then THREW his broken shaft at the Wheat Kings players, head high, causing enough of a distraction with the Wheat Kings bench screaming for a penalty, the Wheat Kings players screaming for a penalty, and no penalty was called. Moose Jaw scored during all of this, to give them the lead 4-3 with only 2 minutes left in the game.

At this point, Sam and I are calling bullshit, and the six of us are moving around to the end of the rink to make an easy exit with the boys. With only a few seconds left in the game, the Wheat Kings pull their goalie, and with the extra man on the ice, manage to score, to even it up to 4-4 and take it to overtime! SO EXCITING. The overtime period starts with both teams in the penalty box, so it’s 3-on-3 hockey for at least a minute and a half. No one scored, so it went to a shoot out. The Wheat Kings won, which was awesome. We were quite impressed with Glennie’s play.

On the way home, it started to rain, then sleet and then snow! And by the time we got to Lois and John’s it was snowing constantly. It was just amazing. Magical even.

It was also -10 outside so it was really cold. But still, I’ll take that kind of temperature for the payoff of snow. AWESOME.

We’re heading down to Regina and Moose Jaw soon and wont be back to Saskatoon til tomorrow afternoon.  We are unreachable til we return and won’t have the internet down there.  Photos will be updated upon returning home to ‘Toon.

If there is one thing that Wendy and I are generally great at doing, it’s traveling on less than 3hrs sleep.  Today was no different, and after just a few hours sleep we were rudely awoken by our alarms at the horrible time of 5:40am so we could get down to the airport by 6:15am.

The drive to the airport was an experience.  It was raining pretty hard and of course, still dark, so we were not only driving on roads we were unfamiliar with, but doing so in bad weather conditions.  Luckily for us we had Ms Garmin, the name I gave the GPS we had purchased with the rental car to help us get there safely.    Would you believe, we actually DID get there without getting lost?  Yep, proud of us, eh?  The drive itself was pretty scary… Toronto drivers are crazy people who like to speed 2okm over the speed limit, even when it’s dark and wet!

With the car checked back in we head to the terminal to check our bags in and get boarding passes so we could get out of the city and over to Saskatoon.  Those who’ve not been to Toronto Pearson Intl Airport before, they have the worse gate system i’ve ever seen.  Both domestic and International flights go through the same tiny gates, and that a shortage of bins (for the xray machines) and queues (lines) much too short of the amount of people.  Needless to say, it was a bottleneck in a hot airport while wearing warm clothes.  Ick!

Toronto wasn’t yet done with us,  as we were flagged for a bag check while going through customs, so my very tightly packed laptop bag is messed up while the lady, who was very apologetic and nice, did her scan thing.  Eventually we’re let through.  A debate over where to eat was followed by good before we finally boarded the plane, and OMG Karma smiled on us!  We were given Isle 10… the emergency exit.  that meant that not only did we board first, but we also had LOADS of leg room!  Woohoo the trip is looking up.  The flight attendant was really great and had a good chat with us.

The fight was scheduled for 2hrs 55minutes, but we must have had a tail wind as landed in Saskatoon 15 minutes early, so by the time Bella picked us up from the airport, we had just collected our bags from the baggage claim area.

For those that don’t know, the reason we’re in Saskatoon is to visit Bella and her partner, Terry.  Bella is Wendy’s best friend dating back to high school.  Before moving to Canada a few years back she lived with Wendy and I in Brisbane.  Needless to say, it has been absolutely fantastic to see her again, and to meet Terry and their 2 kids, Tommy and Bob.

As a journey with Wendy and I is not a journey without getting lost, we did exactly that, somehow ending up on a road we did not know, nor need.  After a great laugh, Bella had us on the right road and we headed home to their place, our home til December 1.  The weather here was cold… -2 celcius when we flew in at 11:15am but like all our other stops, there is no snow.  We hear that there is a very big chance of snow before we leave though, so there is always hope.

The afternoon consisted of going out for Timmy Ho’s for lunch and to get some antihistamines for Wendy, and then chilling with some downtime on the net while we did our laundry.  Dinner of home cooked butter chicken and a night relaxing watching hockey and Supernatural (season 5, ep. 10) while catching up with Bella and Terry had this day finishing on an incredible high point.

Tomorrow: Dane Cook live, catching up on sleep and having some down-time.  Night all

We were up packing until 1:30am this morning before we fell into bed. This time we made sure we had everything. We were up at 7am, departed the hotel by 7:45am and were at O’Hare International Airport by 8am. We caught the Omega Shuttle from O’Hare to Midway – much cheaper than a cab at $17pp. We had a lovely chat to this lady from Chicago who was going from O’Hare to Midway to pick up her car upon her return from Florida.

We booked into our flight, went through security and then went in search of breakfast. It wasn’t the healthiest, but it was certainly delicious. It was this puff pastry scroll that was filled with mushrooms and cheese. After that, we headed towards our gate. Sam had to make do with McDonalds’ coffee. Poor baby.

The flight to Buffalo was relatively uneventful. It was half a planeful of people, and there was nothing to see thanks to the clouds. And we were sitting right on the wing – not such a great job in picking the seats on my behalf. My bad.

When we got to Buffalo, we made our way down to baggage claim and got our bags, and then tried to figure out how we were getting from Buffalo Niagra International Airport to the Greyhound Bus Station in downtown Buffalo. For $18 pp we could have taken another shuttle, but we talked to this lovely lady at the information counter who said for just $2.05 we could catch the 24 NFTA-Metra bus to downtown which would get us maybe a block or two away from the Bus Station – just to tell the driver that’s where we were going. $4.10 total is much better than $36, so that’s what we decided to do.

We didn’t realise that in order to get from the Airport to downtown, we had to go through Cheektowaga, which is basically the low-socioeconomic area of Buffalo. We went on a public bus through the ghetto, people! With our backpacks and everything. It was the scariest bus ride of our lives. We didn’t talk because we didn’t want to give away our accents. We just looked out the window at the houses. Sam saw a prostitute on the street corner, and a drug deal going down outside a drug house. Yup, really living in the fast lane now!

We did survive the bus ride though, and the bus driver did manage to get us a block away from the Greyhound Bus Station. Once again there were revolving doors, but Sam found a normal door that he could open to get inside so we used that instead. We checked with the ticket counter if we had to do anything but she said no, since we already had our tickets. Our bus wasn’t until 6:30pm, but the lady behind the counter said the next bus was at 4:50pm and we could see the driver about catching that one if they have room. Since it was just before 3pm, we eagerly jumped at this opportunity. Sam went in search of sustenance while I watched the bags, and he came back with a croissant and a danish each, along with a cappuccino made from some powered concoction. There’s not much to choose from at a Greyhound Bus Station in Buffalo. And we were thankful that they had anything at all since we hadn’t eaten since 9:30am.

We ended up chatting to this nice old lady who was going from Buffalo to Niagra Falls on the bus to leave her husband for 2 months, why I don’t know. I didn’t ask. Thought it might be better that way. The 4:50pm bus arrived around 4:30pm, and the driver told us that we could by all means jump on his bus rather than waiting. Unfortunately for the old lady who was sitting beside us, this bus wasn’t going through Niagra, so she had to wait for the 6:30pm bus.

The process of going through customs via Niagra/Buffalo boarder is different to the West Coast of Canada. We were not given any customs declaration forms. We weren’t given any tags for our bags to put on them before we put them on the bus (I think this had to do with us printing out our ticket from home and bringing it with us). The border was literally 10 minutes drive from the bus station. We did go past the HSBC Arena, so we know what the building looks like. Anyway we get to the border, and we’re told to stay on the bus but gather our belongings. The driver gets off and unloads all the bags onto the curb. We then file off the bus, pick up our luggage, making sure we have all our belongings together and then file into the building. One by one (or travelling party by travelling party) we get called up to three counters, each stationed with a Customs Officer. He takes our passports, we have a conversation – in which we discuss hockey, our trip so far, where we’re going next and that Australia actually does have a national ice hockey league. He let us through no problems (we didn’t say anything about the Maple Leafs. Promise! We did mention we’re going to the Hockey Hall Of Fame tomorrow!) and told us to go get back on the bus.

When we did, I noticed that ooh, our bus has free Wi-Fi through Greyhound! So that’s what I’m updating this post on. Currently we’re somewhere on the way to Toronto, in Ontario. Man, it is good to be back in Canada!

We did have a great time in Chicago, and though the Supernatural leg of the trip is over, there’s so much more to look forward to, including seeing Bella, Terry and the rugrats on Thursday when we fly to Saskatoon, the Short Family in San Antonio, and our new friend Tammy, when we travel down there on December 1 and of course our crew in Dallas – Jen, Rhonda, Jesse, Kelly (and finally meet the infamous Pookie!), Clay, Harry, Karin, Val and Nathan, and Leni and meet up with Mickie, Frederick and Alex, as well as hopefully getting together at some point with my friend Wendy, who also lives in Dallas and is another Supernatural fan. And I definitely can’t forget about meeting up with my girl, Sue in Houston. We will make this happen!!

Anyway I’m not sure how much longer we’re on the bus for, so I’m going to sign off now and get this uploaded. If we do anything interesting tonight – which I doubt we will, we’re both knackered, I’ll add to this post, but if not – we have returned to Canada in one piece and are really looking forward to the Hockey Hall Of Fame in TO tomorrow, and then glass seats at the Buffalo Sabres Vs Florida Panthers game back in Buffalo! It’s gonna be a big one, folks!

ETA: Just passed a large accident on the highway with firetrucks putting out a fire on a massive roadtrain. Good times.

ETA 2: We got to Downtown Toronto, which is freakin’ huge, people! HUGE! (AND WE WENT PAST THE AIR CANADA CENTRE – MAPLE LEAFSSSSS!) Anyway we got off at the Toronto Bus Station for Greyhound. We looked around and tried to work out the public transport maps, but man were they confusing. So we followed a security guard and headed for the main building for the Bus Station and thank god their visitor information booth was still open! We asked the lovely lady behind the counter what the best way to get to Pearson International Airport was (our hotel has a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel, and we love the word FREE right now). She told us how to catch the subway and the bus to the airport and all it would cost us was a total of $2.75 each. BARGAIN. It helped when she said when you go through the shopping mall area, you’ll see a Tim Horton’s on the right – and we were like HOMG TIMMYS! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU WE HAVE BEEN SAVED!!! She found that rather funny.

Anyway we followed her instructions (catch the southbound subway from Dumas to St George, then get off and go down the stairs to catch the westbound train all the way to the end to Kipling, and THENNNNN go upstairs and walk to the END of the platform and catch the 192 Rocket to Pearson. Simple, right? And it was. It was just TEDIOUS with the bags on our backs. I’m so glad we decided to get hiking backpacks for our trip. I can’t even begin to imagine how tedious this trip would be with a normal suitcase and having to carry that around everywhere.

It was fun on the subway with a driver who was very fond of the accelerator… and heavy handed on the breaks! I was nearly flying everywhere with inertia, and Sam was just cracking up laughing at me. Some of the other passengers were too. But that’s okay! It was rather funny. We made it though, made it to Pearson, and figured out where the shuttles were. Then we had to go INSIDE and order the shuttle. Thankfully, by the time we got back out to where the shuttles pick people up from, it was just driving up. That was awesome. And we were ecstatic to see there’s a Subway literally outside the hotel’s front door. That’s awesome.

We checked into our hotel, room 504 – once again the number 9 follows us everywhere (5+0+4=9). But the best part is that our room comes with free wi-fi, and we can use it in our room! Anyway definitely time for bed!

ETA by Sam: Figured I would add, upon driving into Toronto on the bus tonight, one of the best things we saw was what Wendy and I have come to refer to as “Wendy Ho’s”. That’s one of those heavenly buildings that have a Wendy’s restaurant right beside a Timmy Ho’s. Lunch & Coffee in 1 spot… Wendy Ho’s, remember the name people, remember the name!